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NEW ORLEANS — Whenever a Virginia Tech offensive coach is asked how the most prolific receiving duo in school history came to be, inevitably the first road game in 2008 against North Carolina comes up. Midway through the first quarter, Virginia Tech had to call two timeouts in a row because then-freshmen Jarrett Boykin and Danny Coale couldn’t seem to line up right, and “they had those big eyes out there looking around,” Kevin Sherman, their position coach, said recently. Now that Boykin and Coale have only Tuesday’s Sugar Bowl remaining before leaving Virginia Tech with every major school record for a wide receiver, they’ve taken a different stance. “I still don’t think that was on us. Macho [Harris] was in the game and he lined up wrong,” said Boykin, as Coale sat next to him nodding in agreement. Just add that to the list of slights these seniors have had to overcome. Boykin has been the team’s leading receiver the past three seasons, using hands that need size XXXL gloves and a knack for out-maneuvering opposing cornerbacks in the air to set a single-season school record for receptions this year (57). He will end his career with more catches (180) and yards (2,854) than any other Hokies receiver. Coale, an Episcopal High graduate, leads Virginia Tech with 785 receiving yards this year. He is right behind Boykin in the school record books and became the team’s starting punter by the end of this season. Coach Frank Beamer has frequently marveled how “Danny just always seems to be open.” And yet neither warranted even honorable mention all-ACC status this year, a snub that quarterback Logan Thomas said made him “extremely upset” and left Beamer wondering about the media members who participated in the voting. In retrospect, Boykin said he recognizes the lack of notoriety is partly due to Virginia Tech’s offensive philosophy. The Hokies have always been known for their rushing attack, and this year was no different. Running back David Wilson earned ACC player of the year honors during a year when Thomas set multiple records for a first-year quarterback. “There’s just some things that we were held back from being able to show,” Boykin said, “that we’re just as good as [South Carolina wide receiver] Alshon Jeffrey and [Oklahoma State wide receiver] Justin Blackmon. I feel like they’re great athletes, but at the same time we’re right up there with them. “It’s great playing wide receiver here because once we throw the ball, you have opportunities to get big chunks of yardage. What we can’t do is we’re not going to catch 100 balls for 1,500 yards and 22 touchdowns.” The other issue is that neither has the sort of attention-grabbing personality or pedigree associated with big-time wide receivers these days. Coale has graduated with a degree in finance and was named the ACC’s top scholar-athlete this year. He speaks in measured tones reminiscent of a CEO and has yet to join Facebook or Twitter. Boykin is so quiet around the team facility that Beamer said he sometimes doesn’t notice him until he’s making catches on the practice field or in games. Coming out of high school, Coale was barely recruited. Before showing up to a camp in Blacksburg one summer, his only scholarship offer was from VMI, where his father is the head of strength and conditioning. Coale still jokes that when he spent his redshirt year (2007) on the scout team, former Virginia Tech wide receivers and future NFL wideouts Eddie Royal, Andre Davis and Josh Morgan “must have thought I was a walk-on. I prefer to just fly under the radar.” But their accomplishments haven’t gone unnoticed now that the clock is ticking on their careers. Quarterbacks coach Mike O’Cain said Thomas’s comfort level during his record-setting first year under center is a direct reflection of Boykin and Coale. “Not only are they gonna run the right route with the right timing, you know they’re gonna catch the ball,” he said. Years of lining up together has also created a special bond between the two, and it played out before the ACC championship game this year. Boykin was supposed to deliver the pregame speech, but always reticent about public speaking, he was afraid he might stutter and not be taken seriously. He asked Coale to take his place. “I’ve been through his struggles, he’s been through mine,” Coale said. “He’s a guy that I know I can count on, whether it’s five years from now, I just know I can count on him and he’ll be there. I know when I look back, part of my Tech experience is going to be him.”

Set down your champagne and gaze west, as the bubbly planet **Venus** kicks off Sunday night’s first evening of the New Year. See this splendid planet about 23 degrees above southwestern horizon at sunset. You can’t miss this ultrabright beacon — about negative fourth magnitude — skimming over the treetops. By mid-January, Venus hangs 30 degrees above the horizon at sunset, and the planet sets about 8:10 p.m. On Jan. 24, a waxing young moon begins to ascend toward Venus in the western heavens. The lunar crescent sneaks closer to alluring Venus on Jan. 25, and by the evening of Jan. 26, the moon has passed by our neighbor planet. Like a 1950s teenager at a diner, **Jupiter** loiters in the east-southeast sky at dusk, in the Aries constellation. It’s a negative second magnitude (very bright) object. The waxing gibbous moon approaches this large planet Sunday and snuggles closer Monday evening. By Tuesday, the moon has passed Jupiter, but have no fear, we get an “instant replay” from Jan. 28-31. Bright enough to see from the light-polluted Washington area, **Mars** and **Saturn** , both zero magnitude objects, become the New Year’s late-night revelers. The reddish Mars rises just before midnight now in the east. A few hours later, at 1:30 a.m., the ringed Saturn ascends the east-southeast. By late January, both planets loiter in the Virgo constellation, as Mars will rise about 9 p.m. and Saturn appears just before midnight. Find fleet **Mercury** now before sunrise in the southeast, in the constellation **Ophiuchus** , hugging the horizon. With hot coffee, toast the Baby 2012 by viewing the **Quadrantids** meteor shower peak early Wednesday morning. The big, fat moon sets at 3:15 a.m., so very early risers could catch some falling stars between then and sunrise. The International Meteor Organization (www.imo.net) says the hourly rate could be 120, but, in all honesty, you’ll be lucky to spot a handful. If you spy them, they appear to emanate from the near the Big Dipper and Little Dipper constellations in the northeast. You might see a few errant Quadrantids up to Jan. 12, according to the IMO. Jan. 5 — “How Do Astronomers Know How Big Asteroids Are?” a lecture by astronomer Melissa Hayes-Gehrke, at the open house, University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. Weather permitting, see the night sky through telescopes after the lecture. 8 p.m., 301-405-6555. www.astro. umd.edu/ openhouse. Jan. 8 — “A Survey of Star Atlases,” presented by astronomer Cal Powell at the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club meeting, Room 80, Enterprise Hall, George Mason University, Fairfax. 7 p.m. www.novac.com. Jan. 14 — Guy Brandenburg explains “Making Your Own Telescope” at the National Capital Astronomers meeting, University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. 7:30 p.m. www.capital astronomers.org. Jan. 14 — Stargazing at the National Air and Space Museum’s Public Observatory, adjacent to the museum building. 6:45 p.m. National Air and Space Museum, National Mall. Free. www.nasm. si.edu. Jan. 20 — Anne Lohfink, an astronomer who researches the physics of compact cosmic objects and their surroundings, speaks at the open house, University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. View the heavens through telescopes after lecture, weather permitting. 8 p.m. 301-405-6555. www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse. Jan. 28 — Neither Bieber nor Bono compare to authentic stars: “How Are Stars Born?” at the Montgomery College Planetarium, Takoma Park. 7 p.m. www.montgomerycollege.edu/ departments/planet/. Jan. 28 — “Sand Dunes Throughout the Solar System,” a lecture by geologist Jim Zimbelman of the Smithsonian Center for Earth and Planetary Studies. This is part of the Smithsonian’s Stars Lecture Series. 5:45 p.m., Albert Einstein Planetarium, National Air and Space Museum, the Mall. After the presentation, stargazing at the museum’s public observatory (about 6:45 p.m.) www.nasm.si.edu _._

DES MOINES — Two days before the voting begins in the wildest Republican race anyone can remember, the GOP candidates for president were engaged in a frenzy of old-school retail politicking acutely aware that a poor finish in Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses would probably end some of their prospects. On Saturday evening, the Des Moines Register released a poll showing a highly volatile race, with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney holding a slight lead at 24 percent among likely caucus attendees and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) in second with 22 percent. But former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, showing a late burst of momentum that has brought him from the back of the pack to 15 percent, was poised to move into second place if he can continue gaining over the next two days. Meanwhile, three former front-runners were struggling to regain their footing, with former House speaker Newt Gingrich at 12 percent, Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 11 percent and Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) at 7 percent. Caucuses are notoriously difficult to predict, given the fact that they require voters to venture out on a winter night and spend an evening arguing politics with their neighbors, but the Register’s late poll has had a strong record of foreshadowing the results. In recent days, the candidates’ arguments have pitted voters’ pragmatism against their passions, with Romney representing the safe, establishment- approved pick and his rivals vying to be the conservative alternative. “This is a process not just of putting your name or your hand next to someone who you kind of like. It’s also selecting who our nominee ought to be, who you think could beat Barack Obama,” Romney told a crowd of hundreds Thursday afternoon as he stood on a chair in the faux “Music Man” set in Mason City. But on Saturday, as Santorum addressed about 50 people outside a library in Indianola, he insisted: “I understand they’re all saying who can win and cannot. Trust your own heart. Trust your head. Trust your gut. And vote for who you think is best.” Among the serious caucus contenders, only Paul was missing. He and his senator son, Rand Paul of Kentucky, will be back Monday to launch a five-county tour. Ron Paul has lately found himself at the top of polls, joining a procession of contenders — some credible, others less so — who have soared and fallen, often within a matter of weeks. Some have stumbled, spectacularly. Others have been pushed. Gingrich was hit by almost $3 million in negative advertising in Iowa from a Romney-aligned super PAC — an outside group barred from coordinating with his campaign. The volatility reflects Republicans’ fervor to pick their strongest nominee against a vulnerable president and the dissatisfaction and mistrust many conservatives, especially those who align with the tea party movement, feel toward Romney. Ralph Davey, 60, a retiree from Manly who came out to hear Gingrich speak at the local shopping mall last week, has been going back and forth over whether to support him or Romney. Romney “knows a lot about business, and he’d be able to create jobs. But he seems wishy-washy on issues. He seems to change with the circumstances,” Davey said. “I like his electability. He doesn’t have skeletons in the closet. Newt definitely does.” Paradoxically, the tumult in the field and the fragmentation of the electorate may have worked to Romney’s benefit, creating an opportunity for him to prevail in a state where he was trounced four years ago. It was once expected that Romney would put forth no more than a token effort in Iowa, where he blew $10 million on a distant second-place finish in 2008. But as it became clear that a strong showing — even a victory — might be possible, Romney has put in a heavy campaign schedule here in the final days. Iowa has a history of knocking establishment GOP candidates down a peg, so if Romney can avoid that jinx he would be well situated going forward. Romney is the overwhelming favorite in New Hampshire, which holds its primary Jan. 10. And it is questionable how strong a threat Paul or Santorum would be over the long run. On the other hand, if Gingrich or even Perry were to get a bump out of Iowa, they could potentially pick up momentum. Romney originally planned to spend more time over the weekend in New Hampshire. But he was drawing large and enthusiastic crowds here, and Romney’s aides scratched that plan so he could dart back to Iowa. He added two afternoon campaign stops in the heavily Republican northwestern corner of the state, where he performed well in 2008, and he has scheduled four large rallies Monday in the state’s population centers. This campaign season has also, again, proved that experience is an asset when it comes to running for president. It is probably not a coincidence that two of the candidates best positioned for Tuesday’s caucuses — Romney and Paul — are the ones who have been there before. “People like Ron Paul and Mitt Romney are benefiting from the fact that they had infrastructure from the past that they could build on,” said Steve Scheffler, president of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition. Many political veterans here expect turnout at the caucuses to top 2008’s record 118,000. But they worry that Iowa’s cherished, quirky process has begun to lose its intimate feel — and its influence. Iowans have seen far less of the candidates this year than they have in the past. The GOP contenders started their campaign operations here later and invested less of their time and resources. Instead of getting to know potential presidents in a leisurely fashion at their local diners and in church halls, Iowans are learning about the presidential field on television, just like the rest of America. That has contributed to voters’ uncertainty, Scheffler said. “The candidates haven’t been here, and their messages and their stands are similar,” he said. “You don’t have that one personality that sticks out from the others.” Adam Gregg, 28, a Des Moines lawyer, came to see Romney speak at an ice-cream parlor in Le Mars on Saturday. “Back in ’06 and ’07,” Gregg said, “you saw all the presidentials going to state legislative fundraisers. They were all over the Iowa circuit. That’s one of the starkest contrasts to me.” Santorum is one who has been doing things the old-fashioned way — more by necessity, because of his strapped finances, than by choice. Having made more than 250 appearances in the state over the past six months, “a guy like Santorum gave Iowans all across the state multiple opportunities to meet him and get to know him,” said Craig Robinson, a blogger who writes for the Web site the Iowa Republican. That patient, shoe-leather approach is paying off with an eleventh-hour surge in the polls for Santorum, who noted with some satisfaction that he has not had to spend the final days before the caucuses crisscrossing Iowa on frantic bus tours, as his rivals have. “Everybody’s sort of running around trying to get to all these counties. We’ve done all that,” he said during a leisurely interview Friday afternoon at his campaign headquarters in Urbandale. Later that evening, Santorum spent more than an hour at a sports bar, joining fans to watch Iowa State play Rutgers in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl. One significant difference from 2008 is the lack of political cohesion among evangelicals, whose mobilization was the key to former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee’s victory over Romney in 2008. This time around, however, there are at least four candidates competing for their votes. “No one candidate has brought all the values voters together,” Huckabee said in an interview. “And the splitting of that vote helps Romney.” The political climate may also diminish the influence of socially conservative voters here. “Economic issues are at the forefront now, even among conservatives, unlike they were four years ago,” said Tim Albrecht, who worked for Romney’s operation in 2008 but now is unaffiliated and is an aide to Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad. The Iowa caucuses have provided the first real test of the new world of outside money in presidential campaigns, unleashed by a Supreme Court decision last year. Spending by outside groups — technically independent of the campaigns but often run by some of the candidates’ closest allies — used to be virtually nonexistent in primary campaigns. This year, it has accounted for 43 percent of all spending on television ads. The tone of the ads in many cases has been far more negative than the candidates personally would dare to project when speaking about members of their own party. Almost none of the donors of that money have been revealed, and they probably won’t be until Jan. 31 — after the polls close in the Florida primary and after a nominee may already be chosen. The new rules have given a boost to candidates who already have a network of rich supporters — most notably Perry and Romney. This kind of support may soon be an unwritten requirement for a successful campaign. Gingrich initially believed that he could overcome the influence of negative advertising with a strong message and the kind of coverage he draws. “That’s the secret of the Gingrich campaign,” he said in an interview in late October. “The other guy gets to raise a lot of money to buy radio ads, and I get to do talk radio. It’s probably almost impossible to buy enough radio to offset what I can do with talk radio.” The most recent polls suggest that view may have been overly complacent. At one point Gingrich said, “I wouldn’t vote for the guy they are describing.”

Towel draped over his head and shoulders, staring at the ground as he mouthed lyrics to the music blaring from his headphones, John Wall appeared flustered, angry and distant as he sat in the visiting locker room at Bradley Center. Wall had his worst game of the season — and arguably one of the worst of his young career — as the Washington Wizards lost to the Milwaukee Bucks, 102-81, on Friday and dropped to 0-3. The statistics told one side of the story — six points on 1-of-9 shooting, with seven assists and four turnovers — and Wall’s body language told another, as he was unusually disengaged and disconnected, even as his teammates attempted a fourth-quarter rally to cut a 26-point deficit down to single digits. Afterward, Coach Flip Saunders expressed disappointment in the best player on his roster for failing to fight through a challenging night. “No matter how bad you’re playing, you don’t want someone to look at you and say, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ ” Saunders said. “The only thing you can be consistent about is how hard you play, and with passion and energy. John has a tendency to get down on himself when he’s not making plays. We got down big. He got down. We’ve got to work as a team. He’s got to work on it too. As a leader, everyone is looking for him.” Wall often had trouble containing his emotions through adversity as a rookie, but his frustration with a ragged start to this season was encapsulated by a sequence with about five minutes left in the fourth quarter against the Bucks. Milwaukee called a timeout after reserve Beno Udrih made a layup and Wall glared at the hardwood, ignoring and leaving Ronny Turiaf, Hamady Ndiaye, trainer Koichi Sato, JaVale McGee and Kevin Seraphin stunned as they attempted to give him high-fives. Wall was hoping that this would be a breakout season for him, but he has gotten off to a thorny start, struggling to find a way to balance being a facilitator and a scorer and not doing particularly well at either one. He’s averaging just 13 points, six assists and 4.7 turnovers but also is shooting just 27 percent from the field. “I’m not really worried about myself getting going, I’m just trying to run the team as much as everybody wants me to do. That’s all I’m trying to do,” Wall said. “Everybody trying to say I’m trying to look for scoring, but I’m just trying to take open shots that I got. I know teams know what I want to do, they making it tough for me. I just got to make shots and trust that my teammates will make shots when they get open and when I find them.” The Wizards haven’t been able to support that trust, as they rank 29th in the league in field goal shooting (38.6 percent), making it hard for a player to get assists. Andray Blatche is admittedly “in a funk,” averaging just eight points on 11-of-41 shooting (26.8 percent) this season. In the past two games, Washington’s starting shooting guards — Jordan Crawford in Atlanta and Nick Young in Milwaukee — shot a combined 1 for 16. Wall begged Saunders to take out one of the starters as the Wizards got off to a slow start in Atlanta, then grew tired of playing setup man and scored eight consecutive points for the team. He has been a team captain since his first NBA practice and the Wizards respond to his demeanor, whether good or bad. But he is already growing impatient with the losses, especially with the team blowing a 21-point lead in an opening loss to New Jersey, getting routed in a wire-to-wire loss in Atlanta and failing to file the correct roster in another blowout loss in Milwaukee. In their past 127 minutes, the Wizards have been outscored by 66 points, and the schedule doesn’t get any lighter with a home- and-home, back-to-back set against Boston starting on Sunday at 6 p.m. at Verizon Center, followed by Orlando on the road and New York at home. “It’s getting tough,” Wall said. “We’ve just got to find a way to win. You don’t want to start the season 0-10 or 0-6 or nothing like that, so you got to find a way to win one of these games.” Saunders and assistant Randy Wittman spoke to the players after the loss in Milwaukee and veterans Maurice Evans and Rashard Lewis continued the conversation in a mini-players-only meeting afterward. “We got on each other,” Young said. “You don’t want to get used to losing, but we’ve got to stick together. You can’t have somebody mad every night. That don’t help the team. We’ve got to come together as a family. This is really all we’ve got in here.” Saunders said the team has to figure out something soon. “We don’t have a lot of time. We’re not going to say, ‘We’re going to get this figured out in practice.’ We can’t,” Saunders said. “Bottom line is, we’ve got to put people on the floor that are going to compete and play hard. If that happens to be that some of our most talented guys, they’re not the ones to do it, then they are not going to be able to play.”

A developer who stands to gain millions by building headquarters for the state Department of Housing and Community Development in Prince George’s County owes Maryland more than $124,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest, according to state records. The Maryland comptroller’s office has filed several tax liens over the past seven years against Carl S. Williams for failing to pay state withholding taxes for employees at one of his companies. As of Dec. 28, the bill remained unpaid, state officials said. ****The liens stem from nonpayment of withholding taxes for King’s Kids Child Development, a division of a company where Williams was in charge. “When the corporate entity does not pay, we can go after the managing member,” said Sharonne Bonardi, the director of the compliance division within the comptroller’s office. “That’s why he was assessed personally for the tax debt.” Barb Clapp, a spokeswoman for the developer, said Williams filed an appeal over the back taxes Sept. 14, which the state confirmed this week. On Sept. 19, the state announced that it had selected him to develop the new headquarters near the New Carrollton transit hub. Williams is a principal of Grand Central Development, and he hopes to lead a team that will build the New Carrollton mixed-use development. The project, known as Metroview, would house the first state agency with headquarters in Prince George’s. ************Clapp said Williams took over as executive director of St. Paul Development Corp., a nonprofit group that builds affordable housing in Prince George’s and owns the day-care center, in 2006. Some of the company’s tax troubles predate his appointment as executive director, she said. Clapp also said some payments were applied to taxes owed by St. Paul Development. “He didn’t know about some of it,” Clapp said. “When he learned, he filed an appeal.” This week, state officials said the balance includes $67,329.26 in taxes, $46,897.781 in interest and penalties of $9,895.60. The state would not provide a breakdown of when the taxes were incurred. ****But the outstanding bill is just one of the financial problems that companies headed by Williams have faced. The charter of the Carl Williams Group, a development company founded in 2005 in Prince George’s, was revoked by the State Department of Assessments and Taxation two years ago for failing to file a 2008 property tax return with the state. Clapp said the company did not file a property tax return with the state because it did not own any personal property. As a result, the company’s charter was revoked. Clapp said the Carl Williams Group is no longer doing business. The Woodviews at St. Paul Limited Partnership — a division of St. Paul Development, which Williams heads — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008. Williams’s spokeswoman added that he is not personally liable for the bankruptcy of Woodview. The company ran into trouble with county officials, she said. “We got caught in the pay-to-play game of Jack Johnson, and our necessary county approvals were not approved because we would not pay,” Clapp said. And the Carl Williams Group was sued by UrbanAmerica, a real estate investment company, over the alleged nonpayment of a loan. Last year, the trial court entered a judgment against the Carl Williams Group for $9 million. Clapp said the loan at issue in the lawsuit stems from a $100 million project in the county that was never built. The Carl Williams Group is appealing, and UrbanAmerica, which sued Williams personally but lost, has also filed an appeal. Clapp said Williams has shepherded many projects in the county, including the Jericho City senior living project in Landover and the St. Paul Retirement Community at Addison in Capitol Heights. But, she said, many of the financial problems of his companies can be blamed on a sluggish real estate market and the play-to-pay culture in Prince George’s. Metroview, a mixed-use project that still needs financing, would be Williams’s largest project. As part of a push to promote transit-oriented development, Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) announced last year the intention to move the housing agency from Anne Arundel County to a site near a Metro station in Prince George’s. O’Malley announced the selection of Grand Central Development and the location with much fanfare during a news conference in front of the New Carrollton Metro station in September. The state Board of Public Works still has to decide whether Grand Central Development should be awarded the 15-year, $40 million lease for the agency’s move to New Carrollton. ****According to state officials, the panel was supposed to consider the project before the end of the year, but the lease never made it onto the board’s agenda. Grand Central was one of 16 bidders for the project. Michael A. Gaines Sr., the assistant secretary of real estate for the Department of General Services, who has handled the requests for proposals for the relocation, did not return repeated calls to his office. Williams, a developer and executive director of St. Paul Development, spoke briefly about the DHCD development’s prime location, just 12 minutes by rail from the Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport, and his plans to build 442 apartment units, 22 percent of which will be affordable housing. Williams will be joined by Tim Munshell of Montgomery County in developing Metroview, which includes 30,000 square feet of retail space, four floors of office space for DHCD and office space for the city of New Carrollton. The pair is also working on another multimillion-dollar, mixed-use project in Baltimore County. Munshell did not return a phone call or a message left with his company spokesman. The announcement of the development selection for DHCD came before Grand Central Development underwent a tax clearance review by the comptroller’s office. The compliance division within the comptroller’s office was unaware of the liens filed against Williams until they were brought to its attention by The Washington Post on Dec. 20. Bonardi, the director of that division, said her office searched for days and could not find any liens placed against Williams or any delinquencies against the Carl Williams Group. Joseph Shapiro, a spokesman for the office, was adamant that no liens were placed against Williams by the comptroller’s office. It was not until documents from the Prince George’s Circuit Court were provided to the state by The Washington Post that officials located the liens. Bonardi said there was a “disconnect” because the liens were under the federal identification number of the King’s Kids Development Center and Williams’s Social Security number. Sylvia Brokos, the manager of business tax collections within the comptroller’s office, said Williams’s back taxes would not necessarily disqualify him from a contract. She said all companies seeking state contracts must pass a tax clearance process that includes a search for back taxes and a review to make sure the company’s charter is in good standing. In Williams’s case, only Grand Central Development, which was formed in November 2010, would go through that process. “We do not look beyond that to the principal, not unless they are the sole proprietor,” Brokos said.

In this remote, sun-blasted corner of southern Yemen, there’s a battle raging that is as important to the United States as it is to this nation’s beleaguered government. Each day, American-backed Yemeni forces engage in a grueling struggle to retake territory from militant Islamists — a conventional army pitted against a guerrilla militia with grand ambitions to stage an attack on U.S. soil. Each day, the soldiers feel increasingly besieged. “We are like an island in a sea of al-Qaeda,” said Lt. Abdul Mohamed Saleh, standing at a checkpoint on a desolate highway that connects Zinjibar with the port city of Aden. “We are surrounded from every direction.” The battle is but one in a broader struggle that has upended Yemen over the past year and left the country badly fragmented. With pro-democracy demonstrators now in the 11th month of a populist uprising that has forced President Ali Abdullah Saleh to agree to step down, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and its sympathizers have taken full advantage of the turbulence. In May, they overran large swaths of Abyan province, including this regional capital. Today, they rule over significant territory in this strategic region, near important oil shipping lanes. The al-Qaeda affiliate has already targeted the United States several times, including sending parcel bombs on flights into the country last year. Its stated goal is to create an Islamic emirate in Yemen, which American officials fear could be used as a base to plan more attacks against the United States. That base may already be taking shape. A rare recent visit to Zinjibar, the first by a Western journalist since the Islamist fighters swept into the city, revealed just how entrenched the militants have become here. At the gate of the only military base left in this ghostly city, Ali al-Katib peered up and down the deserted road. Clutching a walkie-talkie and a Kalashnikov rifle, the Yemeni soldier looked as haggard as the battered landscape. “They’ve attacked us three times already today,” Katib said, his emotions rising. Saleh’s government has a mixed record of combating extremist groups. He is a nominal U.S. ally who has pledged to defeat al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. But critics say his government is primarily responsible for the instability that has allowed the group and other militant organizations to thrive. Although the pro-democracy demonstrators have no sympathy for AQAP, the group is one of several regional forces that have seized on the chaos of the uprising to grab territory and power. Many fear that Yemen could face years of turmoil before a system emerges to unify the country. In the north, Shiite Houthi rebels control three provinces. In the south, secessionist voices are growing louder. And in the divided capital, Sanaa, armed tribesmen and defected military units control entire neighborhoods, driven by fears that Saleh plans to hang on to power. His family and loyalists remain in control of the security forces and hold key government positions. With Saleh’s government in disarray, the United States has stepped up operations against AQAP, using drone strikes to kill several of the group’s top officials, including Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical Yemeni-American cleric implicated in helping to motivate several attacks in the United States. But such a strategy has its limits in Zinjibar. Less than a mile from the highway stands Zinjibar’s main soccer stadium. Outside, a half-built apartment complex is riddled with holes from mortar shells. On a rooftop, soldiers peer from behind sandbags. Two tanks stand nearby. Inside the stadium, walls have crumbled from shelling; the artificial grass is littered with debris and bullets. The Islamists emerged in March, taking over the town of Jaar and nearby areas. By the end of May, they had entered Zinjibar. They seized government buildings and looted banks and military depots. Most troops, police officers and local officials fled Zinjibar, an ancient city that was once a major trading center with the Far East. Tens of thousands of residents fled as well, triggering a humanitarian crisis. According to Yemeni military commanders and residents, the militants number only 700 to 1,000, and include fighters from Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria. Some wear long hair and thick beards. They call themselves Ansar al-Sharia, or supporters of Sharia — Islamic law. AQAP leaders said this year that they were operating under that name. The ease of their takeover prompted Saleh’s critics to accuse him of purposely losing territory to convince the United States and Yemen’s neighbors that chaos would ensue if he were to step down. Opposition figures describe al-Qaeda’s presence in Abyan as exaggerated, a diversion by Saleh to remain in power. But the soldiers of Brigade 25, who live inside the military base, have no doubts about their enemy’s identity. The only government forces who did not flee, they have been pummeled almost daily by mortars, rockets and snipers. Wadhan Ali Said, a slim 20-year-old soldier, bears the scars of a sniper’s bullet in his back. He said he and his fellow troops lived on rice and well water for more than two months before U.S. planes dropped parcels of food into the base in September. On one day, the militants killed 10 soldiers inside the base, he said. Later in September, after reinforcements arrived, the soldiers managed to lift the siege. But the militants have kept up the pressure, moving in highly organized cells. They use loudspeakers outside the base in a psychological assault on the soldiers. “They say they are the followers of Osama bin Laden,” Said said. “They give us lectures on Islam. Then, they tell us they will enter the base tonight.” Yemeni security forces have unleashed an intensive campaign of aerial bombings and shelling in southern Yemen. They have sent large numbers of reinforcements, including some U.S.-trained counterterrorism units. Yet the Islamist fighters control more than half of this city, including its center. They dominate other parts of Abyan as well as neighboring Shabwa province, where they have imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Al-Qaeda cells are also increasingly active in Aden, staging assassination attempts and suicide attacks. Gen. Muhammad al-Somli, the commander of Brigade 25, said the United States has been assisting with intelligence. But his soldiers lack night-vision goggles, sniper rifles and other military equipment to adequately fight the Islamists. The U.S.-trained counter-terrorism units were too small in number, he said. And his soldiers, he added, are not adequately trained to combat a guerrilla force. He also acknowledged that the government has lost much of its control over southern Yemen to the Islamists. “They are already acting like they are rulers of a state,” Somli said. The streets of Zinjibar are eerily quiet. Houses are abandoned, shops and gas stations closed. There’s no electricity. The landscape is silent, a wasteland littered with bullets and graves. Not a single resident was seen in more than four hours spent inside government-controlled areas of the city. Most of the city’s inhabitants are 35 miles away, in Aden. They traveled with only the possessions they could carry. They have sought refuge there in dozens of schools, turning classrooms into makeshift homes. But even Aden may not be safe. “If we don’t manage to stop them, their next target will be Aden,” warned Brig. Awad al-Qatabi, the head of Yemeni National Security in the city. Those who fled Abyan brought with them disturbing stories about life under the Islamists that are reminiscent of Taliban rule in Afghanistan. Drinking alcohol is punishable by death. Praying is mandatory and monitored closely by the militants. Television is banned, as is any contact with Westerners. “Anyone who supports Saleh is considered an agent of America and the West,” said Salah Nasser Nashir, 34, a farmer, who fled in July. He was more afraid of the indiscriminate bombings by security forces than he was of al-Qaeda, echoing comments by others who fled Zinjibar. “We fled not because of al-Qaeda, but because the government was shelling us,” he said. Still others, though, fled the wrath of the Islamist militants. Maher Ali, 17, said he was caught two months ago stealing electric cables from a store. He explained to his jihadist captors that he was unemployed and hungry and that he needed money for food. They took him to a clearing. A man carried a bag of knives. They blindfolded Ali. A voice asked him which hand would he like to have cut off. Ali pleaded for mercy. “This is Allah’s law,” he heard the voice say, before the knife came down on his left wrist. **More world news coverage:** Russia arrests New Year’s protesters Maliki marks end of U.S.-Iraq pact In Egypt, an act of courage that launched a revolution Read more headlines from around the world

Early last week, a postcard advertising a rally for Mitt Romney arrived at the home of Pam Arnold Powers and her husband, Kelly. As undecided voters, the couple had grown accustomed to such invites. They regularly received mail from Rick Perry and Ron Paul, and Romney himself called several times a week, clogging up their voice mail with automated messages that began “Pamela, this is Mitt.” “They use our names!” said Ms. Powers, a gregarious 47 year old who, likewise, considers herself on a first-name basis with Mitt, Newt, Rick and the other Republican hopefuls. The Powerses started concentrating on the Iowa caucuses about a month ago, spending $200 on tickets to a Dec. 10 debate. They have spent days and weeks warming and cooling to candidates. They are trying to recapture the electricity they felt four years ago when Michelle Obama took Ms. Powers’s arm in front of the pork tent at the Iowa State Fair, the first step in their journey off the Republican rolls and into the fold of Obama voters. Now, political disappointment and personal progression have led them back to the GOP, but the Powerses are scrambling to find someone who possesses the attributes on their checklist — electability, passion, depth and strong moral values. Like the vast ranks of their ambivalent brethren who will determine the winner of the Iowa caucuses and possibly the Republican nominee, the Powerses are still having a tough time. “I’ve got to figure it out by Tuesday,” Ms. Powers said. At 7:10 a.m. Friday, Mr. Powers, a 50-year-old mortgage banker in tapered-temple glasses, arrived for the Romney rally outside a local supermarket in a red golf sweatshirt. His wife, who also thought the event would be held indoors, arrived soon after in a yellow sweater, black vest and paisley-printed slacks. Romney staff members offered them signs to hold. They declined, instead keeping their hands warm in their pockets. Romney’s bus arrived in an area of the parking lot marked off by upended shopping carts. The Powerses cheered as the candidate, his wife and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took turns testifying to Mitt Romney’s love of America. As Romney thanked people for coming, Ms. Powers found herself deep in conversation with another undecided voter at the foot of the stage. They talked about Romney’s trouble connecting, Perry’s trouble speaking, Paul’s radicalism, Michele Bachmann’s inexperience and Rick Santorum’s fervor. The Powerses thawed for a few minutes in the supermarket and then drove their beige Saab downtown to give Newt Gingrich, who they had all but written off, a last look at a “Moms Matter Coffee Break” event. The couple found seats in the back of the small room decorated with Elvis album covers. On stage, GOP pollster Frank Luntz warmed up the audience by showing off his stars-and-stripes sneakers (“especially made for me by K-Swiss”) and asking undecided voters to raise their hands. The Powerses, like most in the room, lifted their arms. Moments later, Gingrich took the stage. As he spoke about how “in a different world it would have been great not to have been divorced,” Ms. Powers slowed the chewing of her gum. She nodded approvingly as Gingrich talked about how “rights come from our creator.” When Gingrich made the case that he is more electable than Romney (“I’m a more effective debater”) and decried the millions of dollars spent on negative ads to run his name through the mud, Mr. Powers momentarily stopped checking the photos on his phone to listen. At the end of the event, Gingrich choked up as he spoke about his mother’s death and the impact “the real problems of real people in my family” had on his policy thinking. Ms. Powers thoughts turned to her own mother, who had died on Christmas Eve 2009, after a battle with cancer. The ordeal, she said, strengthened her Catholic faith, which in turn led her to seek a Republican candidate who shares her moral values. When Gingrich finished speaking, his cheeks shining with tears, she clapped wildly. “People are going to go nuts on the crying, but that was as real as anything you can see,” she said as she left the coffee shop. “I thought Newt was off my ballot. But Mitt doesn’t make that connection.” The couple fueled up on moo shoo pork slices at Fong’s Pizza and talked about Santorum as a “a victorious underdog” and Romney as a “last man standing.” Mr. Powers lamented the “bombardment” of anti-Gingrich television ads from Romney-supporting super PACs. “It has influenced us,” he said unhappily. His wife excused Romney of any blame for the ads and then spotted one of Gingrich’s daughters walking into the restaurant. “You picked a great place!” she called out to her. Hearing no response, she turned back to the fortune cookies on the table. “Ooooh look!” she said, reading the fortune: “Linger over dinner discussions this week for needed advice.” The couple stopped home to check voice mails (Dan Quayle called on behalf of Romney, Romney called on behalf of Romney) and changed into warmer clothes for the drive out to Marshalltown to see Santorum. As their car slid by acres of crushed pale cornstalk, Ms. Powers rebuked her husband for failing to photograph her “arm-in-arm with Mitt today” and to be ready with the camera “when Rick comes.” Each booth at the Legends American Grill had its own flat-panel television tuned to the Iowa State football game. In a space off the dining room, a small group of potential voters, outnumbered by the national media, sat waiting for the candidate. The Powerses squeezed into the back and craned their necks to see Santorum’s entrance. He wore an Iowa State sweater-vest and spoke under muted TVs tuned to C-SPAN, which showed him speaking, on a seven-second delay, to the voters in the room. Ms. Powers clapped vigorously as Santorum talked about “the crossroads of American civilization” and asserted that “I know life begins at conception.” As the event plodded on, her husband grew less interested, preferring to text friends as Santorum responded to short questions with long answers. After he spoke for an hour, audible sighs emanated from reporters in the room and a waitress adjusted the thermostat, which read 83 degrees. Santorum, standing before a lighted fireplace, kept talking and, at the one-hour 22-minute mark, he took the last question of the evening. “How will you conserve your integrity when you’re operating in the Washington machine?” Ms. Powers asked from the back. She maintained eye contact with Santorum throughout his lengthy answer. When the event broke up, she stepped into the dining room with a broad smile across her face. “Done!” she exclaimed, her face flush from the heat. “I know who I’m caucusing for. No one talks like that.” Her husband, less impressed, shrugged. On the drive back to Des Moines, night blotted out the barren fields, and the couple debated Santorum’s performance. “His answers are too long,” said Mr. Powers. “That’s _the beauty_ of Rick Santorum,” his wife countered. They talked about his answer on Iran. “He said we’re going to blow ’em up,” said Mr. Powers. “I didn’t hear that at all,” Ms. Powers said. They compared his substantive answers to Romney’s patriotic “pep rally,” but then Ms. Powers suggested she hadn’t decided after all. “It would be interesting, at the very least,” Ms. Powers said, “to go see Mitt in that kind of venue.”

The District and Prince George’s County had nearly the same number of homicides in 2011, a major departure from a high 20 years ago, when the city saw 325 more slayings than the county. It is a shift that reflects a double-digit drop in killings in the District from 2010 to 2011, with an especially noticeable downward trend in the most stubborn crime zones east of the Anacostia River. Just across the border, though, the homicide count in the neighboring communities in Prince George’s is surging, and the county as a whole saw a slight increase last year. There were 97 slayings in Prince George’s in 2011, four more killings than in 2010. In the District, the year saw 108 homicides, down from 132 in 2010 and the lowest homicide total in the city since 1963. “We share many of the same issues,” said D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier. “Quite a few of our victims come from Prince George’s County.” The police department’s 7th District east of the Anacostia River — neighborhoods including Barry Farm and Congress Heights — saw its annual homicide count drop 55 percent, with 24 fewer killings in 2011. Neighborhoods across the border in Prince George’s 4th District — including Hillcrest Heights and Oxon Hill-Glassmanor — saw their count more than double, up by 21 slayings. Law enforcement officials said the trend along the Prince George’s border reflects problems that migrated with those who left the District for inside-the-Beltway county neighborhoods, including issues connected with poverty and long-simmering neighborhood disputes. Some D.C. residents who still see frequent violence in their neighborhoods are weary, and say there’s not much to celebrate in the city’s declining homicide numbers. “I’m slow to get too excited,” said the Rev. Donald Isaac, executive director of the East of the River Clergy, Police, Community Partnership. “As soon as you begin to celebrate, it can reverse so quickly.” Prince George’s Police Chief Mark Magaw said crime has long run “back and forth” between the District and Prince George’s, and he has pushed this year for increased cooperation between the two police departments. “It’s one big community now,” he said. “No longer do we have the luxury of saying, ‘We only have to worry up to Southern Avenue,’ ” one of the borders between the city and county. Though killings in both the District and Prince George’s averaged about two per week during 2011, overall violent crime in the city fell by 10 percent and in the county by 12 percent. But the city had a 6 percent jump in property crime, largely due to a growing problem with thieves grabbing smartphones, computer tablets and other electronic devices from people and cars. “Snatching electronics is the battle of the century,” Lanier said. “It’s the single biggest problem I have in term of numbers.” Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) said that the decline in homicides in the District is encouraging and that the city should work to try to get to fewer than 100 slayings in 2012. “When people see crime going down like this, especially homicides, they are going to feel safer,” Gray said. “My sense is that people do feel safer. On the other hand, when you still see north of 100 homicides in the city, even though it’s a stark reduction, people are going to continue to be concerned about it. Some additional vigilance is going to serve you well, too.” Killings in the District have fallen rapidly in recent years, with 2011 bringing the lowest number of slayings in nearly 50 years. “When I started here in 1990, the two things that used to really bother me was that we were known as the murder capital of the world and the city of unsolved homicides,” Lanier said. “Our detectives and our police officers have done an amazing job turning that around. We are no longer either one of those things.” Homicides in Prince George’s have been generally trending downward as well, though at a slower pace. The rest of the region’s suburbs have far fewer homicides than the District and Prince George’s, with most counties recording 2011 homicide numbers roughly unchanged from the prior year. Fairfax County was an exception, with a decrease from 16 to 11. Though Montgomery County had just 16 homicides in 2011, in March it saw one of the year’s highest-profile murders in the region when Brittany Norwood, an employee at a Bethesda Lululemon yoga store, fatally bludgeoned and stabbed a co-worker, Jayna Murray. And in the wealthier neighborhoods of Northwest Washington, where homicides are rare, three killings drew wide attention: a teen was shot on a busy street in Georgetown on Halloween night; socialite Viola Drath was killed in her Georgetown rowhouse in August, allegedly by her husband; and in November, a man was gunned down outside a nightclub in Dupont Circle. The Northeast quadrant of the city, covered by the 4th and 5th districts, ended the year with a combined eight more killings than in 2010. Area crime watchers say they’ve seen violence steadily shift from the District into Prince George’s. The migration of many of the District’s poorer residents to inside-the-Beltway communities in Prince George’s has been happening for years, fueled by the District tearing down some public housing, said former D.C. police chief Isaac Fulwood Jr., who led the department in the early 1990s, when the city had nearly 500 homicides a year. That shift has had lasting effects, he said. “People from D.C. that had to move tended to move to Prince George’s County, and they took with them the things that poverty brings: Lack of access to everything,” said Fulwood, who is now chairman of the U.S. Parole Commission. The Prince George’s police department, which has more than 2,000 fewer officers than in the District, was left to deal with neighborhood disputes that people brought with them, as well as new beefs created in the large apartment complexes in Prince George’s. “Alabama Avenue, Stanton Road subsidized housing, all of that is gone,” Prince George’s Deputy Chief Craig Howard said. “Now when you ride through those areas, there are townhouses, single-family homes.” Last year’s killings in Prince George’s did not seem to follow any common thread, officials said. Young men and women sometimes killed one another in petty disputes. The majority of the killings in Prince George’s happen inside the Beltway, a more urban setting than the rest of the county. Because Prince George’s has a larger overall population than the District, its homicide rate was lower than the city’s, with about 11 killings per 100,000 residents, compared with about 17 per 100,000 residents in the District. Across the nation during the first half of last year, the homicide count increased by about 1 percent for cities the size of the District, and remained the same for counties such as Prince George’s, according to FBI crime statistics. Lanier, who hoped to have fewer than 100 homicides in the District in 2011, said she remains frustrated by the numbers. “We’re not where we need to be until we have less than 50,” she said. The Washington Post’s homicide count includes criminal killings within the borders of the city or the county, but does not include killings that officials have ruled justified. Prince George’s homicide numbers last year included one killing investigated by Laurel police and one on the Bowie State University campus. Lanier said the District had fewer gang-related homicides than in prior years. Most killings happened amid personal disputes, often stemming from squabbles at nightclubs where people had been drinking, she said. She added that her department’s homicide closure rate is about 94 percent, which sends a message to criminals. “Word travels pretty quickly when a homicide happens and an arrest is made,” Lanier said. “Your risk of being caught is pretty high if you commit a homicide in D.C.” Prince George’s police’s homicide closure rate was 66 percent last year, a slight increase over 2010. In Prince George’s, 16 people were killed in January, including a teenager who used to cook eggs for his 3-year-old brother, an ice cream truck driver and a University of Maryland student who tutored athletes. But by year’s end, overall crime had dropped compared with 2010, with violent crime down about 12 percent and property crime down about 10 percent. Lanier’s biggest success was in the 7th District, which has regularly led the city in killings and some other crimes. In 1993, the 7th District alone had 133 homicides. Last year it had 20. “A lot of it is the officers being out there, being visible,” 7th District Commander Joel Maupin said. He said officers continue to take guns off the streets, and often blanket neighborhoods with extra patrols when they get a tip that violence might be coming. It is essential, he said, to make arrests in crimes such as robberies and burglaries because it prevents future violence. “Removing these individuals from the streets and doing it quickly reduces crime,” Maupin said. Isaac, the clergyman who works in the same neighborhoods as Maupin, said his group visits every family that loses someone to violence, offering burial support, grief counseling and other services. “Even if you have one homicide a month, it’s impacting out there,” Isaac said. Read more local news from The Washington Post: Robert McCartney: What will happen in 2012? In Va., an abundance of offbeat bills Metrobus employees: Tight schedules don’t allow for bathroom breaks Vincent Gray focuses on future after tough first year in office

Mike Shanahan will close his 28th season as a coach in the NFL on Sunday, when his Washington Redskins play what is essentially a meaningless game in Philadelphia. And though he has seen almost everything in pro football — he has been hired and fired, made and missed the playoffs, won and lost the Super Bowl — he has never faced the circumstances he does now. Whatever happens against the Eagles, Shanahan will have back-to-back losing campaigns for the first time in his 17 full seasons as a head coach. For the Redskins, who haven’t had consecutive _winning_ seasons since 1991-92, such is life. But for the man who was hired to overhaul the entire organization, this is new. “I couldn’t have handled it earlier in my career,” Shanahan said Friday, not long after the Redskins practiced for the final time this season. “You don’t know the big picture. You’re just trying to survive. Unless you’ve been with different programs or organizations that have been down or have been up, you can’t really relate to where you’re at now. I can relate to this.” Shanahan opened his Redskins tenure by going 6-10 in 2010. Win Sunday, and he only matches that record. Lose, and he has his worst record as a head coach. Jim Zorn — whose tenure running the Redskins was mocked from near and far — won 12 games in his two seasons with Washington. The Redskins must win Sunday for Shanahan to match that. Yet ask Shanahan to take stock as he winds down the second of two difficult seasons, and he is unwavering. “I feel very good about this football team and the direction we’re headed,” he said, “because we’ve got the right people.” Regardless of Sunday’s outcome, the Redskins will finish in last place in the NFC East for the fourth consecutive year. Yet Shanahan can sit behind his desk — tape of a practice session frozen on a television screen over one shoulder, the Redskins’ entire depth chart on the wall he faces — and emphatically restate his belief that the franchise he oversees will win, and soon. He does so, he said, because he can draw on all those experiences, good and bad. What others see? How others evaluate his team? It doesn’t matter to him. “He doesn’t let perception become reality,” said his son Kyle, the Redskins’ offensive coordinator. “He knows what he’s doing. All of us know what we’re doing, but the difference with him is, he’s so strong in his personality and he’s had so much success his whole career, he’s seen it all. He knows when things are done right, when things are done wrong. And he knows we’re doing it right.” There are, Mike Shanahan believes, several aspects to “doing it right,” many of which occur far from the practice field. For the past several weeks, he has begun many mornings by watching a half-hour of film on college quarterbacks, a different one each day, maybe 70 or 80 plays. It is a window into his world. The Redskins clearly are searching for a quarterback to eventually replace current starter Rex Grossman. And Shanahan will have the most significant role in selecting that player, be it through free agency or the college draft, this year or the next or the year after that. “The key is you have to keep the right people coming in through the draft, through free agency,” Shanahan said. “. . . You can’t make a lot of bad decisions. You’re going to make some, but if you do, admit it was a bad decision and move on.” That, essentially, is what has happened at quarterback in Shanahan’s two seasons in Washington. In 2010, he traded for Philadelphia’s Donovan McNabb, wasn’t pleased with the results, then traded him away after one season. He started Grossman when the 2011 season opened, benched him during a four- interception outing against the Eagles in October, and inserted John Beck. Beck led one touchdown drive and moved the ball in that fourth quarter despite playing without left tackle Trent Williams, left guard Kory Lichtensteiger and tight end Chris Cooley, all of whom were injured earlier in the game. Beck started the next three games — a decent performance at Carolina, a disastrous one against Buffalo in which he took 10 sacks, and a jittery follow-up against San Francisco when he got rid of the ball too quickly. All three were losses. Offensive players, quietly and not, expressed a preference for Grossman. A week later, Shanahan turned back to him. Entering Sunday’s game, Grossman is tied for the league lead with 19 interceptions. “You make [the decisions] based on what you see,” Shanahan said. “If John didn’t play the way he did for that quarter [against Philadelphia] — the drives, all that — then we wouldn’t have gone to him. . . . You want to do the best thing for your organization. Does John have a chance to be that No. 1 guy? We felt like we had a good feel for what Rex was and what he was doing. But losing those three starters, are you better off with a quarterback that’s a little more mobile? We didn’t know that.” The episode raised questions about Shanahan’s acumen as a talent evaluator, in no small part because he said, in a moment of bravado, that he would stake his reputation on Grossman and Beck. But even as the Redskins continue their search for stability and stardom at quarterback, Shanahan believes the structure for evaluating who will be next, at any position, is in place. Scott Campbell, the director of player personnel, oversees the college scouting process. Morocco Brown, the director of pro personnel, is heavily involved in evaluating potential free agents. Every position coach will have input on potential draftees and free agents. Shanahan said he does not feel the need to bring in another personnel man. “The thing that people think is that I’m sitting here doing all the evaluating,” he said. “. . . My main thing is I get everybody involved. That’s how you eliminate mistakes. I’ve got to feel comfortable. They’ve got to feel comfortable. I’ve been doing this thing a long time, and I’ve made my share of mistakes. You have to learn how to limit mistakes.” Beginning with last year’s draft and free agency, Shanahan believes the Redskins have limited theirs. Coaches believe the shift from a 4-3 defensive alignment to a 3-4 has gone well because they correctly evaluated free agent acquisitions Barry Cofield and Stephen Bowen and first-round draft pick Ryan Kerrigan. They also believe second-round pick Jarvis Jenkins, a defensive lineman who missed the entire season with a knee injury, will have a big impact in 2012, further strengthening a front seven that has helped the Redskins move from 31st in total defense a year ago to 13th this season. “You’re changing not just one guy; you’re changing all 11 guys,” defensive coordinator Jim Haslett said. “. . . You’re really starting it over from square one last year. And we made great progress, but we got to keep working at it. We got to keep getting better at it.” That, Shanahan believes, will happen — and soon. He can tick off the plays from 2011 that still knock around in his mind — a third-and-21 conversion that allowed Dallas to turn a win into a loss, a missed field goal in overtime of the second Dallas game, an offensive pass interference call that negated a game-tying touchdown against New England, five losses by one touchdown or less — and build his case that his last-place Redskins aren’t terribly far from first. “You win those games, we’re playing for something right now,” Shanahan said. “You’ve got to keep things in perspective.” How Shanahan does that, players and coaches say, does not change. Not from day to day. Not from week to week. And not from season to season, regardless of how difficult things become. “He works in every aspect of it a lot more than I realized, from personnel to defense to special teams to offense, but he doesn’t try to control everything,” Kyle Shanahan said. “He makes everyone accountable. . . . If the players mess up in the game, and we didn’t put them through that situation, it’s definitely not their fault. It’s on us all the way. He coaches his coaches hard, which makes us better coaches.” Eventually, though, that style must lead to wins. Right now, an offseason full of questions awaits: Who will be the quarterback? Who will be drafted? Is Mike Shanahan the right man to make the decisions? But for Shanahan, all that chatter amounts to so much white noise. Forget last place. Forget an 11-20 record. And most of all, forget the unrelenting analysis from the outside that goes along with it. “I’m impervious to it,” he said. “You have to be, because you have to have a plan. . . . What you have to have is belief in what you’re doing. And I do, because I’ve been doing it for a while.”

