Ct., Harvey Ave., Light Pines Ct., Monard Ave., Robin Ct., Stewarton Ct., Twin Oaks Rd., SEVERNA PARK AREA Cloverdale Cir., Dundee Rd., Kensington Ave., Madary Rd., Oak Ct., Revell Rd., Severn Rd., Stewart Way, Water St., SHADY SIDE AREA Holly Ave., Nieman Rd., TRACYS LANDING AREA Leitch Rd., Howard County These sales data recorded by the Maryland Department of Assessments Taxation were provided by Lender Processing Services. For information about other residential real estate transactions, visit www.washingtonpost.com/homesales. BROOKEVILLE AREA Rivercrest Ct., CENTENNIAL-BENSON AREA Burnside Dr., Chateau Ridge Dr., Cotswold Spring Farm Lane, Dorsey Hall Dr., Fox River Dr., Golf Island Rd., Katherine Pl., Longview Dr., Mount Patapsco Ct., St. Charles Pl., Shadowbrook Ct., Spring Thaw Ct., Timberknoll Lane, Waterford Dr., Williamfield Dr., CLARKSVILLE AREA Adams Ridge Rd., Fleets of Time Ct., Highland Rd., Russell Zepp Dr., Whitegate Rd., COLUMBIA (EAST) AREA Dark Hawk Cir., Farewell Rd., Hound Hill Ct., Kerry Hill Ct., Majors Lane, Melting Shadows Lane, Pamplona Rd., Queen Maria Ct., Sea Change, Skyward Ct., Standon Pl., Thelo Garth, Waterloo Rd., Wild Lilac, COLUMBIA (WEST) AREA Bare Bush Path, Columbia Rd., El Camino, Grand Banks Rd., Homecoming Lane, Little Sparrow Pl., Placid Lake Ct., Smooth Meadow Way, Three Kings Lane, Warfield Pl., Windstream Dr., DAYTON AREA Oak Ridge Ct., ELKRIDGE AREA Avalon Dr., Brookview Rd., Chipwood Ct., Ducketts Lane, Elkridge Heights Rd., Greenfield Rd., Nightrose Ct., Rockburn Woods Way, Royal Coachman Dr., Whisper Way, ELLICOTT CITY AREA Bonnie Acres Dr., Cedar Post, College Ave., Doncaster Dr., English Morning Lane, Enoch Pratt Dr., Font Ave., Graystone Ct., Ilchester Woods Way, Lee Hollow Pl., Millers Way Dr., Montgomery Run Rd., Oak West Dr., Ridge Rd., Silver Sage Dr., Stone Crop Dr., Sunnyside Lane, Sunnyside Lane, Timberland Cir., Water Grove Lane, Wigglesworth Ct., FULTON AREA Carpenter St., Chase St., Hunterbrooke Lane, Tilghman St., GLENELG AREA Sharp Rd., GLENWOOD AREA Hunt Valley Dr., HANOVER AREA Fairbourne Ct., HIGHLAND AREA Highland Rd., JESSUP AREA Guilford Rd., Twelve Sons Ct., KINGS CONTRIVANCE VILLAGE AREA Allview Dr., Golden Rod Path, Oakhurst Dr., Quarry Bridge Ct., Weather Worn Way, MULLINIX AREA Lady Camarin Ct., SAVAGE AREA Washington St., SCAGGSVILLE-LAUREL AREA Breamore Ct., Cherrybrook Ct., Evermore Ct., Hammond Dr., Hitching Post Lane, Maxwell Ct., Rock Ripple Lane, Snow Bird Lane, Willow Wisp Ct., WEST FRIENDSHIP AREA Louanne Ct., Rover Mill Rd., WOODBINE AREA Landcaster Ct., Sweetbay St., WOODSTOCK AREA Abingdon Way, Evening Dew Dr., Ganton Green, Wadsworth Rd.,


U.S., Afghanistan agree on language of security accord, Kerry says

insisted overnight and Wednesday morning that any expression of regret would not constitute an “apology” by the United States. “That’s not what’s in the offing. It’s not what’s been suggested,” Benjamin Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, told CNN. “We have, of course, throughout the war, always indicated regret when there are instances of civilian casualties.” Kerry said final agreement on the security document, under negotiation for the past year, had been reached in a series of conversations he had with Karzai on Wednesday morning. The language, he said, will be submitted to the loya jirga, as the Afghan assembly is known. Although the views of the jirga will be nonbinding, Karzai has said that body will decide several controversial provisions of the deal, including the granting of immunity to U.S. troops who commit crimes on Afghan soil. The agreement text grants the United States full legal jurisdiction over U.S. troops and Defense Department civilians working in Afghanistan. The five-day jirga event is being held under tight security in a large tent at Kabul Polytechnic University. The area around the university is effectively locked down for the event, and many delegates are not identifying themselves for fear of reprisal attacks from Taliban militants. On Wednesday, some Afghan analysts appeared bewildered by Karzai’s request for additional U.S. assurances, accusing him of unnecessarily prolonging the drama surrounding the negotiations. “It’s just throwing dust in the eyes of the jirga,” said Waheed Mozhdah, a Kabul-based analyst and historian. “Obama is in his last term and has no way of guaranteeing the future deeds of American soldiers.” Although the agreement does not include troop numbers, the United States is likely to keep a residual force in Afghanistan in training and support roles. Most estimates suggest that 5,000 to 10,000 troops will remain, allowing the United States to maintain a foothold in the volatile region and serve as a backstop of support for Afghan troops battling the Taliban insurgency. There is no limit on how long U.S. forces would remain, an issue that could surface during the Afghan deliberations. U.S. officials have said the duration is indefinite, and an undated draft released Wednesday by Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry said the U.S. presence would last to “2024 and beyond.” A separate strategic partnership agreement signed last year between the two governments is due to expire in 2024. Several Afghan legislators have said in recent days that they


Legislation would put USADA in charge of anti-doping efforts in horse racing

million on the Kentucky Derby alone. As it is, what drug testing exists in U.S. horse racing is carried out under a patchwork of policies and procedures that vary wildly from one state to another. With no uniformity on what performance-boosting practices and substances are permissible, and in what amounts, a trainer may be suspended for triggering too many positive tests in one state, yet welcomed by tracks in another state. Tygart likened it to the Olympic competitions of the 1990s, before the World Anti-Doping Agency was established in 1999 and ultimately extracted commitments from governments worldwide to adhere to a single standard. “Different countries tested for different substances with different testing methods,” Tygart said of the pre-WADA era. “They didn’t have collection policies; there was no uniform practice. It created a perception that was bad for sport. Everyone who was around at that time will acknowledge that the Olympic rings were tarnished. And that was bad for business.” Similar thinking is driving the horse racing legislation, which would also ban race-day medication of horses and require stiff penalties for cheating, including lifetime bans for serial violators. “Horses are dying, and jockeys are being maimed because of out-of-control abuse of legal and illegal drugs in horse racing,” Pitts said through a spokesman. “The U.S. is the only developed nation where doping in the sport is routinely ignored. After decades of promises to clean up the sport, it’s time to bring in a neutral observer. USADA is known for its integrity in governing U.S. Olympic athletes and cycling. I believe they would do an excellent job.” A non-profit corporation based in Colorado Springs, USADA began operations in Oct. 2000 with the mission of eliminating drug-use in sports and protecting athletes’ health through research and education. Its funding comes primarily from the U.S. government and U.S. Olympic Committee, with the government covering about 60 percent of costs. Tygart said that if USADA takes on responsibility for horse racing, it would not draw any additional revenue required from the sport itself. “You can’t both police your sport and promote it,” Tygart said. “When you promote it, you want more revenue and are not concerned as much about the integrity of the competition. You avoid scandal. The independent model takes it out of that analysis; it isn’t as concerned about the economic, revenue growth or sponsorship. It takes away that inherent conflict of interest.”


14 more Md. corrections officers charged in corruption probe at 2 detention facilities

after a forum to discuss progress on crime during his administration. In court papers, federal officials renewed their criticism of the state’s disciplinary process for corrections officers. The system was overhauled three years ago, with O’Malley’s backing, giving officers the right to appeal certain punishments to a board of their peers. One of the guards arrested Thursday — Ricolle Hall of Glen Burnie — was a member of the three-person board in Baltimore from 2011 to 2013. It is “well-known to [corrections officers] that it is very unlikely that they will be fired or severely disciplined for smuggling contraband or fraternizing with inmates,” according to the affidavit. The system set up by the so-called Correctional Officers’ Bill of Rights is “ineffective as a deterrent to [corrections officers] smuggling contraband or getting sexually involved with BGF gang members.” O’Malley told reporters Thursday that he was not aware of any instance in which the bill of rights has prevented a successful prosecution of an officer. Still, “there may be some slight changes” proposed during the coming legislation session, he said. So far, nine corrections officers charged in the initial indictment and the ringleader, Tavon White, have pleaded guilty. A total of 19 others were charged in the new indictment, including inmates, suppliers and detention center employees. Six are current prison system employees and have been placed on leave without pay. The indictment describes close relationships between corrections officers and inmates. One guard lived with a former inmate and gang member. Another warned inmates of searches and was heard reciting the gang’s membership oath, a cooperator told the FBI. Hall, the former member of the disciplinary board, resigned, according to court papers, after pictures of her were found on a cellphone belonging to an inmate, including an apparent “selfie” in her uniform. The Black Guerrilla Family, which has its roots in California, has in recent years grown to become the state’s largest prison gang, and law enforcement officials say its violence has spilled into the streets of Baltimore. The indictment details two instances in which prison guards allegedly opened jail cells or turned the other way to allow gang members to assault inmates who were not part of the gang. Many of the defendants were scheduled to make initial appearances in court Thursday afternoon and could face a maximum sentences of 20 years in prison, prosecutors said. John Wagner contributed to this report.


