Washington Post

 
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    Washington Post: Metro News

  • Stay plugged in even if the power goes out

    washingtonpost.com
    9 Feb 2010 | 8:02 am
    The Washington Post's mobile site makes it easy to get the latest news and information on winter weather, even if your power goes out. Get breaking news, snow forecasts, transit updates, school closings, power outage data, road plowing information, the federal government's operating status, photo...

  • Region rushes to prepare for another shot of winter weather

    Ashley Halsey III
    9 Feb 2010 | 7:29 am
    Snowplow crews worked through Monday night and early Tuesday to try to open thousands of untouched neighborhood streets before turning to meet an ominous new winter storm.

  • Residents warned to avoid rooftop dangers

    Paul Schwartzman
    9 Feb 2010 | 5:32 am
    Fire officials are warning homeowners not to climb on treacherous rooftops to clear the snow that accumulated over the weekend.

  • Many workers find a way to get to the job, even in a blizzard

    Carol Morello and N.C. Aizenman
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Jeff Campbell has been at his job as a security officer since Friday, sleeping in a chair and eating military MREs. Andre Wye left home at 4 a.m. Monday to drive 25 scary, slippery miles to the supermarket where he's a cashier. Sia Gbolie deposited her teenage son with a neighbor and camped out with...

  • Long-held inmates sue Virginia parole board for release

    Tom Jackman
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Virginia abolished parole for convicted criminals in 1995. But more than 6,000 prisoners remain who were arrested prior to 1995, a new lawsuit alleges, and the state parole board denies release to more than 96 percent of them each year.
 
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    Washington Post: The District

  • D.C. reports record unemployment in December; Md., Va. joblessness up slightly

    V. Dion Haynes
    22 Jan 2010 | 1:26 pm
    Unemployment reached a record 12.1 percent in the District in December, keeping the city's jobless rate well above national levels and much higher than in Virginia and Maryland.

  • D.C. embezzler's ill-gotten goods sold to highest bidder

    Dan Zak
    22 Jan 2010 | 1:00 pm
    Instead of tiptoeing to Tunisia with her stolen millions, Harriette Walters hoarded designer bags. The former tax manager -- and the most brazen embezzler (embezzleress?) in city government history -- bought purse after purse on the taxpayers' dime. When she was arrested in 2007, the crime scene ...

  • Wintry mix skirts Washington area

    Ashley Halsey III and Debbi Wilgoren
    22 Jan 2010 | 10:18 am
    Most of the Washington region was bypassed by a wintry mix that swept into the outer suburbs overnight Thursday and early Friday. Although schools in Fauquier County and other outlying areas canceled classes or opened two hours late, the vast majority of area residents woke to rain or no...

  • D.C.'s new bag tax: Small fee, but big impact

    Steve Hendrix
    22 Jan 2010 | 8:29 am
    Virginia Johnson thinks the bag fee might be driving her crazy.

  • LOTTERIES

    Post
    21 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Mid-Day Lucky Numbers: 2-2-7 Mid-Day D.C. 4: 0-3-2-6
 
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    Washington Post: National News

  • Analysis: Iranian plan will put nation a step closer to having material for bomb

    Glenn Kessler
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Iran's formal notification Monday to a United Nations nuclear watchdog that it will begin producing higher-grade enriched uranium marks a new and potentially dangerous turn in Tehran's confrontation with the West over its nuclear ambitions.

  • U.S. proposes new climate service

    Juliet Eilperin
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The Obama administration proposed a new climate service on Monday that would provide Americans with predictions on how global warming will affect everything from drought to sea levels.

  • Criminal probe is launched in Connecticut power plant blast

    Post
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Authorities looking for the cause of an explosion that killed five people at a power plant under construction launched a criminal investigation Monday, saying they could not rule out criminal negligence as the cause.

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  • Corrections

    Post
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    -- A graphic with a Feb. 8 Fed Page article about moves to change Senate rules on filibusters misstated the duration of a filibuster by William Proxmire (D- Wis.) on a 1981 bill to raise the debt ceiling. It lasted 16 hours, 12 minutes, not 6 hours, 12 minutes.
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    Washington Post: National Security

  • Obama team debated treating Detroit suspect Abdulmutallab as enemy combatant

    Walter Pincus
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Should Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly tried to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day, have been considered an enemy combatant under the law of war and placed in military detention? The same question raised by senior Republicans last week was considered during a Jan. 6 National Security Coun...

  • Al-Qaeda is a wounded but dangerous enemy

    Joby Warrick and Peter Finn
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    In the past six weeks, Americans have witnessed two jarringly different -- but completely accurate -- views of al-Qaeda's terrorist network. One image was that of terrorist leaders being hunted down and killed by satellite-guided, pilotless aircraft. The other was of an agile foe slipping past U....

  • Anti-terrorism chief rebukes politicians who use cases as talking points

    Walter Pincus and Ed O'Keefe
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    President Obama's senior counterterrorism adviser on Sunday criticized politicians for using terrorism situations such as the Detroit bombing case as a "political football."

  • Iran's president orders production of higher-enriched uranium

    Thomas Erdbrink and Craig Whitlock
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    TEHRAN -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday ordered the production of higher-enriched uranium -- significantly beyond the levels of its regular nuclear fuel -- prompting the United States to renew threats of carefully targeted sanctions.

  • General-aviation security proposal is being scaled back

    Spencer S. Hsu
    6 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Citing industry objections, the Transportation Security Administration is preparing to scale back a controversial plan to expand aviation security rules for the first time to thousands of private planes.
 
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    Washington Post: Military News

  • Officials confirm kidnapping of U.S. contractor in Iraq

    Ernesto Londoño and Leila Fadel
    6 Feb 2010 | 2:05 pm
    BAGHDAD -- An American contractor working for the U.S. military in Baghdad has been kidnapped by a Shiite militant group, U.S. officials said this weekend in response to a statement and video issued by the group.

  • American contractor kidnapped in Iraq

    Ernesto Londoño and Leila Fadel
    6 Feb 2010 | 8:00 am
    BAGHDAD -- The Pentagon has acknowledged that an American contractor for the Defense Department is missing in Baghdad, an apparent confirmation of a Shiite militant group's claim this week that it abducted an American in Baghdad last month.

  • U.S. outpost in Afghanistan was left vulnerable to attack, inquiry finds

    Joshua Partlow
    5 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    KABUL -- Delays in closing a remote U.S. military outpost in eastern Afghanistan before eight American soldiers were killed last fall in an attack by 300 insurgents increased the base's vulnerability, according to a summary of a military investigation released Friday.

  • U.S. commanders in Afghanistan face tougher discipline for battlefield failures

    Greg Jaffe
    4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The U.S. military has reprimanded an unusually large number of commanders for battlefield failures in Afghanistan in recent weeks, reflecting a new push by the top brass to hold commanders responsible for major incidents in which troops are killed or wounded, said senior military officials.

  • Blast kills 3 U.S. troops in northwest Pakistan

    Karin Brulliard and Haq Nawaz Khan
    3 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN -- Three American troops were killed Wednesday in a bombing in the volatile northwest region of Pakistan, a nation where U.S. military involvement is a highly sensitive matter and where American ground personnel rarely suffer casualties.
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    Washington Post: Howard Kurtz

  • White House press corps feels bypassed by Obama in favor of TV shows, YouTube

    Howard Kurtz
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Six months ago, network executives were complaining that the White House was costing them tens of millions of dollars by pressing them to carry presidential news conferences in prime time.

  • Strange bedfellows

    Howard Kurtz
    4 Feb 2010 | 8:30 am
    At long last, liberal and conservative bloggers have found something to unite around.

  • In the red

    washingtonpost.com
    3 Feb 2010 | 6:37 am
    Well, it's time for everyone to pretend they care deeply about the deficit.