COLUMBUS, Ohio — As the Washington Capitals headed to their dressing room after 40 minutes of play on Saturday night, some players slammed their sticks in the tunnel while others threw their heads back and stared at the ceiling. It looked as though the team’s 2011 might end with a whimper against the worst team in the NHL. A furious third-period comeback instead launched Washington into 2012 with its first three-game winning streak since October. Three goals in the span of 2 minutes 53 seconds erased a two-goal deficit and fueled the Capitals to a 4-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. It marked just the third time this season that Washington has rallied to win a game after trailing entering the third period. The victory improved the Capitals to 5-2-1 in their past eight contests and gave them a much-needed two points to complete a run of three wins in four nights. Washington (20-15-2) holds 42 points but is sitting outside the Eastern Conference playoff picture in ninth place. “For a while here we were going win one, win two, lose a couple — we were going back and forth,” defenseman Dennis Wideman said. “We needed to string some together. The top teams are starting to pull away from us and we’re getting into that time of year where you need to crank it up and start running some wins together to try to get back up there were we need to be.” Columbus, which has just 10 wins in 38 games, outworked the Capitals through the first two periods and carried a two-goal advantage into the final period of regulation. No one in the visitors’ dressing room was pleased with the effort. But rather than accept a subpar fate, Washington opted to throw everything it had at the Blue Jackets. “We had nothing to lose,” Coach Dale Hunter said. “We were down 2-0, it’s an all-out blitz and the guys did a great job skating, playing hard, never quit, and it’s a credit to them.” Hunter wanted pressure from all areas, with defensemen pinching to help keep offensive play alive. Ovechkin began the onslaught when he recorded his first goal of the night 4:23 into the third. Though scored as unassisted, his one-timer from the left faceoff circle that broke Steve Mason’s shutout bid was set up by a slap pass from Wideman. The defenseman set up another tally when he found Alexander Semin, whose wicked wrister at 6:48 evened the score at 2 during four-on-four play while the Capitals’ Dmitry Orlov and Grant Clitsome of Columbus were in the penalty box for matching roughing minors. Twenty-eight seconds later Wideman added a goal of his own, his first in nine games. The blast of a slap shot, which also came during four-on-four play, deflected off a Blue Jacket’s stick to beat Mason (22 saves) and stood as the game-winner. Ovechkin added his second of the night and 16th of the season as insurance with just less than nine minutes remaining in regulation with a slap shot on the power play. The star left wing has seven goals in the past eight games. “Everybody was upset how we playing [in the first two periods]. I don’t think we play at all our game,” Ovechkin said. “So we just play hard and again this kind of win that we need and all the momentum on our side.” Until the final period, though, the contest was hardly under the Capitals’ control. The game featured choppy play with turnovers aplenty, an abundance of whistles and more than 34 minutes of scoreless action. Early in the game, the Blue Jackets showed a willingness to win battles for the puck in corners and along the boards, forcing the issue against Washington, which looked beleaguered in its second game in as many nights. As the first period wore on, Columbus (10-23-5) gained some momentum and in the final five minutes of the period peppered netminder Tomas Vokoun (35 saves) with shots from all angles and speeds. The veteran goaltender remained composed and helped Washington reach the intermission in a scoreless tie. In the second, what was already a slow-moving contest regressed to more of a crawl as whistles for offsides, high sticks, icings or shots off the netting occurred with stunning frequency. With the play continuing in spurts, the first goal grew in importance, and Columbus got it when a turnover by Jason Chimera turned into a goal by John Moore at 14:47 of the second. Samuel Pahlsson made it 2-0 with just 34.9 seconds remaining in the second, but that tally, which could have set Washington on its heels, galvanized the group into making sure it didn’t let the week of progress unravel in one night. “It’s a big win for us. Losing here would have erased the big effort against Buffalo and Rangers earlier this week,” Vokoun said. “We need these points. We’re not sitting in the second or first place where we can say, ‘Well we have a nice comfortable cushion.’ We’re actually outside the playoffs so we need every point we can get.” **Capitals note:** Mike Green missed a 23rd consecutive contest with a strained right groin muscle. He made the trip with the team, however, and took part in an optional on-ice workout Saturday.

The last day of a warm December was one of the month’s warmest. Washington’s high temperature Saturday was 62, just a degree short of the 63-degree top reading for the entire month. Saturday’s soaring mercury helped cement the month’s place as one of the most meteorologically benign Decembers here since National Weather Service recordkeeping began in 1871. As the last hours of December and 2011 faded, it appeared that the month’s average temperature could be as high as 45 degrees. That would be less than a degree below the 45.6 degree record, set in 1889 and not matched until 1984. In recent years, December warmth has seemed more frequent and less of a surprise. News reports from the days of Washington’s warmest December suggest a greater degree of wonder. A story in the Dec. 27, 1889 Washington Post asked whether the Gulf Stream had shifted position. (The answer: No.) A Dec. 16 report told of snow seen atop a train arriving from the Northeast, calling it “the first evidence that Washingtonians have yet had of the actual presence of winter.”

_Packers already clinched North and home-field,Lions and Falcons already clinched playoff spots_ **San Francisco 49ers:** _Already clinched West _ **Clinch first-round bye:** W _OR_ T and Saints T/L _OR_ Saints L **New Orleans Saints:** _Already clinched South_ **Clinch a first-round bye:** W and a 49ers T/L _OR_ T and 49ers L **New York Giants:** **Clinch East:** With a W/T against Cowboys. **Dallas Cowboys:** **Clinch East:** With a W against Giants **New England Patriots:** _Already clinched East, bye_ **Clinch home field **:** ** W _OR_ Ravens and Steelers L/T **Baltimore Ravens:** _Already clinched playoff spot_ **Clinch North:** W/T and Steelers T/L _OR_ Steelers L **Clinch home field:** W and Patriots L **Pittsburgh Steelers:** _Already clinched playoff spot_ **Clinch North:** W and Ravens T/L _OR_ T and Ravens L. **Clinch home field:** W and Patriots L, Ravens L/T **Denver Broncos:** **Clinch West:** W _OR_ T and Raiders T/L _OR_ Raiders L **Oakland Raiders:** **Clinch West:** W and Broncos T/L _OR_ T and Broncos L **Clinch playoff spot:** W and Bengals L and Titans L/T _OR_ W and Bengals L and Jets W **Cincinnati Bengals:** **Clinch playoff spot:** W/T _OR_ Jets T/L and Raiders T/L _OR_ Jets T/L and a Broncos T/L **New York Jets:** **Clinch playoff spot:** W and Bengals L, Titans T/L and Raiders T/L _OR_ W and Bengals L and Titans T/L and Broncos T/L **Tennessee Titans:** **Clinch playoff spot:** W and and Bengals L, Jets W and Raiders T/L _OR_ W and Bengals L, Jets W and Broncos T/L _OR_ W and Bengals L, Jets T/L, Raiders W and Broncos W

ATLANTA — The Virginia football team gained entry into the Chick-fil-a-A Bowl on Saturday night in large part because it spent the fall listening to all the things it hadn’t accomplished in a long time and then accomplishing those very things. Next item on the list: The Cavaliers had not concluded a season with a victory since 2005. But this was not a night for fitting endings. Depleted by injuries on defense and continuously flummoxed on special teams, Virginia did not possess enough offensive firepower to overcome a sizable hole. Despite totaling 435 total yards, the Cavaliers fell to Auburn, 43-24, at Georgia Dome and will have to resolve to finish next season on a higher note. “They played better than we did; they made more plays than we did,” Virginia Coach Mike London said of Auburn. “So my hat goes off to them, and we just regroup, get ready and remember this experience. Because this is something we want to do, play in the postseason and have a chance to play teams like that.” The final two minutes of the third quarter did a fine job of encapsulating the night. Auburn (8-5) had blocked a punt by Virginia (8-5) in the first quarter. So the Cavaliers tried a rugby-style punt out of their own end zone late in the third. The Tigers blocked that one, too, resulting in a safety. “The second one was on me because I got nervous after we got the first one blocked,” Virginia special teams coordinator Anthony Poindexter said. “You really can’t do what we tried to do down there. . . . That was kind of an overreaction to getting the first one blocked.” On the ensuing free kick, the Tigers returned the ball 62 yards to the Virginia 15-yard line. Two Auburn penalties turned an easy field goal attempt into a 45-yarder, but the Tigers converted anyway. In the weeks leading up to Saturday, relatively little of the public discussion centered on either squad’s special teams units, but that proved to be a critical facet of the game. Two plays after Auburn’s first blocked punt, quarterback Kiehl Frazier scored on a three-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 7. The Cavaliers began the second quarter by completing a 10-play, 73-yard drive with a six-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Michael Rocco to Kris Burd, his second scoring reception of the night. But as far as highlights go, that was about it for Virginia. Burd, a fifth-year senior who finished with six receptions for 103 yards, left the game early in the fourth quarter with what he later described as a collarbone injury. “I thought we were blocking great up front,” Virginia offensive coordinator Bill Lazor said. “We knew we’d get better as the game went on. We knew we’d be stronger as it went, but we just couldn’t put enough points on the board to go with it.” Meantime, the Virginia defense struggled increasingly as the game progressed. Defensive coordinator Jim Reid said that after Auburn’s first few offensive drives, “I thought we were going to shut ’em out.” However, missed tackles and over-pursuit — “things we hadn’t done all year,” Reid said — made the Virginia defense susceptible to giving up big plays. After holding Auburn to 37 yards in the first quarter, Virginia’s defense gave up plays of 22, 25, 28, 50 and 60 yards in the second quarter, during which the Tigers gained 237 total yards. That’s more yards than Auburn gained in losses to Georgia and Alabama this season. But the Cavaliers’ defense was not at full strength Saturday. First team all-ACC cornerback Chase Minnifield sat out the final game of his collegiate career with a knee injury, as did redshirt junior middle linebacker Steve Greer, a second team all-ACC pick and Virginia’s leading tackler this season. Greer suffered a partially torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during practice two weeks ago and will undergo surgery Tuesday. “Getting a hold of their offense, they really came out with it seemed like just different kind of stuff, misdirections and what-not, that I didn’t pay attention to on film as much,” said redshirt freshman linebacker Henry Coley, who replaced Greer in the starting lineup. “I put myself in bad spaces.” The Cavaliers gave up a season-high 455 total yards against the Tigers, though to point the finger at any one defensive player would be foolish. In the midst of all those yards were more special teams miscues by the Cavaliers. Auburn also attempted an onside kick in the second quarter and converted. The Tigers scored a touchdown five plays later to take a 21-14 lead. Late in the first half, Virginia faked a 32-yard field goal attempt and had holder Jacob Hodges run the ball on fourth and six. He came up three yards short of the first down marker. Auburn scored a touchdown nine players later to go up 28-14. “We hadn’t been to a bowl game around here since [2007]. That alone, I feel, launches the team forward,” Burd said. “Behind Coach London and the atmosphere he’s bringing, how the community is behind us and how people are really buying in, I feel like this was definitely a great launching point for the program, and I’m excited to see where it goes.”

It was the kind of year that made a person look back fondly on the gulf oil spill. Granted, the oil spill was bad. But it did not result in a high-decibel, weeks-long national conversation about a bulge in a congressman’s underpants. Which is exactly what we had in the Festival of Sleaze that was 2011. Remember? There were days when you could not escape The Bulge. At dinnertime, parents of young children had to be constantly ready to hurl themselves in front of their TV screens, for fear that it would suddenly appear on the news in high definition. For a brief (Har!) period, The Bulge was more famous than Justin Bieber. And when, at last, we were done with The Bulge, and we were able to turn our attention to the presidential election, and the important issues facing us, as a nation, in these troubled times, it turned out that the main issue, to judge by quantity of press coverage, was: groping. So finally, repelled by the drainage ditch that our political system has become, we turned for escape to an institution that represents all that is pure and wholesome and decent in America today: college football. That was when we started to have fond memories of the oil spill. I’m not saying that the entire year was ruined by sleaze. It was also ruined by other bad things. This was a year in which journalism was pretty much completely replaced by tweeting. It was a year in which a significant earthquake struck Washington, yet failed to destroy a single federal agency. It was a year in which the nation was subjected to a seemingly endless barrage of highly publicized pronouncements from Charlie Sheen, a man who, where you have a central nervous system, has a Magic 8-Ball. This was a year in which the cast members of “Jersey Shore” went to Italy and then — in an inexcusable lapse of border security — were allowed to return. But all of these developments, unfortunate as they were, would not by themselves have made 2011 truly awful. What made it truly awful was the economy, which, for what felt like the 17th straight year, continued to stagger around like a zombie on crack. Nothing seemed to help. President Obama, whose instinctive reaction to pretty much everything that happens, including sunrise, is to deliver a nationally televised address, delivered numerous nationally televised addresses on the economy, but somehow these did not do the trick. Neither did the approximately 37 million words emitted by the approximately 249 Republican-presidential-contender televised debates, out of which the single most memorable statement made was, quote: “Oops.” As the year wore on, frustration finally boiled over in the form of the Occupy Various Random Spaces movement, wherein people who were sick and tired of a lot of stuff finally got off their butts and started working for meaningful change via direct action in the form of sitting around and forming multiple committees and drumming and not directly issuing any specific demands but definitely having a lot of strongly held views for and against a wide variety of things. Incredibly, even this did not bring about meaningful change. The economy remained wretched, especially unemployment, which got so bad that many Americans gave up even trying to work. Congress, for example. Were there _any_ positive developments in 2011? Yes: • Osama bin Laden, Moammar Gaddafi and the New York Yankees all suffered major setbacks. • Kim Kardashian finally found her lifetime soul mate for nearly 21 / 2 months. • Despite a prophecy by revered Christian radio lunatic Harold Camping, the world did not end on May 21. Come to think of it, that last development wasn’t totally positive, not when we consider all the other things that happened in 2011. In case you’ve blotted it out, let’s take one last look back, through squinted eyelids, at this train wreck of a year, starting with ... **JANUARY** ... which sees a change of power in the House of Representatives, as outgoing Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi hands the gavel over to Republican John Boehner, who, in the new spirit of Washington bipartisanship, has it checked for explosives. In the State of the Union address, President Obama calls on Congress to improve the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. He is interrupted 79 times by applause, and four times by falling chunks of the Capitol ceiling. In other Washington action, Chinese President Hu Jintao is honored at a White House dinner for 225 luminaries, who dine on prime rib accompanied by 17,000 little plastic packets of soy sauce. As the official state gift from the United States, President Obama presents Hu with a six-pack of Bud Light, this being the only American product the White House staff can find that is not manufactured in China. The month’s biggest story is a tragedy in Tucson, where a man opens fire on a meet-and-greet being held by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The accused shooter turns out to be a mentally unstable loner with a history of drug use; there is no evidence that his actions had anything to do with uncivil political rhetoric. So naturally the blame for the tragedy is immediately placed on: uncivil political rhetoric. This results in a nationwide spasm of civil political rhetoric lasting about two hours, after which everybody returns to uncivil political rhetoric, which has been the norm in the United States for two centuries. In Egypt, demonstrators take to the streets to protest the three-decade regime of President Hosni Mubarak following revelations that “Hosni Mubarak” can be rearranged to spell “A Bum Honks Air.” The movement continues to grow in ... **FEBRUARY** ... when “Arab Spring” anti-government demonstrations spread from Egypt to Yemen, then to Iraq, then to Libya, and finally — in a development long feared by the U.S. government — to the volatile streets of Madison, Wis., where thousands of protesters occupy the state capitol to dramatize the fact that it’s warmer in there than outside. As the protests escalate, 14 Democratic Wisconsin state legislators flee to Illinois, where they barricade themselves in a hotel and, after a heated four-hour debate, decide, by a 7 to 4 vote with three abstentions, to order room service. In other national news, a massive snowstorm paralyzes the Midwest, forcing a shutdown of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport after more than a dozen planes are attacked by yetis. President Obama responds with a nationally televised speech pointing out that the storm was caused by a weather system inherited from a previous administration. In Europe, the economic crisis continues to worsen, especially in Greece, which has been operating under a financial model in which the government spends approximately $150 billion a year while taking in revenue totaling $336.50 from the lone Greek taxpayer, an Athens businessman who plans to retire in April. Greece has been making up the shortfall by charging everything to a MasterCard account that the Greek government applied for — in what some critics consider a questionable financial practice — using the name “Germany.” In a historic episode of the TV quiz show “Jeopardy!,” two human champions are swiftly dispatched by an IBM supercomputer named Watson, which combines an encyclopedic knowledge of a wide range of subjects with the ability to launch a 60,000-volt surge of electricity 25 feet. On Broadway, the troubled musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” suffers a setback when three actors and 11 audience members are injured in what the producers describe as a “catastrophic spandex failure.” In sports, two storied NFL franchises, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers, meet in Super Bowl XLV, a tense, back-and-forth battle won at the last minute, in a true shocker, by Watson the IBM supercomputer. Speaking of shocking, in ... **MARCH** ... the European economic crisis worsens still further as Moody’s downgrades its credit rating for Spain following the discovery that the Spanish government, having run completely out of money, secretly sold the Pyrenees to China and is now separated from France only by traffic cones. In domestic news, the renegade Wisconsin Democratic state legislators are finally captured in a late-night raid by the elite Wisconsin State Parliamentarian SWAT team, which knocks down the legislators’ hotel room door using a 200-pound, steel-reinforced edition of Robert’s Rules of Order. The SWAT team then subdues the legislators using what one source describes as “a series of extremely aggressive cloture votes.” On the national political front, Newt Gingrich, responding to a groundswell of encouragement from the voices in his head, reveals that he is considering seeking the Republican presidential nomination. He quickly gains the support of the voter who had been leaning toward Ross Perot. In tech news, Apple, with much fanfare, unveils the latest model of its hugely popular iPad tablet computer. The new model, called the iPad 2, is similar to the original iPad but — in yet another example of the brilliant customer- pleasing innovation that Apple has become famous for — has a “2” after it. Apple enthusiasts line up by the thousands to buy the new model, even as excitement builds for the next iPad, which, according to rumors swirling around an excited Apple fan community, will feature a “3.” The troubled musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” suffers yet another setback when four orchestra musicians are killed by what producers describe as a “freak clarinet accident.” Responding to the tragedy, President Obama delivers a nationally televised address, expressing his personal sympathy and noting that Republicans in Congress have repeatedly blocked the administration’s proposed $37 billion Federal Department of Woodwind Safety, which would create literally dozens of jobs. In sports, National Football League team owners lock out the players after negotiations break down over the issue of — in the words of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell — “locker rooms being littered with reeking jockstraps the size of hammocks.” Speaking of negotiations, in ... **APRIL** ... a major crisis is barely avoided when Congress, after frantic negotiations, reaches a last-minute agreement on the federal budget, thereby averting a government shutdown that would have had a devastating effect on the ability of Congress to continue spending insanely more money than it actually has. Meanwhile the economic outlook remains troubling, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in a rare news conference, consumes an entire bottle of gin. Things are even worse in Europe, where Moody’s announces that it has officially downgraded Greece’s credit rating from “poor” to “rat mucus” following the discovery that the Acropolis has been repossessed. On the political front, the field of Republican contenders considering running for presidential nomination continues to expand with the addition of Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and Gary Johnson, all of whom pose a serious threat to gain traction with the Gingrich voter. Donald Trump reveals that he, too, is considering running for president, spurred by a sincere and passionate desire for attention. Trump makes headlines when he appears to side with the “birther” movement, questioning whether Barack Obama is in fact a natural-born U.S. citizen. Under growing pressure to respond, the White House finally releases a certified copy of a long-form birth certificate that appears to prove conclusively that Donald Trump is Belgian. Also, biologically female. Meanwhile the troubled musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” suffers yet another setback when the actor playing Peter Parker, the young man who develops superpowers after being bitten by a radioactive spider, is bitten by an actual radioactive spider. Unfortunately, instead of superpowers, he develops a world-class case of diarrhea, which makes for what the show’s producers describe as “some audience unpleasantness during the flying scenes.” But the month ends on a joyous note as millions of TV viewers around the world watch Prince William and Catherine Middleton, two young people widely hailed for their down-to-earth likability and common touch, get married in a wedding costing the equivalent of the gross domestic product of Somalia. Speaking of joyous, in ... **MAY** ... the big story takes place in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden, enjoying a quiet evening chilling in his compound with his various wives and children and porn stash, receives an unexpected drop-in visit from a team of Navy SEALs. After due consideration of bin Laden’s legal rights, the SEALs convert him into Purina brand Shark Chow; he is then laid to rest in a solemn ceremony concluding upon impact with the Indian Ocean at a terminal velocity of 125 miles per hour. While Americans celebrate, the prime minister of Pakistan declares that his nation (a) is very upset about the raid and (b) had no earthly idea that the world’s most wanted terrorist had been living in a major Pakistani city in a large high-walled compound with a mailbox that said BIN LADEN. “As God is my witness,” states the prime minister, “we thought that place was a Wal-Mart.” In domestic affairs, Arnold Schwarzenegger reveals that he fathered the child of a member of his household staff; incredibly, he does not follow this up by announcing that he will seek the Republican presidential nomination. Herman Cain, however, does enter the GOP race, promising to reach out to as many ... No, wait, let’s rephrase that: Promising to take firm positions on ... No, sorry, how about: Promising to appeal to a broad ... Okay, never mind. Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty also announces his candidacy, but winds up withdrawing from the race about midway through his announcement speech when he realizes that his staff has fallen asleep. Meanwhile, followers of Christian radio broadcaster Harold Camping prepare for the Rapture, which Camping has prophesized will occur at 6 p.m. May 21. But the fateful hour comes and goes without incident, except in New York City, where, in yet another setback for the troubled production of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” the entire cast is sucked through the theater ceiling, never to be seen again. As the month draws to a close, a Twitter account belonging to Anthony Weiner — a feisty, ambitious Democratic up-and-comer who managed to get elected to Congress despite looking like a nocturnal rodent that somehow got a full-body wax and acquired a gym membership — tweets a link to a photograph of a pair of briefs containing what appears to be a congressional member rarin’ to filibuster, if you catch my drift. This member immediately captivates the nation, although, surprisingly, President Obama fails to deliver a nationally televised address about it. The drama continues to build in ... **JUNE** ... when Weiner denies that he sent the photo, although he admits he cannot say “with certitude” whether the member is or is not his. He finally confesses to sending the photo, and, as the pressure on him to resign becomes overwhelming, he is left with no choice but to declare his intention to seek the Republican presidential nomination. No, I’m kidding. Weiner resigns and takes a full-time position in the private sector admiring himself in the mirror. Meanwhile the Republican field does in fact continue to grow as Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum,Mitt Romney, the late Sonny Bono and somebody calling himself “Jon Huntsman” all enter the race, bringing the Republican contender total to roughly 125. In Washington, Congress is under mounting pressure to do something about the pesky federal debt, which continues to mount as a result of the fact that the government continues to spend insanely more money than it actually has. Congress, after carefully weighing its three options — stop spending so much money; get some more money somehow; or implement some combination of options one and two — decides to go with option four: continue to do nothing while engaging in relentlessly hyperpartisan gasbaggery. Incredibly, this does not solve the debt problem. The economic crisis is even worse in Europe, where the Greek government sends out an e-mail to everybody in its address book claiming it was mugged in London and needs its friends to wire it some emergency cash so it can get home. This prompts Moody’s to change Greece’s credit rating to, quote, “a word we can’t say, but trust us, it’s worse than rat mucus.” But perhaps the month’s most disturbing development takes place in the Middle East when Iran, which is believed to be close to developing nuclear weapons, test-fires 14 missiles, including some capable of threatening U.S. interests, as becomes clear when one of them plunges through the theater roof during a matinee performance of the troubled musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” Speaking of disturbing, in. .. **JULY** ... the eyeballs of the nation are riveted on Orlando, where Casey Anthony is on trial on charges of being an attractive young woman who is definitely guilty of murder, according to millions of deeply concerned individuals watching on TV. The trial becomes an obsession for hundreds of people who are not in any way connected to the victim, Caylee Anthony, but are so distraught over her death that they feel compelled to travel to Orlando and lurk around the courthouse expressing anguish, as opposed to doing something that might actually help one of the many living children who are at risk but who, unfortunately for them, are not featured on TV. In a shocking verdict, Anthony is acquitted of murder and set free, only to be attacked outside the courtroom and have large clumps of her hair yanked out by outraged prominent TV legal harpy Nancy Grace. Speaking of drama: In Washington, as the deadline for raising the federal debt limit nears, Congress and the Obama administration work themselves into a frenzy trying to figure out what to do about the fact that the government is spending insanely more money than it actually has. After hours of intense negotiations, several walkouts, countless press releases and of course a nationally televised address by the president, the Democrats and the Republicans are finally able to announce, at the last possible minute, that they have hammered out a historic agreement under which the government will continue to spend insanely more money than it actually has while a very special congressional committee — A SUPER committee! — comes up with a plan, by a later date, that will solve this pesky problem once and for all. Everybody involved heaves a sigh of relief and basks in the feeling of satisfaction that comes from handling yet another crisis, Washington-style. But things are not so rosy in Europe, where the debt crisis continues to worsen with the revelation that Greece has sold the naming rights to itself and will henceforth be officially known as the Republic of Burger King. In response, Moody’s lowers Greece’s bond rating to the point where it is no longer represented by words or letters, just a brownish stain on the rating document. In England, the News Corp. media empire comes under scrutiny for alleged phone hacking when an investigation reveals that calls to Queen Elizabeth’s private mobile number are being answered by Rupert Murdoch speaking in a high-pitched voice. On a positive note, NFL owners and players are finally able to settle their dispute, thereby averting the very real danger that millions of fantasy football enthusiasts would be forced to develop lives. Speaking of threats, in ... **AUGUST** ... Standard & Poor’s makes good on its threat to downgrade the U.S. credit rating, noting that the federal government, in making fiscal decisions, is exhibiting “the IQ of a turnip.” Meanwhile Wall Street becomes increasingly jittery as investors react to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Bernanke’s surprise announcement that his personal retirement portfolio consists entirely of assault rifles. With the stock market in a steep nosedive, economic growth stagnant and unemployment relentlessly high, the White House, moving swiftly to prevent panic, reassures a worried nation that President Obama will once again be vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, where he will recharge his batteries in preparation for what White House press secretary Jay Carney promises will be “a real humdinger of a nationally televised address.” In political news, Texas Gov. Rick Perry announces that he will seek the Republican nomination with a goal of “restoring the fundamental American right to life, liberty and a third thing.” But the early GOP leader is Michele Bachmann, who scores a decisive victory in the crucial Ames, Iowa, Straw Poll, garnering a total of 11 votes, narrowly edging out Ron Paul and a heifer named Widget. In what will become a pattern for GOP front-runners, Bachmann’s candidacy immediately sinks like an anvil in a duck pond. Abroad, a wave of riots sweeps across England as thousands of protesters take to the streets of London and other major cities to strike a blow against racism and social injustice by stealing consumer electronics and designer sneakers. As the end of the month nears, a rare 5.8-magnitude earthquake, with its epicenter in Virginia, rattles the East Coast, shaking buildings from South Carolina to Maine but causing little damage, except in New York, where a theatrical set depicting a building topples over onto the cast of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” The producers, determined to escape the bad luck that has haunted the current theater, move the entire production to New Jersey, which unfortunately turns out to be directly in the path of Hurricane Irene. Speaking of disasters, in ... **SEPTEMBER** ... the worsening European debt crisis worsens still further when Italy, desperate for revenue, establishes a National Tip Jar. As markets plunge, the International Monetary Fund, seeking to prevent worldwide investor panic, announces that it will henceforth be supplementing its income by selling Herbalife. In domestic news, President Obama returns from his Martha’s Vineyard getaway refreshed and ready to tackle the job he was elected by the American people to do: seek reelection. Focusing on unemployment, the president delivers a nationally televised address laying out his plan for creating jobs, which consists of traveling around the nation tirelessly delivering job-creation addresses until it’s time for another presidential getaway. Meanwhile on the Republican side, Herman Cain surges to the top of the pile with his “9-9-9” plan, which combines the quality of being easy to remember with the quality of being something that nobody thinks will ever actually happen. Seeking to regain momentum, Rick Perry also comes out with a tax plan, but he can remember only the first two nines. Adding spice to the mix, Mitt Romney unexpectedly exhibits a lifelike facial expression but is quickly subdued by his advisers. In what is seen as a sign of public disenchantment with the political process, voters in New York’s Ninth Congressional District, choosing a replacement for disgraced Rep. Anthony Weiner, elect Anthony Soprano, despite the fact that he is a fictional character and not even Jewish. Disenchantment is also apparent in New York’s Zuccotti Park with the birth of the Occupy Wall Street movement, a gathering of individuals who seek to focus the nation’s attention, laser-like, on the problems of income inequality, greed, corporations, student loans, hunger, mortgages, health care, deforestation, unemployment, political corruption, racism, gender discrimination, lack of tents, consumerism, global climate change, banks, poverty, people wanting to tell other people where and when they can and cannot drum, fossil fuels, showers, immigration, animal rights, Internet access, capitalism and many other issues that will not be resolved until people finally wake up, get off their butts and start seriously engaging in long-term urban camping. As the month draws to a close, an anxious world looks to the skies, as a NASA satellite weighing more than six tons goes into an uncontrolled reentry, breaking into fiery pieces that hurtle toward Earth but fortunately come down at sea, where they do no damage other than sinking a passenger ship that had been chartered for a recuperation cruise for the surviving cast members of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” The downward trend continues in ... **OCTOBER** ... which sees yet another troubling development in the world economic crisis when an International Monetary Fund audit of the 27-nation European Union reveals that 11 of the nations are missing. “Also,” states the audit report, “the nation claiming to be Slovakia is in fact Belize using a fake ID.” Meanwhile in Greece, thousands of rioters take to the streets of Athens to protest a tough new government austerity program that would sharply reduce the per diem rioter allowance. In Arab Spring developments, Libyan strongperson and lunatic Moammar Gaddafi steps down and receives an enthusiastic sendoff from his countrymen, who then carry him, amid much festivity, to his retirement freezer. On the domestic protest front, Occupy Wall Street spreads to many more cities, its initially vague goals now replaced by a clear sense of purpose as occupiers focus on the single issue that is most important to the 99 percent: bathrooms. Some cities seek to shut down the protests, but the occupiers vow to remain until there is a reawakening of the national consciousness. Or, winter. Attorney General Eric Holder announces that the FBI has uncovered a plot by Iran to commit acts of terror in the United States, including assassinating the Saudi ambassador, bombing the Israeli Embassy, and — most chillingly — providing funding for traveling productions of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” On the political front, Sarah Palin announces that she will not seek the Republican presidential nomination, noting that the GOP field is “already funny enough.” In technology news, Apple releases the iPhone that comes after the iPhone 4, which was rumored to be named the “5,” but which instead is named — talk about innovation — the “4S.” It is of course a huge hit with Apple fans, who, upon purchasing it, immediately form new lines outside Apple stores to await the next breakthrough iPhone, preliminarily rumored to be named the “4.7.” In sports, one of the most exciting World Series in history is won by some team other than the New York Yankees. Humanity reaches a major milestone as the United Nations estimates that the population of the Earth has reached 7 billion people, every single one of whom sends you irritating e-mails inviting you to join something called LinkedIn. The month ends on a tragic note when Kim Kardashian, who only 72 days earlier had a fairy-tale $10 million wedding to the love of her life, professional basketball player whatshisname, files for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences in height. “Also,” she states in the filing documents, “I am a total slut.” Speaking of fairy tales, in ... **NOVEMBER** ... the congressional Supercommittee, after months of pondering what to do about the fact that the federal government is spending insanely more money than it actually has, announces that, in the true “can-do” bipartisan Washington spirit, it is giving up. This means the government will continue spending insanely more money than it actually has until 2013, at which time there are supposed to be automatic spending cuts, except Congress would never let that happen, and even if it _did_ happen, the federal government would still be spending insanely more money than it actually has. Undaunted, Democratic and Republican leaders move forward with the vital work of blaming each other. As it becomes clear that Congress will do nothing, a visibly frowning President Obama delivers a nationally televised address in which he vows to, quote, “continue reading whatever it says here on the teleprompter.” Speaking of the many benefits provided by the federal government: As Thanksgiving approaches, the Department of Homeland Security, having apparently handled all the other terrorist threats, issues a warning, including a scary video, on the dangers of: turkey fryers. I am not making this item up. Abroad, the worsening Greek economic crisis forces Prime Minister George Papandreou to resign, leading to the formation of a new coalition government headed — in what some economists view as a troubling sign — by Bernie Madoff. In domestic politics, the Republican Party is rocked by polls showing that 43 percent of all likely voters — nearly 55 million people — claim to have been sexually harassed by Herman Cain. With Rick Perry stumbling and Mitt Romney continuing to generate the excitement level of a dump fire, the GOP front-runner becomes none other than that fresh-faced, no-baggage, anti-establishment Washington outsider ... Newt Gingrich! Speaking of extraterrestrial phenomena: Astronomers watch closely as an asteroid 1,300 feet across hurtles extremely close to Earth. Incredibly — NASA calls it “a one in a billion chance” — the asteroid fails to hit anyone or anything connected with “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” In business news, GM, responding to fears that the Chevy Volt might be prone to catch fire, issues a message to the six American consumers who have actually purchased Volts, assuring them that the car is “completely safe” and “should never be parked near buildings.” American Airlines files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but assures its passengers that “normal flight operations will remain just as screwed up as before.” The month ends on a reflective note as Americans pause to observe Thanksgiving very much as the Pilgrims did in 1621, by pepper-spraying each other at malls. Speaking of pausing, in ... **DECEMBER** ... Herman Cain announces that he is suspending his presidential campaign so he can go home and spend more time sleeping in his basement. This leaves the Republicans with essentially a two-man race between Gingrich and Romney, which means it’s only a matter of time before we start hearing the name “Bob Dole.” The U.S. Postal Service, facing huge losses, announces a cost-cutting plan under which it will start delivering first-class mail “to totally random addresses.” The resulting savings will enable the USPS “to continue providing every American household with a minimum of 145 pounds of junk mail per week.” Meanwhile, in a vindication for the Department of Homeland Security, alert passengers aboard a United Airlines flight foil an apparent terrorist attack when they subdue a man attempting to deep-fry a turkey in economy class. After the plane makes an emergency landing, the man is removed by federal agents, who confirm that he was carrying not only cranberry sauce, but “enough stuffing to choke a buffalo.” Abroad, the member nations of the European Union, in a last-ditch effort to avoid an economic meltdown, announce that they are replacing the euro with a new unit of currency, the “pean,” the exchange rate for which will be linked to the phases of the moon. The goal, according to the EU announcement, is “to cause American tourists to become even more confused than they already are.” The plan starts paying dividends immediately as a pair of elderly ladies from Indianapolis purchase two croissants at a Paris cafe for six peans and wind up leaving the equivalent of a $3,780 tip. The economic outlook is also brighter in Washington, where congressional leaders, still working night and day to find a solution to the problem of the federal government spending insanely more money than it actually has, announce that they have a bold new plan: They will form another committee. But this one will be even better than the Supercommittee, because it will be a SuperDUPERcommittee, and it will possess what House and Senate leaders describe, in a joint statement, as “magical powers.” So the nation is clearly in good hands, and as the troubled year finally comes to an end, throngs of New Year’s revelers, hoping for better times to come, gather in Times Square to watch the descent of the famous illuminated ball, followed by the rise of what appears to be a mushroom cloud from the direction of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” But there’s no need to worry: The president is planning a nationally televised address. So everything will be fine. Happy new year. _Dave Barry, co-author of the novelLunatics" target="_blank">“Lunatics,” which is being published this month, can be reached at wpmagazine@washpost.com. Read his Year in Review stories from past years, and chat with him Tuesday at noon ET._

The Vatican is set to launch a structure Monday that will allow Anglican parishes in the United States — and their married priests — to join the Catholic Church in a small but symbolically potent effort to reunite Protestants and Catholics, who split almost 500 years ago. More than 1,300 Anglicans, including 100 Anglican priests, have applied to be part of the new body, essentially a diocese. Among them are members of St. Luke’s in Bladensburg, which this summer became the first group in the country to convert to Catholicism. St. Luke’s and Baltimore’s Mount Calvary, which also applied to join, were part of the Episcopal Church, the official wing of American Anglicanism. But most of those joining the new structure are Anglicans who aren’t part of the Episcopal Church. It’s unclear how many priests and their followers will ultimately convert to Catholicism. Compared with the tens of millions of Americans who identify as Catholic or Protestant, the movement is small. But it is the most tangible progress in decades for Catholic leaders, who see Catholics and Protestants as estranged siblings who should be reconciled. “It’s the largest reunification effort in 500 years,” said Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the new body, called an ordinariate. The possibility of dozens of married Catholic priests could provide fodder for Catholics who want the Vatican to open up on the issue of priestly celibacy. There are about 40,000 Catholic priests in the United States. Gibbs declined to say which priests and parishes have expressed interest. But congregants at St. Luke’s, and others who call themselves Anglo-Catholics, tend to be theological and social conservatives who say they like the clear, single authority of a pope. However, they also want to hold onto aspects of Anglicanism, including retaining more authority in governing and certain music and rituals, such as kneeling for Communion. More details will be made public Monday, but Gibbs said most of the Anglicans who expressed interest were not leaving the Episcopal Church. Most are members of offshoot Anglican groups, many of which have grown since the Episcopal Church ordained an openly gay bishop about a decade ago. Tens of thousands have left the Episcopal Church since then for breakaway groups. But people in both movements — Anglo-Catholics and Episcopal breakaway groups — tend to voice similar concerns about the liberal direction of the Episcopal Church. They mention the ordination and marrying of gays and lesbians; the ordination of women; and leaders who view the Bible as metaphor, not fact. In 1980, the Vatican created a different system for American Anglicans to join the Catholic Church but didn’t give them as much freedom as the new structure provides. In the 32 years since, 90 Anglican priests have joined the Catholic Church, as have seven congregations, totaling 1,230 families, Gibbs said. Almost all are in Texas and Pennsylvania. The U.S. ordinariate is the second. One that launched this year in England has more than 1,000 members and 57 priests, Gibbs said. Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, has been the Vatican’s point man on setting up the ordinariate. Gibbs said that the movement wouldn’t change the church’s position on celibacy and that the exception is only for married Anglican priests. “It’s written into the founding documents,” she said. “The norm is celibacy.” One of the Episcopal Church’s longtime liaisons with other faiths, including the Catholic Church, said the Vatican could have consulted more with Episcopal leaders before announcing the changes. “If this papacy sees this as the only way to dialogue with other religions, that’s troubling,” said the Very Rev. Thomas Ferguson, who from 2001 until 2010 worked on ecumenical outreach. Ferguson is dean of Bexley Hall Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. He predicted that the new structure wouldn’t draw that many people. “In the end, we’re a country founded on religious beliefs, and people need to go where they’re called to go,” Ferguson said. “That’s fine. God bless them.”