National Zoo’s panda cub masters scooting technique but hasn’t gotten a leg up yet

In a momentous occasion, the baby panda at the National Zoo took her first tentative steps. The National Zoo’s panda cub has started to lift her head and crawl around her den. On Sunday, she scooted to the door before her mother, Mei Xiang, pulled her back, zoo officials said at a briefing Thursday. “She’s not on all four legs” yet, said Brandie Smith, the curator for giant pandas at the zoo. The unnamed cub, who is 3 months old and weighs 10 pounds, just started to get her back legs under her. Mei Xiang, who is known for being cautious, took her out of the den for the first time Sunday. Once the cub receives her rabies shot, which is scheduled for the first week in December, she will be allowed to go outside — but at her mom’s discretion. Animal keepers are babyproofing the panda yard in preparation for the cub’s venture outdoors, Smith said. The zoo’s giant panda cub, Bao Bao, turns 1 year old. “We are going to collar some of the trees,” Smith said. “We want her to climb, but we don’t want her to climb too high. So if she climbs and gets stuck, we can get her down.” By then, she’ll have a name, which will be announced at a ceremony Dec. 1, when she turns 100 days old. Online voting on the name ends at midnight Friday. So far, more than 110,000 votes have been registered, with people choosing from among five Mandarin names: Bao Bao, which means precious or treasure; Ling Hua, (darling, delicate flower); Long Yun (Long is the Chinese symbol of the dragon, and Yun means charming); Mulan (a legendary young female warrior from the 5th century and the star of an animated Disney film; the word also means magnolia); and Zhen Bao (valuable, treasure). In other developments, zoo officials are investigating Monday’s zebra attack on an animal keeper. They declined to comment on the condition of the zookeeper at the request of his family. It was unusual for the keeper to be in the area where he was, officials said. There were no cameras that recorded what happened. During the attack, a gazelle was so startled that it ran into a barrier and died. The zebra was temporarily taken out of the exhibit, which is standard protocol after an incident, but went back on exhibit Tuesday, said Devin


Readers speak out on the TSA, civil servants and security clearances

reporting of mental health issues (they changed a bit in 2006). ●All criminal charges need to be entered into the system, not just convictions. — Shaun W. May, Tully Rinckey law firm I read your article about clearances with interest as I am a facility security officer who works for a Defense Department contractor locally. I’ve been an FSO for about 10 years, and I’ve seen many changes . . . mostly for the better. However, as we have progressed technically, we have not done so in terms of doing background checks on our cleared and to-be-cleared individuals. The secret clearances should be re-investigated every five years, and though your article states that there are no personal interviews for secret clearances, some better investigators do conduct those interviews. With that said for secret clearances, maybe a shorter “update” of a reinvestigation for top-secret clearances — maybe three years instead of five. With Congress being upset about spending, this doesn’t fit the mold. You need investigators to do these background checks and they cannot be rushed. That means the Defense Department needs more money to spend on these investigators and giving them the proper training. That also means training the larger contractors on where files should be kept. One big problem is a person working in Washington can have all the security and personnel files in Roanoke simply because that is where the “contract” is managed. I hope you can continue to enlighten the public on what it takes to get a clearance and the responsibilities of cleared people to live a higher lifestyle of integrity and self-report any situations in their lives that might be problematic. — Sean Lee, Vienna Civil servants An article about Katherine Archuleta, the new Office of Personnel Management director, drew this response from an online reader: Yes, we have lazy, incompetent civil servants, at about the same percentage as the private sector has. How often do you get outstanding, excellent service vs. just barely adequate service at a restaurant, bank or store? The other problem is the fairly small but vocal number of people in this country who have no idea what the government does or how hard and frustrating a lot of government jobs are. They just want what the government provides, when they want it, think that government services/benefits are free (created by magic, I guess), and will not stand for someone telling


Who will care for America’s aging population?

Tom Daschle, a former Senate majority leader, is a co-founder of the Bipartisan Policy Center. Tommy Thompson is a senior fellow at the center and a former governor of Wisconsin. He was secretary of health and human services in the George W. Bush administration. Nearly 70 percent of Americans who reach age 65 will, at some point, be unable to care for themselves without assistance. Issues of long-term care also affect millions of younger people with significant cognitive or physical functional limitations. Yet long-term care gets neither the public attention nor the policy focus that it deserves. The scope of the challenge before our nation was recently summed up by the Commission on Long-Term Care. In its final report to Congress, the federally appointed bipartisan group wrote that in today’s system, services and supports “are highly fragmented and difficult for individuals and family caregivers to access” and that the system “lack[s] the focus and coordination across agencies and providers necessary to ensure the best outcomes for the person and family.” Services are also “provided in ways that can be expensive and inefficient.” Approximately 12 million Americans require long-term care. Adults age 65 and older make up 56 percent of that group. The vast majority of long-term care in this country is provided, unpaid, by families. Valued at about $450 billion a year, it depends on people’s ability to juggle paid work, family responsibilities and care for loved ones. Paid care, whether in homes or in community-based or institutional situations, is worth some $211 billion a year, with the federal and state governments footing $131 billion of that cost through Medicaid. Demographic shifts are poised to exacerbate this patchwork system, stretching family resources and Medicaid budgets. By 2030, older Americans will account for 20 percent of the population, up from about 13 percent in 2010. In 2010, there were 7.2 potential caregivers ages 45 to 64 for every person age 80 or older; over the next 20 years, as baby boomers age and require care, the number of caregivers is on track to drop to 4.1. Between 2030 and 2050, it is expected to decline further, to 2.9. Family caregivers, the backbone of today’s system, will not be able to fully provide the care needed by this growing cohort of older Americans. Widespread misunderstanding of who will need and who will pay for long-term care keeps many Americans from pushing for


Regulators put tougher restrictions on bank payday loans

The government is imposing tougher restrictions on banks that offer short-term, high-interest loans that have been blamed for trapping some Americans in a cycle of debt. On Thursday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued identical guidance to limit the risks of loans tied to consumers’ paychecks, government benefits or other income directly deposited into their bank accounts. Critics say these products carry the same abusive high interest rates and balloon payments as the payday loans offered by storefront and online operators. But industry groups contend that placing strict constraints on banks will only push people with limited access to credit into the arms of less-regulated vendors. “The OCC encourages banks to offer responsible products that meet the small-dollar credit needs of customers,” Comptroller of the Currency Thomas J. Curry said in a statement. “However, deposit advance products . . . pose significant safety and soundness and consumer protection risks.” Curry said the guidance is meant to clarify the agency’s expectations for banks to understand and manage those risks. Neither the OCC nor the FDIC will bar banks from deposit-advance loans, but their policies could radically alter the operations of the handful of banks that offer the product. At least 15 states have already banned the service, while several others have imposed strict laws to limit the interest rates and the number of loans that can be made. Federal regulators are taking cues from state authorities proposing similar limits, including a “cooling-off period” that prevents borrowers from taking more than one deposit advance during a monthly pay cycle. Another key concern is that banks determine a customer’s ability to repay before making a loan, a standard underwriting practice in all other types of lending. Regulators recommended reviewing at least six months of customer’s banking activities. If a customer’s account is routinely overdrawn, banks should hold off on extending credit, the agencies say. Only six major banks offer direct-deposit loans: Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp, Regions Bank, Fifth Third Bank, Guaranty Bank and Bank of Oklahoma. But the scope of Thursday’s guidance is limited because Fifth Third and Regions are regulated by the Federal Reserve, which is not participating in the effort. The Fed did warn banks of the consumer risks posed by the products in April, but consumer advocates fear the warning is not enough. “All banks should take this opportunity to find


In Washington, winter is coming, but many are just fine with dining outdoors

rides along West Coast lines, including “Bike and Bean” (coffee roaster) and “Bike and Brew” (beer pub) tours. But the boom in outside eating has restaurant owners looking the other direction for inspiration. “We’re loving it. Anything that makes Washington more like Paris or Barcelona is a good thing,” said Rob Wilder, chief executive of Jose Andres’s Think Food Group. “Not a day goes by in Paris when it’s 40 degrees and rainy when there’s not somebody sitting in an outdoor cafe.” Andres’s Jaleo in Penn Quarter helped usher in the new age of open-air dining, Wilder said, when the group asked the city for permission to add about 30 seats along its E Street NW sidewalk, something once largely forbidden by the D.C. government. Encouraged by the Downtown D.C. Business Improvement District, officials allowed a pilot program, Wilder said. The tables are now a fixture, and all but one of the company’s seven properties has added outside seating. “They have gotten a lot more flexible in where they allow it,” Wilder said of the District. Restaurants are pushing the change, with pavement land grabs and rooftop colonizations offering a cheap way to expand dining rooms. (The District charges about $5 a square foot annually for sidewalk space.) “Now, it’s a thing. Everybody has to have a rooftop or a patio,” said Ali Amarlooi, co-owner of the Biergarten Haus on H Street NE. The German pub has 600 year-round seats and an outdoor bar in its back courtyard. Not all patrons are keen to eat outside, especially in parka weather. But managers say it’s often just a matter of getting the skeptical under heaters, which have become increasingly efficient. “I had to ask them to turn it down,” said Jennifer Simich, a visitor from Las Vegas eating in, sorry, outside Le Diplomate. She was glad to get the table. The sidewalk seats are often the only ones available to those without a coveted reservation for the popular bistro. This week, the restaurant added more propane-fueled heaters and enclosed part of the terrace with plastic sheets, making it comfortable for consuming escargot until spring. Its strategy seems to be working. Even chilly nights can carry a waiting list. And terrace manager Jonathan Yeronick said the only arguments he has heard among customers about eating outside have been in the summer. “A lot of people really don’t like the heat,” he said.