  • In the red

    Howard Kurtz
    3 Feb 2010 | 4:32 am
    Well, it's time for everyone to pretend they care deeply about the deficit.

  • Reaching across the aisle

    Howard Kurtz
    2 Feb 2010 | 6:26 am
    It was a fleeting glimpse of how a Democratic president and Republican lawmakers who have been smacking one another around might actually find some common ground.
 
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    Washington Post: Intelligence

  • Analysis: Iranian plan will put nation a step closer to having material for bomb

    Glenn Kessler
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Iran's formal notification Monday to a United Nations nuclear watchdog that it will begin producing higher-grade enriched uranium marks a new and potentially dangerous turn in Tehran's confrontation with the West over its nuclear ambitions.

  • Obama team debated treating Detroit suspect Abdulmutallab as enemy combatant

    WALTER PINCUS
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Should Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly tried to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day, have been considered an enemy combatant under the law of war and placed in military detention? The same question raised by senior Republicans last week was considered during a Jan. 6 National Security Council meeting led by President Obama in the White House Situation Room.

  • Al-Qaeda is a wounded but dangerous enemy

    Joby Warrick and Peter Finn
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    In the past six weeks, Americans have witnessed two jarringly different -- but completely accurate -- views of al-Qaeda's terrorist network. One image was that of terrorist leaders being hunted down and killed by satellite-guided, pilotless aircraft. The other was of an agile foe slipping past U.S. defenses and increasingly intent on striking inside the United States.

  • Anti-terrorism chief rebukes politicians who use cases as talking points

    Walter Pincus and Ed O'Keefe
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    President Obama's senior counterterrorism adviser on Sunday criticized politicians for using terrorism situations such as the Detroit bombing case as a "political football."

  • Yemeni American cleric Aulaqi confirms contact with Nigerian suspect

    Karen DeYoung
    5 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Yemeni American cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi said he taught and corresponded with the suspect in the attempted Dec. 25 airliner bombing but did not order the attack, according to an interview published this week.
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    Washington Post: Science

  • Achenblog

    Post
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    President Obama has decided to kill NASA's Constellation program, which would have sent astronauts back to the moon. Here are a few lessons from Constellation, adapted from The Post's Achenblog.

  • Greetings, Earthlings

    Post
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    NASA.gov NASA started streaming live video from the international space station on Feb. 1, offering the Earth-bound glimpses into the daily life of an astronaut. (Go to http://www.nasa.gov/station and click on the "Live Space Station Video" link.) You may see one or more of the five astronauts fl...

  • Rafting to Madagascar

    Post
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Madagascar, the large island off the east coast of Africa, is home to dozens of species of lemurs and other small mammals found nowhere else in the world. The question that has long puzzled scientists is: How did they get there?

  • Haitian earthquake seems to have had little impact on country's ecosystem

    Nina Shen Rastogi
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The human toll of the earthquake in Haiti has been devastating, but what, if anything, does the disaster mean for the environment?

  • 5 workers killed in explosion at Middleton, Conn., power plant

    Post
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    CONNECTICUT An explosion that sounded like a sonic boom blew out the walls of an unfinished power plant in Connecticut and set off a fire during a test of natural gas lines Sunday, killing at least five workers, injuring a dozen or more, and leaving crews picking through debris for more possible...
 
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    Washington Post: Africa

  • Televangelist denies 'quid pro quo' with ex-Liberian president

    Colum Lynch
    4 Feb 2010 | 4:49 pm
    UNITED NATIONS -- Former Liberian president Charles Taylor, testifying in his war crimes trial in The Hague on Thursday, said that his government had awarded American televangelist Pat Robertson a gold mining concession in 1999 and that Robertson later offered to lobby the Bush administration on ...

  • Southern Sudan says vote on independence is off-limits for United Nations

    Barney Jopsonin
    1 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    MALAKAL, SUDAN -- A surprise intervention in Sudan by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has drawn warnings from senior officials here, who say any outside efforts to influence a referendum on independence next year could lead to further conflict.

  • Interest in ancient books could restore Timbuktu

    Karin Brulliard
    4 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    TIMBUKTU, MALI -- From a dented metal trunk, Abdoul Wahim Abdarahim Tahar pulled out something sure to make a preservationist's heart race -- or break: a leather-bound book written by hand in the 14th century, containing key verses of the prophet Muhammad, and crumbling at the edge of each yellow...

  • In online posts apparently by Detroit suspect, religious ideals collide

    Philip Rucker and Julie Tate
    28 Dec 2009 | 9:00 pm
    The 23-year-old Nigerian man accused of the attempted Christmas Day bombing of an American airliner apparently turned to the Internet for counseling and companionship, writing in an online forum that he was "lonely" and had "never found a true Muslim friend."

  • Explosive in Detroit terror case could have blown hole in airplane, sources say

    Carrie Johnson
    28 Dec 2009 | 9:00 pm
    A dangerous explosive allegedly concealed by Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in his underwear could have blown a hole in the side of his Detroit-bound aircraft if it had been detonated, according to two federal sources briefed on the investigation.
 
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    Washington Post: Central America

  • Haiti earthquake relief efforts are still falling short

    Peter Slevin
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- Nearly one month after a powerful earthquake brought this country to a halt, Haiti is tumbling headlong through a crisis that has not begun to abate, with evidence everywhere that current relief efforts are falling short.

  • Children taken from Haiti face uncertain fate

    Henri Cauvin
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    FERMATHE, HAITI -- It was a couple of weeks after the earthquake when word began to spread in a small, poor village here.

  • Holding on to dreams from refugee camp in Haiti

    Peter Slevin
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- This was not the kind of stage Esceline Belcombe was accustomed to. She sang with sandaled feet planted deep in the dust of a footpath that cuts across a steep hill and turns down toward a river of tattered-cloth shelters.

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    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  • Haitian earthquake upends country's criminal justice system

    Henri E. Cauvin
    6 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- Haiti's criminal justice system was brought to a standstill by last month's earthquake, which leveled the capital city's courthouse. But crime did not stop, and that has left police commanders with jail cells full of frustrated inmates who have not been given a chance to go...
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    Washington Post: Asia Pacific

  • Toyota announces global recall of more than 400,000 Prius, other hybrid cars

    Blaine Harden
    9 Feb 2010 | 5:41 am
    TOKYO -- Toyota on Tuesday announced another global recall -- this time, more than 400,000 Prius and other hybrid cars with braking problems, as a quality crisis continues to curse the carmaker that built its global reputation on quality.

  • Legion Academy gives Afghans a crash course in fighting war

    Joshua Partlow
    8 Feb 2010 | 3:25 pm
    FORWARD OPERATING BASE RAMROD -- Staff Sgt. Jacob Moss surveyed the desolate expanse of dust, razor wire and dirt-filled Hesco barriers, and proclaimed: "This is my baby."

  • Digest

    Post
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    IRAN Iran has arrested seven people linked to a U.S.-funded Farsi-language radio station for allegedly fomenting unrest, and it accused some of the suspects of working for American spy agencies, Iranian state media reported Sunday.

  • Toyota to recall and repair brakes on new Priuses sold in Japan

    Blaine Harden
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    TOKYO -- Toyota's quality woes mounted over the weekend, with a reported decision in its home market to recall and repair the brakes on its latest model of the Prius, the hybrid that last year was the best-selling new car in Japan.

  • Digest

    Post
    6 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    GAZA STRIP The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip tried to distance itself Saturday from a statement it made earlier this week in which it expressed regret for harming Israeli civilians in rocket attacks.
 