BEIJING — A forceful 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of southeastern Japan on Sunday, rattling buildings in Tokyo and jolting a nation still recovering from last year’s mega-disaster. But the earthquake caused little apparent damage, with no initial reports of damaged buildings or injuries. It prompted no tsunami warning, and nuclear plants across the nation reported no irregularities. The earthquake was centered near Japan’s Izu Islands, about 307 miles south-southwest of Tokyo, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake struck at a depth of 217 miles; such a deep jolt is less likely to cause damage than one close to the surface. For those in Tokyo, this was among the biggest shakes since the 9.0-magnitude earthquake of March 11 that triggered Japan’s greatest crisis since World War II. Books fell off shelves, and buildings quivered. Some roads were temporarily closed, but the train system was unaffected. “Memorable start to New Year — about to greet Emperor and Empress for New Year when Imperial Palace began to shake,” John Roos, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, said in a message on Twitter. The March 11 earthquake, which struck off the northeastern coast, led to the deaths of more than 20,000 and sparked a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Since that day, Japan — whose islands stretch along the world’s most seismically active region — has had at least 16 earthquakes or aftershocks of magnitude 6.5 or higher. **More world news coverage:** Russia arrests New Year’s protesters Maliki marks end of U.S.-Iraq pact In Egypt, an act of courage that launched a revolution Read more headlines from around the world ****

BEIJING — North Korea vowed an “all-out drive” Sunday toward economic prosperity, setting a vision for a nation with fewer food shortages, a stronger military and a people who defend their new supreme leader with their lives. “The whole Party, the entire army and all the people should possess a firm conviction that they will become human bulwarks and human shields in defending Kim Jong Eun unto death,” said an editorial carried in the country’s three major state-run publications. North Korea uses its annual New Year’s editorial to set the agenda for the nation, and outside analysts describe it as a fiery keynote. This year’s message provided a window into the country’s policymaking — and its many challenges — after the death of Kim Jong Il, who left behind a failing nuclear-armed nation led by an inexperienced hereditary successor. The editorial, outside experts said, tried both to push for economic growth and build support for the young leader, who is thought to be in his late 20s. The editorial made clear that Kim Jong Eun would follow Kim Jong Il’s plan to build a prosperous nation, and it described the successor as a perfect duplicate of his father. Kim Jong Eun’s legitimacy, experts say, depends on that link, especially as he tries to build support among older party and military elites. But his country also faces problems — notably, chronic food shortages and human rights abuses — that his father and grandfather either failed to or neglected to address. “It is the steadfast determination of our Party that it will make no slightest vacillation and concession in implementing the instructions and policies [Kim Jong Il] had laid out in his lifetime,” the editorial said. After 63 years of rule by the Kim family, North Korea has among the world’s lowest living standards, its people confined in a secretive police state. But North Korea has long tabbed 2012 — the 100th anniversary of founder Kim Il Sung’s birth — as a year for massive development and emergence as a “strong and prosperous” first-world state. The Sunday editorial described 2012 as a “major, important occasion for displaying the might of Korea.” The editorial made a rare mention of the country’s “burning” food problem, but it outlined only vague steps for a solution, calling on “loyalty to the revolution” and a radical increase in crop yield. Before Kim Jong Il’s death on Dec. 17, North Korea was close to a deal in which it would have received 240,000 tons of food aid from the United States in exchange for a possible suspension of its uranium enrichment program. But those arrangements are on hold as neighboring governments draw up plans to deal with Pyongyang’s new leadership. The State Department’s top Asia diplomat, Kurt Campbell, will visit Beijing, Seoul and Japan this week. North Korea’s Sunday editorial included almost none of its typical criticism of Washington, though several times it mentioned the imperialist threat that surrounded it. The country also described “U.S. aggressor forces” as the main obstacle to peace on the Korean Peninsula. But it gave no mention of its nuclear weapons program — a sign, experts said, that the country might be open to further talks. “Before Kim Jong Il died, North Korea started to have that dialogue, and they were willing to accept the U.S.’s nutritional aid,” said Ryoo Kihl-jae, a professor at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies. “So it was very natural for North Korea not to denounce the U.S. in this editorial. It’s a sign that they are still willing for dialogue in the future.” **More world news coverage:** Russia arrests New Year’s protesters Maliki marks end of U.S.-Iraq pact In Egypt, an act of courage that launched a revolution Read more headlines from around the world

With Republican voters in Iowa set to finally begin picking a nominee to challenge President Obama, GOP officials in Washington are quietly and methodically finishing what operatives are calling “the book” — 500 pages of Obama quotes and video links that will form the backbone of the party’s attack strategy against the president leading up to Election Day 2012. The document, portions of which were reviewed by The Washington Post, lays out how GOP officials plan to use Obama’s words and voice as they build an argument for his defeat: that he made specific promises and entered office with lofty expectations and has failed to deliver on both. Republican officials say they will leverage the party’s newly catalogued video library containing every publicly available utterance from Obama since his 2008 campaign. Television and Internet ads will juxtapose specific Obama promises of job gains, homeowner assistance, help for people in poverty, lower health insurance premiums and stricter White House ethics standards against government data and news clippings that paint a different reality. The decision by GOP officials to finalize a strategy at this stage underscores the view, in both parties, that the general-election campaign has begun — even if an official Republican nominee has not been selected. The new GOP playbook is designed to take one of Obama’s great assets — the power of his oratory — and turn it into a liability. It details hundreds of potential targets, partially a result of a president who Republican strategists say is unusually prone to making detailed promises. A 2009 Obama statement that his stimulus bill would lift 2 million Americans out of poverty, for example, is paired against census data showing that more than 6 million Americans have fallen into poverty since he took office. A pledge that an administration housing plan would “help between 7 and 9 million families restructure or refinance their mortgages” is paired against news reports showing the government spent far less than promised and aided fewer than 2 million. And his 2008 Democratic nomination acceptance speech vow that a green jobs initiative would create 5 million jobs is matched up against news reports from this year depicting lackluster results and headlines about Solyndra, the failed maker of solar panels that received hundreds of millions in federal loan guarantees. One Obama quote will be featured prominently: In 2009 he said on NBC’s “Today” show that if he could not fix the economy in three years, “then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.” “That’s a clip the American people will hear and see over and over and over again throughout the next year,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. “The nice thing about Barack Obama is that he’s given us plenty of material. The one thing he loves to do is give speeches.” A similar in-his-own-words strategy has already been adopted by Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee designed to portray GOP front-runner Mitt Romney as a flip-flopper. A “Mitt vs. Mitt” online video, showing Romney expressing opposing views on various issues over time, gained considerable attention and prompted a new round of questions from primary rivals and journalists about whether Romney can be trusted. With a campaign war chest expected to total at least $750 million, the Obama campaign and the DNC are likely to continue hammering Romney’s shifting stances on hot-button issues to portray him as lacking a moral core. At the same time, Obama’s team is compiling data to defend his record, such as a Congressional Budget Office report showing that the stimulus raised employment by millions of jobs and testimony from economists that the legislation helped end the Great Recession. Democratic strategists say voters are more apt to see Romney as untrustworthy than to question the president’s leadership. “Four years ago on Iowa caucus night, the president promised to make health care affordable and accessible for all Americans, put a middle-class tax cut in the pockets of working Americans, start to free us from our dependence on foreign oil and end the war in Iraq — promises that have been fulfilled,” said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt. “Compare that to a candidate like Mitt Romney, who has been on both sides of every key issue and will say anything to try to hide that he was a corporate buyout specialist who bankrupted companies and fired workers and a governor with the third-worst job-creation record in the country.” GOP officials are set to roll out new attacks in the coming days, starting Tuesday on caucus day in Iowa with a new video showing clips from Obama’s victory speech there four years ago. The RNC will buy TV ad time in select battleground-state markets within weeks. Once a nominee is established, the strategy book will then serve as a turnkey battle plan as the campaign and RNC staff begin close coordination. A Romney win should make for an easy transition, as the book’s primary author, Joe Pounder, a 28-year-old specialist in the political dark arts and the RNC’s research director, is a former Romney campaign aide. And Romney appears to already have adopted the same approach — often quoting Obama directly and even visiting venues where Obama spoke as a candidate or as president. Last summer, Romney spoke at a now-shuttered Allentown, Pa., metal works factory that Obama had hailed a year earlier before it closed as a symbol of his economic success. The event was accompanied by a video, called “Obama Isn’t Working,” depicting images of the visit coupled with a year-after picture of the abandoned factory floor. Last week, Romney spoke in Davenport, Iowa, down the street from the spot where Obama gave one of his last pre-caucus campaign speeches four years earlier. “He closed with these words: ‘This is our moment. This is our time,’ ” Romney said. “Well, Mr. President, you have now had your moment. We have seen the results. . . . You have failed to deliver on the promises you made here in Davenport.” Several Republican strategists said that striking the right tone in attacking Obama will be tricky, because many Americans, even if they disapprove of his job performance, still see the country’s first black president as a historic and admirable figure. Polls show that most people like him personally — making them more likely to discount traditional attack ads. Still, party officials believe that many independent voters — more than eight in 10 of whom think the country is on the wrong track, according to a November Washington Post-ABC News poll — are ready to accept the premise that Obama didn’t work out. Officials said they settled on the plan to use the president’s own words after examining private and public polls showing that the approach resonated with swing voters nationally and in key battlegrounds. “Because the president remains personally well liked, [the GOP strategy] is a good way to not have to swim against that tide,” said Ed Gillespie, a former RNC chairman who is in regular contact with senior party officials. “It’s his own words.” Similar conclusions emerged from months of focus groups and polling conducted by American Crossroads, the pro-GOP group that along with its affiliate, Crossroads GPS, expects to have raised $240 million during the 2011-12 cycle. A recent ad by the group featured a mom lying awake at night recalling that she backed Obama because he “spoke so beautifully” and promised recovery but now worrying that his policies were costly and ineffective. “We don’t bang voters upside the head with an anti-Obama message, but we appeal to their sensibility that maybe they supported him in the past, and we make it okay for them to not support him now,” said Jonathan Collegio, a Crossroads spokesman. The RNC’s Obama book reflects a number of technology developments since the last campaign, such as video archives that are searchable by keyword. It has been collected in part by a team of staff members and interns who spend each day in a windowless room on the RNC’s ground floor, staring at a dozen flat-screen TVs and monitoring the Web. In the past, opposition research books took the form of three-ring binders. Many of those binders, dating to the 1976 race against President Jimmy Carter and spanning to the admittedly thin 2008 text on Obama, now sit on a bookshelf in the office of Pounder, the RNC research chief writing the 2012 book. This time, the document will exist only online, complete with links to videos, government reports, transcripts and other background material. The new book contains more than a dozen chapters, including a 73-page section titled “The Obama Economy,” and has separate chapters logging local-level campaign promises delivered during stops in places such as Cleveland, Denver and Scranton, Pa. When Obama heads out on the campaign trail, officials will use the newly compiled quotes and data to put in place a full-scale mobilization, including videos, op-eds in local papers, calls with local media outlets and appearances by local GOP supporters, all designed to highlight the president’s past statements in each locale, said Sean Spicer, the RNC’s spokesman. Promises relating to the Hispanic community will be fed to Hispanic bloggers and media. “He made so many promises in so many places,” Spicer said. “The goal is whenever he does an interview in Scranton, Columbus, Ames, Cleveland or wherever, that every local reporter, blogger and concerned citizen says, ‘Hey, we’re armed here with information about the last time you were here, and we want you to answer to yourself.’ ” The strategy can be seen in several Internet ads produced by the party in recent weeks. A video titled “Failed Promises: Scranton” was released in November to coincide with an Obama visit to the northeastern Pennsylvania city. It shows Obama speaking about jobs and the economy, his face depicted through shattered windows of an abandoned factory as job-loss stats flash across the screen. Another RNC ad, “It’s Been Three Years,” shows Obama as a candidate saying the “real question” is whether Americans would be better off in four years. Then it shows a clip from an October ABC interview when he tells George Stephanopoulos that “I don’t think they’re better off than they were four years ago.” The spot ends with Obama the 2008 candidate drawing roaring applause when he proclaims: “This country can’t take four more years of the same failed policies. It’s time to try something new.” Polling analyst Scott Clement contributed to this report.

Back in 1992, Washington reigned as Super Bowl champs with high hopes for two in a row under coach Joe Gibbs. That year, a Native American resident of the District, Suzan Harjo, became the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to change the team’s disparaging name: Redskins. As the legal battle over the name enters its 20th year, let’s review some highlights of a struggle in which moral victories by the plaintiffs often coincided with demoralizing losses by the team on the field — including dashed hopes of winning another Super Bowl. * * * 1992: The American Jewish Committee voices support for the lawsuit. The term “redskins” is not an honorific to Native Americans, as Washington claims; it’s an insult, says the AJC. Seven years later, when communications executive Daniel Synder buys the team, Native Americans assume that he’ll be more sympathetic than the previous owner because he is Jewish. They are sorely mistaken. On the gridiron, Gibbs takes the team to the NFC divisional playoffs (January 1993) but loses to the San Francisco 49ers. After 12 seasons and three Super Bowl wins, Gibbs retires. It is the end of times for Washington football. * * * 1993: Webster’s Third New International Dictionary Unabridged (3rd ed., Merriam-Webster, 1993) defines the team name as “taken to be offensive.” This contrasts with a Washington Post-ABC News poll the previous year in which 89 percent of respondents said they favor keeping the team’s name because “the name is not intended to be offensive.” Defensive coordinator Richie Petitbon replaces Gibbs as head coach and is promptly fired after losing 12 of the season’s 16 games. * * * 1994: The InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington joins the call for a name change. Washington hires Norv Turner as head coach and the team loses 13 of 16 games. * * * 1995-99: The lawsuit, _Harjo et al v. Pro-Football Inc_., finally gets a hearing before the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. A three-judge panel rules that the team name and logo violate the Lanham Act prohibition on any trademark that “consists or comprises . . . matter which may disparage . . . persons, living or dead . . . or bring them into contempt, or disrepute.” Washington takes the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals, which eventually overturns the trial board’s ruling, saying that Harjo and the others had waited too long to file the lawsuit. The plaintiffs later petition the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse that decision, but the high court refuses to take the case. Snyder purchases the Washington team in 1999, along with the newly built Jack Kent Cooke Stadium in Landover. He immediately removes the former team owner’s name from the arena and sells the naming rights to Federal Express for an estimated $250 million. Friends of Cooke, who had died of a heart attack two years earlier, pitch a fit. But Snyder calms them by declaring that, out of respect for tradition, he will never give in to the demands of the Native Americans. Then again, they don’t have millions to spend on naming rights. * * * 2000-04: Hundreds of high schools and universities stop using Native American imagery as sports logos and mascots. As African Americans press their fight to change the Virginia state song, “Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny,” which makes references to “darkies” and “massas,” Native Americans hope that more of Washington’s black fans will join in solidarity with their struggle. Hope springs eternal. Turner takes Washington to the NFC divisional playoffs against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With less than two minutes to go, the team is poised to take the lead with a field goal when — oops! — the snap is botched and the game is lost, 14-13. Turner is fired in the middle of the following season and Terry Robiskie takes over as interim coach for the last three games. Marty Schottenheimer replaces him and, a year later, he is canned for Steve Spurrier, who is eventually let go to make way for the return of Joe Gibbs. * * * 2005-10: The American Psychological Association supports the Native Americans’ case with research showing the corrosive effects of racial stereotyping on children. But after a dejected Gibbs retires in 2008, it is the Washington fan who seems to need psychological help the most. It’s as if spiritual war is being waged against the team, which soon becomes one of the most dispirited franchises in the NFL. By the time Jim Zorn is hired and fired as head coach and Mike Shanahan arrives to take his place, Washington will have burned through eight head coaches since 1992. The team has also started 21 quarterbacks. About the only thing that hasn’t changed through all that is the team’s reputation as losers — and that cursed name. * * * 2011: Harjo tells the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs: “The term ‘redskins’ is the most vile and offensive term used to describe Native Americans. It is most disturbing to the overwhelming majority of Native Americans throughout the country that the professional football team in the nation’s capital uses a team name that demeans us.” * * * 2012: Another lawsuit to get rid of the team name, _Blackhorse et al v. Pro- Football_ _Inc_., will be working its way through the courts, this one from a younger group of Native Americans who cannot be said to have “waited too long to file.” But they have already waited too long for justice.

It’s never enough, unless it’s too much. In 2012, commuters in the D.C. region will renew their love-hate relationship with transportation projects and programs, including some scheduled for completion and others just getting started. Here are 10 efforts likely to get attention. The high-occupancy toll lanes on the western side of the Capital Beltway are scheduled to open late in 2012. The D.C. region hasn’t seen anything like them. Will they become the way of the future? Travelers still ask about — and complain about — what’s going on in the 14-mile work zone between Springfield and the Dulles Toll Road interchange. But they’ve also begun to ask how the lanes will function when they finally open. The HOT lanes managers will spend months preparing drivers to use them. And even before the lanes open, drivers will experience some improvements at the interchanges being rebuilt to accommodate the new lanes. After a half century of discussion and debate, opening 18 miles of the Intercounty Connector was a top transportation story of 2011. But it opened in segments, and the biggest part didn’t open till the end-of-the-year holidays were upon us. This year, we should see whether drivers really take to the new toll road or decide they will stick with the congestion and delay on the old routes. Many drivers probably will test out the connector and pick the portions of it that work for them under particular circumstances. Most times, it won’t be a question of paying $4 to use the entire highway at rush hour, but rather a choice to pay 70 cents to travel from southbound Interstate 95 to southbound Route 29, cutting a corner off the Capital Beltway when traffic reports say it’s especially congested. The repeated rounds of heavy rain this fall pushed back the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project’s goal of opening new lanes on the Capital Beltway near Telegraph Road in Virginia. Important parts of the remaining work on the Beltway require warmer weather, so expect to see the lanes in their current configuration through the winter. Then in late spring or early summer, a new portion of the THRU lanes will open in the zone between west of Route 1 and west of Telegraph Road. During the summer, the LOCAL lane segment also will be completed. This work will eliminate the three-lane bottleneck on the Beltway west of the Wilson Bridge, the obstacle that has prevented many drivers from enjoying the full benefits of the new, wider bridge. More employees are scheduled to arrive at the Mark Center, off Interstate 395 in Alexandria. Some changes have been made in the signal timings and lane markings nearby, but the main planned improvement is a new HOV ramp at I-395 and Seminary Road. The Virginia Department of Transportation has scheduled a public meeting on that project for Jan. 25. Meanwhile, the Maryland State Highway Administration will begin to upgrade intersections near the newly consolidated Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Rockville Pike in Bethesda. Several projects are scheduled to start this spring. This D.C. project also made the list of 2011’s top transportation stories, but several of the new 11th Street Bridge’s most important and beneficial elements aren’t scheduled to open till later this year. The new span taking traffic away from downtown and over the Anacostia River is scheduled to open this month, following December’s opening of the new inbound span. That will clear the way for completion of the ramps that will link the highways on either side of the river. Also scheduled for this year is completion of the third new span, which will provide a new link for local traffic between neighborhoods on both sides of the river. At mid-year, Metrorail riders will have to pay a lot more attention to the transit maps and the destination signs on the trains. To make room for the future Silver Line trains and to accommodate the increased number of people heading toward the eastern side of downtown D.C., Metro will modify service on the Blue, Yellow and Orange lines during rush hours. Orange Line trains will be sent to Largo Town Center as well as Landover. Some Blue Line trains will be redesignated as Yellow Line trains, and they will travel between Franconia-Springfield and Greenbelt. Look for the old lines going to new places on a revised version of the Metro map. After the holiday lull, the transit authority will resume its aggressive maintenance program on the rail system. During the last three weekends of January, for example, some stations on the Orange, Blue and Red lines are scheduled to be closed, and Metro will shift riders to shuttle buses to get around the closings. Metro will finish off the fixes to the Foggy Bottom station entrance by opening the stairway and installing a protective canopy, and in February, it also will begin replacement of the escalators at the south entrance to the Dupont Circle station, closing that entrance for much of 2012. All the maintenance disruptions should put riders in a swell mood to hear about potential fare increases. Metro General Manager Richard Sarles will propose his next budget this month. But his chief financial officer, Carol Kissal, said in December that a fare increase would likely be part of the package. The transit staff also will look at simplifying the complex fare structure, which is based on distance traveled and time of day. I hope that will include eliminating the “peak-of-the-peak” rate for the height of rush hour. Advocates envisioned that in part as a congestion management technique, but it’s been just one more way of baffling tourists. Many transportation efforts fall below the ribbon-cutting scale in grandeur but still have a big impact on daily commuting, both as work zones and as completed projects. For 2012, they will include continued lane shifts and lane narrowings for Northwest Branch bridge rehabilitation on the Beltway, resurfacing of the Beltway between Arena Drive and D’Arcy Road, resurfacing of I-66 between the Beltway and Route 50, the beginning of the Washington Boulevard bridge over Columbia Pike, construction on the Linton Hall Road overpass at Route 29 in Gainesville, and a “Great Streets” safety and beautification project on Minnesota Avenue in D.C. There are plenty of transit and pathway projects that will benefit travelers. They include additional bus routes using the Intercounty Connector; the planned expansion of the Capital Bikeshare rental program, adding 50 stations and 500 bikes; construction of a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks to the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station; construction of a pedestrian bridge between the Minnesota Avenue Metro station and Kenilworth Avenue to the Parkside community; and construction of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail’s Kenilworth Gardens segment.

BUENOS AIRES — Some make the mistake of calling Juan Carlos Rennis’s school an academy, a word he associates with elitist institutions, blue blazers and snooty attitudes. “We’re a technical school,” Rennis, rector for 17 years, said with conviction. “We take people and teach them to do a job.” Rennis, a wiry man with a booming voice, wasn’t talking about plumbing or cabinet-making. But the job his 600 students are training for is one he considers of equal practical value — and far greater emotional significance — to the country: reporting the latest scores, trades, contract talks, back-office negotiations and other minutiae of the most Argentine of passions, sports. In metropolitan Buenos Aires alone, there are about a dozen institutions like the 51-year-old Superior School of Sports Journalism that Rennis runs, each year churning out hundreds of sportswriters, play-by-play broadcasters, color commentators, camera operators, Web designers and sports analysts. “I don’t know if there’s another place in the world that has so many of these schools,” said Roberto Bermudez, a teacher at the Superior School. In some ways, it’s easy to see why the “colegios deportivos,” or sports schools, thrive here, replacing university journalism departments for anyone who dreams of covering sports, particularly soccer, or futbol, as it is known. The country is sports-mad. Take Buenos Aires: Although big U.S. metropolitan areas — New York, say, or Chicago — may boast of two football teams and two baseball clubs, the Argentine capital and its suburbs have a dozen first division soccer clubs, each with its own stadium. That means fans, lots of them, who require clear reporting on the latest twist in a complex schedule of matches and championships that even an aficionado can have trouble keeping straight. And it’s not just the games. The machinations of Argentine soccer’s scandal- plagued governing body here, the Argentine Football Federation, provide constant fodder for sports radio and TV and the front page of the city’s newspapers. “Yes, the passion for soccer in Argentina is exaggerated,” said Miguel Angel Vicente, sports editor at the country’s biggest paper, Clarin. “It occupies a space that it shouldn’t. But this is the way we are, and hopefully one day, we’ll change and lower our temperature for this.” Aside from mainstream media, the soccer teams themselves — at least those in the first division — each have two or more affiliated radio stations and Web sites providing blanket coverage. Many of those who work there refined their vocation at the sports schools. Among the recent graduates of the Superior School is Adrian Michelena, 22, who is held up as the latest success story. Upon getting his diploma, he found himself overseas, covering the Argentina rugby team’s international matches for Clarin. “The preparation they give you is really precise,” Michelena said of his training. “The rules, the techniques, the tactics and also the strategy. They teach you to know each one of the sports, the most minuscule of details.” Although the focus is soccer, all sports that Argentines follow are given attention: basketball, polo, rugby, horse-racing, volleyball. Rennis said 22 sports are covered in 18 different classes. “Nine of 10 graduates will work in soccer,” he said. “But maybe 10 percent can make a niche covering something else. What if some editor says, ‘Okay, who can go cover the South American bocce championship?’ ” The school’s administrators point out that the curriculum goes well beyond games and jocks and scores. There are also classes in philosophy, linguistics and languages to round out the students during the three years, on average, they will spend at the school. “This school has a program that’s very broad, very humanistic,” Bermudez said. Still, on a recent night, most of the chatter in the classrooms was soccer-related. Bermudez taught his class how to analyze a game on live television. In a packed basement classroom, Juan Pablo Peralta, a 32-year-old teacher, alumnus and member of a third-division soccer team, expounded on the intricacies of tactics. Next door, another group of students were putting on a mock radio show, highlighting scores and trades. Paulo Stepper’s turn as mock host was clumsy, his teacher pointed out to him afterward. But Stepper, 25, was undaunted. He explained that he had been a bored accounting student before he transferred to the sports school. He now dreams of one day recounting the day’s games for readers of a major newspaper. “This is hard, yes,” he said. “But with practice, you can get over your fears and surprise yourself.” **More world news coverage:** Russia arrests New Year’s protesters Maliki marks end of U.S.-Iraq pact In Egypt, an act of courage that launched a revolution Read more headlines from around the world

Iran is quietly seeking to expand its ties with Latin America in what U.S. officials and regional experts say is an effort to circumvent economic sanctions and gain access to much-needed markets and raw materials. The new diplomatic offensive, which comes amid rising tensions with Washington and European powers, includes a four-nation swing through South and Central America this month by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His government has vowed to increase its economic, political and military influence in the United States’ back yard. The visit reinforces recent commitments by Iran to invest millions of dollars in economic development projects for the region, from a mining joint venture in Ecuador to factories for petrochemicals and small-arms ammunition in Venezuela. Iran has also dramatically expanded its diplomatic missions throughout the hemisphere and dispatched members of its elite Quds Force — the military unit U.S. officials in October linked to a foiled assassination plot in Washington — to serve in its embassies, U.S. officials and Iran experts say. The importance of Ahmadinejad’s visit was underscored last week by Iran’s state-owned Press TV, which said promotion of “all-out cooperation with Latin American countries is among the top priorities of the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy.” Iran has dispatched a stream of lower-ranking officials to the region in recent months. Ahmadinejad granted a live interview Dec. 13 with Venezuela’s state-owned broadcaster TeleSUR in which he hailed the close ties between the two countries and boasted of Iran’s advances in military technology, including unmanned drones. “No one dares attack Iran,” Ahmadinejad said in the interview. With its latest outreach, Iran appears to be seeking to woo back Latin American countries that have grown wary of doing business with Tehran. Iran’s closest ally in the region, Venezuela, had its largest petroleum company hit with U.S. sanctions last year over its ties with Iran. Smaller countries such as Nicaragua and Bolivia have seen little of the millions of dollars in aid promised by Iranian officials over the past decade. But with Western nations threatening to boycott Iranian oil, the country’s leaders are scrambling to find willing foreign partners who can soften the blow of sanctions and provide diplomatic cover for Iran’s nuclear ambitions, current and former U.S. officials say. “Iran has been actively working for years to expand its ties and influence in the Western Hemisphere, and it has found willing partners in the region’s anti-American despots,” said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Ros-Lehtinen said she was disturbed by Ahmadinejad’s plans for what she called a “tour of tyrants,” saying it would bring “the Iranian threat closer to our shores.” The visit is expected to include Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba and Nicaragua, where the Iranian president will be a guest at the inauguration of newly reelected leader Daniel Ortega. Yet Iran’s efforts in the region also have yielded disappointments. Its Latin American partners do far more business with the United States and other Western nations than with Iran, and most have been reluctant to fully back the Islamic republic in disputes over sanctions or curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. Some would-be allies also have been disappointed when Iran failed to deliver on promised development projects and joint ventures, such a proposed $350 million deep-water port for Nicaragua. A report released in November by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, questioned whether Iran ever could succeed at building an effective support network in the region, even if it managed to make good on its grandiose commitments. “While Iran’s overtures to peripheral states have the potential to weaken U.S. attempts to contain and isolate Iran, Tehran’s web is fragile and possibly illusory,” the CSIS report said. Iran’s ambitions in the region date back at least two decades, and Tehran was linked in the 1990s to two bombings of Jewish centers, including Argentina’s worst-ever terrorist attack in 1994. Relations between Iran and Latin America began to warm shortly after the 2005 election of Ahmadinejad, who made the region a diplomatic priority. Iran has since opened six new missions there — in Colombia, Nicaragua, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay and Bolivia — and has expanded embassies in Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela. Former U.S. intelligence officials say the presence of Quds Force officers and other military personnel in diplomatic missions enhances Iran’s ability to carry out covert activities, sometimes in conjunction with members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group that operates extensive networks in Latin America and maintains ties with drug cartels. U.S. officials say the Quds Force was behind the alleged plot to hire Mexican drug gangs to assassinate a Saudi diplomat in Washington. “For Iran to be so active in Venezuela and for the Quds Force to be there can only suggest Iran is serious about asymmetrical force projection into our neck of the woods. If Israel bombs Iran, we may well see retaliatory strikes aimed at U.S. interests coming from these Quds Force guys in South America,” said Art Keller, a former case officer with the CIA’s counterproliferation division. As diplomatic relations have grown between Iran and Latin America, trade has soared. Iran recently surpassed Russia as the biggest importer of beef from Brazil, a country that saw its exports to Iran surge seven-fold over the past decade to an annual level of $2.12 billion. Commerce with Argentina has climbed nearly as rapidly. Trade with Ecuador leaped from $6 million to $168 million in a single year, from 2007 to 2008. Analysts argue that an expanded foothold in Latin America also could provide Iran with strategic advantages in its protracted struggle with Western powers. In Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez is an avowed supporter of Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, Iran has opened bank branches and transportation companies that U.S. officials say enable Iran to circumvent sanctions. One Iranian-owned bank drew special scrutiny in a study commissioned by the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency. The study, released in May, described Venezuela’s Banco Internacional de Desarrollo as an “opaque” institution with an all-Iranian board of trustees. The bank, which is now under U.S. sanctions for supporting terrorist networks, operates with only a single branch in Caracas and appears immune from oversight by the country’s regulators, according to the report’s author, Douglas Farah, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center. Such institutions “afford Iran and its proxy elements state cover and effective immunity for its covert activities,” Farah said in testimony in July to the House Homeland Security subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence. Through them, Iran can achieve such goals as “unfettered access to global banking facilities, ports and airports; mining of precursor elements for WMD and advanced weapons systems fabrication; and a regional base for infiltration and contingency operations aimed at undermining the United States and its interests,” Farah said. More world news coverage: India’s drug trials fuel controversy Iran claims nuclear fuel advance Argentine sports obsession sprouts sportswriter schools Read more headlines from around the world

Gyms have been the answer to a tricky question for commercial real estate owners and developers in downtown Washington: Who wants to rent space in the basement? Typically there are few stores willing to rent space underground. Even with sidewalk-level signage, a lack of display windows is less than ideal for retailers who rely on visibility to attract a certain number of customers. Some restaurants and bars are willing to rent space underground for their kitchen, storage and the like, but often only when at least their entrance and sometimes a portion of their seating is on the main floor. Gyms, with their membership-based clientele, some need for privacy and willingness to line their walls with mirrors, have been perfect for filling basements. High-rise apartment, condo and office builders have stuffed their self-operated gyms in the basement, and in the densest real estate markets of Washington, brand-name gyms frequently take space underground, sometimes nearly entirely underground. Consider the Results Gym at Farragut Square, the Washington Sports Club at Gallery Place or the L.A. Fitness in White Flint. But that dynamic may be changing. Although many gyms will continue to be underground, some developers are renting or reserving space for them in parts of their buildings that afford natural light and — in some cases — a decent view. This is happening for a number of reasons, according to developers and leasing brokers. First, the sagging retail market has allowed some gyms to afford above-ground or street-level space that they could not have before. This also aided the rapid growth of some independent chains with new and different fitness and health concepts. Vida Fitness recently opened a U Street location last year with a rooftop “Penthouse Club,” featuring a private pool, fire pit and bar. Washington is one of the only markets in the country where the fitness industry continues to expand, according to John Bemis, executive vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle, and gyms in the area are moving aggressively in the slow economy. “They’re taking advantage of not only lower rental rates, but they’re taking advantage of opportunities for better locations,” Bemis said. Bemis said cost-friendly gyms such as Planet Fitness and the YMCA are faring well, alongside upscale gyms such as Equinox, which he said caters to people who “were not as negatively affected by the recession.” Another factor in the growth here is Washington’s highly competitive apartment market, in which developers are racing to build or renovate new units in order to take advantage of rising rents and low vacancy rates. The race for top rental dollars has some apartment builders and managers emphasizing better fitness experiences for residents as a way of distinguishing their buildings. StonebridgeCarras, the developer who recently built Flats 130 at Constitution Square, a mixed-use apartment project in NoMa, put its two-story gym on the second and third floors, allowing members to look out on the street while they exercise. JBG Rosenfeld, which is building a mixed-use Tysons Corner project with a new Wal-Mart store, is putting a 24 Hour Fitness Health Club on top. JBG plans to build apartments for the project in future phases. Greystar, the country’s largest manager of apartment units, is entering the Washington market for the first time and putting a heavy emphasis on quality gym space in its efforts to upgrade apartment properties and attract higher rents. In October, after Greystar announced a number of local acquisitions, Kevin Sheehan, managing director for local real estate, said building the biggest and most quality gym possible in apartment buildings would be key in beating the market.

It used to be that a T-shirt and pair of sweats was the outfit de jour at the gym. These days fitness apparel, much like workouts, have become more sophisticated. There are shirts with ventilation panels, pants with thermal lining and they all can be found in the Washington area. Dozens of speciality stores, including Lululemon and Lucy, have sprung up around town to cater to a growing health-conscious population. In 2011 alone, Modell’s Sporting Goods opened in Columbia Heights, Althleta debuted in Georgetown and City Sports took up an address in Silver Spring. Outdoor gear and apparel retailer Recreational Equipment Inc., or REI, is putting the finishing touches on a location in Woodbridge set to open later this year. “The D.C. area has a young, affluent and highly educated population that is much more health conscious than other places in the country,” said Cushman & Wakefield broker David Dochter, who represented Athleta in the Georgetown deal. “It’s a perfect culmination of the characteristics that retailers and gyms want.” Area demographics were a huge draw for Boston-based retailer City Sports, said the company’s executive vice president of merchandising, Michael Mosca. The company has opened five locations inside the Beltway in eight years. “This market has been good to us,” Mosca said. “We’re definitely open to additional locations if the opportunity is there.” City Sports carries an assortment of indoor and outdoor workout gear. Mosca said attire for running and cycling are especially popular, though general fitness wear continues to fly off of the shelves. Growing interest in a wide variety of athletic activities has kept the fitness apparel industry humming with an estimated $34.5 billion in sales in 2011, a 6.7 percent increase from the prior year, according to research firm IBIS World. Speciality stores aren’t the only ones ringing up sales for workout wear. Big-box retailers Target and Wal-Mart sell discount lines, while women’s apparel stores, such as Victoria’s Secret, Bebe and Forever 21, now are offering athletic wear. “It’s not just Nike or Adidas anymore,” said Janet Shim, a retail analyst at IBIS World. “Traditional women’s apparel stores are expanding their product lines to accommodate their customers.” Despite the crowded field of contenders, Shim asserts that oversaturation is not eminent because “more people are wearing sports apparel as everyday clothing, and that’s a growth opportunity for retailers.” Brand loyalty, however, will be key to growth.

The popularity of yoga has prompted some studios to devise unique business models to differentiate themselves in this crowded field. After months of management changes, Stroga, the nearly 2-year-old hybrid yoga studio in Adams Morgan, is starting to catch on. “When I came on [in June 2011], Stroga wasn’t really that well respected in the yoga community,” said Angela Meyer, yoga and programs director at Stroga. “Now, we have a name.” Stroga, the brainchild of Results Gym owner Doug Jefferies, is a cross between yoga and strength training. The studio, housed in the three-story L’Aiglon Building, has added classes for kickboxing, capoeira and budokon — a blend of yoga, martial arts and animal movements — and this year will start a new teacher training program. Revenue has grown by 50 percent and membership has doubled between 2010 and 2011. The studio’s core team consists of Meyer, a general manager, accountant and assistant yoga director, and 10 part-time front office staff. And it faces the same challenges as any burgeoning business looking to grow and evolve, including turnover — Stroga is on its third general manager and second yoga director. Managers also sometimes have had a difficult time finding top talent in a market filled with independent yoga instructors and successful studios. Jefferies first tried to hire Meyer as his yoga director last year, but at the time she had a noncompete contract with Down Dog Yoga in Georgetown, where she taught and managed for years. Meyer then moved to New York for a year, returned to Washington in June and promptly accepted the job at Stroga, which she says brought new opportunities to create and develop programs on her own terms. “I really wanted to start a budokon program,” Meyer said. “I also wanted to be able to teach budokon, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that at Down Dog. At Stroga, Doug trusts me, and he’s given me so much freedom to create.” Stroga strives to become a community hub, and partners with the nonprofit Mission: Results to promote social and economic development in Haiti. The studio hosts donation-based Sunday night classes where all proceeds go to Mission: Results, and is organizing its first Haiti yoga relief trip later this month, which will bring 10 instructors and volunteers to teach English, hold daily yoga sessions and build a small farm and community center in the impoverished nation.

_Thomas Heath is away, but we still found some things of interest to pass on until he returns._ When Jeremy Farber launched his company 10 years ago under the name Miami Computers, the moniker was a bit of a misnomer. After all, its headquarters was actually in upstate New York. Today, the Chantilly-based firm is called PC Recycler but even that name isn’t a perfect fit. Farber’s company doesn’t just discard old electronics, it first wipes their data and shreds them into confetti. “A couple of our big customers early on were big government contractors and they loved us, but they were really interested in information security,” Farber said. “It was a very big priority to them, more so than the environmental aspect of it.” The latest tool in that effort is a $100,000 machine that allows the firm to destroy equipment faster through a process called degaussing. Essentially the magnetic field that allows a device to store data is eliminated, and the data is taken along with it. There’s no shortage of devices to demolish as cybersecurity concerns continue to trouble government and commercial entities alike, Farber said. Though most security efforts are aimed at a device that’s in use, he said the risks don’t necessarily end once it’s unplugged. “Because a lot of the attacks come over the Net it gets a lot of publicity, but there are just as many breaches that happen through physical loss,” he said. “A lot of people don’t understand that the information is just as accessible once the device is offline.” **— Steven Overly** Pottery Barn has been added to the growing list of merchants vacating Friendship Heights. The home furnishings store notified customers last week that its location at Chevy Chase Pavilion will close on Jan. 16., making it the third retailer in the area, after Borders and Filene’s Basement, to turn off the lights in the past 12 months. Officials at Williams-Sonoma, which owns Pottery Barn and West Elm, were not available for comment. No other Pottery Barn stores are slated to close, according Williams-Sonoma’s most recent regulatory filings. Pottery Barn, with 7 percent increase in revenues in the third quarter, has been leading the company’s sales growth. The home furnishing store has locations in Clarendon, Tysons Corner and White Flint. The store at the Pavilion, located at 5335 Wisconsin Ave. NW, occupies two floors. It’s unclear whether Akridge Real Estate Services, which owns the nine-story complex, has another tenant lined up for the space, since the company did not return calls for comment. **— Danielle Douglas** When Lowe’s, the home improvement chain, pulled out of plans to anchor a development in Baltimore in October, it prompted concerns that the chain also would opt against opening a store on New York Avenue in a planned development in Northeast Washington where Wal-Mart also has agreed to open a new location. Both projects have the same developer, Rick Walker, and Walker had long pitched the plan of building the Wal-Mart store on top of a home improvement big box on New York Avenue at the corner of Bladensburg Road, just as he planned to build a Wal-Mart store above a Lowe’s in Baltimore. Walker is no longer marketing his New York Avenue project, called the Pointe at Arbor Place, as having a home improvement store. He says he is juggling his tenant mix and is attempting to attract a national pet supplies chain to his project. Wal-Mart says it is still committed to the site. Lowe’s still appears to be coming to New York Avenue, however, but to the Shops at Dakota Crossing, a development planned down the road by Fort Lincoln and Trammell Crow Co. That project recently lost a commitment from Target but now has a commitment from Lowe’s, according to a person familiar with the deal. Hagans declined to discuss Lowe’s but said the development team recently inked a deal with TD Bank to finance construction. A Lowe’s spokeswoman declined to comment. **— Jonathan O’Connell** The Department of Veterans Affairs’ inspector general said in a report released last month that the agency showed a potential bias toward incumbent Booz Allen Hamilton, the McLean-based contractor, in its acquisition of support services for its information security and privacy programs. The acquisition, which was awarded in late September 2010, favored Booz Allen by making knowledge of VA procedures and practices a significant selection factor without making clear in the solicitation it would be important. Though Booz Allen’s proposal cost the most, its knowledge and experience helped it win the decision, said the IG memo, which was first reported by NextGov. The VA’s acquisition office generally disagreed with the inspector general’s findings. In a statement, Booz Allen said the report “was not directly focused on actions by Booz Allens itself, and we have no comment on its conclusions.” **— Marjorie Censer** Malika Levarlet, a Washington-based associate at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, is getting kudos for being the first lawyer at the firm’s D.C. outpost to take on a political asylum case through the human rights nonprofit Human Rights First. The firm awarded Levarlet, a corporate lawyer and American University law alumna, its Pro Bono Attorney of the Year award, an annual honor recognizing attorneys’ community service work. Levarlet worked closely with a woman who was forced to flee her native Cameroon after advocating for transparent elections and equal access to health care for prisoners to gain political asylum in the United States. Her efforts helped Sheppard Mullin nab the Frankel Award from Human Rights First, which goes to law firms taking on asylum cases on behalf of clients from dozens of countries. **— Catherine Ho**

The District government has selected two restaurant operators to open locations in a city office building in the Benning neighborhood of Northeast Washington, in what could serve as a test-run for bringing new food options to the area around St. Elizabeths Hospital. The D.C. Department of General Services chose the two restaurant operators in December to fill 4,500 square feet in the ground floor of the Minnesota-Benning Government Center, a 232,000-square-foot, five-story office building at 4058 Minnesota Ave. NE that houses the city’s jobs agency, the Department of Employment Services. The first is Cohn’s Hospitality and Management Academy, a café and job training program founded by restaurateur Paul J. Cohn. Cohn’s company, Capital Restaurant Concepts, is behind J. Paul’s and Georgia Brown’s. Cohn would open next door to the 1,500-square-foot Eclectic Café, a new restaurant concept from the former owners of East River Bagel, a fixture of Minnesota Avenue until its closing in 2011. Under Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D), the District has targeted retail and hospitality as industries to find opportunities for unemployed residents — particularly in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River, where unemployment and poverty rates run higher than elsewhere in the city. If the deals for restaurants in the Minnesota-Benning Government Center are successful, they could provide a blueprint for how the city government might deliver restaurants and retail to areas around St. Elizabeths Hospital, where a new headquarters for the U.S. Coast Guard is being built for 3,700 employees, but where there are few jobs or places to eat lunch. Cohn’s restaurant would be part culinary and part workforce education. For a year or more he has planned a culinary and hospitality institute that would offer training for District teens interested in learning kitchen management, purchasing, marketing and accounting. Darrell Pressley, a spokesman for the general services agency, said the culinary institute would fill 3,000 square feet of the building and work closely with the jobs agency to employ District residents. “In partnership with [the Department of Employment Services], D.C. youth and young adults will be hired to take part in an 18-plus month program where they learn the skills necessary to run a restaurant,” Pressley said in an e-mail. The agency issued a solicitation for interested restaurateurs in September, 10 months after the building was completed. The Cohn and Eclectic concepts beat out TD Burger Bar, Wise Counsel LLC and PTC, which does business as Roadside Café. Both selected businesses would have to agree to leases with the city. The solicitation calls for a lease of at least three years at a rate of $20 a square foot or more. ****

As any new resident to our region can attest, apartments within walking distance of a Metro station charge a premium in monthly rent, one that renters appear willing to pay. And no wonder, according to a recent report, Washingtonians suffered through the worst traffic congestion in the nation in 2010, losing an average of 74 hours a year sitting in traffic, costing an average of nearly $1,500 a person. These high transportation costs make many apartment renters more than willing to pay higher rent to be able to walk to a Metro station and avoid the frequently gridlocked highways on their daily commutes. To calculate how much more, we analyzed two sets of apartments from a sample of the region’s apartment property inventory. One group included those located within one-half mile of a Metro station, and a second included those located farther than one-half mile from a station. According to this analysis, Washingtonians have consistently paid more in rent to live within walking distance of a Metro stop, even throughout the recent downturn. Of course, countless other factors affect apartment rents, the age and quality of the property, safety of the neighborhood and proximity to employment and retail nodes, to name just a few. But this clearly shows that transit-oriented development remains in strong demand in D.C. Zooming in a little closer to the submarket level, the trend still holds true. In the District, apartments within walking distance of Metro command 28 percent more in rent than those farther from transit stations. In the Northern Virginia, Inner Beltway and Montgomery County submarkets, the premiums are even higher, both near 40 percent in the third quarter of 2011. While Prince George’s County offered the most affordable Metro-walkable apartments in the region, rents there are still 11 percent higher than those for properties located farther from Metro stations in the same submarket. No individual submarket has a premium as high as the metrowide average because submarkets with no Metro stations (Loudoun County, outlying Maryland counties and outlying Virginia counties) have rents on the lower end of the spectrum, pulling down the non-Metro-walkable aggregate at the metro level. While the apartment rent premium in Fairfax County is the smallest at about 9 percent, the county currently only has two Metro stations, in Vienna and Dunn Loring. When the first phase of the Silver Line increases Metro service in the county in 2013 or 2014, apartments located near the new stations should command above-average rents based on the trends in other submarkets. Stephanie Hession is a senior real estate economist with CoStar Group in Washington.

A black punching bag hovers alongside the desk in Grant Verstandig’s office. A pair of worn sneakers rest on the arm of a white, modular sofa. Overhead, a photo of a hulking Muhammad Ali hangs from the wall. If it weren’t for the panoramic view of the Georgetown waterfront, this space could be mistaken for a college dorm room. Perhaps that’s fitting for the 22-year-old chief executive ofAudax Health, a start-up that blends social media with health care. The company has been Verstandig’s brainchild since the District native endured a spate of intensive knee surgeries to correct sports-induced injuries. It’s banner product, called Careverge, will make a public debut next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Careverge users answer a series of questions about their health history that range from daily dietary habits to specific chronic illnesses. The site allows them to anonymously read relevant Web resources, connect with similar users and set health goals. Audax plans to market Careverge as a benefit for companies to offer employees. But while Washington has become home to a crop of 20-something entrepreneurs with ambitious plans to launch businesses, Audax may stand out for the seasoned lineup of mentors Verstandig has managed to recruit to its board. John Sculley, the former chief executive of Pepsi and Apple, has been a financial backer and business adviser since May 2011. He had been hunting for a health care investment when a business contact introduced him to Audax. From the health arena, Verstandig has brought on Dr. Richard Klausner, former executive director for global health of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and director of the National Cancer Institute from 1995 to 2001. Klausner, who worked with Verstandig’s mother in the Clinton administration, also introduced him to the health and science fields as a high school student through summer work at the National Institutes of Health. Also on the board are Roger W. Ferguson Jr., president and chief executive of retirement services provider TIAA-CREF, and John Wallis Rowe, the former chairman and chief executive of insurance firm Aetna. Verstandig said the makings of the business really began in his Brown University dorm room where, while laid up after a knee operation, he began to compile a list of industry contacts. Then through social media, e-mail and telephone calls, he began to network. “The candid truth is spending a lot of time not being able to move made you focus,” said Verstandig, who would later drop out to focus on the company full time. His persistence and charm — it’s clear Verstandig can talk his way through almost any social situation — impressed Sculley. During their meeting, Sculley twice asked Verstandig to name his biggest mistake. His response — setting unrealistic expectations and misreading progress — aren’t uncommon for first-time entrepreneurs. “In every case, except this one, I always work with serial entrepreneurs,” Sculley said. “I said, ‘Gee, this violates everything I said I’m going to do. I’m not going to work with people who have never built companies before and yet here is a guy who resembles in some ways Steve Jobs and Bill Gates when they were in their 20s.’” For a maturity beyond his years, Verstandig certainly looks his age. Smelling of cologne and wearing a V-neck sweater and dark denim jeans, his office attire could transition easily to a bar in Foggy Bottom. But casual is to be expected at a company like Audax. Ping-pong tables, remote-control helicopters and oversized bean-bag chairs are just a few of the start-up staples that the company makes available to its 55 employees. Verstandig admits that his position has come with a steep learning curve, particularly as a first-time CEO without any prior business experience or education. “Back in the early days I did everything myself because I thought I could do it faster, better, quicker, but now I just hire people who are smarter and hire people who are more experienced,” he said. And then there are challenges beyond his control. Health care can be a notoriously stubborn market where attempts at innovation become bogged down by bureaucracy, regulation and big business. “You have to be acutely aware of all those things that are swirling around, but at the end of the day, one thing I’ve learned from my mentors is you can’t control what you can’t control,” Verstandig said. Timing, however, may be on the company’s side. Verstandig and Sculley both believe that health care reform at the federal level combined with other initiatives to revamp the system make now an opportune moment for a company like Audax to make a strong play. “I am absolutely convinced that the health care problem that we have in the economy will eventually be solved largely by innovation from the private sector and not the government,” Sculley said.

Washington area banks sold fewer troubled loans in the first nine months of the year, despite a continued inflow of distressed assets, according to data from Charlottesville-based research firm SNL Financial. The 43 local banks the firm reviewed disposed of a total of $228 million in nonaccrual loans — those 90 days past due — through the end of September, leaving $1.5 billion in troubled assets sitting on their books. A year earlier, those same institutions traded $517 million in problem loans, with a total $1.6 billion in bad debt remaining. Keep in mind that the numbers are skewed because of the inclusion of Capital One Financial Corp. The McLean-based behemoth accounts for more than 75 percent of all the nonaccrual loans and more than 90 percent of the asset sales in the area for both years. Excluding Capital One, local sales of troubled assets declined by roughly 12 percent to $12.4 million, while the universe of distressed debt grew about 8 percent to $360.6 million at the end of September. Some area banks no longer may feel an urgency to off-load problem loans as asset values in the Washington area have largely stabilized, said David G. Danielson, president of Danielson Associates, a banking consultant firm in Bethesda. “Asset values, in some cases, have stabilized at a level that’s still below what they were written out to on the banks’ books,” he said. “So banks are still reluctant to sell them and take the hit to capital, but they feel much better, particularly in the Washington area, about their ability to work out [distressed loans] with little or no loss.” Banking consultant Bert Ely agreed that more banks may be entertaining loan modification under the assumption that they will take less of a loss than if they sell at the bottom of the market. “They think prices are going to go up and there will be a recovery in values,” he said. “The thing about that is it’s a judgment call, and bankers don’t always get it right.” Holding on to problem loans as the volume continues to rise seems counterintuitive. But many local banks have stashed away enough cash in reserves to offset loan losses. The current volume of troubled loans, though edging up, remains much lower than in 2009 at the height of the banking crisis. A majority of area banks, having logged record profits this year, are healthy enough to withstand an uptick in problem loans and hold off on asset sales. Others, however, may lack the financial capacity to clean up their balance sheet. “If a bank is having trouble, they will hold off on selling assets because that makes them recognize a loss,” Ely said. “And many times the loss is more than what they reserved for, and so they’ll drag their feet.” Meanwhile, there were some significant jumps in noncurrent loans this year. The Industrial Bank of the District, for instance, logged a 34 percent year-over-year increase to $16.1 million in problem loans. Alliance Bank nearly tripled its portfolio of nonaccrual loans to $10 million through the first nine months of the year. However, the Chantilly-based bank was among the most active sellers this year, clearing $725,000 in problem loans off of its books. There were a number of banks that bucked the prevailing trend and cleared a higher percentage of problem loans off of their books this year. Cardinal Bank of Tysons Corner, for example, traded $3.5 million in distressed assets through the end of the third quarter, a 15.5 percent increase over the prior year. Herndon-based MainStreet Bank sold a little over $1 million in troubled loans, though its total nonaccrual loans shot up to $4.9 million at the end of September. “Some banks, particularly if they’ve been in a turnaround mode, want to clear the debt and eliminate the distraction that a lot of problem assets cause,” Ely said. A few banks have experienced an overall drop in distressed assets. Vienna-based Business Bank, for instance, whittled its noncurrent loans down from $1.8 million at the end of September 2010 to $576,000 this year. The bank sold $533,000 in problem loans this year, compared to $1 million through the end of September. Virginia Heritage of Fairfax also recorded a decline in total nonaccrual loans, from $1.2 million through September 2010 to $435,000 for the same period this year. Distressed assets at WashingtonFirst Bank dwindled from $7.5 million at the end of the third quarter of 2010 to $3.5 million at the end of September 2011.