Md., Va. shed employment in October amid government shutdown; D.C. job growth stalls

There were few reasons for optimism about the local job market in a report issued Friday by the Labor Department, which showed that Maryland and Virginia lost jobs in October and the District did not add any positions. Maryland shed 400 jobs last month, after losing 8,500 jobs in September. The state’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.7 percent in October. Maryland’s greatest job losses were in the professional services sector, which shed 700 positions, and government, which shed 1,000 positions. Virginia lost 5,400 jobs in October as its unemployment rate held steady at 5.6 percent. The commonwealth’s steepest loss was in the professional services category, which cast off 8,000 positions. The job losses in the professional services sector, which includes the region’s throngs of government contractors, could be another sign that federal budget cuts are weighing on the Washington area labor market. And even as Virginia and Maryland’s unemployment rates remained unchanged, both jurisdictions saw a decrease in the labor force, meaning that many people probably gave up looking for work. The District’s labor market was practically at a standstill last month, with no overall gain or loss in positions. It shed 500 jobs in the professional services sector and lost 300 positions in the education and health services industry. But it added jobs in some other sectors, such as trade and transportation, which gained 400 positions. The District’s unemployment rate steadily declined throughout 2012, but the jurisdiction has struggled to continue that trajectory this year. The jobless rate leaped to 8.9 percent in October from 8.6 percent in September. That is the highest level of unemployment registered in the District since August 2012. “These are poor numbers. The real question is, what do these numbers signify?” said Anirban Basu, chief executive of Sage Policy Group, a Baltimore economic consulting firm. “If these numbers are merely an indication of the dislocation that occurred prior to and during the government shutdown, these numbers are not nearly as meaningful. If, however, those numbers reflect the beginning of a trend . . . that, of course, would be more problematic.” The Labor Department does not typically release two months’ worth of economic data at once. The department, however, had to rearrange its schedule after the government shutdown put its work on hold for much of last month. The department released state employment reports for both September and October on Friday. The national


October as its unemployment rate held steady at 5.6 percent. The commonwealth’s steepest loss was in the professional services category, which cast off 8,000 positions. The job losses in the professional services sector, which includes the region’s throngs of government contractors, could be another sign that federal budget cuts are weighing on the Washington area labor market. And even as Virginia and Maryland’s unemployment rates remained unchanged, both jurisdictions saw a decrease in the labor force, meaning that many people probably gave up looking for work. The District’s labor market was practically at a standstill last month, with no overall gain or loss in positions. It shed 500 jobs in the professional services sector and lost 300 positions in the education and health services industry. But it added jobs in some other sectors, such as trade and transportation, which gained 400 positions. The District’s unemployment rate steadily declined throughout 2012, but the jurisdiction has struggled to continue that trajectory this year. The jobless rate leaped to 8.9 percent in October from 8.6 percent in September. That is the highest level of unemployment registered in the District since August 2012. “These are poor numbers. The real question is, what do these numbers signify?” said Anirban Basu, chief executive of Sage Policy Group, a Baltimore economic consulting firm. “If these numbers are merely an indication of the dislocation that occurred prior to and during the government shutdown, these numbers are not nearly as meaningful. If, however, those numbers reflect the beginning of a trend . . . that, of course, would be more problematic.” The Labor Department does not typically release two months’ worth of economic data at once. The department, however, had to rearrange its schedule after the government shutdown put its work on hold for much of last month. The department released state employment reports for both September and October on Friday. The national unemployment rate fell to 7.2 percent in September, only to inch back up to 7.3 percent in October. Jobless rates increased in 11 states and fell in 28 states. They were unchanged in 11 states. The highest level of unemployment, 9.3 percent, was recorded in Nevada. The lowest jobless rate, 2.7 percent, was recorded in North Dakota. More from The Washington Post: D.C. area personal income growth slowed last year How contracts, lobbying have affected wealth in the D.C. area Where the nation’s highest earners live


Awaze beef tibs and kik alicha: One more time, with feeling — and cheaper ingredients

The cheap-eats version of ScratchDC's awaze beef tibs with kik alicha. (Tim Carman/The Washington Post) Not long after we hit the “publish” button on my Nov. 13 story about ScratchDC — in which I prepared one dish three ways to see whether convenience-oriented cooking could compare to the genuine scratch kind — we realized we had overlooked one important test: We’d forgotten to see just how cheaply we could make the Ethiopian meal. If you recall, I ordered one of ScratchDC’s twine-tied “bundles” — a $28 box that contained all of the pre-measured, pre-chopped and pre-marinated ingredients needed to make awaze beef tibs with kik alicha — and prepared the meal at home the next day. Despite a couple of hiccups, the bundle produced an astonishingly authentic Ethiopian dinner. Then I re-created the meal twice, with items bought at the grocery store: first using as many convenience foods (chopped onions in a container, diced tomatoes in a can, etc.) as I could find, and then using, with the exception of pre-ground spices, whole ingredients. Most important, I tried to buy ingredients that matched the organic and locally sourced ones that ScratchDC favors. That was my blind spot. I never thought about trying to produce the same dinner on the cheap, a rather comical omission given my secondary gig over at Weekend as the $20 Diner. So this past weekend, I went shopping again for the same ingredients, this time at Snider’s Super Foods, the reliable (and cramped!) supermarket in Silver Spring that sells affordable meats and produce. Unlike Whole Foods, however, Snider’s does not carry bulk spices, which forced me to buy (ugh) little plastic containers of spices and, once again, try to calculate the percentage of each one I used in the recipe. For the record, I spent $53.38 at Snider’s for ingredients, and that did not include the green split peas or the injera, which the store does not sell. Those last two items ran to $1.45 and $6, respectively (before calculating the percentage used in the recipe). All told, the ingredients totaled $60.83. Not cheap, but not what it actually costs to prepare this dinner, either. Once I performed the calculations, the amount spent on the actual ingredients used in the recipe totaled roughly $18.91, a good $9 cheaper than the ScratchDC kit. The price would have been even (slightly) lower had I been able to buy


Commentary: Reasonable zealots, an oxymoron

chicken cutlets bubbling up out of an exploded package. I had no idea why anyone would put them there. Did I have an enemy? Maybe a disgruntled employee? The following weekend, a cashier told me she recognized an animal rights activist group in the store, and that she saw them take fish sticks out of the freezer, but that they didn’t have the product at checkout. So we traced their steps and sure enough found the fish sticks behind some other shelving. The cashier knew one of the activists, and where he lived, so I called the police. The police went to his house, and we never saw them again. Less than 1 percent of our total sales at the time were from meats. Everything we sold was free range and free of antibiotics and hormones. Yet, this is the black-and-white world in which a zealot lives: Either you perfectly align with their agenda or you are The Enemy. There is no gray area and no consideration for effective progress. I used to have a soft spot for the animal rights movement, but this incident and repeated e-mails like the one above have pretty much taken the issue off my radar in terms of support. A zealot doesn’t realize that making the world a better place is a process, not an event. The organic farming movement illustrates this. People gradually educate themselves on the merits of organics and begin to explore organic products, often times purchasing basics such as milk, baby food, eggs, etc., while getting mostly conventional products at Safeway or Giant. Then, the consumer might decide to frequent the local farmers market and start regularly going to Whole Foods for some favorite items. And then when they really want to make organics a lifestyle, they end up walking through our doors — filling their carts with amaranth and quinoa, raw almond butter, dandelion greens, medicinal teas, sprouted whole grain flours, etc. It pains me to see zealots on issues that I generally support, because they are just as effective at setting back the movement as the opposition is — often more so. In their demand for perfection, they stand in the way of progress. Enlightenment is a journey, not an event. Zealots not only need to stop trying to whip people into submission, but to clear the way, offer guidance and walk arm-in-arm down the path of progress.


Editor’s note: Bus trip reveals a lot is happening in and around Howard County

NSA headquarters are located in Anne Arundel, on its western border with Howard County. All around the complex, new development is popping up. One of the more ambitious is a place called Arundel Preserve, which aspires to be one of those live-work-play town centers so much in vogue now. There’s already a 150-room hotel that’s running at 90 percent occupancy and a steak place “where you need a reservation,” said William S. Barroll, senior vice president for Corporate Office Properties Trust, which is a partner on the project. The cyber contractor KEYW moved its headquarters to the development, which sits not only near Fort Meade, but is about a mile from Anne Arundel Mills mall and the Maryland Live casino there. Cars, cars Next stop is Odenton, a community near Fort Meade, where development is just beginning to stir. The parking lot at the MARC train station is full; it’s the busiest station between Baltimore and Washington. The county is contemplating building a parking garage and bringing an end to the free parking. Just peachy Barroll tells us Corporate Office Properties Trust got lucky. A spinoff from utility giant BGE, it happened to own a peach orchard across the Baltimore-Washington Parkway from the NSA. Now that land is home to all the big names in government contracting: Computer Sciences Corp., Booz Allen Hamilton, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics and more. “We like tenants that are sticky,” Barroll quipped. On the base Big things are coming to Fort Meade. There are 16 construction projects underway on the post. That giant NSA data center that drew so much attention in Utah? There’s a 60 megawatt monster to rival it underway at Fort Meade, so big it required a special agreement for water from Howard County to keep the coming equipment cool. A new base exchange is being erected with its own Apple Store. Fort Meade will have garden apartments for enlisted service members, unheard of in the military. These days, 54,108 people work on the post, and more are coming. “This is our nation’s cyber center of gravity,” Fort Meade Garrison Commander Col. Brian P. Foley told us. Judging by all the activity around the base, it could be a center of gravity for much more. An earlier version of this story misidentified the architect of the former Rouse Co. headquarters. It was Frank Gehry. The story has been updated.