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    Washington Post: Robert Kagan

  • How Obama can reverse Iran's dangerous course

    Robert Kagan
    26 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    President Obama has a once-in-a-generation opportunity over the next few months to help make the world a dramatically safer place. It's not by negotiating an arms deal with Russia, or strengthening the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or by making that elusive climate-change deal with the Chinese, worthy though those initiatives may be. It is by helping the Iranian people achieve a new form of government. Given the role that the Islamic theocracy in Tehran has played in leading and sponsoring anti-democratic, anti-liberal and anti-Western fanaticism for the past three decades, the toppling…

  • Obama shows he has learned from the early world resistance

    Robert Kagan
    12 Dec 2009 | 9:00 pm
    With his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Barack Obama signaled that the world had better get ready for a tougher, less forgiving, more quintessentially American approach from a man who certainly gave the soft touch a try.

  • China's zero-sum game

    Robert Kagan and Dan Blumenthal
    9 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    The Obama administration's worldview is still emerging, but its policies toward Russia and China are already revealing. Its Russia policy consists of trying to accommodate Moscow's sense of global entitlement. So far that has meant ignoring the continued presence of Russian forces on Georgian territory, negotiating arms-control agreements that Moscow needs more than Washington does and acquiescing to Russian objections to new NATO installations -- such as missile interceptors -- in former Warsaw Pact countries. An aggrieved Russia demands that the West respect a sphere of influence in its old…

  • Robert Kagan on President Obama's approach to Iran's nuclear effort

    Robert Kagan
    28 Oct 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Watching the Obama administration launch its "new era of engagement" over the past 10 months, most seasoned observers have pondered two questions: First, if engagement fails, will the Obama team ever acknowledge that it has failed? And what then?

  • The U.S. Should Target Iran's Instability, Not Its Nukes

    Robert Kagan
    29 Sep 2009 | 9:00 pm
    The past two weeks have been a big success for the rulers in Tehran, despite what many in the United States and Europe may think. The Obama administration, the Europeans and the media have been obsessively focused on Iranian missile launches and secret enrichment facilities, on Russia's body language, and on the likely success or failure of Thursday's talks in Geneva. What the world has not focused on is the one thing Iran's rulers care about: their own survival.
 
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    Washington Post: Politics

  • Va. Senate passes anti-discrimination bill for state workers

    Rosalind S. Helderman
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    RICHMOND The Virginia Senate passed a bill Monday that would make it illegal to discriminate in the state workforce, including on the basis of sexual orientation, marking the first time such legislation has passed either chamber of the Virginia General Assembly.

  • In Congress, it's decision time on long-term unemployment benefits

    Perry Bacon Jr.
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    As the Senate this week considers a "jobs bill" to reduce unemployment, lawmakers will have to decide whether to continue an unprecedented change in how the country treats people who are out of work, which was quietly approved last year.

  • Republicans may opt out of Obama's health-care summit

    Michael D. Shear
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Leading House Republicans raised the prospect Monday night that they may decline to participate in President Obama's proposed health-care summit if the White House chooses not to scrap the existing reform bills and start over.

  • McDonnell directing more education money to N.Va.

    Anita Kumar and Fredrick Kunkle
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    RICHMOND -- In one of his first decisions on the state's two-year budget, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell sided with Northern Virginia, the vote-rich region that helped him secure his landslide victory in November, by sending it more school dollars.

  • A year later, where did the hopes for Obama go?

    Ann Gerhart
    8 Feb 2010 | 11:35 am
    A year ago, Barack Obama's true believers were euphoric. The huge and jubilant gathering in Chicago's Grant Park on election night 2008 gave way to almost 2 million people on the Mall for the president's inauguration.
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    Washington Post: The Fed Page

  • Featured Advertiser

    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  • Managing a 'river of consumption'

    Ed O'Keefe
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Martha N. Johnson is the new head of the General Services Administration, which serves as the government's primary landlord and buyer. Johnson was interviewed Thursday, moments after the Senate approved her confirmation.

  • Obama team debated treating Detroit suspect Abdulmutallab as enemy combatant

    Walter Pincus
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Should Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly tried to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day, have been considered an enemy combatant under the law of war and placed in military detention? The same question raised by senior Republicans last week was considered during a Jan. 6 National Security Coun...

  • FTC probing CVS Caremark's prescription drug practices

    Joe Davidson
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The Federal Trade Commission is investigating allegations of improper business practices by a firm that provides prescription drug services for health insurance companies that cover most federal employees.

  • GSA set to announce new federal cafeteria contracts

    Jane Black
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The General Service Administration will announce this week the winner of the first in a series of new federal cafeteria contracts that encourage the use of healthier food, organic and locally procured food, and advanced recycling and waste management programs. The effort is part of an administrat...
 
 
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    Washington Post: The Fix

  • Why the Murtha special election is no sure thing for Republicans

    9 Feb 2010 | 11:00 am
    At first glance, the special election to replace the late Rep. John Murtha (D) in Pennsylvania is a golden opportunity for House Republicans looking to build momentum heading into what is widely expected to be a very good midterm election for the party. Murtha's 12th district, located in western Pennsylvania, was the only seat in the country that went for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004 and switched to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2008 -- this in spite of the fact that Kerry won the state by three points while Obama carried it by 10. Add that demographic trend line to the fact that the…

  • Sarah Palin's soundbite strategy

    9 Feb 2010 | 8:58 am
    Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin addresses the national tea party convention in Nashville. AP Photo/Ed Reinke Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has mastered the art of the political soundbite and has used it to devastating -- and some would say irresponsible -- effect since emerging on the political scene in the fall of 2008. Witness her speech at the national tea party convention over the weekend in Nashville, Tennessee. "America is ready for another revolution," Palin said. "When you're 0 for 3, you had better stop lecturing and start listening," she scolded the Obama Administration. "How's that…

  • Obama, congressional Republicans in a staring contest over health care

    9 Feb 2010 | 3:13 am
    1. House Republicans' threat to boycott President Obama's proposed health care meeting on Feb. 25 creates the political equivalent of a staring contest with each side waiting for the other to blink. "A refusal to show up to a discussion of health care would show that Republicans would rather play politics than solve problems," one senior Democratic party official told the Fix. "The question is whether the White House sincerely wants bipartisan reform," retorted a House Republican leadership aide. "We've asked for some gestures of good faith, because Republican leaders have zero interest in…

  • John Murtha dies, special election looms

    8 Feb 2010 | 1:34 pm
    Your Browser DoesNot Support IFrames. The death of longtime Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha (D) this afternoon will set off a special election in his very competitive western Pennsylvania 12th district. According to state law, the governor has ten days once the vacancy is officially declared to decide on the date for the special election, which can come no sooner than 60 days following that proclamation. That likely means the special election will be held on May 18, which is the date already set for federal primaries around the state. (Special elections costs the state huge sums of money and…

  • Can Democrats dissuade Dan Coats from running?

    8 Feb 2010 | 11:30 am
    In the six days since former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats (R) made clear he was preparing to challenge Sen. Evan Bayh (D) in the fall, national Democrats have unleashed an all-out assault aimed at making Coats reconsider his candidacy. First came a detailed dossier from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee running through the clients Coats represents as a federal lobbyist -- including PhRMA and Goldman Sachs. Then the DSCC released a video from 2008 in which Coats tells a Republican audience he and his wife are planning to move to North Carolina -- not Indiana -- when he retires. (Coats…
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    Washington Post: Al Kamen's In The Loop Column

  • Obama ponders 'holds' and 'recess appointments' as Sen. Scott Brown arrives

    Al Kamen
    4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    In the pre-Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) days, officials in President Obama's administration batted away any inquiries about possible recess appointments of controversial administration nominees with the phrase "health-care reform first." No feather-ruffling of any senator before passage, they said -- need every vote.

  • Obama and Sarkozy never quite became the two musketeers

    Al Kamen
    2 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Remember French President Nicolas Sarkozy? The short guy with the beautiful wife? Well, right after President Obama got elected, Sarkozy was reportedly thinking he could form the dynamic duo of world leadership with the new American president, who was insanely popular among the French.