****The first quarter of fiscal 2012 got off to an all-too-familiar start, with federal agencies operating under a series of short-term continuing resolutions, instead of year-long budgets. Still, that didn’t stop agencies from awarding contracts worth more than $45 billion. With budgets now in place, that pace likely will speed up. Deltek has identified more than 3,500 solicitations worth up to $325 billion planned for release early this year. First, we take a look at some of the more notable contract awards from the first quarter: The **General Services Administration** awarded more than 20 contracts under its $5 billion Connections II contract vehicle. A recompetition of the original Connections contract, the program provides telecommunications infrastructure equipment and services. **Air Combat Command** awarded almost 30 contracts under its $4.7 billion Contract Advisory and Assistance Services IV vehicle, which covers technical assistance and systems engineering. The **Office of Personnel Management** awarded contracts to CACI, U.S. Investigations Services and KeyPoint Government Solutions for background investigation fieldwork services worth $2.5 billion. These contracts pay for the investigations needed to clear government employees and contractors for sensitive work. **Naval Air Systems Command** awarded its $2 billion Training Systems Contract III program, which supports Navy training systems, to more than 25 companies. Now agencies are readying to release thousands of solicitations in the second quarter of fiscal 2012. While it’s possible to predict release dates relatively accurately using historical trends and current data, it will never be perfect. That said, Deltek expects several major solicitations: The **Army** is planning to release a solicitation for logistics related services under a $23 billion program called EAGLE. The **Air Force** is readying a solicitation for training systems under the $20 billion Training Systems Acquisition III program. **Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command** is planning a $16 billion acquisition of secure single-channel tactical software-defined handheld radio systems. Under existing contracts, this equipment has been provided by Harris and Thales. The **Navy** is readying solicitations worth up to $10 billion for services related to implementing the Next Generation Enterprise Network. NGEN replaces the existing Navy network, NMCI, provided by HP Enterprise Services (formerly EDS). The **Army** is planning a $5 billion solicitation for computer equipment and related services under the ITES 3H program, which is meant to be the primary vehicle the Army uses to buy IT equipment. The **Department of Homeland Security** is set to release its $2 billion FirstSource 2 solicitation, which will replace First Source in providing the agency IT equipment, software and related services. First Source 2 will be set aside for small businesses. Already this fiscal year, there have been several pieces of legislation and policy relevant to government contractors: Most noteworthy was the passage of two appropriations bills, providing funding for federal agencies for the full 2012 fiscal year. In November, President Obama released a memorandum pushing for making federal records management more cost effective and transparent and for moving from paper to electronic records. That same month, Obama called on agencies to develop plans to reduce by 20 percent (from 2010 levels) their costs in areas like travel, mobile devices and printing. In December, Obama issued a memorandum directing agencies to implement energy conservation measures with a payback of less than 10 years. Specifically, he challenged them to award at least $2 billion in performance-based contracts designed to implement energy efficiency measures in government buildings. Kevin Plexico is vice president of federal information solutions at Herndon-based Deltek, which conducts research on the government contracting market.

Contractors are lining up for a rare opportunity to win a spot on a military radio program as the Army seeks to replace its cancelled ground mobile radio initiative. In the competitive and crowded field of military electronics, some companies are looking to partnerships to bolster their credentials. The Army late last year released a draft solicitation for the new effort, known as the multi-tier networking vehicular radio program. The winning contractor will be expected to build, integrate and test radio sets that will offer improved communication within vehicles. In a move to stake an early claim on the program, McLean-based ITT Exelis and Falls Church-based Northrop Grumman announced last month that they plan to partner on the effort. Northrop would lead the team and provide the radio system, while Exelis would support radio development and vehicle integration, among other elements. Greg Bublitz, director of business development for network communication systems at Northrop Grumman, said ITT made an attractive teammate in part because of its experience producing large numbers of radios and keeping costs low. The team likely will encounter plenty of competitors, said Loren Thompson, a defense industry consultant with the Lexington Institute, who forecasts some consolidation within the military electronics industry. “There aren’t very many big new starts in military electronics,” he said. “It’s really crucial for the leading companies to put together the strongest possible teams if they want to have a future.” General Dynamics is among those companies with plans to compete, said Chris Brady, vice president of assured communications for General Dynamics’s C4 systems unit. “It’s a significant opportunity to break into one of these funded programs,” he said. General Dynamics hasn’t decided whether it will be part of a team, said Brady, but the company certainly would be the prime contractor. Still, he said there are downsides to teaming. “A principal consideration here will be unit cost, and every time you add members to your team, you have to consider the ripple of [general and administrative expense] and markups,” Brady said. “That’s cost that you would be well served to avoid in a competition like this.” Company officials agree that price likely will be a key part of the evaluation criteria, along with meeting certain performance standards. “Affordability is going to be, I think, one of the keystone requirements,” said Dennis Moran, vice president for government business development in Harris’s radio communications unit, which also expects to participate in the competition. Given shrinking defense dollars and a large group of military electronics competitors, alliances will be one strategy companies use, Thompson said. The ITT and Northrop team “demonstrates the fluidity of the military electronics market,” he said, noting that the two are opponents in other competitions. “When the technologies and skills are fungible, the teams will coalesce and come apart with amazing agility depending on how opportunities emerge.”

In a lawsuit some have dubbed “Winklevoss Part II,” Facebook is getting sued by a former Mark Zuckerberg associate Paul Ceglia, who’s claiming 50 percent ownership of the world’s most famous social networking site. Ceglia is on his third set of lawyers, now being represented by Ohio attorney Dean Boland, since filing suit in 2010 (among those that have come and gone are mega-firm DLA Piper). Facebook is being defended by a five-lawyer team at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, including Washington partner Thomas Dupree, which intends to ask a judge to dismiss the case. Dupree, 41, cut his teeth as a young associate representing George W. Bush in _Bush v. Gore_ , the historic U.S. Supreme Court case that resolved the 2000 presidential election in Bush’s favor. He’s represented some of the world’s most recognizable companies, including Chrysler and Mattel, and served in the Justice Department from 2007 to 2009, eventually rising to second-in-command of the civil division. He talked to _Capital Business_ about how he and New York co-counsel Orin Snyder landed the Facebook account, and what it’s like working with Ted Olson — the senior Gibson Dunn partner who helped lead the legal challenge to California’s Proposition 8. _How did you and co-counsel Orin Snyder come to represent Facebook in the Ceglia case?_ **Thomas Dupree:** Gibson Dunn has previously represented Facebook in a number of matters, including before the Federal Trade Commission. Orin’s and my practice focuses on civil litigation, and we have experience in cases that attract media interest, so it was a natural fit. _Are you on Facebook?_ Yes. _Central to Ceglia’s claim is proving the age of the ink in the 2003 contract Ceglia says entitles him to a major stake in Facebook — if the document is real, the ink should be several years old. If it’s fake, as you argue, the ink should only be a year old. Your forensic experts think there are red flags about the document’s authenticity, like inconsistent margins, font size and font density. How did you find your experts?_ We wanted the best, so we retained some of the top document authentication experts in the country — experts who have worked for the Justice Department and have decades of forensic experience. (They include Frank Romano, a document origination expert, and Gus Lesnevich, a former forensic document examiner for the Secret Service.) _You’ve represented some big names in major litigation — Chrysler, George W. Bush, Time Inc. Is working with Facebook, which is powerful in a different way than many traditional corporations, any different?_ It is not particularly different. Facebook has a stellar team of in-house lawyers who are not just technologically savvy, but have terrific legal instincts and strategic judgment. _What are some new or interesting things you’ve learned from working this case?_ The entire lawsuit is an attempted shakedown. Paul Ceglia is trying to extort a settlement from Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg based on a fabricated contract and so-called e-mails he created out of whole cloth. (Boland, Ceglia’s attorney, is pushing back with fraud allegations of his own, saying Facebook lawyers are concealing evidence by withholding from the court content from several computers containing electronic communications by Zuckerberg. The contract was not forged, and its authenticity has been confirmed by several experts, Boland said.) _What was it like working on Bush v. Gore as a young associate?_ It was a very intense 36 days. Regular life pretty much came to a halt. We were writing briefs around the clock and always strategizing and trying to anticipate the next move. In retrospect, there was obviously some history to it, but at the time we were focused on winning the case. It was the most demanding pace of any matter in my professional career. I remember one night when I set the alarm for 3 a.m. so I could be up and have a new draft of a brief written by 6 a.m. _How did you get on that case, and what did you get out of it?_ I had the good fortune as a young associate to work with Ted Olson, who headed up our legal team. Ted has been a mentor to me over the course of my career, and is the gold standard for how a lawyer should conduct himself in public life.

Nearly a third of lawyers plan to make new hires in the first quarter of 2012, according to a quarterly hiring survey by legal staffing firm Robert Half Legal. Thirty-one percent of lawyers said they plan to add legal jobs in the first three months of the year — up from the 25 percent who projected hiring in the fourth quarter of 2011. Law firms are expected to do the majority of the hiring, and the strongest areas of growth are likely to be in bankruptcy and foreclosure, litigation and labor and employment. The survey interviewed 200 lawyers nationwide — 100 lawyers at law firms with at least 20 employees, and 100 corporate lawyers at companies with at least 1,000 employees — and the hiring outlook in the Washington region mirrors nationwide findings, said Jonathan Witmer, Robert Half Legal’s metro market manager for the District and Baltimore. “A majority of the lawyers we surveyed nationally and here in D.C. are feeling good about hiring,” he said. “Firms are being smarter about how and when they add personnel.” Law firms and in-house counsel in the region also are using more contract and temporary lawyers “that can get work done and be off the books until the next time the workload spikes,” Witmer said. Law firms continue to focus on hiring senior and partner-level lawyers with books of business and expertise in high-demand practice areas, said Robert Half Legal executive director Charles Volkert. He added that corporations also are hiring more legal staff in an ongoing effort to bring more work in-house and reduce outside legal spending. “General counsel are handling more matters internally in areas such as corporate transactional, labor and employment, intellectual property, litigation and regulatory law,” Volkert said. **** Dougherty previously was a consultant at B&D Consulting, the Indiana law firm’s lobbying group. He will counsel pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies in reimbursement strategies for products and technologies, Arent Fox announced in December.

Short takes on the week's announcements and deals. Rockville based defense contractor **Lockheed Martin** said it has been selected by the **National Science Foundation** to operate and maintain the support infrastructure for the U.S. Antarctic Program. The multi-year contract has a value of $2 billion. Silver Spring-based **United Therapeutics** has received approval in France for the intravenous use of Remodulin for treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Rockville-based **Neuralstem** has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to advance to Phase Ib in its ongoing clinical trial to test its neuroregenerative compound NSI-189 for the treatment of major depressive disorder. Four companies have received loans from the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp.: Annapolis-based Chesapeake Light Craft, $300,000; Annapolis-based OpinionWorks, $100,000; Glen Burnie-based Six C/D Associates, $35,000; and Glen Burnie-based Honey Bee Diner, $35,000.

Construction trucks hummed in the distance as Edens President Jodie McLean outlined plans for a Neiman Marcus Last Call Studio at Mosaic District, a collection of shops, offices and residences rising in Merrifield. “It’s only their second location in the area, after the store at Congressional Plaza,” she said, while flipping to a rendering of the 15,200-square-foot clothing store. “It’s going to be right at the main entrance on Lee Highway and District Avenue.” Neiman Marcus is the latest merchant to sign on at Mosaic, where Target and MOM’s Organic Market have agreed to fill some of the 350,000 square feet of retail set to open in October. That phase, one of four, also is to include an eight-screen theater run by Angelika Film Center, a New York City outfit that shows art house and mainstream films. “Right over there, behind the theater, is where we’ll have the outdoor screen that we can program for all kinds of community events,” McLean said, pointing to the side of a four-story structure facing what will be one of the project’s two parks. Across the way on Strawberry Lane and District Avenue, construction workers toiled on the 150-room Hotel Sierra, overlooking the site of a 7,000-square- foot Black’s Bar & Kitchen. The restaurant is to be one of several eateries, including Cava, Matchbox, Sweetgreen and Taylor Gourmet, opening in the fall. Residents of the 112 town homes being built by EYA and AvalonBay’s 531-unit apartment complex on the west end of the site will be able to walk to get dinner. “There were a lot of national restaurants interested, but it was important to us to bring unique food offerings that felt like they belonged to the community,” McLean said. She noted that a number of national apparel chains also wanted in on the project, but Edens opted for local boutiques such as Lou Lou and Dawn Price Baby. About 25 percent of the retail tenants are local. All told, the retail portion of the first phase of the project is about 80 percent pre-leased. Another 250,000 square feet of retail is to be opened piece by piece in the next three phases. “The retail makeup is something that we’ve probably spent more time on than anything from a merchandising standpoint,” said Steve Boyle, managing director at Edens. “There is a sameness to retailing that we wanted to avoid, and that sameness is manifesting itself in merchandising and design.” Every inch of Mosaic, he said, is designed to create a walkable cityscape that flows into the neighboring developments in Merrifield. Edens is creating a new grid of streets to allow traffic to flow in and out of the site, as well as 4,000 parking spaces in four above-ground parking garages. There is to be a bus to shuttle visitors over from the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station a half-mile away. The Mosaic District Community Development Authority, an arm of Fairfax County, issued $66 million worth of bonds in June to finance the road and utility infrastructure. Edens is to repay the debt via future property taxes. “The project has the ability to transform and revitalize the area,” said Fairfax Supervisor Linda Smyth (D-Providence). “When I go out to civic association meetings, one of the first questions people ask me is, ‘What’s the latest on Merrifield?’ People are interested because they see this as an asset to their community. ” Mosaic is the outgrowth of a redevelopment plan that county officials introduced in 1998 to transform Merrifield from a semi-industrial mishmash into a mix of stores, homes and offices. Edens became involved in the project in 2004 by teaming with National Amusement, owner of the former movie theater site on which Mosaic is being built. They submitted a proposal just as the county approved Mill Creek Residential Trust’s retail and apartment project atop the Dunn Loring- Merrifield Metro station. When Mosaic got through the regulatory process, the project faced the turmoil of the recession, which made retailers apprehensive about making decisions, McLean said. Boston-based National Amusement even backed out of a deal to operate a theater. Edens bought National Amusement’s share of the development. Once the economy started to rebound, the pace of leasing picked up. Now it’s just a matter of filling the few remaining slots. McLean said two homegrown boutiques are close to signing on, but she said she wouldn’t share names until the ink was dry on the agreement.

It happens every new year. Too many slices of fruitcake are devoured, buttoning the pants gets a little harder and working out starts looking a whole lot better. Shedding a few pounds is one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions. Any gym can attest to the influx of snowbirds after the holidays. You know the folks, the ones who take over the elliptical machines in the dead of winter, but fly away in the spring. The Washington area, however, does have a healthy population of fitness buffs. So much so that the metropolitan area ranked as the healthiest and fittest place in the U.S. from 2008 to 2010, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. Minneapolis knocked our region out of the top spot last year because of the rise in smokers and cases of diabetes. Still, four out of five locals surveyed by the college reported exercising regularly. It’s no wonder that the Washington area is witnessing an explosion in gyms, yoga studios, running clubs and sports apparel stores in the past few years. We decided to take at how various segments of the local fitness industry are doing as the market is gaining more attention. It used to be that a T-shirt and pair of sweats was the outfit de jour at the gym. These days fitness apparel, much like workouts, have become more sophisticated. There are shirts with ventilation panels, pants with thermal lining and they all can be found in the Washington area. Dozens of speciality stores, including Lululemon and Lucy, have sprung up around town to cater to a growing health-conscious population. In 2011 alone, Modell’s Sporting Goods opened in Columbia Heights, Althleta debuted in Georgetown and City Sports took up an address in Silver Spring. Outdoor gear and apparel retailer Recreational Equipment Inc., or REI, is putting the finishing touches on a location in Woodbridge set to open later this year. “The D.C. area has a young, affluent and highly educated population that is much more health conscious than other places in the country,” said Cushman & Wakefield broker David Dochter, who represented Athleta in the Georgetown deal. “It’s a perfect culmination of the characteristics that retailers and gyms want.” Area demographics were a huge draw for Boston-based retailer City Sports, said the company’s executive vice president of merchandising, Michael Mosca. The company has opened five locations inside the Beltway in eight years. “This market has been good to us,” Mosca said. “We’re definitely open to additional locations if the opportunity is there.” City Sports carries an assortment of indoor and outdoor workout gear. Mosca said attire for running and cycling are especially popular, though general fitness wear continues to fly off of the shelves. Growing interest in a wide variety of athletic activities has kept the fitness apparel industry humming with an estimated $34.5 billion in sales in 2011, a 6.7 percent increase from the prior year, according to research firm IBIS World. Speciality stores aren’t the only ones ringing up sales for workout wear. Big-box retailers Target and Wal-Mart sell discount lines, while women’s apparel stores, such as Victoria’s Secret, Bebe and Forever 21, now are offering athletic wear. “It’s not just Nike or Adidas anymore,” said Janet Shim, a retail analyst at IBIS World. “Traditional women’s apparel stores are expanding their product lines to accommodate their customers.” Despite the crowded field of contenders, Shim asserts that oversaturation is not eminent because “more people are wearing sports apparel as everyday clothing, and that’s a growth opportunity for retailers.” Brand loyalty, however, will be key to growth. **— Danielle Douglas** Gyms have been the answer to a tricky question for commercial real estate owners and developers in downtown Washington: Who wants to rent space in the basement? Typically there are few stores willing to rent space underground. Even with sidewalk-level signage, a lack of display windows is less than ideal for retailers who rely on visibility to attract a certain number of customers. Some restaurants and bars are willing to rent space underground for their kitchen, storage and the like, but often only when at least their entrance and sometimes a portion of their seating is on the main floor. Gyms, with their membership-based clientele, some need for privacy and willingness to line their walls with mirrors, have been perfect for filling basements. High-rise apartment, condo and office builders have stuffed their self-operated gyms in the basement, and in the densest real estate markets of Washington, brand-name gyms frequently take space underground, sometimes nearly entirely underground. Consider the Results Gym at Farragut Square, the Washington Sports Club at Gallery Place or the L.A. Fitness in White Flint. But that dynamic may be changing. Although many gyms will continue to be underground, some developers are renting or reserving space for them in parts of their buildings that afford natural light and — in some cases — a decent view. This is happening for a number of reasons, according to developers and leasing brokers. First, the sagging retail market has allowed some gyms to afford above-ground or street-level space that they could not have before. This also aided the rapid growth of some independent chains with new and different fitness and health concepts. Vida Fitness recently opened a U Street location last year with a rooftop “Penthouse Club,” featuring a private pool, fire pit and bar. Washington is one of the only markets in the country where the fitness industry continues to expand, according to John Bemis, executive vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle, and gyms in the area are moving aggressively in the slow economy. “They’re taking advantage of not only lower rental rates, but they’re taking advantage of opportunities for better locations,” Bemis said. Bemis said cost-friendly gyms such as Planet Fitness and the YMCA are faring well, alongside upscale gyms such as Equinox, which he said caters to people who “were not as negatively affected by the recession.” Another factor in the growth here is Washington’s highly competitive apartment market, in which developers are racing to build or renovate new units in order to take advantage of rising rents and low vacancy rates. The race for top rental dollars has some apartment builders and managers emphasizing better fitness experiences for residents as a way of distinguishing their buildings. StonebridgeCarras, the developer who recently built Flats 130 at Constitution Square, a mixed-use apartment project in NoMa, put its two-story gym on the second and third floors, allowing members to look out on the street while they exercise. JBG Rosenfeld, which is building a mixed-use Tysons Corner project with a new Wal-Mart store, is putting a 24 Hour Fitness Health Club on top. JBG plans to build apartments for the project in future phases. Greystar, the country’s largest manager of apartment units, is entering the Washington market for the first time and putting a heavy emphasis on quality gym space in its efforts to upgrade apartment properties and attract higher rents. In October, after Greystar announced a number of local acquisitions, Kevin Sheehan, managing director for local real estate, said building the biggest and most quality gym possible in apartment buildings would be key in beating the market. **— Jonathan O’Connell** The popularity of yoga has prompted some studios to devise unique business models to differentiate themselves in this crowded field. After months of management changes, Stroga, the nearly 2-year-old hybrid yoga studio in Adams Morgan, is starting to catch on. “When I came on [in June 2011], Stroga wasn’t really that well respected in the yoga community,” said Angela Meyer, yoga and programs director at Stroga. “Now, we have a name.” Stroga, the brainchild of Results Gym owner Doug Jefferies, is a cross between yoga and strength training. The studio, housed in the three-story L’Aiglon Building, has added classes for kickboxing, capoeira and budokon — a blend of yoga, martial arts and animal movements — and this year will start a new teacher training program. Revenue has grown by 50 percent and membership has doubled between 2010 and 2011. The studio’s core team consists of Meyer, a general manager, accountant and assistant yoga director, and 10 part-time front office staff. And it faces the same challenges as any burgeoning business looking to grow and evolve, including turnover — Stroga is on its third general manager and second yoga director. Managers also sometimes have had a difficult time finding top talent in a market filled with independent yoga instructors and successful studios. Jefferies first tried to hire Meyer as his yoga director last year, but at the time she had a noncompete contract with Down Dog Yoga in Georgetown, where she taught and managed for years. Meyer then moved to New York for a year, returned to Washington in June and promptly accepted the job at Stroga, which she says brought new opportunities to create and develop programs on her own terms. “I really wanted to start a budokon program,” Meyer said. “I also wanted to be able to teach budokon, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that at Down Dog. At Stroga, Doug trusts me, and he’s given me so much freedom to create.” Stroga strives to become a community hub, and partners with the nonprofit Mission: Results to promote social and economic development in Haiti. The studio hosts donation-based Sunday night classes where all proceeds go to Mission: Results, and is organizing its first Haiti yoga relief trip later this month, which will bring 10 instructors and volunteers to teach English, hold daily yoga sessions and build a small farm and community center in the impoverished nation. **— Catherine Ho** That New Year’s pledge to shed a few extra pounds and kick up the exercise regimen might be best followed by a cold, frothy beer — at least that’s the ethos of NAKID Social Sports. One of Washington’s many adult recreation leagues, NAKID (which stands for No, Adult Kickball Isn’t Dumb) is a fitness haven for the decidedly unathletic. “The league started to really focus on the social aspects of sports, and to focus on the fact that we’re a bunch of adults playing a children’s game, so things shouldn’t be taken too seriously,” said Erin Reilly, executive vice president for events. There’s a decent business to be made of children’s games it seems. Last year, the league attracted 10,000 participants from around the region to play kickball, volleyball, dodgeball and, most recently, flag football. But the big draw for many of those who take part is the post-game trek to a nearby bar. Reilly said the league regularly hosts professional game nights, movie screenings and parties — all of which drive traffic to other neighborhood businesses. Tucked in the shadow of the Capitol, My Brother’s Place used to close its doors on Sundays. It’s not a busy day for the nearby government employees that have kept its business humming for 31 years . But the NAKID began hosting outdoor sports on the mall, and sending players to belly up to the bar. Now, when the league is in season, Sundays draw a rambunctious crowd sporting a rainbow of league T-shirts. “For us it’s been very good, especially in the summer months,” said co-owner and events coordinator Martin Scahill. “Because we’re only located one block from the mall, it gives them a place to come that’s easy walking distance to get affordable drinks and food.” Reilly said the league negotiates discounts for its members and requires that the bars serve Bud Light, one of the league’s primary sponsors. NAKID also has partnerships with D.C. United, the Wizards and the Capitals for discounted game nights. For the businesses, the arrangement brings new customers. “It’s a very transient area,” Scahill said. “Lots of young professionals are moving in and out of the area. It gives them an opportunity to interact and see what’s going on.” **— Steven Overly** Sales for the fitness apparel industry worldwide in 2011, up 6.7 percent from 2010, according to research firm IBIS World.

The payroll tax debate on Capitol Hill is putting a spotlight on taxes for everyone in 2012, but especially employers. While many of us like to avoid knowing too many of the details about how much we pay in taxes and where all the money goes, area employers should take note of the known new taxes that they’ll be paying in the new year to budget for the increases. For the past two years, payroll tax credits and tax cuts have benefitted both employers and employees. In 2010, Congress provided tax credits to employers for hiring new employees and in 2011 reduced the employees’ share of the payroll tax by two percent. That means American workers making $50,000 kept an extra $1,000 in their pocket. Last month, President Obama signed into law a two-month extension of the current two percent reduced employee rate with the hopes of making it effective for the full year. Regardless of what Congress ultimately decides with the payroll tax, there are a couple of other taxes on the horizon that business owners need to be aware of. They include state and federal unemployment insurance taxes. Because of the recession, one of the largest tax increases employers will continue to face is escalating unemployment insurance (UI) taxes. As many employers know, they pay the taxes to their states to fund the unemployment benefits provided to former employees who are out of work and collecting unemployment benefits. With more unemployed individuals who are collecting unemployment benefits for longer periods of time, these taxes are inevitably escalating to meet the growing need. Employers may be shocked when they receive their unemployment insurance tax notices for 2012 between now and February. Maryland had an historic increase two years ago, in which some employers’ unemployment insurance taxes grew by 400 percent. While the Maryland tax rate table will not change for 2012, many employers will see higher tax rates as the full impact of past layoffs affects their tax rate. Employers in Virginia and the District should also expect higher UI tax liabilities. The taxes will be due on April 30, 2012. The recession has also taken a toll on federal unemployment taxes. Virginia and 20 other states were forced to borrow money from the federal UI trust fund to pay benefits. This will mean higher UI taxes (as much as 50 percent more per employee) for employers who operate in these states. These increased taxes will be due by January 31, 2012. Nonprofits are also facing serious UI financing challenges, as many have opted for the reimbursement method of funding their UI costs. Under this method, the employer is required to pay only when benefits have been charged against their account. Unfortunately, the economic downturn has negatively affected some nonprofits and layoffs have occurred. These nonprofits now must pay dollar-for-dollar for each dollar in benefits paid. Thus, if a “separated” employee collects the full duration of regular benefits (26 weeks) and is eligible for $400 per week, the nonprofit will owe $10,400. Finally, the Social Security wage base has increased for the first time in three years, up to $110,100 for tax year 2012. For the past three years, the wage base was set at $106,800. In addition, Social Security recipients will receive a three percent cost of living raise in January. Paying for the 2012 cost of living increase will come as greater taxes are collected from employers, the self-employed and high-wage earners. High-wage earners seeing an increase in their Social Security taxes are the folks defined as those earning more than $110,100 in 2012. Charlie Wolf is chief executive of Payroll Network, an independently owned payroll management company operating in the Washington and Baltimore metropolitan areas.

**Cognosante** of McLean appointed **Stephen Gantz** vice president of health reform. **Earth Networks** of Germantown appointed **Thomas Spendley** , former vice president of software development at Thomson Reuters, vice president of engineering. **International Foundation for Electoral Systems** of the District appointed **Judy A. Black** , a policy director at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, secretary of the board of directors. The **American Land Title Association** of the District appointed **Jessica McEwen** , former legislative assistant to Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), director of government affairs. The **Ballston Business Improvement District** of Arlington appointed **Tina Leone** executive director. The **National Health Council** of the District appointed **Larry Hausner** chairman, **LaVarne A. Burton** chairwoman-elect, **Nancy Brown** vice chairwoman, **Eric Racine** treasurer and **Tom Wallace** secretary. **Vienna Tysons Regional Chamber of Commerce** of Vienna appointed **Lisa F. Huffman** , former vice president of business development for the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, president. **CoStar Group** of the District appointed **Rene Circ** director of research industrial in the property and portfolio research division. **Northwest Federal Credit Union** of Herndon appointed **Jim Northington** chief credit officer. **Sandy Spring Bank** of Olney appointed **Nina Baranchuck** vice president and chief investment officer in the investment management and fiduciary services division. **Virginia Commerce Bank** of Arlington appointed **Mark S. Merrill** executive vice president and chief financial officer. **Bracewell & Giuliani **of the District appointed **Paul S. Maco** partner. Send information about promotions, appointments and personnel moves in the Washington area to Appointments, Business News, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071-5302, or to appointments@washpost.com.

**Company:** Near Infinity. ** Location: ** Reston. ** Number of employees: ** 70. Brandon Marc-Aurele, 22, wasn’t used to receiving gifts from his boss. So when one arrived in his inbox earlier this year, he paid it no notice. “I got an e-mail from my manager and assumed it was just more work,” said Marc-Aurele, a junior software engineer at Near Infinity. “I let it just sit there for a while before I opened it.” The e-mail turned out to include a $50 gift card to NewEgg.com, a computer parts site Marc-Aurele frequented. “It was so thoughtful,” Marc-Aurele said. “I wasn’t expecting it at all.” Near Infinity, a Reston-based software development company, gives managers $100 to spend on each employee every year. Some managers take their team on quarterly lunches, while others purchase gifts throughout the year. “Managers love it because they don’t have to come and ask us for approval if they want to do something nice for an employee,” said Karen Upton, director of human resources. Over the summer, Caroline Wizeman took a group of interns and employees out for bowling. They left work after lunch, went to Bowl America in Sterling for a few games, then stopped for ice cream. “It’s great because we can tailor rewards for our employees,” said Wizeman, director of marketing and communications. “Like, I wasn’t going to take my team out for happy hour because so many of them weren’t 21 yet.” The company keeps a running spreadsheet where employees can log their interests and hobbies, ranging from their favorite coffee shops and sports teams to coveted items they’d never buy for themselves. “This really allows managers to get to know their employees and to thank them in a personal way,” Upton said.

In this current job market it is incredibly important to be able to outshine your competition in all stages of a job interview. I asked our top recruiters what their key tips were for those seeking new job opportunities. Here is what they had to say about the interview process. **Do your research** Make sure you have a working knowledge of the company, including its mission, products/services and industry. Acquire strategic information such as their core competencies and values. For instance, if you’re interviewing with GE, your answers should reflect their five “Growth Leadership Traits.” Spend a good deal of time researching and preparing for each interview you do. If you only spend 10 minutes researching a company and another interviewee spent three hours on their research, it will be very evident to recruiters. Do your homework and it will pay off in the end. **Be relevant and concise** When discussing your career accomplishments, make sure you match them to what the company is looking for. Tailor your resume to fit the company at which you are applying. Similarly, tailor your interview responses to focus on your strengths in a way that matches up with the specific position that is open as well as the values and mission of the company. Make sure you explain how you can create value for the company. Keep your answers concise, about two minutes in length. Going off on tangents and rambling turn off recruiters. **Be engaged and don’t dominate** Recruiters like candidates who can partake in meaningful conversations, so be inquisitive and engaging. On the other hand, too much initiative can derail an exchange. Avoid overselling yourself. Remember that there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Also keep in mind that a conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. **Ask great questions** Prepare a list of questions you want to ask the interviewer. Pose questions that demonstrate your knowledge of the organization and subtly convey your expertise. Ask pertinent questions to better understand what the recruiter is looking for (e.g., if you’re attending a finance information session, don’t ask questions about information systems or marketing). Avoid being overly aggressive — excessive questions can discourage potential employers. **Practice makes perfect** Like a stage actor, rehearsing will help you convey your ideas in an eloquent, persuasive and authentic manner. Prepare answers to commonly asked interview questions. Have five to 10 behavioral scenarios (e.g., “Tell me about a time you had to work cooperatively with someone who did not share your values or ideas”; “Share a time when you did not reach the expected goals of a project. What did you learn and what could you have done differently?”; etc.) that you can readily access that demonstrate your skills, interests, strengths and what you can do to benefit the company. Practice with your mentors, your family members and your friends. Try recording or videotaping your responses so that you can replay the interview and see how well you did. **Remember to say ‘Thank you’ and leave a positive impression** It might sound trivial, but those two words can go a long way. Say “thank you” to any recruiter you talk to, whether it is a brief meeting at a career fair or a full-fledged job interview. Send follow-up e-mails to thank them for their time and send “thank you” cards for interviews you are granted. It shows that you appreciate and respect the time they are taking to interview you and that you are really interested in the job. Keep your message short and simple and personalize your note so you can reinforce a positive and memorable impression. Also, be sure to reiterate your perceived fit with the job and your value to the firm. Doing so can definitely give you a leg up over a competitor. Looking for powerful results? With preparation, practice and focus you can ace interviews and assess which companies are the best fit for you. You’ll also outshine the competition. Jeffrey Kudisch is managing director of the Office of Career Services at the Robert H. Smith School of Business and a faculty expert in leadership, negotiations and human capital management. He has a Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology and he co-founded Personnel Assessment Systems Inc., a human resource consulting firm specializing in executive assessment and leadership development.

**Who:** Jennifer Silberman, vice president of corporate responsibility. **Company:** Hilton Worldwide. **Charitable giving highlights:** Hilton Worldwide gives about $1 million annually to the Washington region. _Tell me about the company’s philanthropy._ We have four areas of focus that matter most to our business. First is creating opportunities, which focus on training future leaders in hospitality around the world to make hospitality an attractive business for young people. Second is strengthening communities, which is understanding the kinds of needs that make a community successful where our hotels are located, such as entrepreneurship, community development, disaster preparedness. Thirdly, celebrating cultures is where we bridge cultures through what we do everyday in our business, which is travel. Lastly is sustainability. We need natural resources to sustain our business so we think about the impact we have on those resources, such as repurposing waste. _Tell me about the new Global Soap Project partnership._ We need to repurpose soap otherwise it’s going to end up in a landfill. We saw it as a great opportunity to not only minimize waste but also to repurpose it for community needs. Global Soap Project collects our used soap, breaks it down, makes it into new soap and distributes it to communities in need. _How did you get connected with them?_ They were looking for a global hospitality partner. We approached them at a great time because we were really looking to get our arms around this issue and how we can be strategic with an organization as opposed to just a sponsorship relationship. _What sealed the deal to choose Global Soap Project as a partner?_ It’s a great mission. Sometimes partnerships are really complicated. This one was a really easy concept. Their leadership was really important because they have several members that understand and have worked for global hospitality companies. **— Interview with Vanessa Small**

Last November, after a long day of meetings, Dana Tai Soon Burgess, founder of a modern dance company in the District, opened a letter with disappointing news. The District’s Commission on Arts and Humanities informed him that it was unable to provide his organization with a grant this year. This was among a series of letters he’d received from foundations, which were forced to redirect their dwindling funds from arts groups toward human services organizations. The decision put Burgess’s studio $51,000 in the red during that quarter — an amount that represented a fifth of its annual budget. Burgess found out just before heading to a rehearsal that night for the company’s upcoming 20th anniversary spring show, now jeopardized by the funding cuts. He also had to consider shortening or terminating dancers’ contracts and giving up its rental space. “I just sat there for a couple hours after my heart palpitations passed and then I thought, ‘Who would care enough about dance and the performing arts to help?’” Burgess said. At the top of his list was Jane Cafritz, interior designer and founder of Jane R. Cafritz Antiques and Interiors in D.C. A lover of the arts and a Washington Ballet donor, she had been a regular supporter of Burgess’s studio after seeing a show 10 years ago. When she received his e-mail, “there was no question in my mind whether or not to help,” said Cafritz, who also called on an old friend, Georgiana Warner, to join in the challenge. The three of them brainstormed ways to raise funds on a time crunch. They began mailing letters and making phone calls to people familiar with the dance company, asking for gifts above $2,000. “It’s so hard to ask because people get asked by so many organizations, but this was an emergency situation. We told them, ‘You know Dana, and love his work. Can you help us out?’” Cafritz said. Within weeks, pledges were made. Checks sent. And the giving circle was born. In less than a month, the group raised $50,000, covering expenses into 2012. “The giving circle completely saved our spring and fall season,” Burgess said. Burgess and his staff are now looking to use the giving circle to reach individual givers as government and foundation resources dry up. “This is a really wonderful start, at a very important juncture at our company turning 20, to turn to this direction to look for individual supporters that we haven’t reached out to at this level,” Burgess said. The spring concert is set for April.

Sometimes all an entrepreneur needs to hear about his or her venture is that he or she is on the right track and should definitely keep at it. For Darlene Duchene, receiving that sort of affirmation was all she needed to keep going strong with her entrepreneurial endeavor, Fish Window Cleaning. _Duchene_ “Fish Window Cleaning is the largest commercial and residential window cleaning business in the country. Our company is headquartered in St. Louis, with four franchise locations in Maryland. As of April 2011, I am the owner of Fish Window Cleaning in Annapolis. “Our window cleaners are licensed, bonded, insured, come in uniform and are trained professionals. We focus on cleaning from the ground up to five stories, and we also clean gutters, chandeliers, screens, mirrors, ceiling fans and those hard to reach and maintain windows. “My current challenge is with finding and keeping skilled window cleaners, which in turn makes it hard to grow the business. One aspect of this challenge is that our employees are doing manual labor and are required to do so whether it is 10 degrees or 100 degrees outside. Employees are paid by the job, not the hour, and they must have their own car to drive themselves to the job site. “For the right people who are independently motivated and like to work outside, it really is a great job. You are your own boss and can schedule as many cleanings in a week as you would like to do. But my challenge is finding and keeping these professional window cleaners. Right now I post the job listing on Craigslist and on SnagAJob.com. I hold group interviews to explain how the job works and bring back those who seem like they would be a great fit with the company. Still, I am having a hard time finding the right people. “One thing I have been meaning to pursue is reaching out to firefighters — they often work 24-hour shifts and have 72 hours off. A lot of them are looking for things to do during that break, and since you can make your own schedule at Fish, it seems like it would be a good fit. Plus, they are familiar with ladders and can definitely carry the weight of the window cleaning equipment.” _Asher Epstein, managing director, Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship_ “That is always a good question: How do you find those people who are self-motivated to do the work? I have to say that it sounds like you are doing all of the right things. Since you aren’t looking to hire dozens of people right now and are just trying to get a handful of good window cleaners, I think the group interview is a great way to go about it. That way you are not spending too much time on each person, especially since the job will only be a good fit for a few of them. With Craigslist you will definitely get the most bang for your buck because it is free to post job listings on. And, if SnagAJob seems to be working and is inexpensive, I’d stick with that too. “Keep finding new and innovative ways to get in front of your target employees. I think the firefighter idea is really fantastic. I would definitely recommend you try to tap into that market and for the exact reasons you said — they are free for days at a time, could make their own schedule, are good with ladders and can lift the equipment. That could really be a nice relationship to develop with a local department. You are definitely thinking about your business differently and turning the model upside down. “You could also try to get hooked into the community college. Students would likely be interested in a job at which they can make their own hours. Overall, it sounds like you’ve got the right strategy and I really wouldn’t change much. Give it time and stick with it — it sounds like this is a very successful and proven model.” _Duchene_ “That is great to hear. I have no doubt that I’ll be able to grow my franchise with time. I will also be sure to tap into the firefighter market in the very near future. I definitely think I could be on to something there.”

Columbia-based Corporate Office Properties Trust is selling off office buildings worth millions in an effort to position itself better as its core customers face tougher times. COPT, a specialty real-estate investment trust, has focused on providing office space specifically designed for Defense Department bodies and defense contractors, often buying up space near bases. But analysts say the company has been hurt by cuts to government spending and the resulting hit to contractors. The company “was exceptionally good at taking advantage of the growth of the federal government’s overall budget,” said John W. Guinee, managing director at Stifel Nicolaus. “That worked very, very well from Sept. 11 ,2001, until about a year ago, maybe even two years ago.” Last month, COPT announced it is significantly expanding its strategic reallocation plan — or its strategy to sell certain properties more quickly — from $260 million in assets to $572 million. The company also said it was revising its earnings per share for the quarter ending Dec. 31 to reflect losses. When COPT announced its strategic reallocation plan in April, the company said the strategy would allow it to reduce its “exposure to traditional suburban office buildings” and increase its percentage of buildings serving its “super core customers,” or government agencies and defense contractors. “Frankly, from 2008 until recently it was a poor market for selling assets. We’re using the current environment to catch up on some rational pruning,” said Roger A. Waesche Jr., COPT’s president, in an April call with investors. Waesche is in the process of taking over from Rand Griffin, COPT’s chief executive since 2005, who announced in September that he would retire at the end of March. Guinee said the company now is trying to reposition by selling off assets it bought at the height of the market — in 2006 and 2007 — but have become less desirable. “The thing to do is to take [their] medicine and to sell all the assets that [they] think don’t have any long-term growth potential,” Guinee said. “I don’t really think they have any other choice.” Last quarter, the company said it sold 15 properties of about 641,000 square feet and 13.7 acres of land, ringing up $52.2 million. Those sold include a property in the Hunt Valley area for $3.45 million; 13 properties and a small piece of land in the Rutherford Business Center in Woodlawn for $32.5 million; and White Marsh Commerce Center, made up of a 218,000-square-foot warehouse and 13.4 acres, for $16.25 million. Since announcing the plan in April, COPT said it has sold $76.7 million in properties. In a report issued Dec. 6, BMO Capital Markets backed rapidly disposing of unwanted assets. Waesche “could look to quickly put his signature on the business by using the current point in time, when the stock is out of favor, to accelerate dispositions — a faster move to focus on its ‘super-core’ defense/IT niche,” the analyst report said. Guinee said the company’s sales now will position it better for the future. “They’ll clearly be a stronger company a year from now,” he said. COPT, which declined to elaborate on its plans, has scheduled a Jan. 12 call with investors to provide guidance on 2012.

It happens every new year. Too many slices of fruitcake are devoured, buttoning the pants gets a little harder and working out starts looking a whole lot better. Shedding a few pounds is one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions. Any gym can attest to the influx of snowbirds after the holidays. You know the folks, the ones who take over the elliptical machines in the dead of winter, but fly away in the spring. The Washington area, however, does have a healthy population of fitness buffs. So much so that the metropolitan area ranked as the healthiest and fittest place in the U.S. from 2008 to 2010, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. Minneapolis knocked our region out of the top spot last year because of the rise in smokers and cases of diabetes. Still, four out of five locals surveyed by the college reported exercising regularly. It’s no wonder that the Washington area is witnessing an explosion in gyms, yoga studios, running clubs and sports apparel stores in the past few years. We decided to take a look at how various segments of the local fitness industry are doing as the market is gaining more attention.

Happy New Year! But before we get too far into 2012, let’s check in with some of the people I wrote about in 2011. **Christy Winton** got an inadvertent lesson in how mean the Internet can be. In October, Christy’s 79-year-old mom, **Joy Bricker** , moved out of the TownePlace Suites by Marriott in Falls Church where she’d lived for 10 years. I wrote about how Joy was moving to New York state to live in the farmhouse Christy rents. “Some of the retaliation toward me was not nice,” Christy told me when I called her recently. Some online commenters said anyone who let their mother live in a hotel for 10 years must be an awful daughter. “That was where she wanted to be,” Christy said. “It’s amazing the perception people get when they read stories. And the negativity. . . . Just shows you how people are.” But there was plenty of good, too. The coverage — in my column, on CNN, in the Huffington Post — helped Joy reconnect with people she’d known over the years. “It’s an adjustment, of course,” Christy said of her mother’s new rural life. “But she’ a very adaptable person.” Then Joy shouted over the phone: “I plan to be in Washington in 2012!” **Concepcion Picciotto** has had an unusual living arrangement, too. She’s the peace activist who since 1981 has mounted a vigil in front of the White House. While she spends the majority of every day and night in her makeshift camp in Lafayette Park, Concepcion retreats for a few hours each day to a house on 12th Street NW to shower and eat. That house is for sale, and it looked like Concepcion would have to leave. She’s still able to use the house, she told me last week. While she and owner **Ellen Benjamin** — who inherited the house when her peace activist husband **William Thomas Hallenback** died in 2009 but who does not live there — still don’t get along, Concepcion is being allowed to stay for now. “I’m in limbo,” she told me. Ellen said two people have expressed interest in buying the Peace House, one of whom is connected with the Occupy D.C. movement. Both have assured her that they would like to use the house as a headquarters for activists. It would be up to the new owner whether Concepcion could stay. There’s nothing sadder than a locked library, and that was the state of things when I last wrote about the Historical Society of Washington. The handsome Kiplinger Library, gem of the society’s headquarters at Mount Vernon Square, had been forced to close, the most visible victim of the society’s slow slide into insolvency. A savior came in the form of the agency that runs the D.C. convention center. It will operate a visitors center in the old Carnegie Library building and take over the site’s expensive overhead. The Kiplinger Library’s doors are still locked, but they will be open Jan. 16 — Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The hope is to open the library two days a week after that. So, we still have to wait — and two days a week is a fraction of how often the library used to be open — but it’s better than nothing. What’s more, the society just got a donation of fascinating graphical materials that show the evolving landscape of Washington. The collection, more than 4,000 pieces, was assembled over the years by Kiplinger Washington Editors, the personal-finance publishers, headed today by major Washington history buff **Knight Kiplinger**. It includes maps, paintings panoramic prints, photographs by **Mathew Brady**. There’s even a receipt for a D.C. dog licensing fee, signed by **Thomas Carbery** , the city’s mayor from 1822 to 1824. There’s barely a week left to make a difference in our 2011 fundraising drive for Children’s National Medical Center. The campaign ends Friday. Why should you donate? To help ensure that Children’s Hospital can do what it’s done since being founded in 1870: treat _every_ child, no matter how much money he or she may have. To make a tax-deductible donation to the hospital’s uncompensated care fund, go to washingtonpost.com/childrenshospital, or send a check or money order (payable to Children’s Hospital) to Washington Post Campaign, P.O. Box 17390, Baltimore, Md. 21297-1390. Donors who give $250 or more will receive a $20 gift certificate to the **Chef Geoff **family of restaurants.