Virginia acts to reduce population of wild pigs, the ‘most invasive animal’ in U.S.

most invasive animal in the United States. As a menace to ecosystems, they put the dreaded northern snakehead in the Chesapeake Bay to shame. “As far as ecological damage, there is probably not a worse animal that’s out there,” said Dye, regional coordinator for feral pigs in Northern Virginia. They eat like hogs Farmers lose millions of dollars in yearly revenue to wild pigs that are established in 47 states, including massive populations in Texas, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. They cause an estimated $1.5 billion in damage nationwide each year, prompting some state game officials to shoot them from the air. In Lithonia, Ga., a populous suburban community near Atlanta, a wild pig ran amok in September, knocking over garbage, digging up yards and terrifying residents. Georgia wildlife officials sent in a team of trackers who shot it dead. It’s exactly the kind of thing Virginia is trying to avoid by assembling a task force to address the problem. If wild pigs develop a stronger presence in Virginia, they “will be the same as deer” that residents often see roaming the yards and streets of housing developments “but there will be more of them,” said Jim McGlone, an urban forestry conservationist for the Virginia Department of Forestry. Wild pigs are baby-making machines, mating year-round. There can be eight piglets in a litter and as many as three litters in about a year. With no natural predator, a pig population can triple in just over a year. To keep the population from growing, 70 percent of it has to be killed, which is nearly impossible. Virginia’s most recent estimate last year put the pig population at 2,500 to 3,000, with plenty of pairs to mate. Texas has as many as 5 million wild pigs. Florida has about 400,000. Georgia officials said they have too many to count. South Carolina and North Carolina are in an uphill fight to keep their populations under control. “We’re far beyond any ability to eradicate them from the state,” said Charlie Killmaster, deer and feral hog biologist for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Feral hogs date back to Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto, who brought them to Florida as a food source in 1539. Later, American colonists allowed some domesticated hogs to feed in the woods, freeing many of them forever. They continue to escape from farm pens, Killmaster said. But hunters are most


Comet ISON, if it survives trip around the sun, could bring spectacular sky show

a big tail. If ISON survives the close shave, the comet will likely look its best for the first weeks of December as it passes close to Earth. As it careens along, ISON will be spraying out dust, water and carbon dioxide from the faraway parts of the solar system into our neighborhood — all of which will reflect sunlight. There are no worries about a collision with Earth, although roughly 40 percent of our water has come from space bombardments like comets and asteroids, said Green. If the comet’s ice does dissipate, the remaining rocky material could just continue to orbit the sun. For instance, the famous Leonid meteor shower that just peaked last week are the leftovers of an old comet. ISON, detected in September 2012, was named for the international collaboration of scientists working on the project, the International Scientific Optical Network. The original excitement came from when it was further than the orbit of Jupiter, shining brightly, and many comet scientists thought it would be massive. “It started out being very promising, but we now know from observation that it’s probably fairly small,” Green said, estimating a size of 2 kilometers — about the distance from the Capitol to the Washington Monument. If you’re an early riser, you may be able to catch a glimpse now in the twilight before dawn, near the planet Mercury. But as it ventures closer to the sun, ISON will become increasingly harder to see. Block, an avid astrophotographer, suggests that comet-hunters wait until after perihelion. If the comet survives, viewers should be able to see it during the first or second week of December, either with the naked eye or using binoculars. To take a photo, Block said a simple digital camera on a tripod should do the trick, with an exposure time of 10 to 30 seconds. Before dawn, look for a prominent object with a bright tail pointing upward, advises Damian Peach, a British astrophotographer who has managed to capture the fleeting comet with stunning detail. “Look to the southeast around 30 minutes before sunrise, and you may be able to see the comet with the unaided eye,” Peach said in an e-mail. Kim is a freelance science journalist based in Philadelphia. Related stories: Which way to space? Old and new companies vie to be the future of space travel Photos: Welcome to space country NASA’s mission improbable


Briar Woods defense blankets explosive Mountain View in Virginia 5A North playoff

The Briar Woods defense, which shut out Broad Run in October, set up a rematch with the Spartans after a dominant performance in a Virginia 5A North quarterfinal against Mountain View. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post) Fourth-ranked Briar Woods wanted to be ready when it met Mountain View on Friday in a Virginia 5A North region quarterfinal. So the team’s linebackers arrived to practice early Tuesday through Thursday to make sure they maintained positioning on read options with a bruising running back and dual-threat quarterback in the opposing backfield. The Falcons held an explosive Wildcats offense to just one play of more than 30 yards, a 64-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter by Quinton Gray. Excluding that play, Mountain View — which came in averaging 26 points per game — was held to 190 yards of total offense as the Falcons dominated in a 49-7 drubbing. “I think we expected a lot more, but they were a good program,” Briar Woods middle linebacker Chris Larco said. “They had a tough running back, and we prepared all week for that. It was a fun game.” Larco, who leads the team with 90 tackles, had five in the win. He spent last season playing alongside Matt Rolin, now at the University of Florida. He said Rolin taught him to play looser in the middle and trust himself making tackles. Host B.J. Koubaroulis runs through the top plays from the weekend of football in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia area. “Last year, I was playing next to Matt Rolin and it was hard to get to tackles,” Larco said. “But this year I’ve been able to find the ball more, and even when people get in the way the ball is the main focus for me.” After allowing North Stafford running back Von Purvis to rush for 250 yards in a 19-7 loss on Sept. 20 that ended the Falcons’ 32-game winning streak, Briar Woods has improved its defensive play. The Falcons are yielding just 5.4 points per game since that loss and are riding a new eight-game winning streak. “We tightened up our defense,” junior outside linebacker Dominic Moore said. “We as players weren’t going to allow any other team to run on us like that again.” Briar Woods, which won the last three Virginia AA Division 4 state championships, will host No. 18 Broad Run (9-3) Friday in a Virginia 5A


Bedbugs! Many DIY methods of getting rid of them don’t work, but some do.

Rubbing alcohol and mothballs are unlikely to rid your home of bedbugs. (Bigstock) As bedbugs become more resistant to various pesticides, other defenses are growing in importance. But new tests give low grades to several homespun methods of bedbug defense. Rubbing alcohol is often recommended for killing bedbugs, for example. But spraying a group of the insects with it left about half alive four days later, Changlu Wang reported at this month’s Entomology 2013 conference. His research team at Rutgers University also found that mothballs failed to wipe out bedbugs after seven days in a plastic bag full of infested clothes. Eggs and immature bedbugs survived the mothball treatment well, and only 44 to 60 percent of the adult males died. In spite of these and other underwhelming test results, Wang encourages no-pesticide, DIY tactics. The common bedbug (Cimex lectularius), for decades so rare in the United States that many entomologists had never seen a wild one, has had a resurgence in homes, hotels, planes, ambulances and offices. People’s watchful eyes and mindful habits are the best ways of preventing infestations or stopping them early. And since bug populations are growing increasingly resistant, pesticides that are still in use, especially those available without a professional license, may not help. Dini Miller of Virginia Tech, analyzing bedbugs’ growing resistance to pesticides, said that among the bugs’ defenses are variations in enzymes that can detoxify certain pesticides and an enhanced outer cuticle that reduces pesticides’ penetration. Miller has found that bug populations combine such defenses, creating a formidable mix. Bringing back DDT, a fantasy that Miller said she often hears from people fighting infestations, won’t help, because bedbugs demonstrated decades ago that they develop resistance to it. That insecticide was banned in the United States for agricultural use in 1972. A commercial blend of essential oils turned out to have a major drawback under likely real-world conditions. In a lab where bugs had no chance to bite anybody, treatment with the product Bed Bug Fix had killed 92 percent of bugs by the end of two weeks. But when researchers sprayed bugs and then allowed them to feed, as they might in a home, the insects survived. Just why isn’t clear, Wang says. Ultrasonic bedbug-repelling devices are popular, but they don’t work, Wang said. In a survey of 23 places infested with bedbugs, five had an ultrasonic repeller. Based on his research,


Coordinating CDC’s public health emergency response teams

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) When public health emergencies arise, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is one is of the primary federal agencies that must answer the call for action. Mobilizing and equipping the doctors, epidemiologists and other scientists to cope with infectious disease outbreaks and natural disasters requires a great deal of planning, coordination and support, a job that falls to Philip Navin Jr., the CDC’s director of emergency operations. A retired Army colonel, Navin heads CDC’s emergency operations center that is on call 24-hours a-day, seven days a week, and serves as the agency’s central point of contact for reporting and responding to public health threats. Navin and his team quickly find experts to answer requests for assistance from state and local health departments, federal agencies, public health practitioners and officials from overseas. Between 2004 and 2012, the emergency operations centers handled an average of 23,000 requests per year. The center staff also has gathers and disseminates timely information, provides equipment, supplies and travel arrangements to the CDC personnel responding to the public health events, and quickly transports life-supporting medications, samples and specimens around the world. Who is Philip Navin, Jr.? POSITION: Director, Division of Emergency Operations, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention RESIDENCE: Tucker, Ga. AGE: 62 EDUCATION: University of Montana, B.S.; Webster University, M.A., health care administration AWARDS: University of Montana, B.S.; Webster University, M.A., health care administration HOBBIES: Watching college football, and hope to be fishing in retirement “We don’t do the on-the ground-response, but provide a detailed plan as well as the resources and the public health experts from the CDC for both big and small events,” said Navin. “We provide situational awareness of what is taking place and work with our scientists to get information to physicians, hospitals and public health officials.” The CDC’s emergency operations center was created in 2003 in the aftermath of the 9\11 terrorist attacks, and has responded to more than 50 major national and international emergencies with public health implications, including foodborne disease outbreaks, Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, the H1N1 influenza outbreak, the Haiti cholera outbreak, the global effort to eradicate polio, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus and the multi-state outbreak of outbreak of fungal meningitis. Prior to Navin’s arrival, the CDC’s response center consisted of available conference rooms with limited equipment. Today, it can accommodate up to 230 personnel for each eight-hour


Citing technical problem, SpaceX scrubs Falcon 9 launch

To hear the dreamers tell it, Mojave, Calif., is the next Silicon Valley. The Mojave Air and Space Port is the spiritual heart of the industry that people call “New Space.” Could one of these companies be the next Google or Facebook of space travel? A much-anticipated launch of a commercial satellite by SpaceX was scrubbed Monday at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and pushed back three days after a technical problem halted the countdown less than four minutes before ignition. The precise nature of the problem was not immediately clear. The next attempt will be at 5:38 p.m. Thursday, SpaceX said. The 224-foot-tall, two-stage Falcon 9 rocket has flown only once before in the configuration that SpaceX calls “version 1.1.” Elon Musk, the SpaceX chief executive and founder, called this the company’s “toughest mission to date” on Twitter. Less than two months ago, a Falcon 9 with the same configuration launched successfully from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but the second stage didn’t relight the way engineers hoped it would. For this launch, Musk said, the company needed that second stage to fire properly a second time to get the satellite into the proper orbit. The mission is supposed to send a nearly 7,000-pound SES-8 communications satellite into an elliptical, high Earth orbit, called a geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite is owned by Luxembourg-based SES and will provide services for South Asia and the western Pacific. SpaceX has designs on the lucrative military and national security launch business. That part of the industry has been dominated by United Launch Alliance, a 50-50 partnership of Boeing and Lockheed. “Battling gigantic defense contractors is obviously not going to be an easy thing to do,” Musk said in a recent interview with The Washington Post. SpaceX can potentially offer customers, including the government, a cheaper way to launch satellites, but the company must demonstrate that the new version of the Falcon 9 is reliable. Musk said the launch business is nerve-racking: “There are a thousand ways for it to go wrong, and one way for it to go right.” Related stories: Which way to space? Old and new companies vie to be the future of space travel International space station: The skies. The limits. NASA’s mission improbable


Federal Faces: Philip Navin Jr.