  • How Iran ruined a Washington friendship

    Al Kamen
    28 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    In this town, policy disputes can rattle friendships. Take, for example, the exceptionally nasty donnybrook about Iran policy that erupted this week between Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass, former policy planning chief for Colin Powell, and his former Foggy Bottom pals Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett.

  • Hillary Clinton will be in London for State of the Union

    Al Kamen
    26 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Madam Secretary sends her regrets.

  • Darfur activists shine spotlight on not-so-big names

    Al Kamen
    22 Jan 2010 | 7:54 am
    Most "open letter" paid ads to government officials are directed to Congress or the president, sometimes to a regulatory agency or, on occasion, a Cabinet official, urging the passage or veto of legislation, a new regulation, or perhaps the saving of the blue-billed wombat.
 
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    Washington Post: Business Policy

  • Top Treasury Department staff works through the federal snow day

    David Cho
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Talk about a snow-day killjoy. Shortly after the federal government announced that it would close for Monday -- cue the yelping for joy around Washington -- the office of the executive secretary for Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner sent out a message to its staff.

  • Voxiva launches U.S. text service to aid pregnant women

    Mike Musgrove
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    A D.C.-based mobile technology firm is behind a new government effort to educate and encourage healthy habits in pregnant women.

  • America's candor gap on the budget

    Robert J. Samuelson
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The annual budget slams Americans with a bewildering blizzard of numbers.

  • Time to trade

    Post
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    IN RECENT DAYS, it has sometimes looked as if the political logjam over trade might finally be about to break. In a State of the Union address centered on job creation, President Obama declared a National Export Initiative to double U.S. exports in five years. In support of this goal, he spoke en...

  • Daniel Gross reviews Henry Paulson's book 'On the Brink'

    Daniel Gross
    6 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Hank Paulson's memoir doesn't contain much second-guessing or navel-gazing.
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    Washington Post: Lottery

  • LOTTERIES

    Post
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Mid-Day DC3: 7-0-7 Mid-DayDC4: 5-6-7-5 Mid-Day DC5: 6-3-9-1-6

  • LOTTERIES

    Post
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Mid-Day DC3: 7-4-0 Mid-Day DC 4: 8-7-4-5 Mid-Day DC5: 9-3-6-6-6

  • LOTTERIES

    Post
    6 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    DC3: 9-3-7 DC 4: 7-0-9-1 DC5: 3-0-0-7-3 DC3(Fri.): 1-4-2

  • LOTTERIES

    Post
    5 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Mid-Day DC3: 6-8-9 Mid-Day DC4: 1-8-6-5 Mid-Day DC5: 7-1-2-6-0

  • LOTTERIES

    Post
    4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Mid-Day DC3: 8-8-7 Mid-Day DC4: 0-6-5-2 Mid-Day DC5: 9-6-1-7-8
 
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    Washington Post: U.S. Economy

  • US-BUSINESS Summary

    Reuters
    9 Feb 2010 | 12:03 pm
    Wall Street jumps on reports of help for Greece NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks advanced on Tuesday, with the Dow on track for its largest daily percentage gain since November, boosted by reports about an aid plan for heavily indebted Greece. A senior German ruling coalition source said euro zone...

  • Toyota announces global recall of more than 400,000 Prius, other hybrid cars

    Blaine Harden
    9 Feb 2010 | 5:41 am
    TOKYO -- Toyota on Tuesday announced another global recall -- this time, more than 400,000 Prius and other hybrid cars with braking problems, as a quality crisis continues to curse the carmaker that built its global reputation on quality.

  • Oil rises above $72 on weaker dollar, buying

    Emma Farge
    9 Feb 2010 | 3:40 am
    LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose above $72 a barrel on Tuesday due to a weaker U.S. dollar and robust buying interest as investors looked for bargains following last week's price slide to near two-month lows.

  • US-BUSINESS Summary

    Reuters
    8 Feb 2010 | 11:57 pm
    Asian shares mixed; euro wins respite TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares broadly rose on Tuesday, led by Taiwan and South Korea, and the euro staged a small rebound from its recent drubbing, but Japan and Australia fell as investor sentiment remained weak on euro zone fiscal concerns. Share markets in...

  • Federal Reserve hopes clear exit strategy will boost market confidence

    Neil Irwin
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    When you've flooded the economy with trillions of dollars, mopping up is no easy task.
 
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    Washington Post: Metro Business

  • Many workers find a way to get to the job, even in a blizzard

    Carol Morello and N.C. Aizenman
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Jeff Campbell has been at his job as a security officer since Friday, sleeping in a chair and eating military MREs. Andre Wye left home at 4 a.m. Monday to drive 25 scary, slippery miles to the supermarket where he's a cashier. Sia Gbolie deposited her teenage son with a neighbor and camped out with...

  • Snowstorm heaps more economic misery on stores

    Ylan Q. Mui, V. Dion Haynes and Thomas Heath
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    In the long run, the record snowfall that has assailed the Washington region will go down as a mere blip in an economic landscape dominated by the recession, the experts say. But that is cold comfort to many local businesses forced to shut down and dig out over the weekend just as they hoped to t...

  • Haiti disaster puts Red Cross CEO to the test

    Annie Gowen
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    American Red Cross chief executive Gail J. McGovern was about to give a fundraising pitch to a roomful of Texas millionaires when news of the earthquake in Haiti reached her by text message.

  • Featured Advertiser

    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  • Voxiva launches U.S. text service to aid pregnant women

    Mike Musgrove
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    A D.C.-based mobile technology firm is behind a new government effort to educate and encourage healthy habits in pregnant women.
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    Washington Post: Pentagon Procurement

  • Pentagon seeks billions to battle terror abroad

    LOLITA C. BALDOR
    4 Feb 2010 | 12:26 pm
    WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is seeking billions in budget increases to target terror threats from abroad, especially Pakistan and Yemen, with boosts for surveillance and attack drones, special operations forces and a new military cyber command.

  • Gates defends F-35, rejects increase in F/A-18s

    Andrea Shalal-Esa
    3 Feb 2010 | 4:25 pm
    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Pentagon leaders on Wednesday underscored their commitment to the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter program and challenged some of the arguments Boeing Co is hoping could help it sell more of its F/A-18 fighters before production of the F-35 gets into full swing.

  • Obama pushes jobs plan, but still warns on deficit

    Andy Sullivan
    2 Feb 2010 | 2:42 pm
    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama pitched job-creation plans to recession-weary Americans on Tuesday while his advisers urged Congress to take further measures to rein in the record budget deficit.

  • Obama pushes jobs plan, but still warns on deficit

    Andy Sullivan
    2 Feb 2010 | 2:42 pm
    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama pitched job-creation plans to recession-weary Americans on Tuesday while his advisers urged Congress to take further measures to rein in the record budget deficit.

  • Obama team draws sharp Hill questions on budget

    TOM RAUM
    2 Feb 2010 | 1:39 pm
    WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's $3.8 trillion budget outline drew bipartisan fire on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, with Republicans complaining it doesn't address deficits soon enough and raises taxes too much. Democrats balked at some of Obama's spending cuts.
 
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    Washington Post: Personal Finance

  • Credit unions seek larger share of business loans

    Binyamin Appelbaum
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The names of small businesses seeking loans are scrawled across a whiteboard in the Bethesda offices of Mid-Atlantic Financial Partners: A Denny's franchisee with plans for a new restaurant, the owner of a limousine fleet hoping to consolidate his auto loans, a government contractor seeking a lin...

  • Dick Armey on theTea Party movement: The new majority?

    Dick Armey
    8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 am
    Dick Armey, former House Majority Leader (R-Tex.), chairman of FreedomWorks and a leader in the Tea Party movement, discusses the party's first grass-roots convention, how he feels the movement will impact this year's midterm elections and the importance of Sarah Palin.