Nevermind that it’s a federal holiday. And nevermind that the vast majority of Washington area schoolchildren will be snoozing late, savoring their last day of winter break. On Monday morning, a few students are headed to class. Schools opened their doors Jan. 2 in Alexandria and Howard, St. Mary’s and Charles counties, while elsewhere in the region — and in eight of the nation’s 10 largest school systems — students are free to enjoy the nation’s official celebration of New Year’s Day. Some parents in Alexandria, home to thousands of federal workers and countless others who follow the federal calendar, assumed their kids would have the day off. As 2012 approached, they were not pleased to discover otherwise. Matt Petersen said he would keep his two children home despite initial objections from his fifth-grade daughter, who fretted about ruining her perfect attendance record. “We won’t literally be out of town,” he said, “but it’s one of the main holidays on the calendar, and it’s just inappropriate for them to have class.” Others see an unequivocal upside. “I was very surprised that the kids were going to be in school Monday, but once I thought about it — it’s great!” said Scott Boggess, also of Alexandria. “My wife and I are going to go out to eat a nice lunch and to see a movie that’s not animated.” School boards discuss and approve academic calendars the way they do most of their business: in public but without much of an audience. Alexandrians did not object to schools being in session Jan. 2 before the Alexandria School Board voted on the matter in May, said chairwoman Sheryl Gorsuch. She said those who are peeved might blame Virginia’s so-called “Kings Dominion law.” It prohibits schools from opening before Labor Day and makes it difficult, Gorsuch said, to shoehorn enough instructional days into the calendar before standardized tests are administered in the spring. Moreover, not every parent has a paid holiday Monday. “There’s a big voice out there that’s just as happy to have their kids go back to school on January 2nd, because they’re going back to work,” Gorsuch said. **Read more onPostLocal.com: ** New Year’s baby a precious surprise Viola Drath: A remarkable life hijacked Getting a handle on the new bag tax Two killed in New Year’s crash in Bethesda

THE BOY IN THE SUITCASE By Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis Translated from the Danish by Lene Kaaberbol Soho. 313 pp. $24 Novels about stolen children are emotionally hard for most readers to handle, and yet they are instantly compelling because so much is at stake: a child’s tender psyche or even life. With a mystery about a stolen inheritance or even a great painting filched from a museum, it’s easy enough to assume a commonsensical Buddhist point of view: In the end, it’s only stuff. But when a 3-year-old is forcibly taken from his anguished mother, as happens in this terrific Danish thriller, you know you’re in for a frantic read. Is this “fun”? Yes and no. What’s for sure is that, once you start reading, you can’t stop — it’s as if the poor kid’s life depends on your getting to the end as fast as possible. Even the title of this first in a series by two Danish writers with their own careers — Lene Kaaberbol does fantasy, Agnete Friis writes children’s books — induces apprehension and dread. The boy in the suitcase is exactly that: a naked tot, drugged but alive, who turns up in a suitcase in the Copenhagen railway station. It takes a while to learn much about Karin Kongsted, the woman who left the boy there, but the woman who finds him, Nina Borg, is wonderfully, painfully vivid right away. She’s the central figure in this new series — a Red Cross nurse with a social conscience so robust that she sometimes neglects her husband and children to help maltreated refugees and illegal immigrants. Kaaberol and Friis have packed plenty of depressing information about human trafficking into their labyrinthine tale, much of it related to poverty and social breakdown in the Eastern European countries once dominated by the Soviet Union. Most of the novel’s richness, however, comes from the supple rendering of the two mothers whose stories are told on parallel tracks. Borg is all too believable, a nurse who “could always be counted on. She led a remarkably efficient one-woman crusade to save the world,” according to her exasperated husband. “It was only her own family who could reduce her to abject helplessness.” You keep rooting for this basically decent woman to get her act together, while even more wrenching is the dilemma facing Sigita Ramoskiene in Vilnius, Lithuania. While the father of her little boy, Mikas, is off working in Germany, a strange woman at a playground lures the boy to her with chocolate. She and her sadistic Polish boyfriend then drug Sigita and make off with her child. Sigita wakes up in a hospital. The police wrongly suspect her of being a drunk and a bad mother. As a refugee from a dysfunctional rural family, Sigita has no one to help her find her boy. “She did not want to admit to [a police detective] just how alone she was. It was shameful, like some embarrassing disease.” Sigita is forced to draw on reserves of strength and cunning she didn’t know she had as she maneuvers desperately to find her child. Borg’s reason for not simply taking the found boy to the police is not entirely plausible: The bad Pole has spotted her at the train station and is soon chasing her around Denmark, and she has lost her cellphone. Well, okay. . . . The suspense is nonetheless abundant, with scenes like the one where a man who plans on purchasing the boy is stuck on an airliner that keeps losing its place in the takeoff queue while the fate of the boy hangs by a thread. Another ticking-clock element is Borg’s search for someone — practically anyone — who speaks the boy’s language so she can find out who he is. This series debut — translated with assurance by Kaaberbol — looks like another winning entry in the emotionally lacerating Scandinavian mystery sweepstakes.

DES MOINES — At nearly every event, Ron Paul begins on a high note. He generally smiles, introduces a member of his family, talks up his campaign and says how pleased he is with the way things are going. And then, for the next 45 minutes or so, he outlines a view of the world so bleak it would make Chicken Little sound like an optimist. There will be a total collapse of the economy. An eruption of violence in the streets. Martial law is just around the corner. Paul says he would like to cut $1 trillion out of the budget. “People say that means everybody will suffer,” he adds. Some probably will, he concedes, but “they should have to suffer.” And then there are the sorts of ominous predictions he made at an evening rally here Wednesday: “There are certain events that are coming that are going to happen — they are going to be very dangerous. They might come in a day, a week or a year.” Not exactly morning in America. Paul’s sky-is-falling message goes against everything a successful American politician is supposed to do. In the land of hope and change, where a little malaise can undercut a campaign, it is almost always the sunniest candidate who succeeds. But the Republican congressman from Texas is betting that the usual optimism and laundry list of promises — millions of jobs, bringing people together, changing the tone in Washington — is not what voters want to hear this year. The latest Iowa polls, which show Paul in a virtual tie for first place with Mitt Romney ahead of Tuesday’s caucuses, suggest that he has found an audience. “I want someone to give it to me straight. We aren’t getting a lot of fluff, and he isn’t offering us a prize or a present or something to make us feel good,” said Tom Icatar, 65, who saw Paul at a West Des Moines town hall. “I think he’s been consistent and honest. He is giving people the bitter medicine they need to have.” Jordan Sorensen, 23, of Adele, Iowa, said after an event in Perry that “we’ve heard the same old political talk of promising this and that. Ron Paul isn’t the most brilliant speaker, he isn’t great with rhetoric, but it’s refreshing for me to hear something that’s more truthful. He is realistic about what he is working with, and he is less full of it.” The fact that Paul is resonating with some voters is more reflective of the moment than the man. Paul has long spoken in such apocalyptic terms, but after years of war and financial hardship, his leave-’em-alone foreign policy and get-the-government-off-my-lawn domestic approach is a match for the times. And to his backers, his anti-politician demeanor confirms their sense that he’s telling the truth, unlike what they see as a bunch of overproduced alternatives. “The others are political-machinery people. They change their message to tell us what we want to hear, not what’s actually needed,” Steve Chase, 63, said at the event in Perry. Paul, he said, is “the least likely to create a situation that will lead to the destruction of everything.” Most of Paul’s rivals also lay out the difficulties America faces — it’s just that it’s not all they focus on. Gov. Rick Perry, in ads and on the stump, talks up his faith and his idyllic childhood in Paint Creek, Tex., where he says he learned the value of hard work. He touts the millions of jobs created in Texas on his watch and how domestic energy production can create many millions more. In Romney’s ads, there are green fields, kids playing baseball, factory workers strolling on the shop floor, and soundtracks of soothing music as the candidate strolls hand in hand with his wife, Ann. And in his speeches, Romney quotes “America the Beautiful,” promises more and better jobs (11 million to be exact) and invokes what he sees as a pre-Obama heyday linked to Ronald Reagan. “I’m asking each of you to remember how special it is to be an American,” Romney said in Davenport on Tuesday. “That America is still out there. We still believe in that America. We still believe in that shining city on a hill. We still believe in the America that brings out the best in all of us, that challenges each of us to be better and bigger than ourselves.” The speech later became the basis for a Romney ad called “American Optimism.” Paul offers little of this. His ads and rhetoric are filled with images of destruction and decline. There are shuttered stores, dark clouds, barking dogs, and federal department buildings lined up for destruction all set to to urgent music. Paul says sanctions on Iran will lead to another useless and costly foreign war. Mounting debts and more bailouts will lead to the government printing more money, which will make the dollar worthless. The latest bill to fund the Defense Department is a slip into tyranny. “If we continue to do what we do, if we have runaway inflation, everybody gets thrown out on the streets, because the whole thing comes down on our head,” he said last week at a town hall at the Iowa Speedway in Newton, in front of about 200 people. At another stop, he said: “If we continue to [spend money overseas], we will have an economic calamity, we will have runaway inflation . . . we will have violence in the streets, and that will be very, very dangerous.” Paul does offer a solution to avoid all the calamity he sees — lawmakers should just follow what’s laid out in the Constitution — but he makes no promises to directly improve people’s lives. “All of a sudden, people are tired of the wars, they are tired of this economy, they are tired of the Federal Reserve, they are tired of Congress spending a lot of money, and they are looking for some change,” Paul said, summing up the state of mind of his audiences. “And I am suggesting one significant change. Why don’t we just follow the Constitution?” There is one radical change Paul likes: the Internet. “Fortunately we’re able to get some information out, and a lot of what we’ve done in our campaign makes use of the Internet,” Paul said at a rally in Des Moines. As might be expected, however, Paul anticipates a problem or two on that front as well. “But also,” he went on to say, “there’s an attack on the Internet now.”

Chris Masters enjoys a well-made suit. But recently he has been looking for a place to buy them other than frenzied department stores where women’s clothes dominate the sales floor. That’s why Masters treks to the appointment-only menswear boutique Alton Lane in Dupont Circle for custom ensembles. Clients in the newly opened third-floor showroom are escorted into a fitting room to be measured by a body scanner that captures as many as 400 measurements in 30 seconds. A stylist then uses the reading to pencil in an order for a form-fitted suit at a starting price of $500. The high-tech encounter scored points with Masters, as did the men’s club ambiance, complete with flat-screen TV and leather sofas. “Women are not the only ones that put extra care into their appearance,” said Masters, director of marketing for a real estate firm in Alexandria. “It’s nice to see more stores recognizing that this area is full of sophisticated men that want to look good.” Alton Lane, originally a New York City boutique, opened its first branch in Washington recently as part of a resurgence in menswear that has drawn new retailers to the market, while spurring the expansion of existing stores in the past year. Jack Spade brought its messenger bags and crewneck sweaters to Georgetown in September, just as HMX Group introduced the Streets of Georgetown, featuring an assortment of its brands such as Hickey Freeman and Bobby Jones. Brooks Brothers, meanwhile, turned on the lights at its sixth location in the area about the same time. There are dozens of area department, specialty and discount stores that carry men’s suits and sportwear. But the new shops are fueling a nascent movement in local retail catering to men who are interested in tailored suits and custom jeans. Guys across the country are buying slacks, shirts and coats at a pace that exceeds women. Sales of U.S. menswear climbed 6.5 percent to $53.7 billion through October, eclipsing the 1.5 percent gain in women’s wear during the same period, according to market research firm NPD Group. Men retreated from shopping after the recession but are at a point where they need to replenish their wardrobes, said NPD retail analyst Marshal Cohen. He suspects that men are also keenly aware of their appearance as they attempt to keep or seek out employment. “It’s no longer good enough to look like you just rolled out of bed and went to work,” Cohen said. “Guys are dressing better to separate themselves from the competition, which we haven’t seen in decades.” Responding to the trend, designer Vera Wang is making a foray into men’s formal wear, while Isaac Mizrahi’s label is set to bring out a collection of dress shirts and neckties, analysts note. Hakob Stepanyan, a 26-year-old research associate at an investment firm in Arlington County, admits that he spends more on shirts and slacks these days to make an impression at work. “I’m more selective about what I wear than I was in college, because you have to dress the part to get ahead,” he said. “Value and durability also mean a lot more.” Alton Lane has surpassed 3,000 customers and $3 million in sales without advertising. The company sources fabrics from 10 mills in Europe and has the clothing made by tailors in Southeast Asia. The stores are tucked away on side streets, rather than along fashion rows such as Fifth Avenue or M Street, and welcomes clients by appointment only. “The retail industry runs on brand inflation — the $3,000 Prada suit doesn’t cost close to that to make, but they’re paying for the Fifth Avenue address and ads,” said Colin Hunter, a co-owner of Alton Lane who met his partner, Peyton Jenkins, while attending the University of Virginia 12 years ago. “There are ways to offer a more honest pricing structure that’s focused on a better shopping experience for guys.” The approach of Alton Lane mirrors that of homegrown haberdashery Lost Boys on 31st Street in Georgetown. Owner Kelly Muccio created a space in 2008 where guys can kick back in a leather recliner and watch a little James Bond, while her team pulls together an entire wardrobe for $250 an hour. This “style bar,” as she calls it, has become so popular that Muccio expanded her ground-floor operations upstairs for the Black Room, a members-only studio that debuted on Black Friday. Guests are treated to cocktails as Muccio offers personal styling and consultation starting at $600. Muccio says her frequent clients include executives, government officials and local celebrities. She would not reveal names. “Washington is a very important market for retailers,” said Robert Hensely, executive vice president of store operations at Jos. A. Bank of Hampstead, near Baltimore. “The growth of collateral industries associated with the federal government, be it lobbying or communications, works hand in hand with our fashion.”

Stephen J. McCormick, 97, a White House radio correspondent in the 1930s, who later was the host of Washington-based news programs for NBC-TV, died Nov. 30 at a rehabilitation facility in Bar Harbor, Maine. He had congestive heart failure, his daughter said. Mr. McCormick came to Washington in the mid-1930s and worked for a local radio station before joining the Mutual Broadcasting System. He broadcast the “fireside chats” of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, went on to cover three other presidents and became a top executive for the Mutual network. Beginning in 1954, Mr. McCormick was the host of two public affairs programs broadcast nationally by NBC-TV, “The American Forum” and “Youth Wants to Know.” With “American Forum,” he served as moderator between two people arguing opposite points of a public issue. “Youth Wants to Know” was an interview show in which children and teens asked questions of politicians and other public figures in the news. “The moderator must be neutral,” Mr. McCormick told The Washington Post in 1956, describing the role of a news-show moderator. “No public affairs discussion program can last for very long if word gets around that the moderator favors one point of view. Guests will just refuse to take part in the show.” In March 1956, Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass.) appeared on “Youth Wants to Know” and was asked if he would consider accepting an offer to be a vice presidential candidate. “I think it’s a bad idea in politics and every other kind of job to accept or refuse things which have not and probably will not be offered to you,” Kennedy replied. “I suppose it’s like saying to a girl, ‘If I asked you to marry me, and I’m not asking you to marry me, would you marry me?’ I suppose, when the time comes, we can make a better judgment on it.” Amid gentle laughter, Mr. McCormick added, “I wouldn’t be surprised, after reading about you for many years, Senator, if we had a lot of girls who were thinking of marrying you.” Stephen Joseph McCormick was born May 4, 1914, in Taunton, Mass., and attended Boston University before coming to Washington. During World War II, he served in the Army in the Pacific and received the Bronze Star Medal for service during the Battle of Saipan. He stayed in the Army reserve for many years, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. Mr. McCormick’s television career was at its height in the 1950s. He played himself in the 1959 Doris Day-Jack Lemmon film “It Happened to Jane.” By 1960, he had returned to radio as a vice president in charge of the Mutual Broadcasting System’s Washington operation. He continued to appear on the air, with news and interview shows, well into the 1970s. Mr. McCormick was Mutual’s anchor at national political conventions for 20 years and also produced and directed the network’s coverage of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo manned spaceflights. He sometimes contributed feature stories to the BBC. He lived in Alexandria and Potomac for many years before moving to Swan’s Island, Maine, about five years ago. He was a founding member of the Radio and Television Correspondents Association and was a member of the White House Correspondents Association, National Press Club and Army and Navy Club. A daughter, Patricia Delano, died in 2010. Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Theo Henelt McCormick of Swan’s Island; daughter Teddi Harrison of Carlsbad, N.M.; and five grandchildren. In describing his broadcasting style in 1956, Mr. McCormick called himself “the greatest neutral in Washington.” “I have absolutely no opinions when I’m on the air,” he told The Post, “and I have very few opinions when I’m off the air.”

PHILADELPHIA – In a performance befitting their dismal, error- and injury- plagued campaign, the Washington Redskins stumbled their way through a 34-10 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in their final game of the season Sunday. The Redskins have been plagued by mental gaffes, turnovers, injuries to key players and flat-out poor play all season long. Sunday’s game was no different. Rex Grossman kept team and individual turnover streaks intact with his 20th interception of the season. Poor tackling and breakdowns in pass coverage led to big scoring plays for the Eagles (8-8). Ineffective red-zone play and penalties kept the Redskins from scoring. At one point, the Redskins had both running backs Roy Helu and Evan Royster on trainer’s tables, receiving treatment from the medical staff. Linebacker Brian Orakpo missed the second half with a pectoral muscle injury. There was a 21-point fourth-quarter collapse. And of course, the package wouldn’t have been complete without a blocked field goal, so Washington allowed one of those as well. The primary bright spots of the game for Washington were a 47-yard touchdown reception by Helu, a second straight 100-yard rushing outing by Royster (20 carries, 113 yards) and two sacks by Orakpo, who finished the season with nine, the third straight year he has led the team. It also made Orakpo the first Redskins player since Dexter Manley in the 1980s to record at least eight sacks in three consecutive seasons. But beyond that, highlights were few for the Redskins. The Eagles, in contrast, racked up 390 yards of offense — 190 of them in the fourth quarter — and had three pass-catchers with at least 86 receiving yards apiece. Washington’s defense gave up at least 30 points for the fourth time in the last five games, and the 24-point loss was the Redskins’ largest margin of defeat this season. So ended the worst year in Mike Shanahan’s 17 full seasons as a head coach. The 5-11 finish was worse than a pair of 6-10 campaigns recorded by Shanahan last year and in 1999. It also gave Shanahan an 11-21 record in his first two seasons with the Redskins, who went 12-20 in the two seasons led by former coach Jim Zorn prior to Shanahan’s arrival. It also marked a third consecutive losing season for one of the NFL’s most storied franchises, and the eighth time in the last 10 seasons that the Redskins have failed to post a winning record. The Redskins’ standing in the NFC East already had been determined prior to Sunday’s game. For the fourth consecutive year, they finished last in the division. By virtue of their record and following strength-of-schedule determinations, the Redskins learned on Sunday that they will hold the sixth overall pick in April’s draft. “Extremely frustrating to lose 11 ballgames, another game to a divisional opponent,” said linebacker London Fletcher. “Felt like we played good football in the first half, and then in the fourth quarter, it got away from us. . . . Not enough good football for 60 minutes.” The Redskins trailed 10-0 at halftime and saw their best chance for an early touchdown slip through their hands midway through the first quarter. On third and nine from the Philadelphia 43, Grossman had Santana Moss open running down the center of the field. Grossman’s pass was slightly underthrown, and Moss had to slow up for it, but the ball slipped between Moss’s arms for an incompletion at the goal line. And then came an unfortunate second quarter, which featured the same misfortunes that have plagued the Redskins all season. On the third play of the quarter, wide receiver Anthony Armstrong had slipped past two defenders 54 yards downfield. But Grossman’s underthrown pass bounced off the helmet of cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and into the hands of safety Nate Allen at the Philadelphia 7-yard line. Allen returned the interception 31 yards. It marked the 13th consecutive game with a turnover for Grossman, who finished the game 22 for 45 for 256 yards, a touchdown and an interception, and for the Redskins, a league-worst 30th straight game with at least one turnover. Later the same quarter, place kicker Graham Gano lined up for a field goal at the Philadelphia 18-yard line only to have it blocked as the Eagles mowed down the right side of the line and Derek Landri batted the ball down. That gave Washington its league-worst fifth blocked field goal of the season and Gano his 10th failed field goal attempt. Philadelphia scored on a seven-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Michael Vick to wide receiver Chad Hall, who slipped feeble tackle attempts by DeAngelo Hall and Perry Riley and stepped into the end zone. The Redskins moved to the Philadelphia 35 before turning over the ball on downs with 44 seconds left, but Orakpo sacked Vick and forced a fumble, and Washington recovered at the 17. The Redskins, who had no timeouts left, reached the 4-yard line, but Grossman threw an incompletion in the end zone to Moss. The receiver thought he had been interfered with and took off his helmet while arguing the non-call, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that backed Washington up 15 yards with 23 seconds left. “I’ve been a Redskin for seven years. I can’t tell you when things went our way when it comes to stuff like that,” Moss said after the game, still upset. “I just have to learn how to deal with it, put it behind me.” Two plays later, the Redskins reached the 7-yard line, but couldn’t stop the clock and couldn’t get lined up in time to try a field goal. They entered halftime without a point. Washington’s best play of the game came eight plays into the third quarter when Grossman hit running back Helu on a screen pass, and the rookie turned upfield, got a block by guard Maurice Hurt, and another downfield from wide receiver Niles Paul to score on the 47-yard play. Despite their struggles, Washington entered the fourth quarter having allowed only 200 total yards, and less than two minutes in, a Gano field goal cut the lead to 13-10. But three plays later, Vick completed a 62-yard pass to DeSean Jackson, who ran a post route and got behind cornerback Josh Wilson and safety Oshiomogho Atogwe. That proved the tipping point. Vick later completed a four-yard scoring toss to tight end Brent Celek with 5 minutes 56 seconds left and, with 1:56 remaining, running back Dion Lewis scored on a nine-yard run for the final score. “I thought it was competitive until the post route,” Shanahan said. “We really had a chance for three quarters, but when you’re 0 for 3 in the red zone, you don’t win games. We had moved the ball against them as much as anybody had moved it against them. They were giving up 225 yards a game and we had that at halftime. But we didn’t score points. . . . You can’t go on the road and win games like that.”

It was a first for Texas: a state office devoted to consumers struggling to find affordable health insurance coverage. With funds from the federal health reform law, the Texas Consumer Health Assistance Program was launched last January. A $2.8 million grant allowed the state to hire nine employees to staff a toll- free hotline. More than 6,000 Texans called in during the past year, seeking advice on how to find affordable coverage, or help filling out an insurance application, or fighting a denied claim. The new employees traversed the state, hosting more than 160 events aimed at making Texans — a quarter of whom lack insurance — more aware of coverage options. “The grant provided us with the opportunity to . . . actually take the 20 or 30 minutes, or however long, to help someone complete an application,” said Audrey Seldin, senior associate commissioner for consumer protection at the Texas Department of Insurance, which oversees the program. But less than a year after it opened, the Texas Consumer Health Assistance Program is preparing to shut down, a victim of Congress’s inability to agree on a federal budget for next year. The nine employees are likely to be dismissed in April. The events will stop and the toll-free hotline will redirect to a general consumer assistance number at the Texas Department of Insurance, which deals with all kinds of insurance and has less expertise in health coverage. Texas is among the 35 states that received health reform grants to build consumer assistance programs more than a year ago. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 set aside nearly $30 million to fund the program in 2010, which states have used to handle questions about how to obtain affordable health coverage or appeal denied insurance claims. The health reform law also authorized future funding for the consumer assistance program, but left it to Congress to appropriate that money — in contrast to most other provisions in the law, which were automatically funded into the future. When the House and Senate failed to pass a budget last year, operating instead on a short-term fix that continued all existing appropriated programs, the consumer assistance program was shut out. “I don’t know that, while health reform was being debated, any of us understood how hard it would be to get additional funding going forward,” said Christine Barber, a senior policy analyst with Community Catalyst, a Boston-based community advocacy group that has worked with many of the new programs. Barber and other consumer advocates say the funding could not have run out at a worse time. The federal health reform law has left more Americans with questions about how health insurance is changing. Those are likely to increase as the law is expected to expand coverage to 32 million more Americans by 2019. “I have a little bit of a nightmare about what will happen” when the funding runs out, said Victoria Veltri, who oversees Connecticut’s grant and is currently looking to the state or private foundations to continue her program. “I won’t stop searching for funding.” Connecticut has run ads on television and the sides of buses letting residents know about its services, while Maine has begun representing those denied claims by insurance companies in appeals courts. Since the grant started, Maine Consumers for Affordable Care has netted consumers $23,000 in insurance appeals, with an additional $53,000 on the line in pending cases. “We haven’t lost one yet,” Mia Poliquin Pross, associate director of the Maine consumer assistance program, said of the claim denials her two attorneys have appealed. “We would really like to ramp up that portion of the work.” The consumer assistance programs have also served as an informal monitor of health insurance materials and policies, often tipped off by consumers’ questions. Multiple states, including Massachusetts and New York, have reported back to the federal government certain insurers that are out of compliance with a given health reform provision, or are incorrectly advertising their services. As many states expect to exhaust their funds in the spring, they are preparing in different ways. A few, like Texas, have already decided to shut down their programs. The Arkansas Department of Insurance also plans to shut down its program, reassigning two employees funded by the grant to new positions. Others are exploring how they might be able to move forward without federal funding. But the uncertainty of whether or not that will happen is already taking its toll: Massachusetts’s new outreach coordinator left when the state could not guarantee she would have a job next year. “We expected these grants would be funded continually,” said Brian Rosman of Health Care for Massachusetts, which has run the state’s consumer assistance program. “To walk away now from the investment, that seems really counterproductive, given that we’re now getting closer to 2014. I would think these programs would be needed more than ever.” Many running the grants expressed a similar frustration, not only over investing in a program that would be dismantled so quickly but also at increasing consumers’ awareness of the new departments, only to lose the capacity to handle increased call volumes. Carla Obiol, a deputy commissioner at the North Carolina Department of Insurance, is managing a $1.2 million grant that allowed the state to create an ombudsman office devoted to handling health insurance issues that she describes as “consumer assistance on steroids.” “It’s not just about handling complaints,” Obiol said. “We’re adding an educational element, so folks understand they have a right to appeal [an insurance claim denial] and take advantage of that option.” She’s frustrated at spending so much time building a department only to face the prospect of shutting down. “While we do think this service is so important,” she said, “Why would we build a great data system and recruit professional folks thinking this is going to fold?” Obiol and many others are looking to other federal grant opportunities to continue parts of their programs. Funds to build new health insurance marketplaces, which will launch in 2014, do include some money for consumer assistance, although more limited in scope. The Department of Health and Human Services is working with states to explore other sources of funding to keep their programs running. Some states have managed to move forward with their programs, even after funding has run out. New York’s federal funding ran out at the end of October, but it has continued to run a consumer assistance hotline that serves all 62 counties across the state by using funds from the federal health exchange grant. In the past year, it has handled calls from more than 33,000 New Yorkers. Not all states have applied for health exchange grants, and those that have may use the funds solely to set up the new insurance marketplace. For many programs, the future remains less certain. “We’re exploring all options,” said Kimberly Cammarata, an assistant attorney general in the Maryland Consumer Protection Division. “The reality is we need these people. I’m cautiously optimistic that things will work out.”

The U.S. Navy has estimated a worst-case cost overrun of as much as $1.1 billion for the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, the service’s most expensive warship. The carrier is being built by Huntington Ingalls Industries under a cost-plus, incentive-fee contract in which the Navy pays for most of the overruns. Even so, the service’s efforts to control expenses may put the company’s $579.2 million profit at risk, according to the Navy. A review of the carrier’s rising costs began in August after the Navy’s program manager indicated that the “most likely” overrun had risen to $884.7 million, or about 17 percent over the contract’s target price of $5.16 billion. That’s up from a $650 million overrun estimated in April, according to internal Navy figures made available to Bloomberg News. The worst-case assessment would be about 21 percent over the target. “Regular reviews of the cost performance indicated cost increases were occurring,” Capt. Cate Mueller, a Navy spokeswoman, said in a statement. Some rising costs are tied to construction inefficiencies, the Navy said. Sean Stackley, Navy assistant secretary for acquisition, directed the review “to determine specific causes and what recovery actions could be put in place,” Mueller said. Even as the Navy conducts its internal review, it is trying to assure U.S. lawmakers and Pentagon officials that costs of major vessel programs are being controlled. The Pentagon is evaluating strategy, retirement health benefits, weapons programs and military service budgets to find as much as $488 billion in reductions through 2021. The service has already offered to delay construction of the second Ford-class vessel, the CVN-79 John F. Kennedy, by two years. Stackley’s assessment is focusing on “every aspect of the ship’s construction including the risks” of delays and cost growth to both contractor- and government-furnished equipment, Mueller said. Among the largest government-furnished equipment is the carrier’s nuclear reactor. The review includes officials from Stackley’s office, as well as the Naval Sea Systems Command, the chief of naval operations and the Navy’s supervisor of shipbuilding, Mueller said. Late delivery of Huntington-furnished material has been a key factor in late assembly and inefficient construction, the Navy said. Still, the carrier remains on schedule for its planned September 2015 delivery, the service said. Huntington Ingalls’s goal is to reduce the program’s costs, chief executive Michael Petters said in an interview. “If there was something else I thought we needed to do, we’d be doing it,” Petters said. “If there is something else somebody else thinks we ought to be doing, we’ll listen and, if it makes sense, we’ll do it.’’ Mueller said some of Huntington’s cost-control efforts are producing “favorable results.” For example, the Newport News, Va.-based shipbuilder has established specific labor-cost targets for its key manufacturing and construction jobs. Mueller did not say whether those moves have reduced costs yet. The Navy also has agreed to consider changes to specifications and modify them “where appropriate to lower cost and schedule risk,” Mueller said. Huntington has designated a senior vice president and ship construction superintendent with daily oversight responsibility. The Navy plans to report a new contract completion cost in its next annual report to Congress. The document would be submitted to lawmakers next year. Mueller declined to discuss the current overrun estimates. The Navy earlier disclosed that the carrier faced the $650 million overrun to complete the contract — 562 million of which the Navy would absorb, the remaining $88 million absorbed by Huntington. The completed initial vessel, the first of three in the $40.2 billion program, is projected to cost at least $11.5 billion. The $11.5 billion comprises $2.9 billion in detailed design and $8.6 billion for construction and government-furnished equipment, such as the nuclear reactor. An additional $3.7 billion is for research that applies to all three vessels in the class, the Navy said. The Congressional Budget Office wrote in a June report that cost growth typically occurs when a ship is more than half finished. The Ford design contract is about 42 percent complete. The Navy’s projected cost has risen 10 percent between the fiscal 2008 and 2012 budgets and “further increases appear likely,” CBO analyst Eric Labs wrote. The office estimates that the final price tag will be about $12.9 billion if the increases in the aircraft carrier’s cost follow historical patterns. Any discussion of cost growth should reflect the Gerald Ford’s status as a first-of-a-kind ship under development, Petters said. “A lead ship comes with a whole lot of churn — things that don’t go the way it should,” he said. “It’s like building a prototype.” ** — Bloomberg Government **

These firms recently filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s local court clerk’s offices. Under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code, a company is protected from claims by creditors while it attempts to reorganize its finances under a plan approved by the court. In a Chapter 7 liquidation, a court trustee sells assets to pay creditors’ claims. The company then ceases operations. **Across the World Travels LLC** 5501 Merchant View Sq., #222, Haymarket, Va. 20169 Type of filing: Chapter 7 liquidation Case number: 11-19075-RGM Date filed: Dec. 21 Attorney: Rachael Hammer, 703-848-1950 Assets: zero to $50,000 Liabilities: $100,001 to $500,000 Largest unsecured creditor: Keshav Travels Put Ltd., $51,000 **Dorsey’s Meats Inc.** 305 S. 2nd St., Woodsboro, Md. 21798 Type of filing: Chapter 7 liquidation Case number: 11-34894 Date filed: Dec. 27 Attorney: Stanley N. Tashoff, 301-948-1466 Assets: $50,001 to $100,000 Liabilities: $100,001 to $500,000 Largest unsecured creditor: Not disclosed **Universal Community Development LLC** 333 I St. SW., Washington, D.C. 20024 Type of filing: Chapter 11 reorganization Case number: 11-00943 Date filed: Dec. 22 Attorney: Richard H. Gins, 301-718-1078 Assets: $1,000,001 to $10 million Liabilities: $1,000,001 to $10 million Largest unsecured creditor: Not disclosed **— Compiled by Vanessa Small**

The year begins with a week packed with economic news. The Institute for Supply Management releases its index of activity in the nation’s factories in December. Analysts are expecting good news: They forecast that the index will rise to 53.4, from 52.7 in November, signaling more robust growth in manufacturing output. The Federal Reserve releases minutes of its Dec. 13 policy meeting, where the central bank’s policy committee decided to affirm its low-interest-rate policies but make no changes. The minutes could prove more newsworthy than the meeting. The Federal Open Market Committee has been discussing changes to how it communicates about its goals and expectations, and the minutes could reveal, or at least hint at, any imminent changes. One strong possibility would be for the Fed to start announcing what its members expect the future course of interest rates to be. Factory orders are expected to have risen 2 percent in November, following a dip in October. Sales of cars and light trucks, meanwhile, are expected to have roughly held steady in December. Analysts expect that light vehicles were sold at a 13.5 million annual rate last month, little changed from 13.6 million in November. The ISM is back, with its index of activity in the service sector. The group’s non-manufacturing index is expected to have risen, with a boost to 53 in December projected, from 52 in November. The International Council of Shopping Centers releases its report on December sales at major retail chains. The December jobs report will show whether the labor market continued to improve last month. Analysts think it did: They forecast 150,000 net new jobs were created, up from 120,000 added in November. That would be consistent with a decline in new claims for jobless benefits in the month. The unemployment rate, however, is forecast to edge up to 8.7 percent from 8.6 percent, partly reversing a steep November decline. **— Neil Irwin ** ****The Council on Foreign Relations asked five thoughtful economists about what over-arching trends will affect the economy in 2012. Readtheir answers at the council’s Web site. And what is money, really, and is the Fed really printing more of it? Jon Hilsenrath addresses this much-misunderstood question on the Wall Street Journal’s economics blog. Find links at washingtonpost.com/ mustreads. **** ****

New year, old habits: Sports Nation often gets it shorts all bunched up about everything and anything. At the moment, you can turn on talk radio – or dip a big toe in an online forum — and hear the clamor about next Monday’sAlabama- LSU BCS title game. Oh, the horror — the horror!!! — this rematch stirs up. This unrelenting devotion to all matters sporting strikes me as a springboard to insanity. Think about this: We have been at war somewhere in the world since 2001 — _at war_ — and that gets less scrutiny than an average NFL game. For real. Buccaneers-Falcons is dissected in detail much more than U.S.-Afghanistan; that’s an NFC divisional game weighed against an international armed conflict. (I often am told that I’m just an old man out of touch. Guess what? I once was a young man out of touch. So, trust me, age has nothing to do with this. What’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong, and America’s continued obsession with sport at the expense of substance remains the Achilles’ heel of our culture.) What concerns me about our ongoing fight against terrorism is this: The Muslim fundamentalists believe we are the devil incarnate and they are willing to strap bombs to their bodies to defeat the American enemy. Us? We just want to watch football every Sunday. In short, they appear committed to a grand cause while we remain committed to instant replay. So, yes, I worry. We spend more money on stadiums than schools. At our institutions of higher learning, we care more about basketball than biology. “Crossfire” has been replaced by “Pardon the Interruption”; actually, that’s probably a good thing. Sometimes I stumble upon Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith on ESPN2’s “First Take” and wonder, “Is this a ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch?” I half-expect one of their heads will explode one morning while shouting, and if that happens, I fully expect the other guy will keep on shouting. They never stop screaming, because they believe it’s entertaining or because they’re really serious; it’s either disingenuous or distressing. Heck, these fellows have convictions about EVERYTHING; I mean, how much conviction can you have about an offensive coordinator’s third-down play selection? (How out of whack are our priorities and sensibilities? Just look at the “Call of Duty” video-game series. In November 2009, “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” set a first-day sales record with 4.7 million copies to reap $310 million. In November 2010, “Call of Duty: Black Ops” topped that with 5.6 million and $360 million in sales in its first 24 hours. Then, in November 2011, “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” hit 6.4 million and $400 million on opening day. It’s a battlefield out there, and while we ignore real war, we love to shoot ’em up on our PlayStations.) I used to think I loved sports as much as the next guy — well, unless the next guy walks in wearing a Yankees baseball cap, Lawrence Taylor football jersey and New York Rangers wristwatch — but I now realize I only liked sports in spurts. Which, frankly, might be healthier. Sure, as a kid, nothing beats the anticipation of going to the ballpark or watching a big game on TV. But as an adult? Sports is still a great release; beyond that, there’s got to be more to a fine day than getting World Series home-field advantage by winning the All-Star Game. There has to be a greater sense of accomplishment than seeing your alma mater’s biggest rival go on probation, no? I’m not a religious man, but something tells me that just walking by a church on any given Sunday is a better idea than slouching on a couch on any given Sunday. I’m not just talking here about a New Year’s resolution, I’m talking about a New Year’s revolution. Let’s put the games on pause and pick up our lives. If nothing else, we need to downsize Big Monday. By the way, how can Alabama be playing for the national championship? The Crimson Tide already lost to LSU and didn’t even win its own conference. Who’s minding the BCS store, Howdy Doody? **Q.** Will LSU be national champion even if it loses to Alabama in the BCS title game? (Philip Murphy; Boardman, Ohio) **A.** Actually, I believe the combination of an LSU loss and a Notre Dame loss elevates the Fighting Irish to No. 1. **Q.** Has a newspaper ever resorted to “flex scheduling” to replace one of your less interesting columns? (Mark Concannon; Whitefish Bay, Wis.) **A.** Under your proposal, newspapers would run my column no more than once a month. **Q.** The Golden State Warriors hired a TV announcer as their new coach. Any chance you’ll leave the broadcast booth to be a poker coach? (Mark Cohen; Gibsonia, Pa.) **A.** If I’m qualified to be a poker coach, then the game truly involves no skills. **Q.** Do you stash your mouth guard between your face mask and helmet between marriages? (Mike Jonas; Berwyn, Ill.) **A.** Pay the man, Shirley.

TEHRAN — Iran announced a nuclear fuel breakthrough and test-fired a new radar-evading medium-range missile in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, moves that could further antagonize the West at a time when Tehran is trying to avert harsh new sanctions on its oil industry. On Saturday, President Obama signed a law imposing tougher financial sanctions to penalize Iran for a nuclear research program that the West suspects is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. The move could for the first time hurt Tehran’s oil exports; the European Union is due to consider similar steps soon. As tensions have risen, Iran threatened last week to close the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow gulf shipping lane through which 40 percent of world oil flows, if sanctions hit its oil exports. At the same time, Iran signaled on Saturday that it was ready to resume stalled international talks on its nuclear program. It says the program is completely peaceful, and, in what Iranian media described as an engineering breakthrough, state television said Iran had successfully produced and tested its own uranium fuel rods for use in its nuclear power plants. The rods were made in Iran and inserted into the core of Tehran’s nuclear research reactor, the television reported. Iran is trying to develop its own nuclear fuel cycle to power reactors without international help. Western countries are sceptical of some of Tehran’s engineering claims but say they fear that Iran’s enrichment of uranium to make fuel could eventually lead to its producing a weapon. In what has become part of a pattern of saber-rattling in recent weeks, Iran is finishing a 10-day gulf naval exercise. Deputy Navy Commander Mahmoud Mousavi told IRNA, the state news agency, that it had successfully test fired a medium-range surface-to-air missile equipped with “the latest sophisticated anti-radar technologies.” Iran has apparently delayed pre-announced plans to test its long-range missiles during the drill, saying the weapons would be launched in the next few days. Its long-range missiles could hit Israel or U.S. bases in the Middle East. The United States and Israel say they have not ruled out military action against Iran if diplomacy fails to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program. Western analysts say Iran sometimes exaggerates its nuclear advances to try to gain leverage in its standoff with the West. **— Reuters** **More world news coverage:** Russia arrests New Year’s protesters Maliki marks end of U.S.-Iraq pact In Egypt, an act of courage that launched a revolution Read more headlines from around the world

My dad was part of that World War II generation that never really talked about their experiences. But one day when I was 12, I found a set of memorabilia in a box inside of a drawer in the house. In that box was a Silver Star medal that was awarded to my dad, who was a combat medic in the Third Infantry Division, for saving the life of some men under machine gun fire. I never knew that about my dad. When I read that, it prompted a conversation between us that was part of the momentum to carry me forward to West Point. I arrived at West Point in 1972, when the Vietnam War wasn’t over just yet. I enjoyed the discipline, the environment and the opportunity to learn about leadership. Having studied civil engineering, I went into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as an officer and ended up staying for 32 years in the Army, commanding at the platoon, company, battalion and brigade level. That theme of serving the country and having an interest in business circled around many times in the Army. I ended up commanding a division in Dallas, which was really like a $1.5 billion construction company. One of my proudest experiences was as an engineer platoon leader tasked with the construction of a road leading to a camp for children with disabilities. The road was in horrible shape, and people couldn’t get to and from the camp. It was a unique project paid for by private sources. We basically donated the use of the time and equipment. We honed our skills as engineers, but also provided a needed service to a community. Everyone was beaming the day the ribbon was cut. One of the things I learned early on about leadership is that you give respect in order to get respect. Respect is appreciating the talent and skills of human beings while understanding that everyone has a dream, desire and need to achieve. It’s the job of a leader to inspire hope and aspirations. When I retired from the Army as a lieutenant general and looked at all the opportunities out there, joining ITT Defense was very attractive because it was a company whose capabilities I saw as a customer in the military. The night vision devices, the radios — this was a company I was impressed with. I initially came to the company to do strategy work and business development but I was given a very rare opportunity within four months to become president of its defense group. I think this was because I supplied a fresh set of eyes to the company and was able to see the storm clouds on the horizon in terms of the defense budget. I knew we needed to reshape the company in a way that would reduce costs and create opportunities not only in the Defense Department, but in non-defense sectors. Now, in this position, we will have to manage our portfolio well, adapt to changing circumstances, seek out opportunities to grow new business and offer affordable solutions to customers. I’ve learned you need to be the best leader you can be in a governmental context, because the nation needs that, and in a business context because the nation needs that too. _— Interview with Vanessa Small_ **Position:** Chief executive officer and president of Exelis Inc., an aerospace, defense and information solutions company headquartered in McLean. **Career highlights:** President, ITT Defense & Information Solutions; vice president of strategy and business development, ITT Defense and Information Solutions; lieutenant general, Army’s military deputy for budget, Pentagon; brigadier general; commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, Southwestern Division; White House fellow, Office of Management and Budget. **Age:** 58 **Education:** BS in civil engineering, U.S. Military Academy at West Point; MS in business administration, Harvard University; MS in public administration, Shippensburg University. **Personal:** Lives in Northern Virginia with his wife. They have two grown daughters.

On the outskirts of this sprawling city in one of India’s poorest states, the whitewashed columns and domes of Chanakya National Law University rise next to a deep and murky swamp. To get there, visitors bump along potholed streets lined with idle men sipping tea and cows rooting through piles of garbage. Despite its inauspicious location, the four-year-old university has high aspirations. “We’re in a position to be a leading national law school,” said Ravi Sarma, an assistant professor of property law. The university is part of an ambitious plan to expand higher education to India’s most destitute corners, where the country’s vast population of young people is concentrated. Of 1.2 billion Indians, one third are under the age of 14. Realizing that the youth bulge could be an asset in India’s drive to become a world power, or a disaster that drains its resources and fuels social unrest, the government has responded with an ambitious university building spree. The effort could help India in its economic competition with China and the United States. While the United States may have enough colleges, President Obama has warned that its higher education system is falling behind. Poor graduation rates plague lower-tier schools with the vast majority of U.S. students, even as budget cuts and rising tuition make it more difficult to enter college and to graduate. In India, dozens of new public universities are opening. Officials say 374 new “model” colleges, meant as demonstration projects, will be constructed in remote areas. The plan is to increase the postsecondary enrollment rate for 18- to 23-year-olds to 30 percent, from 18 percent, by 2017, said Ved Prakash, chairman of India’s University Grants Commission. The enrollment rate for 18- to 24-year-olds in the United States is 41 percent. “It has never happened in the history of India, this massive expansion of higher education,” Prakash said. The government estimated that India had 13.6 million postsecondary students in 2009, about 6 million fewer than the U.S. But if India reaches its goals, it could have nearly twice as many college students as does the United States by the end of the decade. The construction boom is transforming Patna, a city of more than 5.7 million long written off as a poverty-stricken backwater, into a college town, and the state of Bihar, which borders Nepal, into a hub of higher education. The government is doubling the number of its renowned and selective Indian Institutes of Technology to 16. IIT Patna opened in 2008 and is waiting to expand into a 500-acre campus in a nearby village. A National Institute of Fashion Technology opened downtown in the same year, and in 2006, a state technical college opened an expansive new campus near the city’s airport. The Central University of Bihar, one of 15 new government-sponsored universities that aims to compete with the global elite, opened in 2009 and has been allocated 1,000 acres on the edge of the city. Plans call for enrollment to grow over the next decade from 200 students to as many as 40,000. Sixty miles south of Patna, down a two-lane highway clogged with rickshaws, motorcycles and idling trucks, plans are under way to open Nalanda International University. The campus will be located near the ruins of a Buddhist university that, in the 5th century, drew students from around the world. The hope is that the new school will do the same. For some poor students in Bihar, the universities are turning farfetched dreams of higher education into reality. Abhishek Ujjwal, 18, grew up in a small village in Bihar, where most people worked on farms and the roads out of town were unpaved. His father has a small business selling the milk of local cows and his mother is a housewife. Neither went to college. But in middle school, Ujjwal decided he would aim for admission to an IIT. “It’s a very global brand,” he said. “You can go anywhere.” A tutoring program for the poor called Super 30 helped him prepare for the entrance exam. Last summer, he qualified for IIT Bombay, a branch opened in 1961 with a stronger reputation than the one in Patna. Ujjwal enrolled for the fall term in IIT Patna instead, because he wanted to be near his family as he embarked on the intensive course work. “They gave me moral support,” he said. The founder of Super 30, Anand Kumar, said that for many in Bihar, the universities remain out of reach. One-room schoolhouses lacking basic amenities such as toilets are often the only option for children in slums and villages, even though the government is investing in elementary and secondary education. Many children drop out as early as age 10. “With more and more institutions coming up, they will certainly increase access,” Kumar said. “For the poor students, however, it is tough as always to make the most of these opportunities.” The new universities are also targeting the expanding middle class in an effort to keep talented students in India. More than 100,000 Indians study abroad, most of them in the United States. Ravi Prakash, 22, a middle-class Patna native, might have chosen to study in Delhi or abroad. Instead, he opted for the Chanakya law school. “Law is a means to bring social change, and I’m interested in developing my state,” he said. Indian officials acknowledge that the rapid expansion of public colleges and universities will not come close to meeting the demand. Privately run schools fill the gap through distance education, but often their offerings are of low quality, said Devesh Kapur, a political scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. And corruption and nepotism are rife in the postsecondary system. Pawan Agarwal, an adviser to the federal government’s planning commission on higher education, said that in 2012 ****the Indian government will start to shift its attention “from rapid expansion to quality expansion,” although he acknowledges that solutions will be elusive. India’s new institutions are fulfilling one mission already, however: They are raising the expectations of a new generation of Indians. “All the Biharis, now they are dreaming that ‘I will go for this institution,’ ” said Ujjwal, the IIT student. “We are imagining what we could be.”