Philip Navin Jr. Position: Best known for: The job falls to Navin, the CDC’s director of emergency operations. A retired Army colonel, Navin heads the emergency center, which is always on call and is the agency’s central point of contact for reporting and responding to public health threats. Navin and his team find experts to answer requests for assistance from state and local health departments, federal agencies, public health practitioners and even officials from overseas. Between 2004 and 2012, the emergency center handled an average of 23,000 requests per year. The center staff disseminates timely information and provides equipment, supplies and travel arrangements to crisis respondents. The center transports life-supporting medications, samples and specimens around the world. It was created in 2003 after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and has responded to more than 50 major national and international emergencies with public health implications. Included in that long list: foodborne disease outbreaks, Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, the H1N1 influenza outbreak, the Haiti cholera outbreak, the global effort to eradicate polio, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus and the multi-state outbreak of fungal meningitis. Prior to Navin’s arrival, the response center consisted of available conference rooms with limited equipment. Today, it can accommodate up to 230 personnel for each eight-hour shift to handle situations ranging from local emergencies to worldwide incidents. Colleagues said Navin has created a professional, disciplined operation and greatly improved the CDC’s ability to respond to emergencies. Government work: Motivation for service: Biggest challenge: Quote: “ — From the Partnership for Public Service For a full profile, go to The Fed Page at washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-government.


Montgomery set to vote on minimum-wage hike, but devil remains in details

40 cents.” Council member Hans Riemer (D-At-Large) said Monday evening that he was working with Council members Roger Berliner (D-Potomac-Bethesda) George Leventhal (D-At-Large) and Phil Andrews (D-Rockville-Gaithersburg) on an alternative proposal to get the minimum to $11.50. Riemer would not reveal specifics, but said it had the potential “to garner the support of everyone on the County Council.” “I think the broad outlines are almost there. We’re going to get this thing done,” said Riemer. Some members were concerned after hearing testimony at last week’s committee hearing from two liberal economists. Judith Hellerstein of the University of Maryland and Harry Holzer of Georgetown both endorsed raising the wage but cautioned that a hike to $11.50 over three years could increase joblessness among the working poor. Holzer, a former chief economist for the Department of Labor in the Clinton administration, said he was concerned about a wage that went higher than $10 an hour. Hellerstein said she favored $9 an hour, indexed to inflation. The committee recommended approval of the bill at $11.50, but committee chair Leventhal said Monday there is broad interest in a compromise. Leventhal said the objective is to find a set of numbers that could attract something close to a unanimous vote. “It would be better to have the council together on this,” he said. The question, he said, is whether Elrich and his co-sponsors are willing to give some ground and come away with a significant legislative victory “or would they rather go down in flames to retain their purity.” “That’s a joke,” Elrich scoffed. “If we do any of the numbers we’re talking about it’s an improvement.” But with most of the county’s working poor making between $8.50 and 11.00, an increase to $11.50 would have more of an impact. “I’m not going to be the one to propose lowering the number,” he said. “Why they would expect me to propose that I don’t know.” Lobbying on both sides intensified as the Tuesday afternoon vote approached. Groups such as the Montgomery County Government Employees Organization (MCGEO) Progressive Maryland, Casa de Maryland, Jews United for Justice, the National Organization for Women pressed the council to stay at $11.50. From the business community, Greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce told the council that it favors no more than $10.10 an hour, spread over five years with no indexing. Developer Bruce Lee sent a pointed e-mail to council


2013 holiday gift guide for the home

for Crate & Barrel. Our pick is her hammered-aluminum Como pitcher. Fill it with flowers for an extra-special presentation ($49.95. www.crateandbarrel.com). 12 Forget wine, it’s craft beer that’s having a moment right now: Sales grew 14.1 percent in 2012 and are still rocketing through 2013. Provide your nephew, favorite bachelor or any other brews aficionado with a set of tasting tumblers. The Libbey Craft Brew set has two each of six glasses: a classic pilsner, an English pub glass, a Belgian ale glass, a craft pub glass, a porter/stout glass and a wheat beer glass ($39.99, www.target.com). 13 Present the dark brown, oval Angenäm bowl with candy, earrings or a trinket, and get someone started on a candy bowl, jewelry holder or dresser-top catch-all ($24.99, in stores only, www.ikea.com). 14 Give loved ones a set of stunning stainless-steel servers with mother-of-pearl handles, and they’ll think of your thoughtfulness and good taste whenever they dish up greens ($45, www.jaysonhome.com). 15 Light up a loved one’s dark winter nights with a set of three cinnamon-bark tea lights from VivaTerra. Perforations in the bark let out the glow of candlelight, but the best part might be the way the flame’s warmth wafts the smell of cinnamon around a room ($39, www.vivaterra.com). 16 Everyday containers — tin cans, plastic bottles, milk cartons — are cleverly preserved in porcelain form by Seletti. Our favorites are canisters that recall aluminum cans, which we found at Washington’s Salt & Sundry. The largest (the “biscuits” jar) would make a striking gift on its own — or buy one of each size to make a set. Want more wit and whimsy? Stop by the store at Union Market for more giftable housewares and linens, as well as special events and demonstrations with chefs, mixologists and other experts ($14-$48, www.shopsaltandsundry.com). 17 Even the worst baker is sure to impress with cookies from Anthropologie’s ceramic White Rabbit jar. We imagine filling it with bunny-shaped sugar cookies ($68, www.anthropologie.com). 18 What’s under your evergreen? A tree skirt from Terrain shows unexpected form, being that it’s a basket and not a traditional cloth. Handwoven from natural fibers, the rustic basket skirt is perfect for a new couple’s first Christmas ($58, available in four color options, www.terrain.com). 19 A bit of welcome extravagance comes in the form of a set of four linen napkins from Alder & Co. in Portland, Ore. The French-made napkins,


routine practice in northern states. Here it comes down to beekeeper preference; some might wrap hives in tar paper or insulating foam, but most, I’d say, don’t. Wrapping a hive can have the unwanted effect of trapping moisture, which freezes, or encouraging bees to go for a little flight when it is too cold to do so. In the mid-Atlantic region, it is enough simply to provide some sort of windbreak against northerly winds, perhaps a wall of straw bales a few feet from the hives. Beekeepers also try to have highly populated colonies going into the winter. In one of the hives we opened, there were too few to expect a strong winter cluster, but there was a queen. Hoffman plans to fold this colony into a stronger one, a decision that brings others. Each colony can have only one queen (or so we are told), so on paper Hoffman must either kill the weaker queen or stick her in with the other for a regal joust to the death. But sometimes, he has discovered, a hive stacked high can support two queens, who, as the bumper sticker pleads, coexist. Thus, the dance between bee and beekeeper is both fluid and fraught. The more I see other beekeepers, the more I sense that this art cannot be learned wholly as much as experienced. When Hoffman started out as a backyard hobbyist, he would go into the winter with two colonies, one understrength, the other replete. “One was struggling along, the other going gangbusters. It was the gangbusters one that died: The queen started laying early, they had to keep the brood nest at a high temperature” and they used up the stores of honey doing so, he said. “The one that was struggling got through fine and took off in the spring.” Local beekeepers like Haskell and Hoffman have come to believe that the way forward for the beleaguered honeybee is for keepers to breed queens locally rather than follow the standard practice of buying in from queen producers in other states. The expectation is that colonies that are farmed to produce local queens will forge a genetic toughness in a region where the weather can take wild swings. On a day for gorging on fruit pies — mine’s blackberry — I will spare a thought for the winter bee and her keeper. @adrian_higgins on Twitter Also at washingtonpost.com


What’s in a baby panda’s name? A baby-naming expert weighs in.