  • American Capital Agency says earnings rose in 4Q

    AP
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:25 am
    BETHESDA, Md. -- American Capital Agency Corp. reported sharply higher earnings for the fourth quarter of 2009 Monday as the government-backed mortgage securities it holds gained value.

  • Pizzamaker braves snow to deliver on Super Bowl Sunday

    Christian Davenport
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    For pizza shops, Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest night of the year, a chance to do a week's worth of business in a single night, an event to look forward to all year.

  • Private equity firms brace for tax battle

    Megan Davies and Kim Dixon - Analysis
    7 Feb 2010 | 1:11 pm
    NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Private equity firms are again being threatened with higher taxes, as a long-running debate over how to classify their profits again becomes a focus for governments desperate for cash. Featured Advertiser Comcast Business Class Look at your bill andfind out how much yourbusiness can save with Comcast Business Class. Internet, Phone & TV for $99. Learn More   Ads by Pheedo
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    Washington Post: Lily Garcia - How to Deal

  • Before making a case to work remotely, consider how this arrangement benefits your employer

    washingtonpost.com
    28 Jan 2010 | 8:00 am
    I am planning to go out of state in the fall for graduate school. I think I can still be an asset to my organization as a part-time employee and would like to present my case. The alternative would be to simply leave. I would be across the country and have to do work remotely, but I am confident I could perform the work without physically being present. Do you have any tips on how to broach the subject?

  • What to say to potential employers about choosing to leave your last job

    washingtonpost.com
    20 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Hi, Lily. Recently, I voluntarily left my job after a year. I'm not expecting to land a new gig any time soon, but I'm worried about what to say about leaving when new opportunities do come up. Does it make me look irresponsible to leave given the current economic environment, or does it show that I'm able to deal with risk and take responsibility for my decisions? I don't want to lie and give the impression that I was laid off (which would seem logical and applicable given the times), but I don't want to seem flighty or like a job hopper.

  • Weighing the pros and cons of taking a personality test at work

    washingtonpost.com
    14 Jan 2010 | 7:40 am
    My employer is an NGO [nongovernmental organization]. They have recently announced that they want all staff to undergo Myers-Briggs testing. I am strongly opposed to undergoing this testing. While I might do it personally, doing it at the workplace and having the results shared with colleagues seems to cross a big privacy line for me. (They say results will only be shared in aggregate, but given our teams are small it will be easy to see who's who, and I don't trust that they will be confidential at all). Furthermore, I fear it could be harmful to me in terms of projects I am considered for.

  • Making a hiring decision based on race or age is illegal, even if it's done to make a work environment more diverse

    washingtonpost.com
    6 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Hi, Lily. I work for a public organization. I love my job and my boss and the CEO. I have also served on several hiring committees. I have been told point blank by various levels of leadership that we have to hire non-white candidates. I was also told that we have to hire somebody younger than 42. Aren't these directives illegal? The last candidate that we hired was white and 42+ years old. I agree that we want a diverse workforce. How do we achieve that without engaging in illegal discrimination? Thank you.

  • Finding a new job to maintain a long-distance relationship

    washingtonpost.com
    30 Dec 2009 | 8:45 am
    Hi, Lily.
 
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    Washington Post: Allan Sloan - Deals

  • Social Security could be next to need a bailout

    Allan Sloan
    1 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Don't look now. But even as the bank bailout is winding down, another huge bailout is starting, this time for the Social Security system.

  • Let Wall Street run wild, without my money

    Allan Sloan
    18 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    It's bonus time, Wall Street's days of wine and roses, when employees find out how rich they're going to be. But this year's bonus season has morphed into days of whines and poses.

  • Excise tax on 'Cadillac' health-care plans is a bad idea

    Allan Sloan
    11 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The idea of an excise tax on "Cadillac" health-care plans sounds like magic. It would raise almost $150 billion over 10 years to help finance health-care "reform"; it would be paid by employers, insurance companies and "the rich"; it would help "bend the cost curve" in the future; and for all I know, it might help regrow hair and cure warts.

  • 2009 in review: TARP, mistakes and Washington's financial takeover

    Allan Sloan
    28 Dec 2009 | 9:00 pm
    We all have our year-end rituals. Mine is to examine what I've written during the year, follow up on yesterday's hot stories that have become today's overlooked stories, and own up to my mistakes of omission and commission.

  • 'Cadillac Care' is largely a myth

    Allan Sloan
    17 Dec 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Can you tell a Chevy Malibu from a Cadillac Escalade? I'm sure you can, but I've got doubts about the folks in Washington who want to impose a stiff excise tax on what they call "Cadillac Care" health plans to raise revenue and reduce health spending.
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    Washington Post: Transportation Industry News

  • A look at global economic developments

    AP
    9 Feb 2010 | 11:21 am
    -- A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Tuesday:

  • Toyota to recall over 50,000 Prius in Europe

    AP
    9 Feb 2010 | 11:20 am
    MILAN -- Toyota in Europe is no where near the hot-selling carmaker it is in the United States. But the troubled auto maker's miseries have hit home there with the recall of the Prius, which has become something of an icon in environment-conscious Europe.

  • State Farm says it warned NHTSA on Toyota in 2007

    AP
    9 Feb 2010 | 10:13 am
    WASHINGTON -- The nation's largest auto insurer said Tuesday it alerted federal safety regulators in late 2007 about a rise in reports of unexpected acceleration in Toyota vehicles, the latest warning sign to emerge about the massive recall.

  • FAA investigating Southwest Airlines again

    AP
    9 Feb 2010 | 9:52 am
    DALLAS -- Federal officials are investigating Southwest Airlines over the way it handled structural repairs on dozens of jets, according to a person familiar with the situation.

  • Japan Airlines rejects Delta, stays with American

    AP
    9 Feb 2010 | 9:26 am
    TOKYO -- Japan Airlines, wooed for months by Delta Air Lines with promises of cash and global reach, spurned the world's biggest carrier and opted to keep its alliance with American Airlines.
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    Washington Post: Week in Stocks

  • Stocks fall for the week on concerns over euro-zone economies

    Post
    6 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    U.S. stocks fell for a fourth straight week, the longest streak since July, as concern grew that widening budget deficits in Europe will slow the economic recovery. A 167-point rally in the Dow Jones industrial average during the final hour of trading Friday failed to erase losses.

  • Tech stocks battered as earnings disappoint

    Post
    30 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    U.S. stocks declined for a third straight week, giving the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index its worst month since February, as technology companies missed earnings estimates and surging Greek bond yields triggered a flight from riskier assets.

  • Obama bank plan, China's moves to cool economy boost fear factor on Wall Street

    Post
    23 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    U.S. stocks fell for a second straight week, sending the market to its biggest drop since October, as banks plunged on a White House proposal to limit financial risk-taking and China moved to cool economic growth.

  • Stocks retreat after hitting 15-month high

    Post
    16 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    U.S. stocks fell last week, pulling the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index down from a 15-month high, as profits at Alcoa and J.P. Morgan Chase disappointed investors.

  • Stocks rally to start the new year

    Post
    9 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    U.S. stocks advanced last week, pushing the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index to its steepest weekly gain in two months, as the nation's manufacturing increased more than forecast and metal and oil prices surged.
 
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    Washington Post: WashTech - D.C. Technology News

  • Racking up miles? Maybe not.

    Ashley Halsey III
    6 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Within a few years, a driver who pulls up to the gas pump may pay two bills with a single swipe of the credit card: one for the gas and the other for each mile driven since the last fill-up.

  • Pentagon seeks billions to battle terror abroad

    LOLITA C. BALDOR
    4 Feb 2010 | 12:26 pm
    WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is seeking billions in budget increases to target terror threats from abroad, especially Pakistan and Yemen, with boosts for surveillance and attack drones, special operations forces and a new military cyber command.