Viola Herms Drath had been to the Blue Star Mothers convention the week of Aug. 8, and she spoke excitedly about an upcoming family dinner at the Prime Rib on K Street and her great-granddaughter’s first birthday. She was pleased that, even at 91 years old, her calendar was so full. But by the end of the week, she was found dead. Drath was determined not to let her age, or anything else for that matter, slow her down. Her wits sharp and her health steady, Drath navigated the worlds of journalism, foreign policy, art, fashion, travel and Georgetown life with the ease and style of someone decades younger. She still had dreams and aspirations. But by Aug. 12, Drath’s remarkable life had been hijacked by a man described by those close to her as an eccentric opportunist. More than 40 years her junior, the man had looked to piggyback on Drath’s successes and ride them to social status and importance, several people who knew the couple said. Drath’s second husband, Albrecht Gero Muth, 47, has been charged with beating and strangling her in their Q Street home in Northwest Washington. In court recently, Muth, who has claimed to be a general in the Iraqi army and a spy for several countries was granted the right to represent himself at trial. Drath’s friends, co-workers and acquaintances described the Muth-Drath marriage as a quintessential Washington story of power and influence. But it was a relationship that got increasingly dysfunctional as Drath got older and Muth got more delusional and demanding, they said. Although a strong and independent woman, Drath — widowed after a long and loving first marriage — became ensnared in a two-decade cycle of loneliness, love, dependence, abuse and reconciliation, her friends and family say. But Drath never saw it that way. In an unpublished and previously undisclosed memoir — called “A Thoroughly Muddled Marriage: Report of an Inmate” — Drath acknowledged the many differences between Muth and her. But she also wrote of a true and genuine love and said the fights all were worth it. In lengthy conversations over the past three months, Drath’s family members spoke of a woman they admired and loved and now sorely miss. They said the way she died and the person they think is responsible for her death have overshadowed her inspiring life. “My mother was not ordinary in any way, not in the way she lived and not in the way she died,” said Connie Dwyer, Drath’s eldest daughter. “She had a very interesting life. . . . She said she’d like to live to 95, but we don’t get to choose when we die or how we die. Yes, she was robbed. There’s no doubt about it. Her day had not really come.” Drath told her family that she truly loved Muth, just that it was a different kind of love affair. Those close to her said that Muth took over much of her life and that she relented because she didn’t want to be alone. That could be seen in their Georgetown home. Photographs of Drath’s daughters and grandsons graced the living room piano until they gradually were replaced by signed head shots of top U.S. generals and a 1989 image of Drath shaking hands with President George H.W. Bush. Beautiful artistic works above the mantel were eventually surrounded by military challenge coins. Framed family memories on a wall in the English basement were pushed aside in favor of letters from dignitaries and photographs of senators, a Supreme Court justice and foreign officials. All to impress a Washington society that often trades on influence and connections. As police looked through the photographs Aug. 12, their attention turned to Muth. Drath’s body lay lifeless in an upstairs bathroom, steps from her longtime office, where a Blue Star Mothers conference folder had been tossed on a small couch. Muth, authorities allege, had killed Drath before concocting a story that she was frail and had fallen and hit her head. Those who knew Drath said that the moment they heard of her passing they were certain that story could not have been true. “She had a lot to look forward to,” Dwyer said of her mother. “She did like drama, and she would have been fascinated by this. She would have. The attention, the celebrity that comes with this right now. She probably wouldn’t have minded that.” Viola Herms was born in Dusseldorf in 1920, into a family that was doing quite well for post-World War I Germany. Relatives recalled stories of drivers and vacations and boarding school in Scotland. It was there that she learned flawless English. A student of art and fashion, she began her adult life as a playwright. One of her early productions — “Farewell Isabell” — reached the stage in Munich in 1946. She wrote newspaper articles for German and Austrian papers and wrote plays that became movie scripts. A stunning beauty, she captured her bright blond hair and blue eyes in an oil self-portrait that hangs in her home. It was about that time that she met Lt. Col. Francis S. Drath, a handsome U.S. Army officer who was serving as the deputy military governor of Bavaria. In an autobiographical manuscript that was never published, she wrote of finding him and a group of Americans on a small motorboat in the Swiss waters of Lake Constance. “I caught the eye of a tall dark-haired Colonel with the most soulful brown eyes I had ever seen,” she wrote. “It was love at first sight.” Col. Drath needed interpreters at his headquarters in Munich, and she showed up at his office the next day. It was a whirlwind romance. Within months, they married and moved to his home town of Lincoln, Neb., where she began studying for an advanced degree in literature and philosophy at the University of Nebraska. Once in Nebraska, Drath worked hard to keep a connection with her past by taking a job with a German language weekly in Omaha and later working as an American correspondent for Germany’s Madame magazine. The style writing required frequent travel to New York, where she circulated in the fashion, arts and book worlds and began hobnobbing with celebrities. “She had about five dimensions,” said Parker Ladd, a friend who met Drath more than five decades ago when she was covering a New York fashion show his partner, Arnold Scaasi, was putting on. “She was an intellectual. She loved to dress up, a mid-European style. Hats and hair, it was really something. . . . She was a brilliant politician. She was a happy person, for a German. But there was a seriousness about her, her daily life and what she was involved in.” Fran Drath, born in 1952, was in awe of her mother, whom she remembered as glamorous and fun. She remembered Drath banging away on a Remington typewriter, using only her index fingers. The family also acted a bit differently. For vacations, they would use the colonel’s military position to fly space-available on military aircraft to Morocco, Spain, Germany, Antigua. “It was like a big adventure; she was just loving her life in America,” Fran Drath said. “She was involved in the now, embracing what was before her. And they had a really solid marriage. They were totally in love.” In 1968, after 21 years in Lincoln, Col. Drath took a job as a legislative liaison with the Selective Service in Washington, allowing his wife to jump into Washington journalism. She quickly snagged a job as a political correspondent for Handelsblatt, Germany’s rough equivalent of the Wall Street Journal. “He realized that she was quite brilliant and should be somewhere else and not Nebraska,” Ladd said. The couple bought a house on Q Street just off Wisconsin Avenue, putting them within walking distance of Georgetown’s shops and restaurants. Drath took advantage of the location to hit the Tuesday art show openings, and she was a regular at the P Street galleries. Family members said she befriended J. Carter Brown, then director of the U.S. National Gallery of Art, and famed Washington artist Leon Berkowitz. Journalism gave Drath access to Washington’s elite, especially in the areas of politics and art. She pursued a lifelong interest in German reunification and studied foreign policy. “She knew about art and was very educated,” said Sonia Adler, who edited Washington Dossier and hired Drath. “She wrote very well. She was wonderful and one of the real professionals I had.” Warren Adler, Sonia’s husband and author of “War of the Roses” and numerous other novels, said Drath was one of the most interesting people he met in Washington. “Our conversations were always lively and full of knowledge,” Warren Adler said. “She had a great take on what the world was all about, and she also had a certain style, which we liked.” Because of her work for Handelsblatt, Drath was often on Capitol Hill. At a news conference in the early 1980s, she met an unpaid intern from Germany, a young man who impressed her with his intelligence and wit. They met for dinner at a Georgetown restaurant, and he would pop in on her Georgetown home. Once, he sported an eye patch and claimed that he had gotten in the way of an assassination attempt in Paraguay — an eye patch that Drath would remember in her memoirs as “an attention-getting prop.” It was Albrecht Gero Muth. As Drath neared her 66th birthday, she was dealt the biggest personal blow of her life. On Jan. 11, 1986, Col. Drath died after a battle with cancer. They had been married nearly 40 years. He was 81. Gone was Drath’s main support system, the man who cooked and handled the finances and did the shopping and tended to the spacious back yard. Gone was her true love. “It was hard for her,” Fran Drath said. “It was very hard. It turned her world upside down. What scared her the most is that she knew she couldn’t replace him.” Ethan Drath said his grandmother was devastated. “She was grieving,” he said, “and she didn’t know what the next step was.” In her autobiographical manuscript, Drath wrote that she was truly alone: “In an empty house with nobody to talk to, nobody to share laughter and tears, nobody to hug, nobody to love!” She vowed to herself never to attend a mate’s funeral again. Soon, Muth was again on her Q Street doorstep. Muth was in almost every way the opposite of the colonel, according to those close to Drath. He was in his 20s, he was German, he was outspoken and he liked to name-drop. He loved to argue politics and carried a formal European air about him. He was eccentric. But to Drath, he was charming, attentive and fresh. “I was impressed by his natural eloquence, his polished speech, his grasp of affairs of state, of governance and the intricacies of political chess,” Drath wrote. “Often, after our talks, he sat down at the baby grand to play and sing for me into the wee hours of the evening.” After months of teas and phone calls, Muth showed up unannounced at Drath’s home in a tuxedo and carrying a bottle of Moet. He proposed marriage, and she accepted. In an anecdote that Drath and Muth told many people over the years, Muth the next day cold-called Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia asking if he would marry him, drawing out the reply: “But I’m already married.” It was a conversation that Drath wrote in her memoir was “the beginning of an animated relationship that lasted many years.” Instead, Muth used a fictional relationship with a senator to persuade a Virginia Supreme Court judge to marry the couple in early 1990. For the next two decades, Drath’s family and friends said, Muth tried to climb Washington’s social and political ladders, often gaining an advantage from his wife’s status or from carefully crafted stories that usually had a kernel of truth but upon inspection did not hold up. He threw unusually formal parties, filled with pomp and circumstance and protocol, trying to bring the city’s elite together under his auspices — often successfully. Generals, top journalists, foreign dignitaries and government officials accepted his invitations to parties at the Q Street home and at the Dacor Bacon House in Foggy Bottom. Muth, in e-mails to The Washington Post before his arrest in August, said his relationship with Drath was a “marriage of convenience” and part of an arrangement that included a prenuptial agreement. He wrote that he was “an agent of the East German foreign intelligence service” in the early 1980s when he met Drath, who had been “one of my icons.” Muth’s court-appointed defense attorney did not return calls seeking comment. Prosecutors have labeled Muth a liar, saying in court papers that he has concocted much of his own history — calling himself a spy for various countries, an Iraqi general, European nobility — all the while unemployed and living on a monthly allowance from Drath. He would walk around his Georgetown neighborhood in a uniform detectives say was made by a tailor in South Carolina, carrying a swagger stick, and law enforcement officials said he used a Maryland copy shop to make certificates showing that he was an Iraqi general. The Iraqi Embassy in Washington has disavowed any connection to Muth, though it is clear from photographs in Drath’s home that some Iraqi officials attended his events. Muth at one point officially changed his name to “Count Albi” in a nod to aristocracy. He showed Drath’s family members — and others — a 1999 letter that purported to be from a relative who was conferring his title on Muth after suffering serious physical injury from a fall off an elephant in Mumbai. “I asked her how she could marry him. It was so bizarre, I couldn’t understand it,” Warren Adler said. Muth, according to Drath’s account, made her feel young, alive and excited. They traveled the world, often trading on embassy contacts Muth cultivated. He supported her efforts to work on the 1988 Bush campaign as a foreign policy adviser and encouraged her involvement in memorializing war veterans through the White House Commission on Remembrance and the Blue Star Mothers. Drath’s family members generally declined to speak about Muth because of the criminal case, but they said they questioned the need for them to marry and over time barely saw him because he did not attend family events. “She did things her way. She made her own decisions and wasn’t overly concerned about what people would say about her,” Dwyer said. “We kind of were two minds about all of this. We have to respect the decisions she makes.” The trouble began not long into their marriage. Muth was arrested in 1992 and was charged with domestic assault, ultimately serving jail time. It was the first of several alleged violent outbursts from Muth, usually after drinking. Drath wrote of a threat in a Scottish castle when the two were traveling — she said she ran down a hall in her underwear to escape him — and friends recall several times when she would seek help after claims of abuse, such as being hit with a chair or threatened. Some of those incidents led to lengthy breakups. In 2002, after an alleged attack, Muth became romantically involved with a man and moved into his apartment. To support himself during the breakup, Muth worked at an Embassy Suites hotel in Foggy Bottom. In her autobiography, Drath wrote that she was cognizant of the situation but was consistently drawn to Muth anyway. “The bumpy ride was propelled by an unchallenged ego, incapable of understanding the dynamics of teamwork, and partially steadied by a romantic concept of unconditional love on my part,” Drath wrote. “As his dreams of fame and fortune faded, the smart kid with the promising potential, the ready smile and witty asides turned into a frustrated champagne guzzler, a braggart and relentless user. It was a chilling experience to see his small creative deceptions that had fascinated and amused me during the early years of our marriage turning into ever bolder and calculating schemes and games teetering on the brink of legality.” Yet amid the domestic abuse and the lies, the couple continued to get back together. “She missed having someone in the house, and she was lonely,” said Helle Dale, former editorial page editor at the Washington Times, who published Drath’s works on foreign policy. “I told her she should not take this man back, because he’s dangerous.” In 2008, Drath advertised one of her rooms on craigslist, hoping to take in a boarder to have a third person in the house. The boarder’s room — now Muth’s study — was next to the bedroom where Muth and Drath slept in separate beds. Alan Burns, who was starting graduate school, moved in for $1,000 a month. Things were great, for a few weeks. One Saturday night, Drath busted his door open, visibly shaken. “She said that he had threatened to hit her,” Burns said. “I asked her if she wanted to call the police, and I told her she should. But she didn’t want to.” “The next day, they just acted like it didn’t happen, which is even more bizarre,” he said. Drath told Burns that she wanted to rent out a room because she thought it would change Muth’s behavior. Burns moved out suddenly early one morning and sent an e-mail to his former hosts telling them that he was uncomfortable with the situation. Ethan and Lindsay Drath had wanted their daughter, who celebrated her first birthday on Halloween, to get to know her great-grandmother. Viola Drath lit up when she saw her. “She was interesting, alive, relevant and busy,” Lindsay Drath said. “Even at 91, it wasn’t easy to get on her calendar. She was a different kind of 91-year-old.” Even at 91, Drath was planning for the future. Even at 91, she was aware that she was in a volatile relationship but felt drawn back to her husband. Even at 91, such blind love and drama can be deadly. In her memoir, Drath appears to clearly understand the two sides of her relationship, even if no one else did. “It was a strange feeling to mount the front steps to my house knowing that my longtime mate and comrade would not be there, would never hold my hand again, never play the piano for me again and never vocally or physically abuse me,” Drath wrote. “Walking through the rooms with mixed emotions I was as scared of an encroaching emptiness as I was relieved to realize that I would never have to be afraid of the man whom I once entrusted my life and in a perverse way still cared for.” She wrote that she had no regrets. “In hindsight, my friends ask, would I do it again? Most of them shudder when I answer: I would,” Drath wrote. “You see, I had fallen in love with this man.”

**Who:** No. 20 Houston vs. No. 24 Penn State. **Where:** Cotton Bowl, Dallas. **TV:** ESPNU. **Records:** Cougars 12-1; Nittany Lions 9-3. Yes, it’s a Jan. 2 bowl game played at the Cotton Bowl that isn’t called the Cotton Bowl. The Cotton Bowl, the game, is Friday at the JerryDome. Bowl season: where common sense goes to die. In any case, it’s your last chance to see Case Keenum — owner of many NCAA passing records and averaging nearly 400 passing yards this season — in a Houston uniform, though his previous bowl forays have been a bit disastrous: In three bowl games, Keenum has three touchdown passes and seven interceptions, six of them coming in the 2009 Armed Forces Bowl against Air Force. Penn State has the nation’s fifth-ranked passing defense (162.2 yards allowed per game) and has allowed only nine passing touchdowns this season, fourth in the nation. **Who:** Ohio State vs. Florida. **Where:** EverBank Field, Jacksonville, Fla. **TV:** ESPN2. **Records:** Buckeyes 6-6; Gators 6-6. The Buckeyes, soon to be coached by Urban Meyer, take on the Gators, formerly coached by Urban Meyer. It’s been reported that Meyer might not even watch the game because of his conflicted interest in both teams, but does anyone really believe that? Both tradition-rich teams stumbled badly this season, with scandal-plagued Ohio State suffering its first losing season in Big Ten play since 1999 and Florida losing six of its last eight games. The Gators ranked 102nd nationally in total offense and the Buckeyes ranked 107th. Expect malaise. **Who:** No. 12 Michigan State vs. No. 18 Georgia. **Where:** Raymond James Stadium, Tampa. **TV:** WJLA-7, WMAR-2. **Radio:** WSPZ (570 AM). **Records:** Spartans 10-3; Bulldogs 10-3. Michigan State Coach Mark Dantonio has won four straight against rival Michigan, but is 0-4 in bowl games as the Spartans head coach. Here’s to guessing that his job is safe, because wins over the Wolverines are likely more important than wins in bowl games named after mid-range steak restaurants. Georgia Coach Mark Richt’s job also is likely safe, which you probably couldn’t say after the Bulldogs lost to Boise State and South Carolina to start the season. Georgia rebounded, however, winning 10 straight before losing to No. 1 LSU in the SEC title game. The Bulldogs finished third nationally in total defense (268.5 yards per game allowed); the Spartans were fifth (272.7). **Who:** No. 10 South Carolina vs. No. 21 Nebraska. **Where:** Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium, Orlando. **TV:** ESPN. **Radio:** WWXX (92.7 FM), WWXT (94.3 FM), WTEM (980 AM). **Records:** Gamecocks 10-2; Cornhuskers 9-3. Coach Steve Spurrier has the Gamecocks on the verge of the first 11-win season in program history, but he’s 1-4 in bowl games at South Carolina, with his only win coming in the 2006 Liberty Bowl. The Cornhuskers’ rushing game ranks 13th nationally, and quarterback Taylor Martinez has nine rushing touchdowns, but none since a 34-27 win over Ohio State on Oct. 8. He’ll be chased around the field by South Carolina defensive end Melvin Ingram, a first-team all-American who has a team-high 8 1/2 sacks, picked off two passes and also scored on a fake punt earlier this season. **Who:** No. 6 Oregon vs. No. 9 Wisconsin. **Where:** Rose Bowl, Pasadena, Calif. **TV:** ESPN. **Radio:** WWXX (92.7 FM), WWXT (94.3 FM), WTEM (980 AM). **Records:** Ducks 11-2; Badgers 11-2. Neither the Ducks nor the Badgers have had much success of late in Pasadena. Oregon lost there after the 2009 season to Ohio State; the Ducks’ last postseason win at the Rose Bowl came all the way back in 1916, when Ivy League teams were still being invited to prestigous bowl games. (Oregon defeated Penn that year, 14-0.) Wisconsin, meanwhile, lost in last season’s Rose Bowl game. There will be points: Only 12 teams have scored 80 touchdowns in a season since 1996, and Oregon and Wisconsin are two of them. They rank No. 3 (Oregon, 46.2 points per game) and No. 4 (Wisconsin, 44.6) nationally in scoring offense. Badgers running back Montee Ball had a national-best 1,759 rushing yards and 38 total touchdowns; he’s four short of tying Barry Sanders’s single-season record of 42. **Who:** No. 3 Oklahoma State vs. No. 4 Stanford. **Where:** University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Ariz. **TV:** ESPN. **Radio:** WWXX (92.7 FM), WWXT (94.3 FM), WTEM (980 AM). **Records:** Cowboys 11-1; Cardinal 11-1. After Monday night, the next time Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck and Oklahoma State wideout Justin Blackmon will meet likely will be in the green room at the NFL draft. Luck, who ranked fifth nationally in passing efficiency and threw 35 touchdown passes this season, is almost certain to go No. 1. Blackmon, second nationally in receptions per game (9.4), eighth in receiving yards (111.3 per game) and tied for third in receiving touchdowns (15), is projected by many draft gurus as a top 5 prospect. Again, there will be points: Oklahoma State scored at least 30 points in every game this season, ranking second to Houston in scoring offense. Stanford was sixth in that category. Neither team defends the pass very well, with the Cardinal at 78th nationally and the Cowboys 102nd. **— Matt Bonesteel**

KHANDWA, India — Two months after he lost his wife to Alzheimer’s disease, 80-year-old Sharad Geete made a shocking discovery. The free drugs his wife, Sheela, had been receiving for two years before she died were part of a clinical trial. “The doctor told us that the medicines will be given free and that they were going to be launched soon by a foreign company. Not once did he say it was an experiment or a trial. If I knew, would I have taken the risk?” asked Geete, sitting in his home in Khandwa, a small town in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Since India eased guidelines for conducting drug trials in 2005, the number of Indians participating has shot up to 150,000 from close to zero, as international drug companies take advantage of lower costs here. But questions about the consent process have fueled fears that many Indians are entering the trials without knowing the risks. A Madhya Pradesh state government probe found that six doctors had violated ethical standards in gaining patients’ consent for participation in drug trials and did not compensate those who suffered adverse side effects in 76 drug trials on 3,300 patients since 2006, according to results released last June. In the wake of the recent controversies, the Indian Council for Medical Research invited public feedback on draft guidelines about compensation for injuries that occur during clinical research. The consent form that Geete signed said the medicines were part of a study. “I was so stressed about my wife’s health, I said okay, okay to everything and signed on the form. We never questioned the doctor, we trusted him blindly,” Geete said about his wife, who was a singer. “She became bedridden and stopped speaking or hearing us. She became a vegetable.” Across India, 1,700 people who participated in clinical drug trials died between 2007 and 2010, the government’s drug regulatory agency said, although no autopsies were carried out to determine the causes of the deaths. In 2010, 22 families of the dead were compensated by U.S. and European drug companies, ranging from $2,000 to $20,000. Clinical drug trials in 2010 generated business worth $300 million in India, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry. Conducting drug trials here saves the companies almost 40 percent of the total cost of drug development because health-care professionals are cheaper and liability is not very high, analysts said. The large pool of patients with diverse illnesses and doctors who speak English also make it an attractive destination for outsourcing trials. “India is emerging as a hub for drug trials, and Indian patients are like guinea pigs,” said C.M. Gulhati, editor of the Monthly Index of Medical Specialities journal. “The ethical review panels are bogus,” he said in an interview. “The drug control authority approves almost all the trial applications without rigorous scrutiny. And poor, unsuspecting patients get duped, while doctors and hospitals earn money.” In the central Indian city of Indore that Geete and his wife visited for treatment of Alzheimer’s, patients participated in trials for Indian subsidiaries of companies including Novartis, Pfizer, Merck, Glaxo SmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim, according to documents retrieved by activists using the right-to-information law. U.S. drug companies have conducted trials for Parkinson’s disease, seizures, eye infection, and heart and gastric illnesses. “A handful of doctors had turned it into a business on the side. And most patients had no idea what was going on,” said Anand Rai, a doctor at the government-run M.Y. Hospital and a whistleblower. “Many of the trials were conducted on children, mentally ill patients and illiterate people.” Rai said he retrieved forms that showed thumb impressions and were countersigned not by independent witnesses but by doctors. The Hindi form was one page long, “with difficult words,” Raid said, and the English forms he retrieved were about 30 pages long. Last month, Rai said he received an e-mail from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration office at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi seeking “specific information on the clincial trials of concern” that were conducted in Madhya Pradesh. A Merck spokesman said in an e-mail that the company was aware of the allegations but its subsidiary MSD in India had provided information about their trials to the Indian drug regulatory agency, and “was not found liable for any compensation” and no deaths were reported in their trials, which have been continuing for five years. A spokesman for Pfizer said that the company canceled its trial in Indore because proper processes were not followed, and that it has produced an audio book in Indian languages that is shared with staff and patients, to educate participants about their rights and responsibilities. “People will think twice and thrice before coming to a hospital in Indore now because of this scandal,” said Sharad Pandit, chief medical health officer in Indore. But one doctor named in the probe said that all the trials have been ethical and legal, and that the protocols were the same as those followed in South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand. “The consent process is very detailed, meticulous and standardized. Even less-educated and illiterate patients understand the nuances of blinding, control and randomization,” said Apoorva Puranik, a neurologist who said he conducted trials on 40 patients on behalf of MSD, Pfizer and Eisai, a Japanese drug company. The FDA has already approved the new dosage of Eisai’s Donepezil tablets for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, partly based on the Indore trials, he said. An FDA spokesman declined to share any information on the drug. Questions about the consent process arose last year in a demonstration project of a vaccine for sexually transmitted cervical cancer carried out by the Seattle-based charity PATH International and the southern Andhra Pradesh state. Hundreds of young school girls were vaccinated after obtaining consent from their teachers and dorm wardens, instead of their parents. The immunization card given to the girls was in English instead of their native language, activists said. PATH International had said the goal of the study was not to assess the efficacy or safety of the vaccine but generate evidence to introduce it into India’s immunization program. But an investigative report by Sama, a New Delhi-based women’s health advocacy group, said many young girls suffered from acute stomach aches, headaches and dizziness. The government subsequently stopped the study. Last month in Indore, a government probe recommended that doctors videotape the process of securing consent, and put up large signs on the hospital walls that inform patients about ongoing drug trials. Meanwhile, health activists across India are collecting signed testimonials from hundreds of drug-trial participants and their families. “We will soon launch legal claims” against drug companies, said Amulya Nidhi, a health activist with the Health Rights Forum in Indore. **More world news coverage:** Russia arrests New Year’s protesters Maliki marks end of U.S.-Iraq pact In Egypt, an act of courage that launched a revolution Read more headlines from around the world

She hangs there nightly, a yellow or white or spookily orange disk, the bringer of tides, the caster of romantic shadows. She waxes and wanes and sometimes she turns ruddy as the shadow of the Earth crosses her face. For all her beauty, though, our moon hides a lumpy, unflattering secret: She’s lopsided. Her backside is much thicker than her front. And no one knows why. It’s unseemly, really. After more than 100 robotic and human missions to the moon, scientists still can’t account for why one half — the half we can’t see — is taller than the other. Twin NASA probes that arrived at our satellite this weekend may finally reveal a shocking truth: that early on, a smaller twin moon smushed into her. As this intruder splatted into its big sister, it shattered “like a mega-avalanche,” said Erik Asphaug, the planetary scientist at the University of California at Santa Cruz who published the twin-moon idea in the journal Nature in August. His co-author was Martin Jutzi of the University of Bern in Switzerland. This collision would have spread a wide hump of rock onto the back of the moon. There, the material cooled and hardened into a thick crust: the far-side lunar highlands. “This is one of those ideas that all sorts of people will try to prove wrong,” said Maria Zuber, the MIT scientist heading up the new NASA moon mission. “But it’s extremely testable.” And so GRAIL will test it. Designed to probe the moon’s interior, the two washing-machine-size spacecraft will reveal the thickness of the moon’s crust, its topmost layer. If the two-moon theory is correct, the backside crust will be much thicker than that of the front side. The hump should taper toward the equator. GRAIL could also spot another hidden feature predicted by the theory. If a second moon did crash into the first, the collision would have occurred when the big moon was young and hot. A thin layer of molten heavy elements including uranium and potassium still burbled just under the crust. The backside impact would have squeezed this liquid, pushing it around to the front side. There it would have cooled and hardened, leaving a telltale layer. The existence of both features — a thick backside crust and a thin, dense layer under the front’s crust — would offer strong support for the twin-moon theory, Asphaug said. When Zuber first heard the notion, she scoffed. “This is going to be nonsense,” she recalled thinking. But computer simulations run by Asphaug and Jutzi were compelling leading Zuber to reverse course. “It’s a plausible scenario,” she said. The idea is also simple, another stroke in its favor. By contrast, other explanations for the moon’s front-back discrepancy tend toward the complicated and unsatisfying. “There are all these theories out there,” Asphaug said, “that have big warts on them.” Such as: Maybe the front side of the moon was terribly unlucky, flattened by seven or eight big space rocks. The problem: Asteroids and comets arrive from all directions; there’s no reason impacts should cluster. “It’s like flipping a coin and getting heads eight times,” Asphaug said. Another theory suggests that the backside hump is a tidal bulge. Planets and moons sport such bulges when they get tugged at — and the Earth tugs on the moon a lot. The problem: Tidal bulges tend to be symmetrical, so there should be a bulge on both sides of the moon. Asphaug’s theory requires a very specific sequence of events some 4.5 billion years ago, when the infant Earth was a molten ball. Long before life appeared, rocky debris ricocheted around the early solar system. Something the size of Mars plowed into the Earth, sending huge globs of molten material hurtling into space. The largest glob coalesced into the moon. This catastrophic-impact theory of moon formation is widely accepted by scientists. To that, Asphaug and Jutzi threw in a twist: What if a second, smaller glob of Earth-stuff also got blasted free? If it launched at a particular angle, the glob would have coalesced into a second body and drifted behind the moon in roughly the same orbit. After a few million years, the pull of the sun would have drawn the smaller moon closer to the bigger moon. Eventually, the two bodies collided — in slow motion. A fast collision would have excavated a giant crater. But a slow collision — just the type predicted by the computer simulations — would have pancaked the small moon onto the surface, leaving evidence for GRAIL to spot. It’s a quirk of happenstance that GRAIL will be able to test the theory at all. Zuber proposed the $400 million mission five years ago, long before Asphaug and Jutzi published their idea. Zuber wanted to probe other, more general questions: Does the moon have a solid core? How long did the moon take to cool after it formed? And did the moon once have a magnetic field? “You might think we already know all there is to know about the moon,” said Zuber. ”Of course, that’s not the case.” The twin GRAIL probes arrived in a high lunar orbit this weekend, but they won’t begin collecting data until March. By then, thrusters will have dropped the pair to just 35 miles above the surface. Flying in formation — one ahead of the other — the probes will map minute fluctuations of the moon’s gravity over its entire surface. This new gravity map will be 100 to 1,000 times as accurate as current maps. From it, scientists will infer the internal structure of the moon “from crust to core,” Zuber said. Asphaug said there’s an even better way to test the long-shot idea, though it’s one that GRAIL can’t carry out: Study rocks from the far side of the moon. The Apollo astronauts collected hundreds of pounds of moon rocks — but all of them came from the Earth-facing side.

CARACAS, Venezuela — An arbitration panel has awarded U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil $908 million in compensation for Venezuela’s 2007 nationalization of its assets, less than 10 percent of what the company sought in a long legal battle with the OPEC nation. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will probably celebrate the ruling as a vindication of his nationalist confrontation with oil companies, which is aimed at increasing revenue from the industry to boost funding for state-led anti-poverty programs. But Venezuela faces another arbitration with Exxon over the nationalization of the Cerro Negro heavy oil project, as well as more than a dozen pending claims from companies such as ConocoPhillips resulting from a wave of state takeovers. “They must be elated that they got off so cheap. It’s certainly a happy new year for Venezuela,” said Russ Dallen, head bond trader at investment bank Caracas Capital Markets. “But what gives Exxon hope is that it’s only the first of two arbitration proceedings.” An Exxon spokesman said in an e-mail Sunday that the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) had ruled that Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA, “does have a contractual liability to Exxon Mobil. The ICC award is for $907,588,000.” Exxon had sought as much as $10 billion in compensation for its heavy crude upgrading project in the South American country’s vast Orinoco belt, which was nationalized by Chavez along with three others. The award is less than the $1 billion that Venezuela offered in compensation in September. In addition to the ICC claim, Exxon filed for arbitration with the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes over the same issue. The Exxon spokesman said that case was scheduled to be argued next month, and that the date for any verdict was not yet known. Prices for Venezuela’s widely traded bonds are likely to react positively to the news given some expectations that the award could have been higher, Dallen said. Venezuela’s sovereign debt and PDVSA’s bonds may get a lift Monday. A limited payout in the claim will help the socialist Chavez continue to boost state spending on public assistance and housing for the poor in the run-up to his October reelection bid, which is seen as the toughest of his 13 years in power. The dispute between Exxon and Chavez became symbolic of the conflict between countries seeking more revenue from the booming oil industry and companies insisting on respect for investments and compensation for state takeovers. The ICC decision appears to award Exxon a sum close to the $750 million it said it invested in the project — the amount Venezuela says Exxon deserves after the takeover. But Exxon insists it should also be compensated for the increased value of the project, which at its outset in the early 1990s was considered risky because of low oil prices and uncertainty about the relatively untested operations to turn tarlike Orinoco oil into valuable light crude. “Exxon took a risk when they went in. I’m sure they were expecting more than just making their money back,” Dallen said, adding that it will be hard to reach a definitive conclusion about what the decision means until more details are released. The Exxon spokesman told ­Reuters that the company was still reviewing the more-than-400-page ruling. In 2007, Venezuela bought back $630 million in bonds issued to finance the Cerro Negro project, which Dallen said may have figured into the calculation of the award. Local analyst Asdrubal Oliveros of Ecoanalitica estimated the value of Exxon assets in Venezuela at $4.5 billion. Conoco Phillips was an investor in two of the four Orinoco upgrader projects. Exxon and Conoco, which had in total asked for as much as $40 billion in compensation, both left the country after the nationalizations. Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez has said the country does not expect to pay more than $2.5 billion for the combined total of the claims by the two companies. PDVSA said in a debt prospectus that it had set aside $1.5 billion in provision for litigation as of the first semester of 2011. Venezuela’s outstanding arbitration claims include disputes with Swiss cement maker Holcim and Canadian miner Gold Reserve, which could force it to make large payouts. Chavez’s steady push to boost control over the country’s oil industry started in 2004 and was followed by similar efforts in oil-producing countries ranging from Ecuador to Kazakhstan. Critics say his nationalization drive has slowed foreign investment that could help lift Venezuela’s crude production, which has been stagnant for years, and has left fewer companies interested in its oil fields. Relations between Exxon and Venezuela were particularly acrimonious. In 2008, Exxon won an injunction against PDVSA to freeze up to $12 billion of its assets, a ruling that was quickly overturned but triggered furious criticism from Chavez. Oil companies have remained eager to invest in the Orinoco belt, which is considered one of the world’s largest crude reserves, with Chevron and Spain’s Repsol signing investment deals in 2010 for new multibillion-dollar projects there. ** — Reuters **

It is the final day of his best year at work, and Keith Lazar, 62, settles into his corner office at the community bank. He eats a doughnut with a fork and turns on an instrumental CD titled “Relaxation.” Outside his office window, the town square is bustling with proof of his impact during the past 12 months: trucks financed by his loans, restaurants expanding because of his savings advice and small businesses created with his support. The first customer of the day arrives at 8:20 a.m., 40 minutes before the bank is scheduled to open. It’s a hog farmer wearing overalls and work boots, another longtime customer enjoying a record year. He wants to apply for a loan so he can expand his operation again. Lazar opens the door and waves him inside. “Hiya, Keith,” the farmer says. “How’s it going?” “Couldn’t be better,” Lazar says. “Life is good.” Life is good. It has become Lazar’s default greeting, the motto he inscribed on the wall of his kitchen and printed on ­T-shirts to distribute at family gatherings. What could be better at the beginning of 2012 in this other city called Washington, a rural town of 7,200 surrounded by the corn and soybean fields of eastern Iowa? This is the Washington with a 4 percent unemployment rate, with record-breaking hog and cattle production, with a new high school and a $6 million library, with a newspaper that doesn’t bother to print a crime blotter, with heated sidewalks in front of the bank so customers never have to walk in the snow. This is the place that officially refers to itself in all marketing materials as “Washington — Voted One of the Best 100 Small Towns in America Three Times!” It is also a place where, day after day, presidential candidates make their case that the country is a horrific mess. When Iowa holds its first-in-the-nation caucuses Tuesday, a major campaign moment will unfold here, in one of the most robust towns in one of the country’s most robust states. It is an ironic way for the 2012 election to begin: Politicians come here to talk about the problems of someplace else. Lazar and his friends in Washington can render a crucial verdict on issues from which they often feel disconnected. “This is a nation in crisis,” Rick Perry said at a campaign stop at the local coffee shop last week. “The Washington machine is strangling our economy,” said a local TV ad for Ron Paul. “We’re seeing a war on our values,” Rick Santorum said on the evening news. “Life is good,” Lazar says again, still at the bank, four days before the caucuses. He is a lifelong Republican who likes Mitt Romney best, although he doesn’t like any of them enough to participate in the caucuses. He has no problems in his life that require an election to fix, and he believes politicians rarely fix problems anyway. The economy is stable in some early- voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire, so for some voters like Lazar the calculus is different. The population around the town square in Washington is growing, along with small businesses and the middle class. Lazar is tall and stately in a dark suit and crisp white shirt, with a pen in his right pocket and the bank logo pinned to his jacket. The bank has yet to open for the day, but already he has underwritten loans for the farmer and for a single father trying to put two daughters through college. “Pretty neat to be able to help,” he says. “Pretty awesome.” Another day in Washington is off to a great start. Life is good at his morning Kiwanis Club meeting, where he stands for the Pledge of Allegiance next to the sheriff, the dentist, the hospital president and the middle-school principal — friends and customers all. They sing “America the Beautiful.” They solicit community-improvement donations, even though donations already have funded a weight room, a fountain in the park and a municipal bandstand. “Pass the hat for Washington!” the club president says, because they’d rather pitch in a few twenties than raise taxes or rely on government to fix their problems. Life is good at home, a two-minute drive from work, where he goes on his lunch break to sit by the fireplace and eat with his wife, Sam. They turn on Fox News but keep the TV on mute. “What could they say that I really need to hear?” Lazar says. While politicians talk about a country that is angry and divided, Lazar reads self-improvement books and eliminates the word “wrong” from his vocabulary. “It’s better to say, ‘I think you might be mistaken,’ ” he says. While politicians talk about a Washington that is dizzying and unpredictable, his life is an exercise in routine: Married 35 years. At the bank for 20. Vacations twice a year to Jamaica. “It’s a Wonderful Life” on his TV every Christmas. Sunday services at United Methodist Church. And life is especially good at the community bank, where he closes his office door in the afternoon to look over the year-end financial statements. “Pretty awesome year,” he says, nodding. “Pretty fortunate.” The bank has been on a corner of the square for 80 years, outlasting chain banks that moved into town and growing from six employees to 31. No year has been as good as 2011. Lazar’s year-end statement shows a net profit of $2.7 million. Local agriculture profits rose to record highs, and housing prices remained steady. Thriving farmers paid back their loans ahead of schedule. More than 98 percent of customers stayed up to date on their loan payments. Lazar has given out $300,000 in bonuses to his staff, doling out $8,000 and sometimes more to greeters and tellers without college degrees. Now, on the last afternoon of the year, he wants to verify dividend checks totaling $1.5 million for the bank’s 430 shareholders, most of whom also live in town. While he works in his office, bank customers continue to wave from the lobby and invite themselves in to see him. One wants $600 to cover Christmas presents; another wants a loan for a mobile home; another wants advice on how much to ask for his house; a retired couple want to chat and maybe buy some stock. “Life is good,” he says again and again, inviting each customer to sit across his desk. This is his model of community banking. “If you treat someone like a crook, they will act like a crook,” he says. “My job is to believe in people, to treat them well, to help them and then to get out of their way.” That is what irks him so much about government and politicians: All they do is get in the way, he thinks. There’s the Dodd-Frank act, which will result in a few hundred more banking rules and force him to hire another employee to sort through the mess. There are the farming regulations that make life complicated for local hog producers. There’s the endless stack of paperwork and the seven-day delays required to complete a mortgage. There’s the new law that requires bankers who deal with mortgages to undergo background checks and fingerprinting. “I pressed down one finger real hard,” Lazar says. And now, in the heat of the election, there are the incessant presidential campaign calls to his home that have forced him to disconnect the land line. “I’m sick of it,” he says. So rather than think about the problems in Washington, D.C., and the rest of the country, he focuses on the occasional problem in his Washington. Late in the afternoon, the owner of a local tanning salon arrives at his office in black sweats and a jacket, looking frazzled. She calls him “Uncle Keith” because he offered her financial advice when she was opening her shop on the square. Now she explains that she is short on her mortgage payment for a rental property. Her renter moved out with no notice and left without paying. “What can I do?” she asks. “I’m in trouble.” Lazar looks back at her and considers his options. There are a number of ways a banker can handle defaults, and Lazar has tried most of them. Early in his career, when a customer lost his daughter to cancer, started drinking too much and defaulted on his farming loan, Lazar went to the property with a sheriff and hauled away 25 cattle and 365 hogs. It took about seven trips, and the farmer watched from his porch and threatened to go inside for a shotgun. Lazar saw him in his dreams for weeks. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” he decided then. Ever since, he has tried to restructure loans and defer payments to help customers avoid defaults. Optimism. Trust. Kindness. Those are the values in his Washington. Those are the tenets that ensure life is good. He looks across his desk at the owner of the tanning salon. There might be big problems elsewhere, but this isn’t one. “Just skip the payment this month and you’ll make an extra payment at the end of your loan,” he says. “Can it be that easy?” she asks. “It can be,” he says.

By Toni L. Sandys The Spring Valley Vikings (Columbia, S.C.) are one of the top ranked girls’ basketball teams in the country, finishing last season in the No. 2 position according to MaxPreps Xcellent 25. Entering this year’s third annual National Title IX Holiday Classic in Washington, the team was ranked seventh. The tournament, sponsored by DC Events and the Sankofa Project, goes beyond the reach of the playing court. Teams are invited to attend workshops and conferences that address topics such as Title IX and civic responsibility. Tournament organizers arranged for teams to visit the Martin Luther King Memorial and tour the Capitol. “We wanted to do that,” said Spring Valley Coach Anne Long. “That was part of the trip. It wasn’t only the competition, but just a great civic lesson. That was a drawing card. We could have gone to any tournament we wanted to this year, but we chose this one.” With no games to play on Friday, and their flight not leaving until the evening, the Spring Valley Vikings took advantage of their free time and headed out for the day. Led by assistant coach Gregory Bauldrick, an active-duty lieutenant colonel in the Army, the team left their hotel and headed for the Mall. On their itinerary: the Holocaust Museum, the White House and the Lincoln Memorial. “I think the best [part of the trip] was when we actually got to settle down and not play basketball,” said junior guard Latisha Smith, 16, “ and just spend time together and talk about the history that is behind all of this that is D.C. “It’s more than about basketball,” Smith continued. “We get the opportunity to see all of these things down here. Basketball is supposed to be fun, so this is just part of it.” Smith didn’t mind that she has spent most of her two-week winter break on the road traveling with her team to two tournaments. “It’s pretty cool that you get to go different places, see new things, and learn new things.” At the Holocaust Museum, Smith was overcome with emotion listening to the story of survivor Erica Eckstut (Neuman). “I was listening and looking at her big blue eyes, she stopped talking and she was staring at me. I started crying and had to walk away,” said Smith, who is German and African American. “It’s kind of emotional because my mom is German, and I’m pretty sure some of her ancestors went through that.” After the museum, the team posed for photos in front of the Washington Monument, did the same at the White House, and walked past the Vietnam Memorial on their way to the Lincoln Memorial. The well-conditioned basketball team was worn out by its last stop. Slowly the team trickled up the steps for a glimpse of Lincoln. They gathered around the spot where Martin Luther King, Jr. had given his historic speech. Minutes before, someone had splashed water on the inscription. Latisha Smith reached down to touch it. “That was a great experience,” Smith said. “I had never been to D.C. before and I actually got to stand where [King] stood.” “We loved the experience,” Long said as the team headed back to gather its luggage from the hotel. “But we’re going to hold them accountable for what they’ve learned. We’re going to give them tests and quizzes,” she said with a smile.

There was a certain symmetry to the arrival of the Washington area’s first baby of the new year: As 2012 made its debut, so did a baby girl in Maryland — at precisely 12:12 a.m. She is the first daughter and third child of Irja and Greg Bonafede, a military family from Upper Marlboro, who pronounced themselves “a little astounded” by their midnight-hour delivery. A healthy baby Bonafede — with dark hair, blue-brown eyes and round cheeks — weighed in at 8 pounds 10 ounces at Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton. By shortly after 1 a.m., she was followed by babies in Rockville and Leesburg. “We had no idea it would be smack-dab at midnight,” Greg Bonafede said from the hospital Sunday afternoon as his newborn snuggled up with her mother. “But of course the baby has her own idea of things.” Eyeing a due date of Jan. 16, her parents had thought they had another week or two before their daughter made an appearance. Yesterday, as news crews showed up one after another, they had little time to choose among several favorite names. Irja, 36, had begun to recognize labor pains Saturday during an outing to the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, where the family took in Christmas displays. The Bonafedes’ sons — Leo, 5, and Dean, 3 — had such a good time they did not want to leave. “Halfway through the day, I started realizing this really could be it,” Irja said. So Greg, 45, drove them all home, and by 6 p.m. babysitters were in place for their sons and the Bonafedes were heading to the hospital. Irja says she is glad — that she really wanted a January baby. The family already has two December birthdays on the calendar — Greg’s and Leo’s. Plus, Irja thought January would honor her late mother, who had a birthday in that month. Her baby’s arrival at 12:12 a.m., in January 2012, struck both parents as meaningful. But how? “To me, it makes me think of the 12 days of Christmas, which we’re still in,” she concluded. Greg Bonafede was still mulling it over. A lieutenant colonel in the Air Force who works as a speechwriter at the Pentagon, he had worked in earlier years as an English professor at the Air Force Academy and taken a particular interest in medieval literature. “I know there’s a lot of fun you can have with all of these numerological relationships,” he said. “I don’t know at the moment what they are. I will have to do some research.” The new baby had a momentous arrival in another way, too: outdoing her brothers’ birth weights by nearly two pounds and nearly three pounds. But the Bonafedes, mindful of the danger of sibling comparisons, were quick to widen the spotlight. Said Greg: “All of our children are little miracles.” **Read more onPostLocal.com: ** Students, parents ask: What holiday? Viola Drath: A remarkable life hijacked Getting a handle on the new bag tax Two killed in New Year’s crash in Bethesda

Bryan R. Lawrence did an excellent job highlighting the $2.9 trillion increase in the cost of obligations that Social Security and Medicare will have to pay out [“The bad news before Christmas,” op-ed, Dec. 29]. The growing cost of these obligations should motivate efforts to support the long-term solvency of these programs, and history suggests that taking steps forward is possible. In the New Year, Democrats and Tea Party Republicans should consider working together to secure drug price negotiation powers for Medicare. These groups managed to pass legislation to stop funding the GE Rolls-Royce jet engines that the Pentagon identified as wasteful, a task that had eluded previous attempts and a fiscal victory of 2011 that is worth remembering. Perhaps in 2012 the collaboration could continue on legislation to allow Medicare the same right already given to the Veterans Affairs Department. If the policy is good enough for the VA, why isn’t it good enough for Medicare? The Tea Party calls for budget discipline. Members of Occupy Wall Street intuit corporate priorities outweighing over citizen priorities. Working to guarantee that the government does not overpay for medication, misallocating tax dollars in the process, would be a victory for both sides. ****Nicole Bhalla Fernandez,** Arlington**

GLOUCESTER POINT, Va. — Under the murky waters of the York River, an eerie blur appeared suddenly on Edward Hogge’s sonar, near where his 40-foot deadrise boat sailed about a mile offshore on a cool December morning. Hogge made a hard right turn. “I’m going back to get it,” he said. He called out to his wife and first mate, Cheryl. “All right, honey, get your gloves on. Get ready!” When the boat stopped, she tossed a long rope lined with hooks overboard and yanked it. “It’s got something! It’s heavy,” Cheryl Hogge said. Be warned: This is a ghost story. A hidden killer haunts marine life in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries: tens of thousands of baited crab traps left behind by watermen each year. These “ghost pots” capture legions of crabs, eels, terrapins, fish, muskrats and even an occasional duck, leaving them to die. For three years starting in 2008, more than 22,000 blue crabs, male and female, were found dead in ghost pots collected by watermen such as the Hogges under a federal and state program that pays for their work. Another 2,600 oyster toadfish, 950 sea snails known as whelks and 430 black sea bass were killed. “It’s like a feeding machine,” said state Department of Natural Resources Secretary Doug Domenech, who recently sailed with the Hogges to see firsthand how the program partly overseen by his agency works. “Animals get stuck and can’t get out. So they . . . become bait for the next animal that comes.” Watermen in Virginia are licensed to set about 300,000 crab pots each year. About 20 percent — 60,000 — are lost, according to a Virginia Institute of Marine Science estimate. The certain toll of dead animals represents those found in about 28,000 recovered pots, said Kirk J. Havens, director of the Coastal Watersheds Program for the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. A short-lived program in Maryland removed 6,000 ghost pots, he said. The Chesapeake’s iconic blue crabs have enough problems without catching a death sentence in a ghost pot. Their dangerously low population is just beginning to come back after Virginia closed the December-to-March winter fishery as part of an effort to protect them. Each ghost pot traps about 50 crabs per year, according to an estimate by the institute. The killing continues all year, even when the waters are closed to crab harvesting. The program to remove the pots has been a success, Havens said. But it will end a four-year run when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stops funding it after this year’s haul in March. On this bright morning, though, Edward and Cheryl Hogge are still at work. They reach over the side of their boat and haul up a deformed peeler crab trap heavy with mud, grass and too many sea grapes to count. Inside, flat on its back, white belly gleaming in the sun, is a tiny dead blue crab. The trap once was sturdy chicken wire coated by vinyl, but now it is a dilapidated animal trap, jailing creatures until they perish. New pots come with a buoy that floats to the surface and marks a trap’s place in the water. But boats often snag the ropes, and storms may roll the trap, wrapping the tether around it and pulling the buoy under during the March-to-November open crab fishery. “Some of them you can’t get,” Edward Hogge said. “They’re so old, they’ve been in the water so long, they fall apart.” Earlier in the day, the Hogges pulled up traps with three dead or dying eels, a weakened oyster toadfish and a dead croaker. “Last year, we caught a lot of them,” Cheryl Hogge said of ghost pots. “I think we caught, like, 348 or something, right up at the top of the most caught.” Virginia is trying to create a more animal-friendly pot. It would have a portal made of a plant-based polymer that dissolves if left in water for a year or more, allowing animals to escape forgotten pots. The loss of the Chesapeake Bay’s most recognized seafood is detrimental to more than just the crab. Restaurants, retailers and customers pay more for crabs, and watermen, who rely on the creatures for income, suffer too. In 2007, the federal government allocated $15 million to Maryland and Virginia “to assist those economically hurt by the commercial fishery failure, and to support the restoration of the fishery.” In other words, taxpayers would help watermen put food on the table and scientists to resurrect the crab. Virginia used its money to develop a Blue Crab Fishery Resource Disaster Relief Plan. When then-Gov. Tim Kaine (D) insisted that watermen work for the assistance, the Virginia Department of Natural Resources and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science came up with the ghost pot removal program. Edward Hogge said recruiting watermen for the work was a good idea. “Those guys at VIMS are very smart, but they don’t know the water like we do.” Hogge was chosen for the job after state officials entered his winter dredging license in a lottery. He was issued a new, $2,500 side-scan imaging sonar for his 51-year-old boat and paid $300 per day and fuel costs for up to 50 days. He and his wife spend six hours on the water, usually starting at 7 a.m., when temperatures often are below 30 degrees on the water. Like most watermen, Hogge would rather be crabbing, and he wants the state to open the winter fishery. “It took our work, and there’s nothing for us to do,” he said. “Now they want to take this program away. I have no education. I quit school in the fifth grade. I was married by the time I was 17. I’ve got to do something.” As he steered the boat back, Hogge had an admission about the winter dredge harvest, which involves raking up crabs that have buried themselves in the bay bottom to shelter from the cold. “That dredge is heavy when it comes down. When I drag it, I catch about three bushels of crabs. But I also kill three bushels. If it doesn’t get all the crab, it gets part of it.” Earlier, as he loaded a ghost pot onto his boat, Hogge had another admission. Most watermen are honest workers, he said, but “this was thrown overboard deliberately. A lot of them don’t care. That’s just the way some people are.”