The zoo’s giant panda cub, Bao Bao, turns 1 year old. The breakout star of the National Zoo, the recently born female giant panda cub, is finally getting a name. Millions of people have tuned into the zoo’s ever-popular online “panda cam,” and more than 115,000 people cast a vote on what the tiny fur ball should be named. In keeping with the Chinese tradition, the Washington zoo will unveil the cub’s moniker in a ceremony Sunday — the day she reaches her 100-day mark. Voters had the opportunity to choose from five names: Bao Bao (meaning “precious” or “treasure”), Ling Hua (meaning “darling” or “delicate flower”), Long Yun (translates to “charming dragon” and represents luck for panda cooperation between China and the United States,) Mulan (a legendary 5th-century Chinese warrior and the title character in a popular animated Disney film) and Zhen Bao (meaning “treasure” or “valuable”). The Washington Post had a chance to talk with Pamela Redmond Satran, co-founder of the baby-name Web site Nameberry and author of 10 best-selling baby books, about the art and science of baby naming — for humans and for pandas. Can you explain what goes into selecting a name? What factors do most people consider? In a momentous occasion, the baby panda at the National Zoo took her first tentative steps. I think it’s changed a lot over the years. Historically, people’s choice of names was often dictated by fairly strict sets of rules that may have been religious or may have been cultural. For instance, Italian families would name the first son after the father’s father and the second son after the mother’s father. There was a whole protocol. These days, a lot of those old rules for choosing names have fallen away. There’s a new kind of brand awareness and a new awareness of the power of a name to define a person or to telegraph a lot of information about who you are — at least who your parents are or who your parents want you to be. People, for instance, are looking for names that carry a lot of personal meaning, which might be ethnic meaning or family meaning or something about their values, taste or style. How does selecting a name for an animal differ from choosing a name for a human? It doesn’t differ as much as you might think, because most animals these days actually


Washington Post headquarters to sell to Carr Properties for $159 million

and ceased printing on the downtown presses in 1999. Carr Properties is the latest iteration of a family empire begun 51 years ago by magnate Oliver T. Carr Jr. The company recently landed a $300 million investment from Alony Hetz Properties and Investments, one of Israel’s largest real estate investment companies, and has been on a buying spree. The company plans to expand its real estate holdings from about $800 million today to $1.5 billion in coming years and then possibly go public, allowing it to attract more cash through an initial public offering. Oliver T. Carr III, president and chief executive of Carr Properties, was at a family event Wednesday afternoon and not immediately available to comment. The company had been trying to sell its stake at 1150 15th St. but remained open to acquiring the rest of The Post’s property instead. Carr has said in the past that the Post headquarters, located a few blocks from the booming apartment corridor on 14th Street, would make sense as a mixed-use project. Historic preservation groups decided not to nominate parts of the properties as historic landmarks, removing a possible barrier to redevelopment. “I would imagine a mixed-use redevelopment that would include both some office as well as some residential, perhaps hotel. It could add some vitality,” Carr said in an earlier interview. Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth told employees in February that she had begun exploring the sale of the headquarters and relocating, saying the goal was to “give us a more modern, bright, open and efficient building that better supports and advances our mission into the future.” Sources familiar with the companies’ search, but who were not authorized to share details publicly, said Graham Holdings has been looking for about 30,000 square feet in Northern Virginia. Graham Holdings spokeswoman Rima Calderon declined to comment on the requirements and said in an e-mail that the company has not narrowed its search to any one jurisdiction. The newspaper has been looking for up to 270,000 square feet in the District. It received about two dozen proposals over the summer and has been narrowing its options. Graham Holdings has been jettisoning real estate now that it no longer owns the flagship newspaper. The contract for the headquarters follows deals for two Robinson Terminal warehouses on the Potomac River in Alexandria that the company is selling. The deal for the downtown D.C. building is


Researchers at University of Pittsburg create digital database of infectious diseases

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have created a digital database of infectious-disease cases dating back 125 years, a trove of information that could help scientists and public health officials better understand how to fight the spread of deadly afflictions. The searchable database, outlined in the Thursday issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, was funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. To construct it, researchers compiled weekly disease surveillance reports published between 1888 and 2013 — about 6,500 tables in all — as well as data from agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The database tracks when and where people got sick, as well as how many died from their illnesses. What emerges is a detailed picture of how 56 infectious diseases have affected the American landscape since the late 19th century — and what interventions have proved most effective in stopping them. By comparing reported outbreaks of polio, smallpox and other diseases with the dates when vaccines for each came into use, researchers were able to document the life-saving role those drugs played. “We saw these very abrupt declines of incidence rates across the country,” said lead author Willem G. van Panhuis, assistant professor of epidemiology at the university’s Graduate School of Public Health, known as Pitt Public Health. Ultimately, he and his co-authors estimated that the introduction of vaccines had helped prevent 100 million cases of serious childhood diseases, a figure they said is worth remembering during a time when critics have raised questions about the necessity of vaccines. “We really hope this will ignite debate about the use of vaccinations, and that it will provide a new piece of evidence,” van Panhuis said. “We hope this will give this whole discussion a new dimension.” The creators of the new database also said they hope its utility lies not only in looking back at the history of infectious diseases, but also in using the information to deal more effectively with future outbreaks. “As Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said, ‘We live forward but understand backward,’ ” said Donald Burke, dean of Pitt Public Health and a senior author on the project. He said the database contains insights about the spread of diseases not always readily available in the past, such as where they occurred and among what demographics, as well as the weather and


Ask Amy: The gift of a safe holiday for pets

or ribbons out of reach for the same reason. Pets may be tempted to chew paper, ribbons or the gift itself. -- Heloise PET PAL Dear Readers: Regina Olsen, via e-mail, sent in a picture of her cat, Stinker, posing for the camera by a vase of flowers. Regina rescued Stinker from the underside of a car and says she is now the queen of the house! To see Stinker’s picture, go to my Web site, www.Heloise.com, and click on “Pets.” -- Heloise P.S.: Readers, do you want to see your pet as the Pet Pal of the week? Send a photo and a short story about your pet to: Heloise/Pet Pal, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, TX 78279-5000, or e-mail Heloise@Heloise.com . HUMMINGBIRD FEEDER Dear Heloise: I read in your column about a woman having trouble with wasps, bees and ants on her hummingbird feeder. I use a medium to light coat of petroleum jelly all the way around the feeding station, and no more wasps, bees or ants. The petroleum jelly is too sticky for the pests and does not harm or affect the birds. -- A Hummingbird Lover in Texas This sounds like a good idea, but several different hummingbird societies say NOT to use any petroleum-based products such as baby or cooking oil, as the oil may get into the birds’ feathers. They do recommend that if you are having an ant problem, use a moat or ant guard on the feeder. These, too, are easy solutions! Keep feeding those hummingbirds! -- Heloise P.S.: Living in San Antonio, a major flyway for hummingbirds, we have some hummers that hang around here during the winter. I’m lucky enough to see these little dive bombers all year long! ORNAMENT TRADITION Dear Heloise: When my brother and I were younger, my stepmother started buying us Christmas ornaments each year. They were always beautiful keepsakes that she would find. I saved mine and kept them in a special box. The first year I put up my own Christmas tree, I already had a collection of ornaments for my tree. She still does it, and it has become a tradition that I look forward to. -- J.A. in San Antonio Heloise’s column appears six days a week at www.washingtonpost.com/advice. Send a hint to Heloise , P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Tex. 78279-5000, or e-mail it to Heloise@Heloise.com. , King Features Syndicate


Recasting high school, German firms transplant apprentice model to U.S.

coalition of eight companies, including Siemens, that select the applicants, pay tuition and a full-time hourly wage, and guarantee a job at the end of the process. The companies also choose the curriculum — and there is no wiggle room. The apprentices are grouped together for coursework that leads to an associate’s degree in mechatronics, a hybrid discipline pioneered in Japan and Germany that melds the basics of mechanical engineering, electronics and other areas. It produces workers that can program, operate and fix the machines common to the factories run by Siemens and other top companies. There used to be an elective among the 24 courses the students take. That was replaced with a logic class. The companies balked at paying for “the history of rock-and-roll. . . . They didn’t want that,” said Eric Easton, program coordinator for apprenticeships at the college. The curriculum as it stands now, he said, is in “lockstep” with how mechatronics is taught in Germany. The community college’s facilities include a $3 million lab that amounts to a full-scale model of a modern factory — gleaming with imported Festa components that look like a steroid version of the latest Lego toys. Robotic logistics units let students learn how to set up and repair delivery systems, and model assembly lines teach them to diagnose problems with sequences of electronic motors. In another room, they work on orbital lathes that cut across five planes, or gather for a trigonometry lesson using an old-school sine bar to measure angles. “Does this program fit over here? No. It was a really slow start,” said Jorma Harkonen, a mechanical-engineering instructor at the college who has helped oversee the apprentice program. The college is trying to spread the gospel to new industries and disciplines — exploring whether information technology or health-care companies might have a similar common curriculum they could unite behind. Johnson thinks more students may be interested. “It is a lot of responsibility for a 16- or 17-year-old to say, hey, this is my future,” Johnson said. “But kids need more responsibility. . . . Based on what my friends are doing, I think America would benefit from this becoming broader.” And parents will come around, too. Johnson’s dad died this year, but before he did, he framed and hung on the wall an award she won from the community college. It was for excellence in advanced manufacturing.


Karzai says U.S. drone strike killed child, won’t sign security deal if similar attacks continue

said. The allegations are likely to stoke tension over Karzai’s reluctance to endorse a plan that would allow several thousand U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan after 2014. After a year of negotiations, the Obama administration thought it had finalized an agreement with Karzai last week to allow up to 15,000 foreign troops to stay to train and assist the military. But Karzai has been reluctant to sign it, saying he first wants assurances that the United States won’t meddle in Afghan elections next year, will cease military raids on Afghan homes, and will help start peace talks between Karzai’s government and Taliban insurgents. For the latter, he has demanded that the United States release 17 Afghan prisoners from the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Now, Karzai has added a reduction of U.S. airstrikes to his list of demands. “This attack shows that American forces are not respecting the life and safety of Afghan people’s houses,” he said in the statement. He added, “For years, our innocent people have become victims of the war under the name of terrorism, and they have had no safety in their homes.” He said he won’t sign the security agreement if such “oppressions by foreign forces continue.” It was unclear from his statement whether he was calling for an end of all drone strikes or just attacks that target homes. The alleged death of the child comes one week after Karzai accused U.S. Special Operations forces of killing two Afghan civilians during a raid on a house in eastern Afghanistan. Karzai’s assertion angered coalition commanders, who insisted that the men were “armed insurgents.” They accused Karzai of using “allegations of civilian deaths for political purposes.” But Karzai cited the incident as justification for his decision to delay the signing of the agreement. During a meeting Monday with U.S. national security adviser Susan E. Rice, Karzai demanded that American troops immediately stop entering the homes of Afghan citizens, his spokesman said. The Obama administration responded by saying that if the agreement is not signed by the end of the year, it will have no choice but to begin preparing for a full withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan next year. “It’s not something that we want to foresee or want to pursue,” U.S. Ambassador James B. Cunningham told Afghan reporters Wednesday. But, he added, “it could be a consequence of decisions that your