  • USGS report offered early look at Haiti's quake damage

    Holly Hobbs
    3 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Haiti, a country with limited technology and communication systems, broadcast a message of what was occurring within its borders Jan. 12 before anyone had picked up a phone or sent an e-mail.

  • Who can afford Howard Stern?

    Paul Bond
    3 Feb 2010 | 8:39 pm
    LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Howard Stern has begun negotiating a new radio contract. Perhaps not technically, but Stern's on-air mentions of his exclusive Sirius XM Radio deal winding down at year's end, and his hedged proclamations of competing offers, are what one insider called his "method...

  • Twitter not all that popular among teenagers, report finds

    Donna St. George
    3 Feb 2010 | 8:20 pm
    This just in: Most American teenagers could not tweet less.
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    Washington Post: Tech Policy

  • Featured Advertiser

    4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  • Museums

    Post
    4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    "JOSEF ALBERS: INNOVATION AND INSPIRATION" More than 60 works by the German-born American artist, who examined the nuances of perception through the use of optical illusions, Thursday through April 11 at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Seventh Street and Independence Avenue SW. Open daily...

  • Fairfax County crime report

    Post
    3 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The following incidents were recently reported by the Fairfax County Police Department. For more information, call 703-246-2253.

  • Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks

    Ellen Nakashima
    3 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.

  • After Toyota recall, investigators look for faults in electronic throttles

    Peter Whoriskey and Frank Ahrens
    2 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Federal regulators have launched an inquiry into whether engine electronics caused vehicles to accelerate unexpectedly as legislators and experts on Tuesday cast doubt on Toyota's explanation of its "runaway cars."
 
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    Washington Post: Personal Tech

  • Top Tech Support Survival Tips

    Patrick Miller and Elvin Lai, PCWorld
    9 Feb 2010 | 12:19 pm
    Your PC, Internet connection, and cell phone may save you tremendous amounts of time, but it's easy to forget that when you're spending hours on the line with tech support. Here's how you can streamline the tech support process and make sure you get the fixes you need.

  • Dante's Inferno Ships, but is it a God of War Clone?

    Matt Peckham
    9 Feb 2010 | 11:19 am
    Lying on the table beside me is an action figure modeled after the star in Electronic Arts' third-person action game, Dante's Inferno . Dante looks none too happy. That might have something to do with all his missing skin, flayed from his chest in crisscrossing strips to form a bloody cross. You can...

  • Earnings Preview: Activision Blizzard to report 4Q

    AP
    9 Feb 2010 | 10:17 am
    NEW YORK -- Activision Blizzard Inc., the video game publisher behind "World of Warcraft" and "Call of Duty," reports fourth-quarter results after the market closes Wednesday.

  • Micro Express KHL9070: Good Performance, Disappointing Features

    Jason Cross, PCWorld
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:19 pm
    Laptop buyers may not be as familiar with boutique vendors like Micro Express as they are with big brands like Dell or HP, but smaller vendors can sometimes be more agile in getting hot new products to market. Case in point: The Micro Express KHL9070 is the first portable to hit our labs carrying...

  • Fujitsu LifeBook T4410: Good Touch Features, but a Little Too Heavy

    Nate Ralph, PCWorld
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:19 pm
    Fujitsu's LifeBook line has produced some impressive contenders among tablet PCs, and the Fujitsu LifeBook T4410 rates as a solid and versatile performer for business users. With a glut of multitouch-friendly tablets (including the vaunted Apple iPad ) promising to revolutionize the way we compute,...
 
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    Washington Post: Health

  • Featured Advertiser

    10 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  • Gym workouts for skiiers before hitting the slopes

    Vicky Hallett
    10 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    I'm not one of those people who doesn't go skiing in the Washington region because the slopes are too puny and the conditions are too icy. Nope, I'm one of those people who doesn't ski around here because sharp poles, slippery surfaces and gravity never seemed like a friendly combination.

  • Autism and diet: Many questions to digest

    Post
    10 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Last week, the British medical journal the Lancet, which had originally published a controversial 1998 study by British researcher Andrew Wakefield that implied a link between autism and the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, formally retracted that study . In the wake of this, one of the...

  • 'Village' groups help seniors remain in their homes as they grow older

    Howard Gleckman
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Nearly three years ago, Harry Rosenberg and his wife, Barbara Filner, met with nine of their neighbors about starting an aging-in-place "village" in the Burning Tree community of Bethesda. The idea: If neighbors could help one another with basic services such as transportation and simple home...

  • Earthquake-response doctors in Haiti can't save everyone seeking emergency care

    Tom Kirsch
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    We have three tents for our "triage emergency department." Two tents stand out: the "Jiffy Pop" (look that up, those of you born in the microwave era) and the Blue Tent.
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    Washington Post: The Misfits

  • Gym workouts for skiiers before hitting the slopes

    Vicky Hallett
    10 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    I'm not one of those people who doesn't go skiing in the Washington region because the slopes are too puny and the conditions are too icy. Nope, I'm one of those people who doesn't ski around here because sharp poles, slippery surfaces and gravity never seemed like a friendly combination.

  • Teach your children wellness: Schools are rethinking phys ed

    Lenny Bernstein
    3 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Two months back, tiny Lincoln University attracted worldwide media attention when it threatened to withhold diplomas from overweight students unless they took a special fitness class.

  • Exercises can help combat and prevent girls' ACL injuries

    Lenny Bernstein
    27 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    It's no secret that young women athletes are suffering an epidemic of crippling injuries to their anterior cruciate ligaments (ACLs), one of the four strong bands of tissue that connect the leg bones at the knee joint. A decade of research and books such as Michael Sokolove's "Warrior Girls" have shown that our daughters are three to eight times as likely as our sons to tear an ACL.

  • Denise Austin is still going strong

    Vicky Hallett
    20 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Most people greet strangers with a "pleased to meet you." Denise Austin prefers a more direct approach: "Touch my tummy."

  • Denise Austin's 30-minute workout

    Post
    20 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Just 30 minutes a day. That's all Denise Austin says she devotes to working out. But she makes that half-hour count, as I found out when we stepped into her home gym, a bright room stocked with a treadmill, two stationary bikes, a huge assortment of dumbbells, balls of every size, foam rollers and yoga mats.
 
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    Washington Post: Jay Matthews - Class Struggle

  • U-Va. students protest lack of credits for IB courses

    Jay Mathews
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    On some days when Alexis Robertson was in the heavy-duty International Baccalaureate program at South Lakes High School in Fairfax County, she arrived at 7 a.m. and didn't leave until 8 p.m.

  • D.C. effort to assess teachers falls short, educator says

    Jay Mathews
    3 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Marni Barron, an innovative educator, shares my discomfort with many Washington area school districts that rate nearly 100 percent of their teachers as satisfactory. (I'm not kidding: Alexandria says 99 percent, Fairfax County, 99.1 percent, Montgomery County, 95, Loudoun County, 99, Prince George's County, 95.6, and so on.)

  • The Challenge Index: Compare incomes, college-level tests

    Jay Mathews
    31 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    On this page, you see the results of the 12th annual Washington Post survey of high school student participation in college-level tests, what I call the Challenge Index. The ranked list of public schools -- both the Washington area version in The Post and the national version in Newsweek each June -- gets lots of attention, but the outrage and acclaim usually swirl around the issue of whether ranking schools is good for us.

  • Revised AP courses will emphasize concepts, not memorization

    Jay Mathews
    27 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    If someone told you the College Board was about to rip apart the SAT and rebuild it, would that excite/surprise/aggravate/frighten you? Me too. It's about to happen, not to the SAT, but to our nation's second-most influential test, Advanced Placement, with large consequences for our high schools and colleges.