Two Dec. 27 front-page articles illustrated the devastating impact that drug use has on society, though one would not know it just reading the headlines. “A grim tally, driven by drugs” told of the continuing spread of cartel violence southward. “U.S. cites gains in housing veterans” trumpeted recent success by the Department of Veterans Affairs in decreasing the number of homeless veterans by eliminating the requirement for successful substance abuse and mental health treatment as a condition for awarding a housing voucher. The second article espoused the virtues of fewer homeless veterans without addressing how the treatment of these veterans will be handled. I agree that ending homelessness is a top priority, but so, too, is treatment. We should not be out to improve homelessness statistics at the expense of drug treatment for homeless veterans. Drug supply and demand are two dimensions of the same problem. Only when our demand for drugs decreases will the violence south of the border decline as well. ****Jodi Peters,** Arlington** The writer was a senior adviser at the Office of National Drug Control Policy from 2007 to 2009.

Executives at Merkle, a Columbia-based marketing services company, blow off steam racing dune buggies across the Baja California peninsula, climbing Mount Rainier, bouncing along Colorado River white water and running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. I have written about sexier companies than Merkle, which — to put it simply — collects and analyzes massive amounts of data, then advises clients — from Clorox to Disney — on how to find new customers and keep them happy. There are no set hours for Merkle’s 1,500 employees, including the 419 who work locally. You do the job, keep the clients satisfied, and push the envelope on what you can do for them. Drive by the five-story suburban headquarters any weekend or weeknight, and you’ll find a dozen cars in the parking lot. “We are a work-hard, play-hard kind of company,” said David Williams, the 48-year-old chairman and chief executive. “Merkle is not for everybody.” Don’t talk to Merkle about “work-life balance.” “If some person is going to miss a kid’s recital tonight because they are taking care of a client, [that] is a practical reality at Merkle,” said the hard-charging entrepreneur. “We are willing to do what it takes to take care of business. A lot of people aren’t willing to work that hard.” One of the company’s mottos is “business is personal.” It isn’t easy to get hired. The screening process includes making a presentation before three people, who then vote on whether they want you. The rewards are high. The average Merkle salary is about $90,000, and all employees get health-care coverage. Every quarter, the company awards a handful of “dream grants,” from $1,000-to-$5,000, that allow a person or small team to do whatever they want, whether it’s go to Boston for a Red Sox game or climb down a cave in Belize. “We really want hard chargers,” said Williams. The company grossed around $300 million in 2011, and earns a profit of about $50 million based on a profit percentage in the mid-teens. It also has little debt. A recent investment of $75 million by Technology Crossover Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, pegged Merkle’s worth at $400 million. That means Williams, who owns just shy of half of the company, is a happy man. This is a focused bunch. And like most corporate cultures, Merkle’s starts at the top — with a boss whose hobby is driving race cars. Williams grew up in Philadelphia and studied marketing and finance at Shippensburg University in south-central Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1985. Like most entrepreneurs, Williams pined to own his own company. He planned on growing a landscaping business that he had begun in college, but one of his customers said he “was on a path to nowhere” and suggested he become a stockbroker. Williams — born with a talent for numbers — took the stockbroker exam in 1985. He was hired by Butcher & Singer, a storied Philadelphia investment house, where he thrived. His “aha moment” hit when he noticed that his wealthiest clients were entrepreneurs who had sold their businesses at some point in their lives. “The only way to build equity is to actually own a business,” said Williams, who was earning about $60,000 a year at the time and trying to build a stake by investing in rental properties. One of his customers at the time, a retired Air Force colonel named Harvey Blanton, started talking about selling a profitable Lanham-based marketing company he owned called Merkle Computer Systems. The company earned $800,000 in profits on $2.5 million in revenue. It had 23 employees. After failing to get Butcher & Singer interested in Merkle, Williams decided to buy the company himself in 1988. He borrowed $5 million of the $5.3 million purchase price, selling a couple of his rental properties to raise the $300,000 down payment. He asked his clients if any were interested in investing in the company, and one became a partner — and a business coach. Williams was turned down by about a dozen banks before one agreed to lend him $2.5 million. He borrowed the rest from Blanton. He had a quick awakening when Merkle lost one of its biggest clients in his first year and Blanton took ill, removing a key advisor. But Williams pushed through. “I wasn’t worried about failure because I had so much exposure to it [growing up],” said Williams, who says a lifelong battle with dyslexia, a reading disorder, hardened him against embarrassment. Merkle had started as a data processing company that kept track of union and association members and where they lived. Using that as a core, Merkle rode the direct-mail and direct-marketing boom of the ’90s. Catalogues became mainstream. Credit card solicitation grew. The Internet opened up new ways to reach customers. Big companies hired Merkle, especially the telecom giants of the day — MCI, AT&T and Bell Atlantic — all of whom were competing furiously for landline and cellphone customers. As computer horsepower grew, Merkle married the technical aspects of large data compilation with analysis that predicts consumer behavior. To parse the information even more, it hired statistics experts. The company says its secret sauce lies in its analytics. For example, when Dell computer wanted to send catalogues to 120 million potential customers, Merkle helped them narrow the focus to those most likely to buy a laptop computer. Merkle sent out thousands of catalogues, digesting the responses to come up with a profile of a likely Dell customer. Then they used that profile to project likely customers across the United States. Merkle prefers to work with Fortune 1000 companies and major nonprofit organizations, such as the American Cancer Society. It focuses on growth industries and large “best in breed” corporations such as Dell, Geico, DirecTV, Wendy’s, OnStar, Urban Outfitters, T.G.I. Friday’s, Disney and Microsoft. In addition to its Columbia headquarters, it has offices in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Little Rock, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle and Hagerstown. And Williams has his sights set on raising revenue to $1 billion a year. The company has had many offers from suitors in the last half dozen years, and Williams said receiving venture capital investment means the company will have to reach some sort of decision point in five to seven years. But no one knows the end game. In the meantime, the racing-car enthusiast has no intention of putting on the brakes. “I intend to work very hard my entire career,” he said. “I want to be around a really smart, hardworking group of people.”

Five months in an Egyptian jail gives a person a lot of time to think. When you are not pacing or trying to catch an hour of afternoon sun through the barred window, there are thoughts of home, family, the freedoms Westerners take for granted, what exactly got you into the mess and even why you came to the country that locked you up. Two months after my release, as I watch news of the Egyptian military’s violent suppression of protests and raids on nongovernmental organizations, I still think of my first hours of arrest, when I was handcuffed and blindfolded. When I went to Egypt to spend the summer working at a nongovernmental organization that provides legal assistance to asylum seekers from Sudan and Iraq, I was no stranger to the Middle East. I had studied Arabic in Cairo and spent more than two years in the Israel Defense Forces. I hoped that my summer would prove that my Zionist ideals could coexist with support for the right of human migration and sanctuary. I also hoped to convince the Arabs I met that my Zionism did not have to be antithetical to their interests and that we could work together for peace. But in post-revolutionary Egypt, my attempts to educate and interact with the local population led to my arrest, to solitary confinement and eventually to the threat of five simultaneous life imprisonments for “espionage” and “incitement.” On previous visits, the friendships I developed overpowered the omnipresent anti-Israel propaganda of the Arab world. Some former adherents of the Muslim Brotherhood actually wished me luck when I left to do reserve duty in Israel. Most Egyptians I met and chatted with over coffee ended our conversations by admitting to holding misconceptions about Israelis. This reinforced my hopes for common ground. So during the summer I emphasized my Israeli background, even when I entered Egypt as an American. I identified as a Zionist Israeli to all of my Egyptian friends, taught them Hebrew and showed them Israeli movies. In return, I received lessons in Arabic, Islam and Egyptian culture. Some who do not know me considered my actions peculiar or harmful. But that condemnation only underscores a particular abyss into which the Middle East conflict has descended since once-influential Zionists and Egyptians considered cooperation to be beneficial, as did the early Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann and Dawood Barakat, the former editor of the Egyptian daily al-Ahram. On June 12, two dozen state security officials barged into my hostel room, handcuffed and blindfolded me, and transported me to their general prosecutor. People ask, “Were you scared?” I was terrified and confused. Over time I also became angry and lonely. The initial 14 days were the “best” part of my imprisonment because there was at least human interaction. The prosecutor and I bantered about politics, religion and the Middle East conflict. The conversations were jovial, mostly innocuous, save for some random accusations: “Security reports inform us that you were smuggling weapons from Libyan revolutionaries into Egypt,” or my favorite — but perhaps irrelevant — charge: “Ilan, you used your seductive powers to recruit Egyptian women and that is a crime.” After these first two weeks, the interrogations ended, but my detention continued. Thus began my solitary confinement, which became the true ordeal — near-complete isolation, interrupted just twice a month by consular visits that lasted only 40 minutes. But thanks to the work of so many U.S. and Israeli government officials, I was not lost in the system. My parents and U.S. officials got me books, which I read slowly because I did not know whether I would get more or how long I would be jailed. People ask, “Were you tortured?” I was not beaten — but consider what it’s like to spend nearly 150 days (3,600 hours) alone in a 10-by-10 room with a bed and chair, a small barred window and no idea what would come next. People ask, “So what do you think of Egypt and your mission now?” My answer is constantly evolving. As my detention and recent events and repressions in Egypt make clear, the revolution brought only superficial change. The junta’s focus on external actors represents a desperate attempt to avoid culpability and abdication of power. Hosni Mubarak’s notorious state security forces still arbitrarily arrest Egyptians without real charges or trials (as they did me), denying anything resembling due process. Prosecutors and judges go through the motions of court proceedings, but the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces really calls the shots. Was my trip reckless or “wrong”? No. Despite the peril, the U.S. government sends Peace Corps volunteers to volatile regions because of the benefit of grass-roots diplomacy. Hasbara, the Hebrew term that refers to efforts to explain the Israeli viewpoint, has much to gain from such a strategy, given the pernicious myths about Israel and Jews prevalent in much of the Arab world. My hasbara provided a viewpoint that changed the mentalities of former Muslim Brotherhood members, the prosecutor and my guards, whose last words were “Shalom, we hope you forgive us.” Israelis and Arabs can continue to maintain the status quo of mutual avoidance or they can dare to coexist. To those who wrongly held me, I say simply, I forgive you.

Regarding the Dec. 29 front-page article “Pentagon thinning ranks of top brass”: I served on active duty in the military and am in the reserves. Vice Adm. William E. Gortney’s comment that it takes so long to eliminate senior officers because “you need time to work this” and “you can’t just give people their pink slips” shows a disconnect with the real world. General officers serve at the pleasure of the president. Since they are all eligible for retirement (with immediate collection of benefits), why wait to let them go? In the civilian world, folks get let go on short notice all of the time. ****Sean F. Conroy,** McLean**

Four years ago this week, a young and inspirational senator who promised to turn history’s page swept the Iowa caucuses and began his irresistible rise to the White House. Barack Obama was unlike any candidate the country had seen before. More than a mere politician, he became a cultural icon, “the biggest celebrity in the world,” as a John McCain ad accurately, if mischievously, described him. He was the object of near adoration among the young, launching what often felt like a religious revival. Artists poured out musical compositions devoted to his victory in a rich variety of forms, from reggae and hip-hop to the Celtic folk song. (My personal favorite: “There’s no one as Irish as Barack O’Bama.”) Electoral contests rarely hold out the possibility of making all things new, but Obama’s supporters in large numbers fervently believed that 2008 was exactly such a campaign. As the attention of the politically minded has focused on the rather more down-to-earth contests in Iowa and New Hampshire that will help determine which Republican will face Obama in November, let us ponder what the coming year will bring for someone who must now seek reelection as a mere mortal. Obama’s largest problem is not the daunting list of difficulties that have left the country understandably dispirited: the continuing sluggishness of the economy, the broken political culture of Washington, the anxiety over America’s future power and prosperity. On each of these matters, Obama has plausible answers and, judging by improvements in his poll ratings since September, he has made headway in getting the country to accept them. Most Americans still believe that Obama inherited rather than caused the economic turmoil. Barring another crisis in Europe, there is a decent chance of somewhat better times by Election Day. Obama’s fall offensive against Republicans in Congress has paid dividends. Voters seem inclined to blame Washington’s dysfunction on the GOP, not on a president they still rather like. Most also think Obama’s foreign policy has put the nation on a steadier course. To the extent that bellicosity from the Republicans — notably from Mitt Romney — portends a return to George W. Bush’s foreign policy, Obama will enjoy an advantage. Ron Paul’s strength in Iowa and New Hampshire suggests that there are even Republicans who are exhausted with foreign military adventures. For all these reasons, Democrats are far more bullish on the president’s reelection chances than they were even a few months ago, and for what it’s worth, I put the odds in his favor. Yet the threat that should most concern Obama may not be any of the particulars that usually decide elections but the inevitable clash between the extravagant hopes of 2008 and the messy reality of 2012. In traveling around Iowa and New Hampshire over the last few weeks, I have been struck by the number of Democrats and independents who still more or less want Obama to win and deeply fear the consequences of a government dominated by Republicans. But having made this clear, they then bring up the ways in which they cannot summon the emotions on Obama’s behalf this year that they felt the first time around. Some point to disappointment over his failure to confront the Republicans early enough and hard enough. How, they ask, could Obama possibly have expected cooperation from conservatives? Others are frustrated that he couldn’t bring Washington together, as he said he would. Still others point to real Obama achievements, including the stimulus and especially the health-care law, and ask why he was unable to sell their merits to a majority of the electorate. And then there are those who wonder why the malefactors of finance have faced so little accountability. Few of these voters would ever support a Republican, and most will turn out dutifully for Obama again. But a president who won election with 52.9 percent of the vote does not have a lot of margin. He needs to worry not just about issues but also about the spirit and morale of his supporters. In their jaunty song on Obama’s behalf four years ago, the alternative reggae band Michael Franti & Spearhead promised a country that would “soar through the sky like an eagle” and saw Obama as “seeking finds of a new light.” These are not the standards of normal politics. Can voters who supported someone as a transcendent figure reelect him as a normal, if resilient, political leader? This is Obama’s challenge. **_ejdionne@washpost.com _ ** ****

Let us count the ways in which the nomination ofRon Paul would be groundbreaking for the GOP. No other recent candidate hailing from the party of Lincoln has accused Abraham Lincoln of causing a “senseless” war and ruling with an “iron fist.” Or regarded Ronald Reagan’s presidency a “dramatic failure.” Or proposed the legalization of prostitution and heroin use. Or called America the most “aggressive, extended and expansionist” empire in world history. Or promised to abolish the CIA, depart NATO and withdraw military protection from South Korea. Or blamed terrorism on American militarism, since “they’re terrorists because we’re occupiers.” Or accused the American government of a Sept. 11 “coverup” and called for an investigation headed by Dennis Kucinich. Or described the killing of Osama bin Laden as “absolutely not necessary.” Or affirmed that he would not have sent American troops to Europe to end the Holocaust. Or excused Iranian nuclear ambitions as “natural,” while dismissing evidence of those ambitions as “war propaganda.” Or published a newsletter stating that the 1993 World Trade Center attack might have been “a setup by the Israeli Mossad,” and defending former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke and criticizing the “evil of forced integration.” Each of these is a disqualifying scandal. Taken together, a kind of grandeur creeps in. The ambition of Paul and his supporters is breathtaking. They wish to erase 158 years of Republican Party history in a single political season, substituting a platform that is isolationist, libertarian, conspiratorial and tinged with racism. It won’t happen. But some conservatives seem paradoxically drawn to the radicalism of Paul’s project. They prefer their poison pill covered in glass and washed down with battery acid. It proves their ideological manhood. In many ways, Paul is the ideal carrier of this message. His manner is vague and perplexed rather than angry — as though he is continually searching for lost car keys. Yet those who reject his isolationism are called “warmongers.” The George W. Bush administration, in his view, was filled with “glee” after the Sept. 11 attacks, having found an excuse for war. Paul is just like your grandfather — if your grandfather has a nasty habit of conspiratorial calumny. Recent criticism of Paul — in reaction to racist rants contained in the Ron Paul Political Report — has focused on the candidate’s view of civil rights. Associates have denied he is a racist, which is both reassuring and not particularly relevant. Whatever his personal views, Paul categorically opposes the legal construct that ended state-sanctioned racism. His libertarianism involves not only the abolition of the Department of Education but also a rejection of the federal role in civil rights from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This is the reason Paul is among the most anti-Lincoln public officials since Jefferson Davis resigned from the United States Senate. According to Paul, Lincoln caused 600,000 Americans to die in order to “get rid of the original intent of the republic.” Likewise, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 diminished individual liberty because the “federal government has no legitimate authority to infringe on the rights of private property owners to use their property as they please.” A federal role in civil rights is an attack on a “free society.” According to Paul, it is like the federal government dictating that you can’t “smoke a cigar.” The comparison of civil rights to the enjoyment of a cigar is a sad symptom of ideological delirium. It also illustrates confusion at the heart of libertarianism. Government can be an enemy of liberty. But the achievement of a free society can also be the result of government action — the protection of individual liberty against corrupt state governments or corrupt business practices or corrupt local laws. In 1957, President Eisenhower sent 1,000 Army paratroopers to Arkansas to forcibly integrate Central High School in Little Rock. This reduced Gov. Orval Faubus’s freedom. It increased the liberty of Carlotta Walls LaNier, who was spat upon while trying to attend school. A choice between freedoms was necessary — and it was not a hard one. Paul’s conception of liberty is not the same as Lincoln’s — which is not a condemnation of Lincoln. Paul’s view would have freed African Americans from the statism of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil Rights Act. It would have freed the occupants of concentration camps from their dependency on liberating armies. And it would free the Republican Party from any claim to conscience or power. **_michaelgerson@washpost.com _ ** ****

Could 2012 turn conventional wisdom on its head? Here’s the conventional wisdom: President Obama’s reelection is vulnerable to the weak economy and high joblessness. Here’s what might happen: The economy gradually improves, and although unemployment stays high (exceeding 8 percent), what counts politically is the palpable sense that things are moving in the right direction. This allows Obama to argue, as he already does, that his policies are slowly repairing the economic calamity he inherited from Republicans. To which they respond: Obama’s anti-business rhetoric and policies have impeded recovery; the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) and new regulations create uncertainties that deter hiring; and Obama hasn’t dealt with the explosion of federal debt. Just which narrative triumphs may well determine the election. If Obama convinces Americans that he’s set a course for a stronger recovery, then he wins. If the Republicans successfully cast his policies as producing prolonged stagnation, they win. Though the debate matters, the economy’s actual performance — for better or worse — will decide how many Americans feel. And this will depend on forces and events over which the candidates have little or no control. What’s the 2012 outlook? Many forecasts see modest growth. Here aresome numbers from IHS Global Insight, a major consulting firm. The economy will expand 1.8 percent, almost the same as in 2011 (estimate: 1.7 percent). Payroll jobs will grow about 145,000 a month, rising gradually; that’s decent but probably wouldn’t cut the unemployment rate. Indeed, normal labor force growth and the prospect that some discouraged workers will start looking for jobs indicate the unemployment rate (8.6 percent in November) could average 8.7 percent, only slightly below the 9 percent of 2011. This forecast depicts a plodding economy; should it materialize, it would favor the Republicans. “Consumers face too many negatives to allow a robust spending recovery — a weak labor market, high debt burdens, house prices that have not yet hit bottom, price increases that have outpaced wage growth, and a lack of confidence in the government’s ability to make things better,” says IHS. But the mainstream forecast may be too glum. Starting with the 2008 financial crisis, economic predictions have routinely been wrong. At this time last year, they were too optimistic; now they might be too pessimistic. Many indicators are exceeding expectations. Weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance, which peaked at more than 600,000, are running under 400,000 — a level often associated with a low or declining unemployment rate. Housing construction was up 9.3 percent in November over October and 24.3 percent over November 2010. For Obama, the economy holds two large potential pluses. First, there’s huge pent-up demand for homes and vehicles, because both sectors collapsed in the recession. Car and light-truck sales, which totaled about 17 million annually in 2004 and 2005, fell to 10.4 million in 2009. In 2011, IHS estimated sales to reach 12.7 million. The decline in housing construction was even deeper, from about 2 million units annually in 2004 and 2005 to an estimated 600,000 in 2011. Second, the consumer debt burden is dropping rapidly, notes Timothy Taylor, managing editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, on his blog. Households have repaid some debts. Others have been written off; interest rates on many remaining loans have declined. On average, households paid 16.15 percent of their income toward loans, rents and leases in the third quarter of 2011, according to Federal Reserve data. That was the lowest since 1993 and down from a peak of 18.85 percent in the third quarter of 2007. The upshot: More Americans may be in a position to borrow to buy a home or vehicle, relieving some pent-up demand. Home sales may already be reviving. In November, new contracts reached their highest level in 19 months. By contrast, Europe and China pose big risks. In Europe, Italy and Spain have nearly 500 billion euros worth of maturing debt in 2012, reports the Institute of International Finance. If they can’t refinance — if bond markets won’t renew loans at acceptable interest rates — they would default or need to be rescued. Either way, Europe would face greater austerity and a deep recession. This would hurt U.S. exports and the profits of American multinational firms. The danger from China is a collapsing real estate “bubble” that, if it occurred, would result in bankruptcies of developers, loan losses to banks and slower economic growth. The effects would spread beyond China, because construction fuels its demand for cement, steel, copper and other raw materials traded on world markets. Again, U.S. exports could suffer. Given all the possibilities, handicapping the election based on the economy is nearly futile. It’s 2012’s political wild card that — when played — may prove decisive, if accidental. ****

THERE MAY NOT have been a party in Times Square to celebrate, but two of the most wasteful subsidies ever to clutter the Internal Revenue Code went out with the old year. Congress declined to renew either the 45-cent-per-gallon tax credit for corn-based ethanol or the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol, soboth expired Dec. 31. Taxpayers will no longer have shell out roughly $6 billion per year for a program that badly distorted the global grain market, artificially raised the cost of agricultural land and did almost nothing to curb greenhouse gas emissions. A federal law requiring the use of 36 billion gallons of ethanol for fuel by 2022 still props up the industry, but the tax credit’s expiration is a victory for common sense just the same. Meanwhile, a lesser-known but equally dubious energy tax break also expired when the year ended Saturday: the credit that gave electric-car owners up to $1,000 to defray the cost of installing a 220-volt charging device in their homes — or up to $30,000 to install one in a commercial location. As a means of reducing carbon emissions, electric cars and plug-in hybrid electrics are no more cost-effective than ethanol. What’s more, only upper-income consumers can afford to buy an electric vehicle (EV); so the charger subsidy is a giveaway to the well-to-do. The same goes for the $7,500 tax credit that the government offers purchasers of electric vehicles, a subsidy that, alas, did not expire at year’s end. The Obama administration says that the credit helps build a market for EVs, which helps create jobs. Given the price of eligible models, like the $100,000 Fisker Karma, that rationale sounds an awful lot like trickle-down economics. Backers of the charger tax credit may lobby Congress to renew it when lawmakers tackle the payroll tax extension issue again in the new year. We hope that Congress says no. Not only is it a case study in upward income redistribution, it also would represent a deepening of the taxpayers’ commitment to what looks increasingly like an industry not ready for prime time. Sales of electric vehicles were disappointing in 2011, with the Volt coming in below the 10,000 units forecast. In addition to its high price, the Volt brand is suffering from news that some of its batteries burst into flames after government road tests. Meanwhile, Fisker, the recipient of more than half a billion dollars in low-interest Energy Department loans, repeatedly delayed the introduction of its ballyhooed Karma — while repeatedly raising the sticker price. And now Fisker has announced a recall of the cars because of a potential defect in its batteries — made by A123 Systems, another large recipient of Energy Department support. Evidence is mounting that President Obama was overly optimistic to pledge that there would be 1 million EVs on the road by 2015. Electric cars are not likely to form a significant part of the solution to America’s dependence on foreign oil, or to global warming, in the near future. They simply pose too many issues of price and practicality to attract a large segment of the car-buying public. More prosaic fuel-economy innovations such as conventional hybrids, clean-diesel cars and advanced gasoline engines all show much more promise than electrics. The ethanol credit was on the books for 30 years before it finally died. Let’s hope Congress can start unwinding the federal government’s bad investment in electric vehicles faster than that. ****

TheIowa caucuses are almost here! In less than 48 hours, Republicans will gather across the Hawkeye State to pick the man or woman they think should be the next president. At this point, there’s not much left for the candidates — or the reporters who cover them — to do but wait and wonder. Now, the Fix isn’t a betting man, but there is no better way to wile away the hours between now and Tuesday night than to do a bit of odds-setting. Below are the odds we give each candidate in Iowa. The numbers are based on conversations with strategists for many of the contenders, independent poll figures and a little bit of historical context sprinkled in for taste. **Mitt Romney (1-1):** The former Massachusetts governor is the best bet to win the caucuses because he is the only candidate aggressively competing for the mainstream/establishment vote in the state. The five others in the race are trying to emerge as the social-conservative/tea party choice. Although more social conservatives than mainstream Republicans participate in the caucuses, the fracturing of the evangelical vote means that Romney’s 25 percent could be enough (or close to enough) to win the nomination. (He received 25 percent in the Iowa caucuses in 2008 and lost to former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee by nine points.) Romney and his team know that a victory in Iowa followed by another in New Hampshire would all but lock up the nomination for him, so he is pushing — hard. **Rick Santorum (4-1):** A Des Moines Register poll released Saturday night made plain that the former senator from Pennsylvania is the momentum candidate. Although he took 15 percent overall in the four-day survey, he was at 21 percent in the final two days — a sign that he is peaking in the waning moments. The key for Santorum is how much of the vote he can peel off other socially conservative candidates — most notably Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who, despite major spending in Iowa, doesn’t appear to be rising fast enough. **Ron Paul (5-1):** The congressman from Texas has the most reliable base — between 15 percent and 19 percent — in the field. But his ability to grow beyond that has always been very much up in the air, and it’s even more so now as Paul has come under withering attack from the likes of former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.). Both Bachmann and Gingrich have painted Paul not only as outside the mainstream of Republican Party thought, which he is, but also as potentially dangerous if elected. Although conventional wisdom holds that if turnout in the caucuses is low (less than 100,000) it’s good for Paul, there’s also a case to be made that high turnout (120,000 or more) might be even better. The more nontraditional Republicans who decide to vote Tuesday (Iowa has same-day registration), the better for Paul. **Newt Gingrich (20-1):** If the caucuses had been held Dec. 3, Gingrich would have won. But his baffling pledge not to go negative combined with his inability to raise enough money to compete with his rivals (and their affiliated super PACs) on television doomed his chances over the past month. Gingrich has insisted that South Carolina is where he will make his stand, but if he finishes outside of the top three in Iowa it might be hard for him to raise more money and stay viable through the Palmetto State’s Jan. 21 primary. **Rick Perry (25-1):** The Texas governor’s inability to gain any real traction despite outspending all of his rivals in the Hawkeye State reveals just how damaging his disastrous debate performances were late last year. Although Perry is, at best, a socially conservative spoiler for the likes of Santorum at this point, he will almost certainly be remembered as a “what might have been” candidate. His profile — and ability to raise money — should have made him Romney’s main competition nationally and the front-runner in Iowa. Instead, he’ll be the latest reminder that candidates and the campaigns they run matter. **Michele Bachmann (50-1):** Need a sign of how fluid this race has been? The congresswoman from Minnesota was the Iowa front-runner when she won the Ames Straw Poll in mid-August. A little more than four months later, she is the heavy favorite to finish last in the caucuses. Bachmann’s inability to raise money has badly hamstrung her, and she has been a shadowy presence on Iowa airwaves over the past month. If she does come in sixth Tuesday night, it’s hard to imagine her staying in the race through the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary.

Children in snow suits are a common sight during winter. But in 1962, Peter from “The Snowy Day” was something most children in the United States had never seen before: an African American character who was the hero of his own book. “None of the manuscripts I’d been illustrating featured any black kids — except for token blacks in the background,” wrote author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats, who died in 1983. “My book would have him there simply because he should have been there all along.” First published 50 years ago, “The Snowy Day” is a gentle story that revels in the wonder of an urban snowfall. It also was quietly groundbreaking, both as what is widely considered the first picture book to star a black child and in its use of collage, for which Keats won the 1963 Caldecott Medal. Writers such as National Book Award winner Sherman Alexie, who thanked Keats in his 2007 acceptance speech, and award-winning author/illustrator Bryan Collier have cited “The Snowy Day” as an inspiration. “The fact that it’s still around — and picture books are like lettuce in the grocery store, they disappear so fast — the fact that it’s still with us is something,” said Newbery and National Book Award winner Katherine Paterson, who is the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. “It’s so important for a child to be able to say, ‘There I am in the book,’ ” said Paterson, whose daughters are Chinese and Native American. “That’s been a wonderful change, even in the lifetime of my children, who are in their 40s now.” To celebrate the book’s 50th anniversary, Viking has issued a special edition that includes eight pages of supplemental material, including the magazine photos of a little boy that inspired Keats and a fan letter from poet Langston Hughes. “The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats,” the first major U.S. exhibition about Keats, opened this fall at the Jewish Museum in New York and will travel to Massachusetts, California and Ohio in 2012 and 2013. Collier, whose book “Uptown” won the first Ezra Jack Keats award, still remembers his mother, a Head Start teacher, bringing home “The Snowy Day.” “It was the first time I saw a kid that looked like me,” Collier said. “At 4, I didn’t have the vocabulary to articulate what I was looking at. But I remember seeing Peter, and this kid looked just like me. The yellow-print housedress the mom wears — my mother had a housedress like that, too. Even the pattern of the pajamas — my great-uncle had pajamas like that. It felt so real.” Back in the 1940s, 22 years before “The Snowy Day” was published, Keats had cut out pictures from Life magazine of the young boy, who was being vaccinated, said Deborah Pope, executive director of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation in New York, which supports arts and literacy programming in schools, libraries and other institutions. He pinned them to a wall in his studio; meanwhile, he continued illustrating other people’s books. Keats’s book, when it appeared, “was both a social, personal and artistic breakthrough,” said Pope, whose father was Keats’s best friend. “It really opened up the wellspring of his inner voice. He said that the book — as artists sometimes say — the book kind of burst out of him. He had never done anything like this before.” If it had purely been a “cause” book, some argue, “The Snowy Day” would be just a footnote. The fact that children still read it today has to do with the universality of the story and Keats’s stunning collages. “That’s what struck me: It was gorgeous,” said Laura Ingalls Wilder Award winner Tomie dePaola, who has written or illustrated more than 200 books. “It deserves all the fame and notice it’s going to get.” Keats’s art has a richness and depth, Christopher Award-winning author and illustrator Jerry Pinkney said, that only increases as you peel away its layers. “He brought his sensibilities as a painter, his ability to remember his childhood and express it in a way that other kids could connect to, his total love of the city,” said Pinkney, who curated an exhibit in Los Angeles in the 1990s that included Keats’s work. “You take a 32-page picture book — packed into those 32 pages is all of that.” Keats once attended art classes with Jackson Pollock and was working during the height of abstract expressionism. “He’s been compared to Edward Hopper: taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary,” said Nick Clark, chief curator for the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass., where the exhibit will be on display this year. Collage, Clark suggested, might be a way of using scraps of paper to suggest “life’s detritus.” Clark added that Keats had the ability to take the poverty and squalor he saw as he walked through his neighborhood and recombine them in a way that was beautiful: “So there are these exquisitely rendered reproductions of graffiti. He found a way to capture this other beauty.” Although the 50th anniversary has been cause for celebration, when “The Snowy Day” was first published some critics questioned whether a Jewish man had the right to tell a story about an African American child. “Carry that to an extreme, and none of us could write,” Paterson said. “There’s no space for the imagination.” The controversy was “devastating” to Keats, Pope said. He had grown up in a poor immigrant family and changed his last name from Katz to Keats after years of anti-Semitism. Pope says he asked: “How can you put a color on a child’s experience in the snow?” Winning the Caldecott Award and receiving fan letters from Hughes and other African American activists helped stem the criticism. “It was such a vindication,” said Regina Hayes, president and publisher of Viking Children’s Books in New York. At the time, full-color printing was very expensive, and most picture books were either black and white, or alternated between black and white and color pages. “It was really a commitment. Everyone [at Viking] was completely aware that this was going to be the first mainstream picture book to feature an African American child as a main character.” “It holds up the need for everybody to be included,” Pinkney said. “But I think, you know what, the art stands up. And good art gets better. . . . It’s going to stand up 50 years from now. We’re going to celebrate that 100th year.”

ONE ISSUE THAT demands more attention in the scandal surrounding D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5) is the role played by the independent non-profit that administers city grant money for youth programs. Was it a lack of proper controls, susceptibility to political pressure or perhaps both that resulted in funds intended for children’s baseball going, as alleged, to Mr. Thomas? Did this faulty oversight result in other questionable appropriations? D.C. officials should not wait for the outcome of the criminal probe of Mr. Thomas to undertake their own scrutiny of how wisely its money is being allocated. Investigation by D.C. Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan, which resulted in Mr. Thomas agreeing without admission of wrongdoing to repay the city $300,000, details how the DC Children & Youth Investment Trust Corp. was hoodwinked into directing money earmarked in 2007 for youth baseball to a group that, in turn, funneled it to groups controlled by Mr. Thomas. According to the attorney general’s civil complaint filed in June, the trust followed Mr. Thomas’s direction to pick the Langston 21st Century Foundation as recipient for the funds that were regularly doled out despite seemingly weak documentation. Did no one in the trust think it unusual that it was Mr. Thomas’s council office that was providing the spare budget narratives and work plans, not to mention putting in requests for the issuance of checks? This wasn’t the only time that the trust followed Mr. Thomas’s lead. A March 12, 2010, account in the Washington City Paper by Mike DeBonis, now with The Post, examined $1.3 million set aside in the fiscal 2010 budget for gang intervention and youth anti-crime initiatives. The money was competitively bid in Ward 6 but not in Ward 5, where, a trust official said, “We met with the Ward 5 council member [Mr. Thomas] and talked about what we felt would be the best way to serve the community. We talked about a number of organizations that he suggested we look at that he knows have a track record of good services.” More recently, the Brookland Heartbeat, a neighborhood publication in Ward 5, raised questions about a $560,000 grant given by the parks department in the summer of 2008 to the trust to fund programs to support a Ward 5 initiative by Mr. Thomas. No evidence of wrongdoing has emerged. But it’s only prudent that the city demand a better accounting of exactly how those monies were spent. The trust is generally seen as doing truly laudable work in creating better opportunities for D.C. youth. Trust President Ellen London told us that procedures have changed dramatically; for instance, there is now a requirement that all grants be competitively bid and approved by the board. At the initiative of Mr. Nathan, the city entered into a new agreement with the trust that includes better controls. Not only does it tighten how city funds are accounted for, but it also requires the trust to disclose all communications from council members or staffers regarding the distribution of funds. Clearly that’s a step in the right direction — but we would also urge the D.C. Council to take its own look at whether further improvements are warranted. ****

IN 2010, THE FEDERAL government funded 55,000 experiments worldwide on human subjects. Ethical and operational controls adopted over four decades have eradicated the most abominable experiments, such as those in which U.S. researchers infected unwitting Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases during the 1940s. But the sheer number of ongoing projects and the absence of a centralized record-keeping system argue for additional safeguards. Thousands of often desperately ill individuals volunteer each year to participate in experimental, federally funded medical programs. Thousands more participate in more mundane research with significantly less risk. And yet others take part in projects fueled by federal dollars that focus on social science and education research. The Department of Health and Human Services funds the most research on human subjects, but some 18 federal agencies play a role. According to a recently releasedreport by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, the government does not have a centralized database to keep tabs on these experiments. Even some agencies do not have a comprehensive database of the experiments they fund. The Defense Department, for example, took roughly seven months to compile data about research it sponsors on human subjects. The commission sensibly recommends creation of an online registry of all federally funded research on humans. Another area of uncertainty: the number of individuals injured in medical experiments. “We don’t think it’s a big problem,” commission chair Amy Gutmann said, “but it’s perceived as a big problem because we’re one of the only developed countries that does not guarantee compensation for injured subjects.” The commission encouraged the government to establish such a system. It did not endorse a particular approach but rightly pointed to the “no fault” program developed by the University of Washington. The university will pay up to $10,000 for medical care provided outside of the university system for individuals injured as a result of participation in a university research project. The school will pick up the tab for all post-injury medical services provided by university staff. Individuals who are treated through this program maintain the right to take the university to court. But one side benefit of the university’s morally responsible behavior is that it has seen the number of court cases and its litigation costs go down.

In her very good Dec. 25 Outlook article, “The colder war,” Heather Conley left out a key fact for U.S. policy interests in the Arctic. She mentioned the importance of the Convention on the Law of the Sea for Arctic issues but did not note that the United States has not ratified the convention, despite broad support in industry, the armed forces and the Senate. A handful of senators has opposed ratification for reasons inexplicable to anyone who looks rationally at U.S. national security interests in the Arctic region and elsewhere. As a result, the United States is on the outside looking in as the rules of the road for the warmer Arctic are made by those who are a party to the convention. The Senate needs to ratify the Law of the Sea Convention as early as possible to ensure the United States has a leading voice on issues covered by the convention that relate to our national security, of which the Arctic is perhaps the most urgent. ****Kenneth C. Brill,** Bethesda** The writer was acting assistant secretary of state for oceans and environmental affairs for two stints, in 1999 and in 2001.

The philosophers were in town last week, swarming the Marriott Wardman Park hotel for the American Philosophical Association’s annual conference, at which the meaning of a great many things was debated, including the meaning of meaning (“What Is Meaning?” Hall IV-F, 9-11 a.m.), and a great many thoughts were thought, including thoughts about thought (“Thinking About Thinking,” Hall IV-J”). In one largish ballroom, a different sort of panel was happening. It featured the Dish’s Andrew Sullivan and two other men who looked like Andrew Sullivan — pleasant, bearded, round-faced men, which is a chic sub-style among many of the attendees here, optionally accessorized with square glasses and male-pattern baldness. The panel was called “From Philosophical Training to Professional Blogging.” “Perennially, departments of philosophy are under attack,” said Andrew Light, the George Mason University professor who organized and monitored the panel discussion. “We’re always looking for better ways to sell the major.” There _are_ jobs for philosophers. (There is, at least, “Jobs for Philosophers,” a publication of the APA). But the irksome perception persists that a philosophy degree is only slightly more useful than an English degree, and so it was thought that a panel such as this might give frightened philosophers — many of whom came to this conference in search of gainful employment — a spot of hope. Philosophers: If you are pinning your hopes of gainful employment on blogging, don’t. But the three men on the panel have done so, and splendidly, with varying degrees of national recognition for their thoughtful punditry on political and cultural issues. Besides Sullivan, who has a PhD in political philosophy and is known for his writings on conservatism and gay marriage, the other participants included Slate blogger Matthew Yglesias, who majored in philosophy at Harvard, and Grist magazine writer/blogger David Roberts, who has a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Montana. “What blogging created was a Platonic dialogue,” Sullivan said, to perhaps the only audience that would intuitively understand that the “P” should be capitalized. Philosophy, Roberts said, taught him to dissect and make arguments. For centuries, philosophers were regular engagers in mainstream cultural conversation, contributing to discussions of issues that tinged on values and ethics. The American Pragmatists — the John Dewey types — were known for this, commenting on education and social reform in the early part of the 20th century. But in recent decades, Light said, “philosophers have ceded these questions of value and importance to economists,” who are prone to taking the important questions of life and sticking numbers on them. The Internet is the new public sphere, and so the blog might be a way to reclaim old standing, to demonstrate the practical value of having someone with foundational philosophical knowledge ring in on the issues of the day. The professorial attendees at the panel found this concept rather fascinating. One gentleman was bothered by the comment-jacking that he sees happen on message boards. “It’s zigzags and red herrings . . . all of which seems not in line with philosophy,” he fretted during the Q&A; portion of the event. How could one enter the blogosphere without relinquishing one’s credentials as an academic? Reading the comments “is a truly existential” experience, one of the panelists assured him. Another attendee wondered whether the “public sense of self” achieves an outsize importance on Twitter. Perhaps, the panelists agreed. But from a philosophical perspective, the benefits of freewheeling intellectual rigor online far outweigh the downsides. On blogs, Yglesias said, “You can see which issues bring people together.” Like, Roberts said wryly, “Justin Bieber’s paternity test.”

PHILADELPHIA — When the season had finally ended, Rex Grossman was the first player off the field, sprinting into the stadium tunnel for a final time. Later, his hair still damp from a postgame shower, Grossman walked out of the Washington Redskins’ locker room wearing a blue pinstripe suit and pulling a roller bag behind him. First stop, the team bus. Then on Monday morning, Redskins Park to pack up his locker. And after that — who knows? Grossman will be a free agent, and the future of the Redskins’ quarterback position is up in the air. As the Redskins begin to weigh their options, though, Grossman said he’d like to return to Washington next season. “I really enjoy it here. I really enjoy this offensive system, what they’re building here,” he said following the Redskins’ 34-10 loss to the Eagles on Sunday. “So I’d love for this to be the place where I end up.” Of course, that decision will ultimately be made by Coach Mike Shanahan and his staff, not the nine-year veteran quarterback. Shanahan in recent weeks has said the team’s turnover problems this season were unacceptable. In 13 starts, Grossman had 20 interceptions and five lost fumbles. Shanahan already has started evaluating the quarterbacks who will be available in this year’s NFL draft. Before that, though, the team will have to make a decision on Grossman — and all of the other free agent quarterbacks, including Green Bay’s Matt Flynn, who raised some eyebrows Sunday with his six- touchdown, 480-yard performance. Grossman’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, attended the Redskins’ game Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field and said it’s too early to guess what Grossman might do in free agency. “I don’t really want to speculate what might happen right after a loss like this,” he said. After beating out John Beck in a preseason position battle, Grossman started 13 of the Redskins’ 16 games. He threw at least one interception in each but also threw for at least 250 yards seven times. In Sunday’s season finale, he was 22-for-45 passing for 256 yards with one touchdown and one interception. That lone interception Sunday was the product of a broken play, resulting in a severely underthrown pass to Anthony Armstrong. Still, it was the type of play that highlighted one of Grossman’s biggest strengths — his fearlessness in heaving the ball downfield — and biggest drawbacks — the tendency for the other team to make the catch. “Houdini couldn’t have thrown the football in that,” Shanahan said. “But Rex threw the ball up in the air, gave [Armstrong] a chance to make a play. “Rex played a heck of a ballgame today,” the coach continued. “To have that type of pass rush and make some of the throws that he did under duress, I don’t have a problem with the way he played.” Even though Shanahan benched Grossman in favor of Beck for a three-game stretch, the coach said Grossman made strides from Week 1 to Week 17. “I think Rex feels a lot more comfortable with the system. The more reps you get, the better off you feel,” Shanahan said. “You can see over the last four or five games, he’s felt a lot more comfortable.” The season might have had more lows than highs — Grossman predicted a division title for a team that won only five games — but the veteran quarterback said he’ll look back on the year and note the positives. “There’s a lot of good things,” he said. Despite missing three games, Grossman finished the season with 3,151 passing yards, just 42 yards shy of his career high, set in Chicago in 2006. His 20 interceptions matched his career high, also set in 2006. He was a free agent each of the past three years, signing a one-year contract with the Redskins the past two. So Grossman is certainly familiar with offseason uncertainty. “It’s part of this job. . . . Obviously, everybody would love to have a 10-year contract worth $200 million and you could just Albert Pujols it,” he said. “That’s not always the case and you just got to work hard and go about it, worry about what you can control and take care of business.” The free agent market for quarterbacks is not expected to be a deep one, and with Grossman having spent three years in this system — he was Houston’s backup quarterback in 2009 under offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan — it’s possible Washington might still represent his best opportunity to contribute to an NFL team next year. “I’m not sure what my opportunities are going to be. But I hope this is the best opportunity,” he said. “And like I said, it’s a very good team, I’m proud of every single teammate that I played with.”