Denis O’Brien, Ireland’s version of Mexico’s Carlos Slim, sells mobile to the masses

colleagues in Papua New Guinea building our network — from plane crashes, accidents, car crashes,” he says. “It is the toughest of tough places.” O’Brien’s willingness to tackle such locations has enabled Hamilton, Bermuda-based Digicel to acquire 13 million customers across 31 markets in Central America and the Pacific as well as the Caribbean, where it’s the largest wireless provider. “Their strategy is to go in low and hard, picking out small markets that the big players have tended to avoid,” says Steven Hartley, a London-based analyst at Ovum, a research firm. “They do things efficiently and nimbly and basically rip the carpet out from underneath the incumbents.” Born in Dublin, O’Brien, 55, who owns 94 percent of Digicel, has based many of his companies in the Irish capital, though their reach is often global. For instance, he has major stakes in aircraft leasing firm Aergo Capital and broadcaster Communicorp, which operates 20 radio stations across five countries, including Newstalk and Today FM in Ireland. He’s also the largest shareholder in Independent News & Media, Ireland’s biggest newspaper publisher. Like many of his companies, O’Brien has one foot in Ireland and another abroad. He has homes in Sliema, Malta, and the Algarve region of Portugal as well as in Dublin. Mobile living He moved from Ireland to Portugal in 1999, shortly before receiving a $288 million windfall from selling Esat Telecom, the Irish company he built in the 1990s, to London-based BT Group for $2.5 billion in 2000. In moving, he avoided paying Irish taxes on the proceeds, according to “A Mobile Fortune: The Life and Times of Denis O’Brien,” by Irish journalist Siobhan Creaton. Since 2005, O’Brien has been a resident of Malta, saying it’s easier for him to run Digicel from his base there. Living on the Mediterranean island also allows him to legally lighten his Irish tax burden. The billionaire denies that taxation has ever been a consideration in terms of where he spends his time. “I pay all my taxes in Ireland — on my income in Ireland, on my dividends,” he says. “But the money I earn around the world, I pay taxes in each of those countries.” O’Brien is Ireland’s richest native-born citizen, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which estimated his fortune at $5.1 billion as of Nov. 11. With Digicel, which was valued at $3.7 billion as of that date, O’Brien is


Purple Line’s obscure obstacle: The endangered Hay’s Spring amphipod

A rare shrimplike creature found in Rock Creek Park — believed to be its only location in the world — could end up taking center stage in a fight against a proposed light-rail Purple Line in the Maryland suburbs. The tiny Hay’s Spring amphipod has been listed as a federally protected endangered species since 1982 and has been spotted in Rock Creek Park in the District, downstream of where Purple Line trains would cross the park in Montgomery County. The recently released final study of a Purple Line’s environmental impact, some activists say, erred in omitting the colorless crustacean as an endangered species that must be avoided or protected. John M. Fitzgerald, a Chevy Chase resident and lawyer, said he and other environmentalists are contemplating a lawsuit to require the Maryland Transit Administration to consider a light-rail line’s impact on the animal. The little-known crustacean is significant because it signals good water quality, he said. “When these creatures begin to disappear, that means the clean springs that feed Rock Creek are going,” Fitzgerald said. “When they’re gone, it means we’re losing the best sources of the purest water we’ve got.” Maryland transit officials said neither the Maryland Department of Natural Resources nor the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service mentioned any endangered species along the Purple Line’s proposed 16-mile route between Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. In a February 2010 letter, the Department of Natural Resources said there were “no state or federal records for rare, threatened or endangered species” within the Purple Line project boundaries. The letter added: “This statement should not be interpreted, however, as meaning that rare, threatened or endangered species are not in fact present. If appropriate habitat is available, certain species could be present without documentation because adequate surveys have not been conducted.” Jonathan McKnight, a biologist for the Department of Natural Resources, said the agency did not find any Hay’s Spring amphipods in a late-1990s search of 35 springs in lower Montgomery’s Rock Creek watershed. The study did turn up Kenk’s amphipods, another tiny crustacean listed as a “candidate” for federal endangered-species listing, but that spring would be too far from the Purple Line alignment to be harmed, he said. “We didn’t find anything in that area that would be affected by the project,” McKnight said. “We’re confident this was a good reconnaissance.” David Culver, an American University environmental science professor, said he knows little


Dana Milbank: Restore conscription, restore America

before party and self-interest. They have forgotten a “cause greater than self,” and they have lost the knowledge of how to make compromises for the good of the country. Without a history of sacrifice and service, they’ve turned politics into war. Compulsory military service, as old as Athenian democracy and common in countries such as Israel that live under threat, has been in decline in Western Europe since the end of the Cold War. But an exception, Switzerland, is instructive: On Sept. 22, the Swiss voted 73 percent to 27 percent to keep their conscription army. It has less to do with security than with national identity in a land of 26 cantons and four official languages. The government argued that military service teaches people “how to live and work with compatriots from all regions, all linguistic groups and all social strata,” which “contributes enormously to the national cohesion.” In Switzerland, the sons of bankers and farmers alike do basic training for several months and then are recalled to service for brief periods. But the structure is less important than the service itself. My former colleague Tom Ricks proposes bringing back the draft in the United States but allowing for a civilian national service option — teaching, providing day care and the like — for those who don’t want to join the military. There’s no mass movement for mandatory service, but the idea has gained a diverse group of supporters, including retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y). Gun-rights groups would cheer an armed citizenry, and an article published by the libertarian Cato Institute argued that compulsory service “can be a pillar of freedom.” The costs would be huge. But so would the benefits: overcoming growing social inequality without redistributing wealth; making future leaders, unlike today’s “chicken hawks,” disinclined to send troops into combat without good reason; putting young Americans to work and giving them job and technology skills; and, above all, giving these young Americans a shared sense of patriotism and service to the country. It would take some time, but this new generation of Americans, once again asking what they can do for their country, would undo much of the damage today’s crop of self-interested leaders is doing to our politics. Twitter: @Milbank Read more from Dana Milbank’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. Read more on this topic: Melvin


China’s gradual expansion in East China Sea poses challenge for Japan

TOKYO — The vessels eventually backtracked, but the episode signaled the first stage of China’s fundamental maritime strategy — one in which it forges into new areas, withstands the initial fury, and turns groundbreaking gambits into commonplace activity. In most cases, the strategy has worked. Chinese boats now cut through waters around Japan-administered islands almost weekly, drawing complaints from Tokyo but not alarm. For Japan, China’s piecemeal advance through contested territory represents perhaps its greatest defense challenge since the end of World War II. Although several Asian nations have tried to curb China’s expansionist ambitions, some experts feel Japan is best-equipped for the task: led by a hawkish prime minister, powered by a reviving economy and backed militarily by the United States. But despite ongoing upgrades to its aircraft and patrol boats and increased coordination with Washington, Japan has yet to find an answer for its increasingly powerful neighbor. Officials here say China continues to push boundaries, sending fighter jets closer to Japanese shores and last week declaring a new air defense identification zone over the East China Sea. None of China’s moves, by design, has been provocative enough to spark an armed skirmish. That partly explains why deterring China has been so vexing for others in the region. In the South China Sea, China has backed the Philippines away from several contested reefs and shoals by sending waves of increasingly powerful vessels to the area. Several Japanese officials and security experts say China is now duplicating that strategy in the East China Sea, but with more intensity because of the frequent use of aircraft. China is trying to “unilaterally alter the status quo by coercive measures,” Fumio Kishida, Japan’s foreign minister, said in a news conference Friday. Japan has asked the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization to examine whether China’s new zone threatens aviation in the area, its Foreign Ministry said Saturday. Japan’s move is part of its broader strategy of appealing for international support in dealing with China. Chinese officials portray their moves as responses to Japanese provocations, particularly Tokyo’s purchase in September 2012 of three contested islets from a private landowner. But Japanese officials say China’s ambitions at sea go back well before that date, and they point to a several-year trend of Chinese activity in the East China Sea. In 2004, Japanese scrambles against Chinese aircraft occurred roughly monthly, according to Ministry of Defense statistics.


Venus, Jupiter will beam brightly this month

will be 37.8 million miles away, or about 3.4 light-minutes from Earth. Throughout the month, you might notice that Venus, inching closer to the horizon, sets earlier in the western evening sky. Jupiter rises in the northeastern sky rises around 7 p.m. early in December, providing prime-time entertainment from the Gemini constellation. It is easy to find in the urban light pollution, since it appears at negative 2.6 magnitude (very bright). This fat, gaseous planet rises around 6 p.m. toward the latter portion of the month. Comet ISON Prospects for the comet’s survival are slight, as it reached perihelion — the closest approach to the sun — on Thursday. Images taken from the European Space Agency and NASA satellite SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) on Friday showed a bright comet emerging from the sun’s glare, giving astronomers pause and hope. With further emergence Saturday, the comet had dimmed substantially, an indication that it may have broken apart. Astronomers around the world will observe this object to provide confirmation of the comet’s viability in the coming days. If Comet ISON survived, sky gazers may find the reconfigured body near the horizon in the east-southeastern morning sky. You’ll need binoculars Tuesday morning, and should look for it to the right of Mercury. Later in the week, it may be found to the lower left of Saturn, according to previous estimates from Mike Lewis of the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club. * * * The waxing moon essentially will wash out most of the Geminid meteors on the peak night of Dec. 13-14. Lucky observers may see a few shooting stars late at night and in the morning hours. Our beautiful autumn folds into the Winter Solstice on Dec. 21 at 12:11 p.m. Eastern time, according to the Naval Observatory. It’s the official start to astronomical winter, and soon we will start to see more daylight. Down-to-Earth Events: “Season of Light” — A holiday planetarium program about the coldest, darkest season that holds the warmest, brightest celebrations. David M. Brown Planetarium, 1426 N. Quincy St., Arlington. Fridays and Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. Sundays, 1:30 and 3 p.m., now through Dec. 22. $3 adults, $2 for children, seniors. friendsoftheplanetarium.org ●Dec. 2 — ●Dec. 5 — ●Dec. 7 — ●Dec. 8 — ●Dec. 12 — ●Dec. 13-14 — ●Dec. 14 — ●Dec. 14 — ●Dec. 20 — ●Dec. 21 — Blaine Friedlander can be reached at postskywatch@gmail.com.