  • Class Struggle: Fix schools with ideas, not money

    washingtonpost.com
    27 Jan 2010 | 2:56 pm
    President Obama is apparently about to tell the nation he wants to freeze federal spending for three years in several areas, including education. I like the idea. I would also support cutting back entitlement payments for financially secure geezers like me, and find ways for everyone to make some sacrifices for our country.
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    Washington Post: Real Estate

  • Murray Hill, just south of Beltway, offers convenience and comforts

    Ann Cameron Siegal
    5 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    It's easy to drive past Murray Hill as you navigate Indian Head Highway, Route 210. But this conveniently located community of ramblers and split-levels in Prince George's County is worth a look.

  • Cash-in refinancing could help homeowners save

    Kenneth Harney
    5 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Thinking of cashing out some equity when you refinance your mortgage? Sure, that used to be what millions of homeowners did when they needed extra money.

  • An infrared sauna: Luxury at a price you can relax with

    Barbara Ruben Special to The Washington Post
    5 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Lyme disease left Kathy Fowler's hands so stiff that she couldn't type. She couldn't remember simple directions. Intravenous antibiotics helped, but Fowler, a health reporter for WJLA (Channel 7), wanted to explore alternative treatments as well.

  • housing counsel

    Housing Counsel
    5 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Housing Counsel, by Benny L. Kass, can be found this week at http://washingtonpost.com/realestate. He discusses how owners can secure a tax-deferred exchange of a second home. His column will return to the print edition.

  • MURRAY HILL

    Murray Hill
    5 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    BOUNDARIES: Indian Head Highway to the west, Livingston Road to the north, Hart Road to the east and E. Barrett Road to the south
 
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    Washington Post: Joel Lerner - Green Scene

  • Tree myths: So much of what you've been told is wrong

    Joel M. Lerner
    5 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Many planting practices that were thought critical to the health of trees are simply myths. Some ideas that have long been accepted by experts have proven to be incorrect. This is understandable because it can take generations to comprehend the sophisticated systems of these magnificent plants. While you're enjoying the warm and cozy indoors this winter, let's examine some tree myths.

  • Green Scene: El Niño could increase garden pests this spring

    Joel M. Lerner
    29 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    El Niño is back. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Prediction Center reports that El Niño has gained slightly above-average strength over the Pacific Ocean since December, signaling that its effects might persist into the spring. What that means to gardeners in the Washington area and the Southeastern states is the possibility of wetter weather than usual.

  • Green Scene: The value of a remembrance of things past

    Joel M. Lerner
    22 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Every growing season offers the potential for rejuvenating your garden, and now is the time to start reflecting on last year's performance and to plan this year's landscape design.

  • Winter doesn't have to be a colorless season

    Joel M. Lerner
    15 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The winter landscape can be extraordinary if your garden is designed for winter interest. Consider plants that flower, offer berries, hold their foliage, have showy bark or display attention-grabbing shapes even without leaves. If you haven't planted with an eye toward winter interest, your beds will remain bare for another nine to 10 weeks.

  • Want a great fire? Start with the right wood and add a touch of precaution.

    Joel M. Lerner
    8 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    On the heels of an extraordinary fall, when many plants stayed green into December, we had a record-breaking snowfall in time for the holidays. Now the leaves are gone and the remnants of the flowers in the garden are black. It's time to enjoy relaxing in front of an open hearth, with the sweet aroma of burning wood.
 
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    Washington Post: Editorials

  • Snowed under

    Post
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    THE WASHINGTON region has yet to recover from the weekend storm that dumped near-record amounts of snow on the area. It seems downright unfair that another round of snow and ice -- perhaps as much as 20 more inches -- is headed our way Tuesday. So, yes, we're all entitled to whine and kvetch -- when we're not out enjoying the magnificent beauty of it all.

  • Did Ukraine's presidential election reverse its ‘color revolution'?

    Post
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    UKRAINE'S ORANGE Revolution erupted in 2004 because of an attempt by Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his proxies to impose on Ukraine a version of Russia's corrupt authoritarianism -- beginning with a fraudulent presidential election. The revolt's success produced a messy but functioning democracy in which elections are hard-fought and unpredictable, the press is free and civil society flourishes. Just more than five years later, the central question is whether that democratic system -- which is what prevents Ukraine from being dominated by Russia -- will survive another presidential…

  • The Winter Olympics in D.C.

    Post
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    A few years back, Washington and Baltimore bid to host the Olympics, and struck out bigtime. Now we know what the problem was: They were bidding for the Summer Games. With Vancouver struggling to truck in enough snow for the Winter Games, set to begin on Friday, there's an obvious solution. Move the games here.

  • A $23 million hit on schools

    Post
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    MARYLAND EDUCATION officials maintain that Montgomery County didn't give its schools enough money this year. Its solution -- believe it or not -- is to slap a $23.4 million fine on the very schools that they say are underfunded. That's the equivalent of 360 teachers, or adding 1 1/2 children to each classroom. It is time that the Maryland General Assembly step in with some much-needed common sense and end this absurd fight over funding.

  • Time to trade

    Post
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    IN RECENT DAYS, it has sometimes looked as if the political logjam over trade might finally be about to break. In a State of the Union address centered on job creation, President Obama declared a National Export Initiative to double U.S. exports in five years. In support of this goal, he spoke encouragingly about "strengthening" trade relations with South Korea, Panama and Colombia -- each of which has a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the United States pending congressional approval. Could it be that the president was finally ready to take on labor unions and other Democratic interest groups…
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    Washington Post: Op-Ed Columns

  • Ukraine's democratic evolution, on hold for now

    Anne Applebaum
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Every revolution sparks a counterrevolution. The French revolution in 1789 was followed by Napoleon and the restoration of the monarchy. After the Russian revolution, the czar's forces regrouped and fought a bloody civil war.

  • Toyota's plan to repair its public image

    Akio Toyoda
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    More than 70 years ago, Toyota entered the auto business based on a simple, but powerful, principle: that Toyota would build the highest-quality, safest and most reliable automobiles in the world. The company has always put the needs of our customers first and made the constant improvement of our vehicles a top priority. That is why 80 percent of all Toyotas sold in the United States over the past 20 years are still on the road today.

  • Kidnapping of Haitian children was no act of charity

    Eugene Robinson
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Anyone sitting in a dank, fetid Haitian jail for any reason probably deserves at least a measure of sympathy, so in that sense I feel sorry for the Baptist missionaries from Idaho charged with kidnapping 33 "orphans" and trying to take them out of the country. But what the do-gooders allegedly did was not just misguided. It could be criminal, and Haitian authorities are right to hold them accountable.

  • Jenny and Silda's statements of strength

    Richard Cohen
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    From time to time, I come across Silda and Eliot Spitzer. He is the former New York governor who had to leave office because of a sex scandal, and she is the wife who was roundly criticized at the time (2008) for publicly standing by her man after he was accused of seeing a prostitute in Washington. The Spitzers remain a couple.

  • U.S.-China growing pains

    Fareed Zakaria
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Despite the recent squall in U.S.-Chinese relations, both countries have powerful reasons to cooperate with one another. These have grown over the past two decades, a progression that both countries seem to recognize.
 