PHILADELPHIA — The mix-up, apparently, started when Washington Redskins quarterback Rex Grossman could not hear the entirety of a play call from offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. It came at the end of the first half, when Sunday’s 34-10 blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles was still very much a game, and the exchange was almost comical. When Grossman completed his final throw of the half over the middle — instead of throwing to the end zone or chucking it away, as the coaches’ truncated message would have conveyed — Nick Sundberg, the long snapper, thought he was supposed to go onto the field for a hurry-up field goal on fourth down. Yet when he arrived, starting center Will Montgomery was standing over the ball, with his hand on the ball. “I heard people yelling, ‘Spike!’ ” Sundberg said. “I knew it was fourth down, but it just created a bunch of confusion. I turned around to run off thinking that I’d made a mistake instead of just trusting myself, and it cost us.” The mess meant the Redskins didn’t even attempt a field goal before the clock expired, but it was just a small slice of a disastrous day on special teams that contributed significantly to Washington’s 11th loss of the season. The Redskins punted poorly. They had their fifth field goal of the season blocked. They committed a pair of penalties on a punt return, including one by special teams captain Lorenzo Alexander. “Very weird,” Sundberg said. The uneven special teams play started from the very first time they lined up to punt after an opening three-and-out series. Sav Rocca, the former Eagle who spent a largely successful first season in Washington, dropped the ball to his foot. “But it was a bit breezy out there,” Rocca said. The ball ended up on the outside of his foot, a 22-yard shank that gave the Eagles the ball in Washington territory. They needed to drive 31 yards to kick a 35-yard field goal and take a 3-0 lead. That was part of a day in which Rocca averaged just 36.6 yards per kick, and the Redskins netted just 30.2 yards in net punting — both their second-worst numbers of the season. “I feel like I kind of fell off the last three or four games,” Rocca said. In the second quarter, Grossman threw three straight incompletions after the Redskins reached the Philadelphia 18. Still, place kicker Graham Gano had a seemingly easy 36-yard field goal. Gano had made his last 13 kicks over four games. Rocca barely got the snap down, but “I thought I hit it well,” Gano said. It didn’t matter, because Eagles defensive lineman Derek Landri completely overwhelmed Redskins offensive lineman Tyler Polumbus, who was playing right guard on the place-kicking team. The resulting block not only meant the Redskins went without a score — one of three trips to the red zone in which they came up with all of three points — but it led to Gano getting drilled as he tried to tackle Philadelphia’s Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, who scooped up the ball. The kicker sat at his locker after the game with his right ankle heavily wrapped and his back iced, right where Philadelphia lineman Jason Babin had kneed him. Of the 10 field goals he missed on the year, half were blocked. “I think we actually had seven blocked, but two of them went in,” Gano said. “It’s frustrating.” Coach Mike Shanahan said he had never seen a team have five field goals blocked in a season. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen three,” he said. And all that set up the confusion at the end of the half. “I wasn’t sure exactly what we were doing,” Montgomery said. An apt description of an entire day of special teams futility.

Eva Zeisel, who designed and produced stylish but simple lines of tableware that were credited with bringing a sense of serenity to American dinnertime, died Dec. 30 at her home in New City, N.Y. Mrs. Zeisel was 105 and had come to America just before World War II, after a harrowing series of adventures in the turbulent Europe of the 1930s. Her daughter, Jean Richards, confirmed the death but said she did not know the medical cause. Mrs. Zeisel was widely regarded as a master of modern design. Her salt and pepper shakers, creamers and ladles are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Yet she resisted being characterized as an artist. “Art has more ego to it than what I do,” she once told the New Yorker. What Mrs. Zeisel did was create everyday objects that fundamentally changed the look of American kitchens and dining rooms. She brought “a trained designer’s eye and touch to the kind of inexpensive daily goods that were available to everyone,” said Karen Kettering, vice president for Russian art at Sotheby’s and a former curator at the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in the District, which featured a retrospective of Mrs. Zeisel’s work in 2005. Mrs. Zeisel received artistic training in her native Hungary in the years after World War I. She moved to the Soviet Union, where she worked in a factory and, after building a reputation as a talented ceramicist, landed a job as art director of the state-run porcelain and glass industries. While in that position, Mrs. Zeisel was falsely accused of conspiring to assassinate Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. She spent more than a year in a Soviet prison, much of that time in solitary confinement. Her experience there would deeply inform “Darkness at Noon,” the novel about life under Stalinism written by a childhood friend, Arthur Koestler. When guards called Mrs. Zeisel from her cell one day, she thought she was about to be executed. Instead, she was released. She fled to Austria, only to be forced to flee again when Adolf Hitler’s Germany annexed that country. Mrs. Zeisel went to England and then to New York, where the design community quickly recognized her talent. Mrs. Zeisel often said that her work was about the “playful search for beauty.” Along with some of her contemporary designers, Mrs. Zeisel replaced the florid, gilded style of earlier eras with simple colors. Her most famous table collection from the 1950s is pure white. Her work often was described with words not usually associated with tableware: human, sensual, voluptuous. Many of her designs are curvaceous and reminiscent of the “feminine midriff,” Kettering said. Mrs. Zeisel designed flower vases with belly buttons. Her bowls were not meant to be stacked but rather to nestle together. Big spoons could be seen as protecting smaller ones. “All of my work is mother-and-child,” Mrs. Zeisel once said. Her work reached the height of its popularity during the Cold War. Art critics believe it helped provide a sense of tranquillity during the tensions of the time, Kettering said. She added that critics have noted a resurgence in the popularity of Mrs. Zeisel’s work since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A tableware collection from the 1950s was re-released several years ago by Crate and Barrel. Eva Amalia Striker was born Nov. 13, 1906, in Budapest. She originally trained as a painter but pursued industrial arts, in part to avoid the fate of the starving artist. She was reported to be one of the first female members of the Hungarian guild of chimney sweeps, oven makers, roof tilers, well diggers and potters. Once in the United States, Mrs. Zeisel broke onto the artistic scene in the 1940s when Castleton China invited her to design a table collection. It would later be displayed at MOMA. Her first marriage, to Alex Weissberg, ended in divorce. Her second husband, Hans Zeisel, died in 1992 after 54 years of marriage. Survivors include two children from her second marriage, Jean Richards of New City and John Zeisel of Montreal; and three grandchildren. Mrs. Zeisel was the author of “Eva Zeisel on Design: The Magic Language of Things.” Her memoir of the Soviet prison is forthcoming, her daughter said. “I search for beauty,” Mrs. Zeisel told The Washington Post in 2003. “I never wanted to do something grotesque. I never wanted to shock. I wanted my audience to be happy, to be kind.”

Delores Price hit the grocery store on New Year’s Day prepared to beat Montgomery County’s new nickel bag tax. But she emerged from the Shoppers Food & Pharmacy in Wheaton clearly irked. Although Price had brought several cloth bags from home, she said, she had underestimated her shopping by four bags, drawing a 20-cent surcharge. “This is ridiculous,” said Price, a retired federal worker, as she unloaded a full cart into the trunk of her car outside the store on Randolph Road. “You shouldn’t have to pay for bags when you spend enough money in the store.” Across Montgomery, the debut of the bag tax surprised many shoppers, drew praise from some who said they hope it will clean up the environment and angered others who said any new tax is too much in a tight economy. Stores had updated self-guided checkout stations overnight with new software to ask how many bags, if any, a customer wanted. Some stores, including a Safeway in Bethesda, had retrained employees to load bags more tightly, knowing customers paying for each one would be eyeing their packing prowess. At a Starbucks in Germantown, confused customers asked whether the tax applied to the little bag for their muffin. Answer: Muffin bags are still free, but the bigger bags with the handles will cost you. Montgomery’s tax on plastic and paper bags, which the County Council approved in May, is an expanded version of a 5-cent bag tariff enacted in the District two years ago. While the District’s surcharge applies only to businesses that sell food or alcohol, Montgomery’s bag tax involves nearly all retail establishments, not just those that sell food. The few exceptions include paper bags from restaurants and pharmacy bags for prescription drugs. Montgomery officials have said they expect the tax to raise $1 million a year, most of which will go toward financing storm water management and water quality programs. Some revenue will be used to buy reusable bags for the poor and elderly, officials have said. The goal, supporters say, is to encourage shoppers to reduce the number of plastic bags that end up polluting the Anacostia and Potomac rivers. By taxing paper bags as well, officials said, they will prevent shoppers from simply choosing paper. Local officials have said the tax is easily avoidable: Just bring a reusable bag. But that’s easier said than done, many said Sunday. Barbara Fisher of Bethesda had a red-and-white cloth bag rolled up tightly in her purse as she pushed her cart down the Safeway aisles on Bradley Boulevard. Fisher said she has gotten used to tucking a cloth bag into her purse and briefcase for shopping and eating out during her workday in the District. “I probably remember 20 percent of the time,” Fisher said. “I have a lot of very nice bags at home, and I don’t have a car. If it’s not in my purse, it’s not going to happen.” Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner (D-Bethesda-Potomac) said he appreciates that creating new habits takes time. Berliner said he keeps about five reusable bags in the back of his black Toyota Prius but often forgets to take them into his local Giant. “I actually do think the 5-cent tax is good for people like me, who forget and need that little reminder, that little smack upside the head,” Berliner said. Jeff Bulman, owner of Original Pancake House restaurants in Bethesda and Rockville, took his usual bright red insulated bags to Safeway. Fewer disposable bags means less trash, he said. Although in the past he has opted for store bags when he has forgotten his own in the trunk, he said, “I’ll run back now” to avoid the tax. Several shoppers said they’ll reluctantly pay for the convenience of not having to remember to bring their own bags. Julie Simms of Germantown said she spent 20 cents on plastic bags at Safeway on Sunday, even though she has plenty of bags at home that she forgot to bring. “It’s ridiculous,” Simms said of the new tax. “With today’s economy the way it is, every 5 cents adds up.” **shaverk@washpost.com** **** **Read more onPostLocal.com: ** New Year’s baby a precious surprise Students, parents ask: What holiday? Viola Drath: A remarkable life hijacked Two killed in New Year’s crash in Bethesda

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa — Losing hope that their Iowa brethren will coalesce around a suitably like-minded candidate in Tuesday’s Republican caucuses, national conservative leaders are beginning to accept the increasingly likely prospect of a Mitt Romney nomination, and how and whether they can live with that. “The answer to that, to a large extent, totally rests with Romney,” said Richard A. Viguerie, a direct-mail pioneer and longtime leader of the conservative movement . “The first half-dozen moves are his. We’re just tired of supporting the Republican establishment candidates and getting nothing but lip service in return. Those days are over with.” Viguerie said his hope is that if Romney wins the nomination, he makes a strong effort to win over conservatives, and the most critical step he can take is to select an appealing running mate. “Romney’s got a big hill to climb to get conservatives enthusiastically on board,” he said. “I don’t know if he is capable of doing that. He needs tens of thousands of conservatives and tea parties and bloggers and organizations singing that song.” The dismay among conservatives about Iowa rests largely on the reality that, despite their overwhelming majority among Republican caucus-goers, they have split their support between five candidates: Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. Meanwhile, Romney, the former Massachusetts governor whom they have resisted out of concern that he is too moderate, is in position to win the caucuses, even though about three-quarters of the vote will probably go to someone else. The other candidates and their supporters continued making the case Sunday for voters to rally around a single conservative to block Romney’s nomination. But to many, the prospects appeared dim. Pastor Dan Berry of the Cornerstone Family Church in Des Moines said after services Sunday that several candidates appeal to conservative Christians — and a number had sought his endorsement. He declined, he said, in part because so many of the candidates are appealing — including Romney. The splintering is in sharp contrast with 2008, when former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee rallied conservative voters to win the caucuses. “Four years ago, people had their minds made up early,” Berry said. “It was easy for a lot of the Christian conservatives to make their decision earlier. That’s not the way it’s happening this time, with all the ups and downs, it’s been harder to choose. They all have strengths. Most people think the Christian conservative is only concerned about the social part of it. We’re all concerned about life and marriage, but also the economy.” Santorum compared the difference between 2008 and this year to ordering at his favorite cheesesteak shop in Pennsylvania. “You ever been to Geno’s in Philadelphia?” he asked on the trail last week. “How long does it take you to order at Geno’s? You know what they sell? Cheesesteaks. That’s it. It’s pretty simple to order. Go to a menu where you’ve got three or four pages of menu and it’s going to take you longer to order. In 2008, you had a Geno’s election. Mike was the cheesesteak. . . . He was it.” Gingrich, campaigning at a sports pub in Marshalltown on Sunday, said the potential for conservatives to rally around one candidate does not end in Iowa. “It’s pretty clear from the Des Moines Register poll that conservatives who want real change are going to get probably between 70 and 75 percent of the vote, and the only moderate establishment candidate is going to get about 20 or 25 percent of the vote despite massive spending for two consecutive races,” Gingrich said. “And I think that’s going to set the stage for the whole rest of the campaign.” He added: “It’s going to be overwhelming that the conservative base of the party is still there, and that Governor Romney remains a Massachusetts moderate and has not broken out despite spending millions of dollars. As we go on to New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and beyond, those numbers will ultimately prove decisive in the race.” Campaigning on Sunday in Atlantic, Iowa, Romney was asked about his outreach to social conservatives. He said that his goal in Iowa is to be seen as the candidate capable of winning, which means building support and organization in other states. “It’s been important to me,” he said, “to make sure that I have a team and a capability to go the full distance, to get the nomination and to have the people in Iowa who caucused for me be proud that they were on that team from the very beginning.” Some conservatives are less certain that there is any chance of stopping Romney after Iowa. One national conservative leader, who requested anonymity to speak freely, said he and other conservatives were in talks as recently as the past month about whether it was still possible to draw in another candidate who could consolidate the vote — someone like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. But time is short for that, the leader said. “You have a number of people who are good candidates, but none just leaps out at you, so where do people land?” he asked. Several people interviewed at Cornerstone Family Church on Sunday said they were looking for the candidate who best represented their Christian values. Some said Romney wasn’t ideal, but they could accept him as the nominee if necessary to beat President Obama. “My gut feeling is it’s going to end up being Romney. He won’t be my first choice. Or my second choice. But I’ll support him if it comes to that,” said Mike Carolus, 59, a mechanic from Des Moines, who said he’d prefer Perry or Bachmann. “The way I feel about this election is, you can go down through every single one of them, and if you’re looking for Mr. or Mrs. Perfect, you’re not going to find it,” said Dan Brown, a trader from Des Moines who said he’d be willing to support the candidate he calls “the plastic man” because of his background in business. “My number one agenda is to get Obama out of there. After that, I’ll look at the issues.”

NEW ORLEANS — Michigan defensive lineman Ryan Van Bergen thought he had seen and heard it all during his previous four years in Ann Arbor, from being a part of Lloyd Carr’s final team in 2007 to the tumultuous three years that followed under Rich Rodriguez to finishing the 2010 season with the third- worst defense among Bowl Championship Series conference teams. But then one day this past spring, new defensive coordinator Greg Mattison popped in some video of the Baltimore Ravens, his previous coaching stop, and told the 288-pound Van Bergen he wanted him to emulate defensive tackle Haloti Ngata. “I was like, ‘So you want me to play like Haloti Ngata?’ ” Van Bergen recalled this week. “He was like, ‘Yeah,’ and gave me the shrug like I’m crazy for not knowing what he meant. ‘Haloti Ngata is 330 [pounds]. I’m not Haloti Ngata, coach.’ ” The Wolverines can laugh about those first days under a new regime now, but when Michigan takes the field Tuesday to face Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl, it will be the final validation for a coaching staff and a defense that have been the catalysts for a dramatic culture change at the winningest program in college football. A year after ESPN analyst Chris Spielman referred to Michigan’s defense as “a bunch of guys who would be nice little subs at Indiana,” the Wolverines have improved to 17th in the country without making significant personnel changes. Instead, as Virginia Tech’s coaches have pointed out several times this week, it has been Mattison and first-year Coach Brady Hoke’s ability to “coach them up” that has led the Wolverines to their first BCS game since 2007. “These coaches just really understand the Michigan tradition,” defensive end Craig Roh said. “They’ve brought it to life through practice, through camp, through all that stuff. It has enlivened all of us right now. I think that’s why you see, I guess, a change in the environment.” When Hoke and Mattison first returned to Ann Arbor — Hoke was a defensive line coach when Michigan shared the 1997 national championship and Mattison was the Wolverines’ defensive coordinator in 1995 and 1996 — they encountered a team that “broke every record you didn’t want to break as a team,” Van Bergen said this week. “I would think that we have a blueprint as far as what not to do.” Enter Mattison, who had spent the past two years as the Ravens’ defensive coordinator when his good friend, Hoke, called one day wondering if he’d be interested in returning to the college ranks. To the surprise of some, Mattison took the job rather than staying in Baltimore to coach Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. “I just missed the chance to take some young man that maybe is not a great football player, or people say he’s not a great football player, or he doesn’t believe he’s a great football player, and help him get to become as great as he can,” said Mattison, who added he wouldn’t have made the move if it were any other school. “That’s something that I’ve always enjoyed in all my years of coaching and I missed it.” Mattison brought with him the complex coverage schemes of the NFL and blitz packages that are so extensive Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring said recently, “It’s almost like they’ve got a different playbook.” The end results are evident on the scoreboard. The Wolverines have gone from giving up more than 35 points per game in 2010 to allowing just more than 17 points per contest this season. Michigan never finished higher than 67th in the country in total defense under Rodriguez, but with players almost exclusively recruited by previous regimes the Wolverines moved up to 17th this year. But for a unit that had “experienced so much pain and suffering,” according to Roh, it was Mattison’s tacit belief that seemed to make all the difference. And so even though Van Bergen still jokes about being compared to Ngata, he’s more than happy to point out just how far this defense has come. “I don’t think it had anything to do with buying in. It was more about staying in. When things started going wrong, you could see the team kind of fall apart a little bit,” Van Bergen said of past seasons. “Guys didn’t want to be too committed because if you’re too committed and things start going wrong, you can take a lot of the blame. . . . “We’ve been through the worst of fires, we’ve been through the worst that can happen to us, so whatever these coaches tell us to do, let’s make sure we don’t have any regrets. We’re sitting here right now and I don’t think there’s a guy on the team probably too regretful about anything.”

Four years ago, the five Romney sons were a staple on the campaign trail, their heavy brows, square jaws and penchant for corny jokes coming together in a sort of cubist portrait of their father. This time around, Mitt Romney’s kids have been more scarce, but four of them made a rare joint appearance in New Hampshire last week. Mingling with supporters over pizza and sticky buns, they offered a few mild jabs at their father but spent most of their time lavishing the kind of praise on him that many parents would envy. “My dad is my hero,” son Josh Romney, 36, a Salt Lake City real estate investor, told supporters at a cafe here on a recent morning. “He’s taught me everything I know about being a father, about loving this country and about raising a family, so for me to be able to be on the campaign trail and talk about him and share stories about my dad to other people is a thrill.” In many ways, they are the ideal surrogates to hold down the fort in New Hampshire, one of Romney’s strongholds, while the GOP presidential candidate focuses his efforts on Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses. They are clean-cut and attractive, conversant about taxes and foreign policy, at ease in the media spotlight and full of darling tales about growing up with their energetic father. But they have done little to dispel the impression that Romney is a little too polished and aristocratic. Three of the five attended Harvard Business School, like their father, and showed up wearing versions of Romney’s jeans-and-blazer campaign trail uniform. Matt and Craig Romney work in real estate. Ben Romney, who was absent, is completing his medical residency in Utah. The brothers, who range in age from 31 to 41 and together have 16 children among them, say they have largely stayed away this year at the request of their father, who did not want them to uproot their lives once more, considering their work and parental responsibilities. But they say they will likely step up their activity as the primaries approach, and supporters say that is exactly what they’d like to see. “It shows what a strong candidate he is that the boys are out here for him while he’s out there in Iowa,” said Pam Skinner, a local Romney activist. “Of course, it helps to have a big family.” Within the Republican field, Romney’s family is hardly the largest. Jon Huntsman Jr. and Rick Santorum each have seven children, and Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) famously raised five children and fostered 23. Nor is the Romney family the most visible. That distinction probably belongs to the self-described “Huntsman girls,” who grabbed attention with their quirky Web videos about Huntsman’s rivals and irreverent tweets. (They lamented last month that tweets directed to the Romney brothers go unreturned.) But Romney’s sons are a potent force for a candidate who has struggled to connect personally with voters. Along with their mother, Ann, Romney’s wife of 42 years, they provide a stark contrast to rival Newt Gingrich, who has been married three times. And they would help level the playing field in a general election, presenting a wholesome image to rival that of President Obama. Tagg Romney, the eldest and a venture capitalist, sits in on strategy sessions, and Josh, the middle son, goes out on the trail about once a week. But it is a smaller role than last time, when Tagg quit his job with the Los Angeles Dodgers to work full-time with the campaign and Craig, the youngest Romney son, took his toddler son to 35 states. Gone, too, is the blog, “Five Brothers,” which inspired some mocking for its wholesome banter. During their campaign swing through New Hampshire, the brothers kept it light with the occasional policy answer or flubbed attempt at humor — for example, when Matt, 40, the second son, made a joke about Obama’s birth certificate. “Repeated a dumb joke,” he later tweeted. “My bad.” They made a few cracks about their father but never at his expense. About his habit of planning out every moment of their vacations, when the boys wanted to laze around on the beach. About his stinginess, which “Congress is going to learn pretty quickly.” About how, as head of the 2002 Winter Olympics organizing committee, he learned how to ride a skeleton sled just to get on NBC’s “Today.” They told of his devotion to God and family, about the meandering Sunday conversations that invariably center on the grandchildren. And about their shock, as teenagers, to learn that “the dad that we liked to tease” was so well respected at his venture capital firm, Bain Capital. Matt said it was a misconception that his father is stiff and formal. “I can see how people might get that impression,” he said in an interview. “He knows that people have that impression of him. We tell him to act differently, and he’s like, ‘Look, I’m on a news program or I’m at a debate. I’m acting responsibly for that setting.’ But if you get to see him in other settings like we get to see him, he’s the most fun guy out there.” Asked about the brothers’ relative comfort speaking publicly for their father, he said it was largely a function of their earnestness. “We’re all still kind of nervous talking about this stuff with folks. Having done it before helps a lot,” Matt said. “The one thing that really helps is if you’re sincere, and we are sincere about my dad and what he’s done.” Read more on PostPolitics.com One day out, a mad dash in Iowa Republicans make final push in Iowa What Rick Santorum and John Edwards have in common

DES MOINES — Seeking to press their advantages and differentiate themselves, the Republican candidates for president flooded the Iowa airwaves Sunday and stepped up their ground games in the final push before decision day. Some went to church, others were on buses and at least one — Rep. Ron Paul — was somewhere else entirely, ringing in the new year back in his home state of Texas. Rick Santorum, buoyed by a Des Moines Register poll that showed him among the top three contenders, sought to distinguish himself as the only “full spectrum conservative” in the race; it was an effort to ding Mitt Romney and appeal to social conservatives, who could be the decisive voting bloc should they coalesce around a single candidate. “My surge is going to come on January 3 after the people of Iowa do what they do, which is actually analyze the candidates, figure out where their positions are, find out who’s the right leader, who’s got what it takes to defeat Barack Obama and to lead this country,” the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania said in an interview on “Meet the Press.” “We’ve got a great grass-roots organization. . . . They are committed to making sure that this isn't a pyrrhic victory.” Santorum sought to paint Romney, whose essential argument for support is his electability, as a moderate who can’t be trusted to push a conservative agenda. But Santorum had to answer questions about his 2008 endorsement of the former Massachusetts governor and about seeming to change his own views on abortion based on political calculus. Santorum, who signed a pledge opposing all types of abortion, including in cases of rape and incest, said passing that kind of legislation is politically difficult. “Today I would support laws that would provide for those exceptions; but I’m not for them,” he said. “Yes, I support laws that provide those exceptions, because if we can get those passed, then we need to do that.” Romney, on a bus tour in Atlantic, Iowa, reminded reporters of Santorum’s 2008 endorsement and pressed his case that he was the best candidate to beat President Obama on the economy. “Like Speaker Gingrich, Senator Santorum has spent his career in government, in Washington,” Romney said. “Nothing wrong with that, but it’s a very different background than I have. And I think that the people of this country recognize that with our economy as the major issue we face right now, that it would be helpful to have someone who understands the economy firsthand, who spent the bulk of his career working in the private sector.” With just hours left, the race remains topsy-turvy, with nearly half of voters saying that they have yet to make up their minds. The key questions are whether social conservatives will rally around a single candidate, as they did for former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee in 2008, or continue to be splintered among several. There is also the possibility that they accept Romney’s electability argument and rally around him. Santorum, in his ground campaign, has argued that he should be the candidate of social conservatives and that they should not just “settle” for Romney. And evangelicals, not yet sold on Romney, could decide to send a message Tuesday that they still matter and that the eventual nominee must take them seriously. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, battered by an onslaught of negative ads and somewhat hampered by his pledge to run a positive campaign, started his Sunday with Mass at St. Ambrose Cathedral, where Des Moines Bishop Richard E. Pates referenced the nasty campaign rhetoric flooding the airwaves. After the service, Gingrich took a swipe at Romney, breaking sharply from his pledge. Gingrich told reporters that Romney “would buy the election if he could” and accused Romney of lying. “Someone who will lie to you to get to be president,” Gingrich said, “will lie to you when they are president.” The former speaker also signaled that he intended to go negative on Romney with new ads in New Hampshire. Paul skipped out on the action over the weekend, preferring to spend time in Texas. He makes his final rounds Monday in a series of events with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), his son, who is becoming a familiar face to Iowa voters and remains a tea party standard-bearer. The 12-term congressman, who is in a virtual tie with Santorum and Romney in Iowa, sat for three Sunday show interviews. He has largely ducked news media questions on the trail as he has rallied hundreds of supporters with an antiwar message. Dogged by questions about racist and anti-Semitic newsletters that were published in his name, Paul admitted to one flaw, saying his management style is substandard. Asked to predict where he’ll stand Tuesday after the votes are tallied, Paul was his usual anti-politician self. “I have no idea what’s going to happen. I may come in first, I may come in second,” he said. “I doubt I’ll come in third or fourth.”

As he got dressed before the Washington Wizards hosted the Boston Celtics on Sunday, John Wall admitted he was “not enjoying myself playing basketball” with the team playing poorly to start the season. But Wall vowed that he would stop “thinking too much,” get back to playing with his instincts and have fun again. Coach Flip Saunders, concerned with Wall’s demeanor in a discouraging loss at Milwaukee two nights earlier, went further before Sunday’s game: “I told him, if he doesn’t play hard and he doesn’t have a smile on his face, I’m going to take him out.” In the 94-86 loss to the Celtics at Verizon Center, Wall played with more passion and desire, encouraged his teammates, and finished with his best game of the season: 19 points, season highs of eight assists and seven rebounds and just one turnover. But the team’s overall performance didn’t give him much to smile about. “My coaches talked to me and told me what I have to do to be effective — just play, have fun and play my game. That’s what I did. I think the thing is, just try to win,” Wall said. “It ain’t no fun” losing. The Wizards are the NBA’s only winless team and have opened the season at 0-4 for the first time since 2008-09, when they lost their first five games and matched the franchise-worst record for an 82-game season at 19-63. They couldn’t shoot or defend early and discovered they could do both too late, and Wall had to watch his counterpart, Rajon Rondo, flaunt the benefits of being surrounded by a cast that features three future Hall of Famers. Rondo spread the ball around, picked the right spots for his own scoring opportunities and recorded his 14th career triple-double. He had more points (18) than all but two Wizards, one fewer assist (14) than the Wizards as a team and more rebounds (11) than every Wizard except JaVale McGee. “That’s what Rondo does,” Saunders said. “But I thought that John, he had the best game he’s had so far. I can just judge John by where he’s at and how he’s played so far. I thought he did a better job of running our team and getting that and we made progress.” Nick Young finished with 18 points and JaVale McGee had 16 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks, but the Wizards were unable to overcome an early deficit. The Celtics used crisp ball movement and defensive pressure to establish a double-digit lead eight minutes into the game. Boston led 51-34 at halftime, shooting 55.6 percent from the field and holding the Wizards to 28.2 percent. The Wizards broke out of their shooting slump in the second half, getting within 65-58 when Jordan Crawford made a three-pointer — his only field goal of the game — and reserve Ronny Turiaf kicked wildly in celebration. Turiaf was forced to leave the game shortly thereafter with a bruised left hand and is doubtful to play in the rematch Monday in Boston. The Celtics again extended the lead to 13 when Ray Allen hit a three-pointer in the fourth quarter. But Wall made a runner in the lane and Trevor Booker made a driving layup, then had a steal and a dunk to again bring the Wizards within six points with 7 minutes 49 seconds remaining. They would get no closer as Ray Allen (13 points) and Kevin Garnett (24 points, nine rebounds) helped put the game away. Garnett made two free throws, Allen made a nifty layup, then Rondo froze Crawford and Booker on a drive and zipped a beautiful bounce pass to Garnett for a reverse layup that restored order. “We always get down by 10, 15 in the first half and always find a way to fight back, but you’re taking a lot of energy from yourself,” Wall said. “I think down the fourth quarter, the last couple of minutes, we didn’t have the kind of energy we needed to make a comeback.” Andray Blatche was unable to completely get out of his “funk.” He finished with just 10 points, converting 4 of 7 field goal attempts after shooting an abysmal 11 for 41 (26.8 percent) in the first three games. But he also had a team-high four turnovers and allowed Garnett to get into his head. Blatche has had some history with Garnett and the all-star forward made sure to fluster Blatche by talking to him and repeatedly grabbing him. At one point in the third quarter, Blatche had grown upset about not getting a call and Wizards assistant Sam Cassell, Garnett’s former teammate in Minnesota, shouted at Blatche during a timeout, encouraging him to get focused. The Wizards wore their red, white and blue road uniforms, which was appropriate since the team gave the sort of poor performance it more often reserves for road games and Verizon Center was populated with many Celtics fans. Disgruntled Wizards fans booed the players as they left the court. “We’re staying positive. It’s still 66 games in the season,” said Roger Mason Jr., who was back in the lineup after being ruled ineligible for the previous game in Milwaukee because the Wizards submitted an incorrect roster. “We have goals on this team. but it’s not going to just happen. You have to make it happen.”

PHILADELPHIA If the Redskins are a renovation, what does a total tear-down look like? After 33 losses in three years, the Redskins now face the reality that confronts entrenched bad teams — ones without a single player picked for the Pro Bowl, ones without a quality quarterback and ones that pack up for the offseason with a quarter left to play and lose 34-10 to a division rival. This level of pain, this immense distance between the present and a future worthy of a fan’s fantasy, is what the rebuilding of a decimated NFL franchise usually feels like. Whether the job is being done well or is being bungled, this is how it often feels when the task is only partially complete. For decades, Redskins fans were spared this exasperating and seemingly endless process. Twice, Joe Gibbs inherited crummy teams yet made the playoffs his second year. Norv Turner jumped from three to six to nine wins. George Allen and Vince Lombardi were winners in their first seasons. So, in Washington, if no progress occurs quickly, or worse, if a team regresses, the correct prediction has always been: failed regime. That eventually may be the case with Mike Shanahan, too. In a game that held no meaning, his Redskins played down to the occasion in a loss full of mental blunders, disorganization and loss of discipline by veterans. When you have your fifth blocked kick of the season (out of 28 total for the whole NFL), when Santana Moss incurs a 15-yard penalty at the four-yard line for ripping off his helmet in disgust, and when your field goal team dashes on the field but the long snapper isn’t among them as time runs out in the half, that’s NFL chaos. Such performances at the end of lost seasons are, at every level, laid at the coach’s feet. Meanwhile, Andy Reid’s Eagles, who might’ve been demoralized after perhaps the most disappointing season in the league, showed up with their heads screwed on properly. Time will have to tell whether Shanahan’s methods and his so far often-flawed decisions at crucial positions will send him packing before his $35-million, five-year deal is done. But he’s not going anywhere before next year. Owner Daniel Snyder’s quick-trigger histories with past coaches as well as Shanahan’s two Super Bowl rings preclude that option. Who comes in if you give up on Shanahan after two years? It would be Zorn-Search Fiasco II. So, welcome to a real rebuilding — Ugly Squared — like most cities have endured. It’s losing on New Year’s Day, for 10 defeats in 12 games, after squandering a lead at home on Christmas Eve to the awful, injured Vikings. After the game, Moss whistled by his locker, the same six notes over an over. A holiday tune? “Stuff happens in the heat of battle,” he said of his penalty. “You don’t want to penalize your team. [But] I thought he [the official] couldn’t hear me with it on so maybe I need to take it off.” Except that taking off your helmet is an automatic penalty. The elegant succession of snafus over the next 23 seconds that resulted in no-field-goal- attempt deserves it own novella. Yes, a team called the Redskins has a hurry- up played called “Geronimo.” Perhaps the most nagging aspect of this rebuild is that Rex Grossman, who underthrew two wide-open deep receivers (one for an interception), will probably start at quarterback to begin next season. Not for sure, but likely. With five teams picking before them in the 2012 draft, the Redskins’ chance of trading up to pick either Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin III is, according to history, quite poor. In the last 21 drafts, 25 quarterbacks have been picked in the top six overall; only four were acquired by teams that traded up to grab them. Many want to do the trade-up dance for a franchise quarterback; but few ever want to be your partner. For those four, the prices that were extorted would be a ransom the Redskins — who are trying to build through the draft — are poorly suited to pay. ●To move up just one spot, from third overall to second, to get Ryan Leaf, San Diego gave up that third overall pick in the 1998 draft plus another first-rounder, a second-round pick and three-time Pro Bowler Eric Metcalf. ●To move up four spots to get Michael Vick at first overall, Atlanta gave up the fifth overall pick (LaDainian Tomlinson) as well as a second-rounder, plus a third-round pick and a good kick-return man, too. ●Just as stunning, to trade up four spots for Eli Manning, the Giants dealt fifth overall pick Philip Rivers, plus a first- (which became three-time Pro Bowler Shawne Merriman), third- and fifth-round pick. ●In ’09, to get Mark Sanchez with the fifth overall pick, the Jets gave up a first- and second-round pick (17th and 52nd), plus four players, including a starting defensive end and starting defensive back. That’s the whole list: No bargains, huge cost and the Leaf catastrophe. Shanahan has made it clear that he won’t draft a quarterback merely to have a rookie to develop at the spot next year. It has to be football love — someone he thinks has “franchise” on his forehead. After his recent infatuations at the position, his benefit of the doubt is dwindling. Despite all this, two factors work in the Redskins’ favor. Their horrid minus-15 takeaway ratio means they minimized every possible opportunity. Flip that to positive — and luck as well as less Rex can easily be a factor — and you win more games, maybe two or three more, just on turnovers. Second, unless the Redskins field 46 Oscar-quality actors, this team really believes that it is improving, albeit fathoms under the sonar. True, Shanahan runs a ship as tight as his lips, so grumbling can be career-threatening. But, after listening week after week, I’m buying most of the fellow feeling. “Even though we finished where we finished, I was proud to be part of this team,” said Grossman, a symbol of them all. Shanahan got rid of talented goldbricks. Maybe part of the price, in a rebuild, is a simple lack of talent, or a plucky-but-doomed Rex level of talent where 79.6 percent of guys who get open deep will always be missed. “Extremely frustrating,” said London Fletcher, who deserves to play in the Pro Bowl more than the Pro Bowl deserves to be played. “I play with passion. We went out to win.” Except for the last 12:01 of their season, after a 62-yard touchdown pass broke their backs, the Redskins usually played with acceptable passion and will. They didn’t win because they just weren’t good enough. Contrary to Shanahan’s recitation of might-have-been plays in ’11, they weren’t close to being much better. They had good luck, too. They were 5-11 on demerit. In a real NFL rebuild, after a string of 10-loss seasons, closing that huge gap of talent, depth and experience often takes years. The Redskins current construction methods are, at last, probably correct ones. But, in the impatient burgundy-and-gold universe, as the weight-bearing walls along both lines of scrimmage are assembled and support beams are added at skill positions, it’s going to feel like an eternity before the ultimate architecture can be judged. Until then, look away from the shack of ’11, now squashed flat and, finally, suitable for forgetting.

The New York Giants won their way into the NFL playoffs Sunday night, beating the Dallas Cowboys to seize the NFC East crown at the end of a day in which two AFC teams lost their way into the postseason field. The Giants got three touchdown passes from quarterback Eli Manning en route to a 31-14 triumph over the Cowboys. The Giants won the division with a record of 9-7, a game in front of the Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles. “NFC East champions — that’s a great thing to hear,” Giants Coach Tom Coughlin said. Earlier Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens claimed the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs and the North division title with a 24-16 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, earning a first-round bye and ensuring that a potential game against the rival Pittsburgh Steelers would be played at M&T; Bank Stadium, where they were 8-0 this regular season. In the AFC West, with another division title up for grabs, the Tim Tebow-led Denver Broncos backed into the No. 4 seed, despite losing to the Kansas City Chiefs, 7-3, when the Oakland Raiders fell to the San Diego Chargers, 38-26. With Tebow completing 6 of 22 passes for 60 yards and a game-sealing interception, Denver (8-8) claimed a first-round home game by virtue of a tiebreaker over Oakland and San Diego and will host Pittsburgh next weekend. The Raiders’ loss also pushed the Bengals (9-7) into the playoffs as the sixth seed even though Cincinnati’s comeback fell short against Baltimore. Cincinnati will go on the road to play Houston (10-6), the No. 3 seed, in the first round. With the Ravens (12-4) winning, the result of Pittsburgh’s game against Cleveland was all but meaningless. The Steelers (12-4) wound up beating their AFC North rival, 13-9, and are the No. 5 seed, but lost the tiebreaker to Baltimore, which swept the season series from the Steelers. The New England Patriots secured the No. 1 seed in the AFC, and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, with a 49-21 victory over Buffalo. The Patriots (13-3) finished the regular season with eight wins in a row, and Tom Brady’s 5,235 yards passing were the second most in NFL history for one season. While much of the AFC picture unfolded late in the afternoon, all but one of the NFC playoff teams were settled by the early games. The top-seeded Green Bay Packers (15-1), who clinched the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye last week, beat the Detroit Lions, 45-41, despite five touchdowns and 520 yards passing by Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, The loss, coupled with Atlanta’s 45-24 win over Tampa Bay, made Detroit (10-6) the sixth seed. Detroit will play at New Orleans (13-3) in the first round. The Saints clobbered Carolina, 45-17, behind five touchdowns and 389 yards passing from quarterback Drew Brees, who finished the season with an NFL-record 5,476 yards passing. But the Saints drew the third seed when San Francisco (13-3) outlasted St. Louis, 34-27, to claim a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed and NFC West champion. The fifth-seeded Falcons (10-6) will visit New York in the first round. **More on the NFL playoff picture:** NFL playoff schedule Giants top Cowboys to win NFC East Ravens clinch AFC North, first-round bye Broncos back into AFC West title Chargers deny Raiders a postseason berth Patriots earn home-field advantage in AFC 49ers hold off rally, hold on to bye in NFC Maske reported from East Rutherford, N.J.

PHILADELPHIA Regardless of the mistakes Coach Mike Shanahan has made in his first two seasons leading the Washington Redskins — and there have been some doozies — Shanahan still is better at coaching than most. And no matter the Redskins’ lack of success, Shanahan will just work harder. He’s not the quitting type. That’s the foundation on which the Redskins should build — the combination of Shanahan’s X’s and O’s smarts and his intense competitive drive. Granted, that’s not a whole lot, but it’s pretty much all the Redskins have at this point. Throughout the season, the Redskins’ performance stirred concerns about their lack of progress in Shanahan’s rebuilding plan, and they were horrendous again at times during Sunday’s season-ending 34-10 blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. In losses to the Minnesota Vikings and Eagles to end the season, the Redskins flopped while completing their fourth consecutive last-place finish in the NFC East division. Shanahan ended with a career-worst 5-11 record, which the Redskins made possible by losing their composure and committing key blunders on offense, defense and special teams at Lincoln Financial Field. After finishing 6-10 last season, the Redskins regressed, which is the bottom line. I simply don’t see that significant improvement has occurred. Not the kind of strides that would provide proof of a brighter future around the corner. Despite everything that has gone wrong since owner Daniel Snyder hired Shanahan to revive the franchise, however, Washington must stay the course. Shanahan has three years remaining on his contract, and for the length of it, the Redskins have to follow his lead and simply hope he has been right all along. This organization has experienced too much upheaval. The Redskins need to ride it out with Shanahan. Really, for Redskins fans, it’s about keeping the faith. The franchise has asked it of them time and time again. So the situation is familiar, albeit nonetheless unsettling. “When you’re building a football team,” Shanahan said, “you take a look at the positives, of guys that can help you next year.” Shanahan is convinced that the Redskins are pointed in the right direction. He sees significant progress in some areas of the roster. He has no doubts about Washington becoming a winner again. That’s what Shanahan came to Washington to accomplish. With his career achievements and confidence, success, in his mind, is the only option. Even after the last two seasons. “We’ve made some strides,” Shanahan said. “Our football team is a lot different than a year ago. That’s a positive.” I’m convinced, too. Convinced, that is, that Shanahan, at his core , has no doubts about his ability to inspire a Redskins renaissance. After speaking with Shanahan privately Friday following Washington’s final practice at Redskins Park, I almost forgot how bad the Redskins (11-21 in two seasons) have been under him. Listening to Shanahan’s reasoned assessment about the effect that injuries, in his opinion, had in derailing the season, I briefly ignored the fact he boldly and incorrectly staked his reputation on ineffective quarterbacks Rex Grossman and John Beck. But anyone who fairly assesses Shanahan’s performance to this point could only conclude he has disappointed. Without a doubt, Washington’s defensive front seven has improved markedly since last season. Shanahan approved the offseason moves that helped the group. The Redskins seem to have something developing at running back with rookies Roy Helu and Evan Royster, though more time is needed to determine whether either is capable of becoming a big-time performer on an elite team. A team’s overall record, however, is the most important measurement of progress in professional sports. It’s all that matters. The Redskins are way short on that yardstick. Shanahan knows this. Better than most, Shanahan knows how the NFL works. In case anyone wondered, he explained things shortly after joining Washington. Early during Shanahan’s first training camp in Ashburn, a reporter asked him if the Redskins were as bad as they seemed while going 4-12 in the 2009 season under former coach Jim Zorn. In this league, Shanahan essentially said, you are your record. Which brings me to Shanahan’s record since the retirement of Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway following the 1998 season. Shanahan and Elway combined to lead the Denver Broncos to consecutive Super Bowl championships after the 1997 and ’98 seasons. In his 12 seasons without Elway, Shanahan has missed the playoffs eight times, including his past five seasons. He has only one playoff victory during that span. Does that mean Shanahan forgot how to coach without Elway? No. Not at all. In fact, some NFL people say, Shanahan’s system still could work as well as ever. And regardless of what occurs for the rest of his time in Washington, Shanahan will be considered one of the greatest play-callers in league history. Clearly, Shanahan now needs what he has lacked since arriving in Washington: a franchise quarterback. When Shanahan has worked with true franchise quarterbacks, he has been second to none as a coach. Without those rare guys, things haven’t been as good for him. Look at what he accomplished directing Elway and Steve Young, when he was an assistant with the San Francisco 49ers. Some would suggest any coach could thrive with quarterbacks like those. Of course, it’s not that simple. History is replete with examples of coaches who failed to succeed at the highest level despite working with star quarterbacks. Shanahan put the pieces in place that helped Elway break through. Twice. He constructed an offense in which Elway had the greatest moments of his career. Shanahan owns those accomplishments. Obviously, finding another Elway or Young is very difficult. If it weren’t, everyone would have those types of guys. You think Shanahan would have stuck with Rex-Beck if he could have acquired a couple of future Hall of Famers in the offseason? Ah, no. Shanahan needs a superstar quarterback. It’s as obvious as the frustration Snyder must feel watching Washington fail to qualify for the postseason in 10 of his 13 years as owner. Although Shanahan is many things, stupid is not among them. He knows the Redskins are still missing several parts, including the biggest one. But it’s getting late for him to get them.

CINCINNATI — With two electric runs by Ray Rice, the Baltimore Ravens secured their third AFC North title in team history Sunday and satisfied their season- long goal of getting a first-round bye in the playoffs and at least one home game. Rice’s 51-yard touchdown run, his second of the night, with just 5:41 to play broke open a tight game and pushed the Ravens to a 24-16 victory in front of an announced 63,439 at chilly Paul Brown Stadium. Rice, who scored on a 70-yard touchdown run on the Ravens’ fourth offensive play, finished with 191 yards rushing on 24 carries. His 15 total touchdowns set a Ravens single-season record. Trailing 24-16, the Bengals got the ball back with one minute five seconds to go. They had two shots at the end zone, but both Andy Dalton passes were incomplete. The Ravens (12-4) celebrated their first 6-0 record against the AFC North in team history and their first division title since 2006, which was the last time the Ravens had a home game in the playoffs and a first-round bye. The Bengals (9-7) made the playoffs anyway as a wild-card team, after losses by the New York Jets and Denver Broncos. The Ravens held a 17-3 lead at halftime and forced punts on the first two Bengals drives of the third quarter. But after Cincinnati got the ball on the Ravens’ 48, Dalton hit Jerome Simpson for two 10-yard completions and then Bernard Scott broke free for a 25-yard touchdown run. Scott sprinted past Ray Lewis and then broke free of an arm tackle by safety Ed Reed for the touchdown, which cut the Ravens’ lead to 17-10. Another extended Bengals drive on their next possession resulted in Mike Nugent’s 46-yard field goal, which cut the Ravens’ lead to 17-13 with 12:35 to play in the fourth quarter. Still trailing by four, the Bengals again got into Ravens territory, but linebacker Terrell Suggs leveled tight end Jermaine Gresham from behind, jarring the ball loose. Safety Bernard Pollard recovered it and and three plays later, Rice scored on his 51-yard run. One of the common denominators in the Ravens’ four road losses coming into the game was that they had gotten off to slow starts. That wasn’t an issue Sunday. The Ravens needed just four plays to take a 7-0 lead as Rice offered another signature long run to his resume. He took a Flacco handoff and burst through a hole on the right side, not stopping until he reached the end zone on a 70-yard touchdown run. Rice’s 11th rushing touchdown this season and his 14th overall was perfectly executed, starting with a great block by right guard Marshal Yanda on Bengals linebacker Rey Maualuga. Yanda, who was doubtful for the game with rib and thigh injuries, got to the second level, leaving Rice with plenty of room to run. On the play, the Ravens got safety Reggie Nelson to bite on a fake end around to rookie wide receiver Torrey Smith, so there was nobody to bring down Rice once he reached the secondary. Leading 7-0, the Ravens forced a three-and-out and again drove into Bengals territory thanks to a 39-yard Flacco completion to tight end Dennis Pitta. Two more completions set up Billy Cundiff for a 42-yard field goal and a 10-0 lead with 6:45 left in the third quarter. _ — Baltimore Sun _

The number of homicides declined last year in the District and in many other jurisdictions throughout the United States, but in Arlington County the figure reached an absolute minimum — none. No homicides were reported in Arlington last year, for the first time in at least 50 years, said Detective Crystal Nosal, county police spokeswoman. Nosal said that statistics available to her “go back to 1960, and this is the first year that we have had zero homicides.” The number of homicides in Arlington in recent years has been small. In 2010 there was one; in 2009, there were two; and in 2008, there were four. The number was as high as 12 in 1990 and 1991. An FBI report estimated that about 14,700 people nationwide were victims of homicide in 2010 — a rate of about 4.8 per 100,000 people. Arlington’s population was about 208,000 in 2010, according to census figures, suggesting that about 10 homicides a year would conform to national averages. Several other local jurisdictions had homicide rates last year that fell well below the national rate. But of the counties and large cities in the Washington area, only Arlington reported no homicides.

Sunday was the first day of the new year, but that was only one of the day’s distinctions. The temperature rose to 60 degrees in Washington, a January rarity. There was brilliant sunshine, fog, cloudiness, rain and a rainbow. Most of Sunday afternoon had been in the 50s, which was pleasant enough. It wasn’t until the waning hours of daylight that the mercury at Reagan National Airport reached 60. That was nine degrees below the record for the date. But it was 16 degrees above the New Year’s Day normal. “Open windows on New Year’s Day” read a comment on the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang Web site. “Golly.” Sunday was warmer than all of last January’s 31 days. In the past three years, the only January day to be warmer was Jan. 25, 2010, when the high was 68. A small amount of rain was reported in places during the latter part of the afternoon. About 0.04 inches was measured by the National Weather Service at Dulles International Airport. As the light faded on New Year’s afternoon, some people who looked toward the skies with their backs to the descending sun, spotted a rainbow. It is an atmospheric phenomenon that has been seen as a symbol of benevolence at least since biblical times. A comment on the Weather Gang site described the splendor of the sunset and noted that the day’s glories also included “for about 5 minutes around 4:50ish, a full rainbow towards the east.”