Biden to attempt damage control in visit with Chinese leader

which has increased military tensions with Japan. Even as he does so, however, Biden also intends to touch on other administration priorities, including Iran, North Korea, cybersecurity and intellectual property rights, aides said. He will sound notes of encouragement about China’s recent manifesto to pursue ambitious economic reforms, aimed at establishing international market-based competition among Chinese businesses and jolting that nation’s slowing economy. Biden’s visit is intended in part to build on a California summit last spring, when Obama and Xi agreed to seek a “new model of major power relations.” But the trip also will continue the relationship begun during Biden’s earlier visits with Xi, who was then China’s vice president. The first meeting came in August 2011, when Biden joined Xi in Beijing and traveled with him to Chengdu, away from the formalities of the capital city. “Some Americans make the mistake of throwing down draft agreements in their first meeting, and the typical Chinese response is, ‘Who are you?’ ” said TCW Managing Director David Loevinger, a former Treasury official for China affairs who attended some of the meetings with Biden and Xi. “Sometimes an agreement is worth little more than the paper it’s printed on. There’s really no substitute for developing personal relationships of trust at the highest levels.” Biden’s trip that year had been delayed for several days, as Obama and Congress barely staved off a potentially disastrous default on the U.S. debt. Xi, worried about continued slow growth in Europe and the United States, pressed Biden on U.S. Treasury bonds, of which the Chinese are the largest foreign shareholders. Biden responded by explaining that the United States has a system of dissenting political parties, resulting in sometimes messy negotiations with Congress, according to people with knowledge of the meeting. As is his wont, Biden strayed from the script at times in a bid to charm his hosts, such as when he recalled his stuttering problem as a child during a speech at a Sichuan University, surprising his aides but drawing a warm reaction from the English-speaking Chinese students. (He also got into political trouble with conservatives back home when he made an offhand remark that he would not second-guess China’s one-child policy.) The vice president “ad-libbed and improvised extensively,” recalled Kurt Campbell, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia who accompanied Biden on the trip. “This turned out to be highly


As deer encroach on Washington suburbs, attitudes about kills shift

out 20 during their first round. And with a goal of culling the herd below 100, more shooting is on the way. Drawn to the suburbs In Maryland, state officials have reduced the deer population over the past 10 years — from an estimated 300,000 to 225,000, according to Brian Eyler, deer project leader for the state’s Wildlife and Heritage Service. But the reductions have been in largely rural areas. The suburban deer population — those living between the District and Baltimore — has remained relatively steady, Eyler said. That’s presented a challenge for Montgomery, which like so much of American suburbia has become an ideal place for deer. The county boasts more than 34,000 acres of parkland, offering daytime sanctuaries largely unspoiled by predators. At dusk, deer can make their way into yards, munching on shrubs and gardens. A typical adult deer consumes six to eight pounds of plants a day, or 1 ¼ tons annually, which is roughly the weight of a Honda Civic. A current hot spot is Cabin John Regional Park, where 100 to 125 deer live — or about three times what the park can support. As a result, the deer extend their comings and goings into nearby neighborhoods. Tydings, who dodges deer in his vehicle, noted that he is one of nine board members of the Ridgeleigh Homeowners Association, which recently discussed the proposed sharpshooting operation. Nearly everyone seemed to think it was a good idea, Tydings said. For the sharpshooting operation, the county’s park staff would enlist officers from the Maryland-National Capital Park Police. “I’d also urge you to consider expanding it south of Democracy Blvd,” one proponent noted in a series of online public comments to the county. “My back yard offers a high elevation with a clear and safe shooting backdrop. If you’d ever like to use my back yard to cull the deer herd, please just give me a call.” A debate over damage National Park Service officials maintain that destruction of man-made habitats is not their only concern. Deer eat tons of vegetation from mouth level on down, cutting into the habitat of creatures such as songbirds, squirrels and salamanders, according to Nick Bartolomeo, chief of resources management at Rock Creek Park. “That understory is missing right now,” he said. But the Park Service’s conclusions — that deer are causing the damage and that the best solution was to


Panda cub at National Zoo now has a name: Bao Bao

The National Zoo marked the giant panda cub’s first 100 days of life by revealing the results of an online vote to name her. The giant panda cub was given the name Bao Bao, which means “precious” or “treasure.” The world’s most adorable captive animal finally has a name. At a National Zoo ceremony on Sunday, complete with lion dancers and Chinese snacks, Smithsonian officials and Chinese diplomats celebrated the giant panda cub’s first 100 days of life by revealing the results of an online vote to name her. The name of the cuddly obsession, certain to soon adorn numerous tchotchkes and stimulate the zoo’s gift shop economy, is — Chinese drum roll — Bao Bao. It means “precious” or “treasure” and is pronounced “bough BOUGH.” More than 123,000 votes came in from around the world, though that was well short of the 200,000 votes cast in 2005 to name Bao Bao’s brother, Tai Shan. Dignitaries unrolled scrolls to reveal the name in Chinese and English following dueling speeches from the U.S. and Chinese first ladies delivered via video. “Ni hao! And hello,” Michelle Obama said. She stressed the panda caretaking and research partnership between China and the United States, without noting that traditional diplomatic activities remain tense. “So today, we’re thrilled to welcome this little cub — a cub who exemplifies both the common bond between our nations and the brighter future of this magnificent species. That’s a lot for a little bear, but I think she’s up to it.” The National Zoo has revealed the name of its 100-day-old panda cub: Bao Bao. The name, which means treasure, or precious, was voted for by the general public. Peng Liyuan, China’s first lady, cradled a stuffed animal panda as she spoke. “Many people love baby pandas as they love their own children,” she said in her native language, according to a transcript, adding, “As ‘living fossils’ that are rare, cuddly, smart and brave, they have captured the heart of the Chinese, Americans, and indeed people all over the world.” Since Bao Bao’s birth Aug. 23, her daily life has been transmitted around the world — except during the government shutdown — through a popular panda cam, which is sponsored by the Ford Motor Co. Fund. Bao Bao can even be watched on the go via the zoo’s smartphone app, which sells for $1.99. Bao Bao spent much of Sunday


native language, according to a transcript, adding, “As ‘living fossils’ that are rare, cuddly, smart and brave, they have captured the heart of the Chinese, Americans, and indeed people all over the world.” Since Bao Bao’s birth Aug. 23, her daily life has been transmitted around the world — except during the government shutdown — through a popular panda cam, which is sponsored by the Ford Motor Co. Fund. Bao Bao can even be watched on the go via the zoo’s smartphone app, which sells for $1.99. Bao Bao spent much of Sunday morning lying on her side, appearing either asleep or bored. She occasionally wiggled her toes. But just before the speeches, as if on cue, a panda-cam monitor on stage showed Bao Bao’s mother, Mei Xiang, going in to cuddle with her. There were many oohs and aahs from the assembled important people in reserved seats and zoogoers crowded in behind them on an elevated platform. Later, Mei Xiang could be seen pushing her cub across the floor. Bao Bao, who now weighs 11.66 pounds, is taking baby steps toward walking but is still mostly a scooter. Her public debut is set for early next year. The winning name beat out Ling Hua (darling, delicate flower), Long Yun (Long equals a dragon symbol, Yun equals charming), Mulan (legendary young woman) and Zhen Bao (treasure, valuable). Just minutes before the announcement, distinct and boisterous name camps formed online. “Hey everyone at the zoo — just start chanting Bao Bao. Please?” wrote @tigerflight on Twitter. This opinion was not shared by @ashleyjtippie, who wrote, “If the name is Bao Bao I’ll be so done.” Panda obsessors who don’t like the final result, or the choices to begin with, can point fingers at the following name nominators: China’s ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai; Gary Locke, the U.S. ambassador to China, and his family; the panda’s keepers at the zoo; panda keepers at the cub’s future home in China ; and Friends of the National Zoo, who submitted the winning name. Christie Harper of Derwood, Md., watched the festivities from the platform. She wore a plush panda hat. She is a panda fan of serious dedication, having visited Tai Shan in China. When the scrolls dropped, Harper was really hoping to see “Ling Hua,” but she’ll live with the results. “I’m very excited,” she said, “to just have a cub.”


U.S. plan for new Libyan force faces obstacles

by Italy and Britain in those countries. The Italians plan to pay for the training themselves; Libya will foot the bill for the Americans and British. Lists of recruits are being compiled by the Libyan Defense Ministry, although “the pieces are still coming together” and no names have been provided to the United States, the U.S. defense official said. The lists will be turned over to the U.S. Africa Command for vetting. Officials said they will use U.S. intelligence and other resources to exclude anyone with a connection to al-Qaeda. U.S. officials said that Libyan groups such as Ansar al-Sharia, which U.S. intelligence has determined took part in last year’s attack on the U.S. diplomatic installation in Benghazi , should be easy to weed out. Others — including an Islamist militia that the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli once employed for protection of the Benghazi mission, as well as powerful groups with hard-line Islamist ideologies such as Mejberi’s Supreme Revolutionary Operations Room and others that do much of the policing in the capital — may also fail to make the cut. But “just because someone is in a militia doesn’t mean they can’t participate,” the U.S. defense official said. The official and others said that the United States was seeking vetted militia members and their commanders as fighters who can develop loyalties to the central government. Once“removed from their environment . . . to reform and reorient them,” the defense official said, the recruits will spend the first half of their training on military skills and the second half learning to operate as a unit. But according to militia leaders and activists in Libya, any large-scale exclusion of Islamists from the training program is more likely to spark a civil war than bring security. “How effective are these forces going to be? Are the Islamists going to take to them lightly? No, of course not,” said Jalal al-Gallal, an activist and former member of the rebels’ Transitional National Council during the 2011 revolution. The Bulgaria operation will not be the first U.S. training of Libyan security forces. In the summer, a handful of Special Forces troops set up a small training base outside Tripoli for a 100-strong elite Libyan unit. But the program was suspended two months ago after looters stole caches of weapons from the base in two overnight raids. Some suspect an inside job among the trainees, but a