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    Washington Post: Joel Achenbach's Achenblog

  • The new snowcialism

    9 Feb 2010 | 5:02 am
    Another storm coming. They come every three days now. Here in Nome-on-the-Potomac, our nerves are getting frayed as we hear talk of another foot or two of snow. Hard to believe, but not so long ago the meteorologists referred to possible snowfalls in terms of inches. Soon they will switch to the yard as the unit of measurement. This next storm could separate the men from the boys. The cross-country skiers from the downhill skiers. The glove-wearers from the mitten-wearers. Some people feel good because they have their own generators and abundant supplies of gasoline. Others feel even better,…

  • I don't believe what I just saw

    8 Feb 2010 | 5:34 am
    So I guess this is why they play the game. On paper, the Colts were the better team. On the field, they looked pretty great, too. Peyton Manning did not have an off night. In fact, he threw some of the most immaculate passes we've ever seen. Even when the Saints took the lead in the fourth quarter, you knew Manning would lead the Colts back for the tying touchdown. It was just this side of inevitable. Manning hadn't thrown a bad pass all game. He was a surgeon operating on that Saints defense. And then: Whaaaa.....? Tracy Porter. Who dat? Apparently he's the guy who steps in front of Reggie…

  • Greetings from Mount Crumpit

    7 Feb 2010 | 9:07 am
    I guess it's time to take the trash back to the alley. If you don't hear from me within an hour, call 911. The alley. Do not venture there without a shovel and a flare. Listen. It's the Whos down in Whoville. Singing! Already sleepy suburb now in snow-induced coma. Excuse me, WHERE ARE THE CABS???????? Heard a pitiful yelping in the night. It was the Weber. New sport: Palisade-jumping. You just hurl yourself off the cliff and you can't get hurt. (But you go first.)

  • Snowmaggedon: The musical

    6 Feb 2010 | 11:28 am
    Was it not Edgar Allan Poe who said, after the Titanic hit the iceberg, "I rang for ice, but this is ridiculous"? This is the view out the front door first-thing this morning, with many more hours of snow still to come. What I find disturbing about this snowscape is that there's a car right in the middle of it. We'll have it dug out by June is my guess. Whatever you do, don't drive in this storm. Unless, of course, you feel really compelled to do so. Angus has an SUV with something like 18-wheel drive (18WD). Also we needed to rescue some people freezing in a house with no power. Do not…

  • The Washington white-out

    5 Feb 2010 | 6:16 pm
    3:55 p.m.: Pip is nervous as he surveys the first flakes of Snowmaggedon. He knows that if this gets really ugly he becomes someone's lunch. 4:45 p.m.: Cynics deride my photographs for being mere "snapshots" in the same way that Capote said Kerouac's writing was just "typing." But if that's true, how come I get these incredible action shots of wildlife? In flight??? Give me a camera and it's like an instantaneous National Geographic situation. 5:00 p.m.: Poe has snow on his mind. 5:45 p.m.: The blueing hour. Some call it twilight, but in a big snow it's all skews blue. 9:10 p.m.:…
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    Washington Post: Annie Applebaum

  • Ukraine's democratic evolution, on hold for now

    Anne Applebaum
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Every revolution sparks a counterrevolution. The French revolution in 1789 was followed by Napoleon and the restoration of the monarchy. After the Russian revolution, the czar's forces regrouped and fought a bloody civil war.

  • From roads to rhetoric: the paradox of leaving Davos

    Anne Applebaum
    4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    ZURICH We inch forward, then we stop. Then we inch forward again. For half a mile or so we speed up, and it seems we are actually going to start making real time. Then we stop. A few more inches forward, and then we stop again.

  • India's model of reflective patriotism

    Anne Applebaum
    25 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    JAIPUR, INDIA

  • Haiti is dangerously close to new disasters

    Anne Applebaum
    17 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    For the past several days, I have found myself unable to look at the photographs from Haiti. I have also found that when I start an article datelined Port-au-Prince, I have to force myself to read to the end. I have donated money to Doctors Without Borders, on the grounds that its medical staff has been in Haiti a long time and will be able to use the cash quickly. I have no illusions, however, about my tiny donation or about those doctors' ability to help. I have no illusions about anyone's ability to help, for this is not just a natural disaster: It is a man-made disaster first and…

  • We need a smarter way to fight the jihadi elite

    Anne Applebaum
    11 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Somehow, he conned the Jordanian secret service into thinking he was their agent. Then he conned the CIA into thinking he was their agent, too. After that, he conned both the Jordanians and the Americans -- his "enemies," he told al-Jazeera -- into believing he could track down leaders of al-Qaeda. Nevertheless, by far the most intriguing thing about Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi -- the suicide bomber who killed eight people at a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan, two weeks ago -- is his wife, Defne Bayrak.
 
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    Washington Post: David S. Broder

  • Obama need not wait to change relations with Congress

    David S. Broder
    6 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    It was toward the end of President Obama's riveting visit on Jan. 29 with the House Republicans in Baltimore -- a rare 90 minutes of candor on both sides that produced the most fascinating and revealing politics in memory -- when Rep. Peter Roskam of suburban Chicago was called on for a question.

  • Ditching health reform will only dig us into a deeper deficit

    David S. Broder
    3 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The economic collapse of 2008 and 2009 did so much damage to the United States that only now can we begin to measure the devastation.

  • Congress prepares for a battle over campaign finance

    David S. Broder
    30 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The sober, sprawling State of the Union address that President Obama delivered last week was marked by one extraordinary moment. It came when the president looked down at six robed members of the Supreme Court, seated directly in front of him, and criticized their recent 5 to 4 decision that he said "will open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections."

  • In rejecting a fiscal commission, senators betray the nation

    David S. Broder
    27 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    On the very day this week when the Congressional Budget Office warned that the succession of previously unimaginable trillion-dollar-plus budget deficits could inflict ruin on the United States, the Senate faced a moment of truth.

  • The past week was a good time for a Republican electioneer

    David S. Broder
    23 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    If you are John Cornyn, the 36 hours from last Tuesday night through Thursday morning had to be the best time of your life.
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    Washington Post: Richard Cohen

  • Jenny and Silda's statements of strength

    Richard Cohen
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    From time to time, I come across Silda and Eliot Spitzer. He is the former New York governor who had to leave office because of a sex scandal, and she is the wife who was roundly criticized at the time (2008) for publicly standing by her man after he was accused of seeing a prostitute in Washington. The Spitzers remain a couple.

  • Obama administration is tone-deaf to concerns about terrorism

    Richard Cohen
    1 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    There is almost nothing the Obama administration does regarding terrorism that makes me feel safer. Whether it is guaranteeing captured terrorists that they will not be waterboarded, reciting terrorists their rights, or the legally meandering and confusing rule that some terrorists will be tried in military tribunals and some in civilian courts, what is missing is a firm recognition that what comes first is not the message sent to America's critics but the message sent to Americans themselves. When, oh when, will this administration wake up?

  • From John Edwards, lessons on celebrity and politics

    Richard Cohen
    25 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Some years ago, I was having lunch with John McCain in the Senate dining room when a new senator stopped by to say hello. He was John Edwards. His smile was capacious. He exuded happiness. He was articulate and friendly, and when he left, he got a behind-his-back endorsement from McCain: Keep your eye on him, McCain counseled. And so I did.

  • In N.Y., race for Senate seat is a Democratic identity crisis

    Richard Cohen
    18 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Let me introduce myself. I am Harold Gillibrand or maybe I'm Kirsten Ford, a blending of the Democrats who want to be the next elected senator from New York. I am running to free the party from the clutches of Harry Reid, or maybe it's Chuck Schumer, and to return fiscal sanity to the state that was once home to Alexander Hamilton, our first secretary of the Treasury who, like so many other New Yorkers, came to grief across the river in New Jersey. Here are my positions.

  • When revolutionary fervor is tempered with time

    Richard Cohen
    11 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    To the columnist's obligation to provide a 10-best list of 2009 films, I punt by offering just one. It is "The Baader Meinhof Complex," which Anthony Lane, the film critic for the New Yorker, said he saw "three or four times." When I saw it, I thought that once was enough. Yet the movie lingers because, to me, it is only incidentally about the 1970s-style radicalism of Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, and more about how wrong I was when I was young.
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    Washington Post: Jackson Diehl

  • Obama's retreat from the global stage

    Jackson Diehl
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Is a wounded Barack Obama withdrawing from the world?

  • How Hugo Chavez's revolution crumbled

    Jackson Diehl
    24 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    While the world has been preoccupied with the crisis in Haiti, Latin America has quietly passed through a tipping point in the ideological conflict that has polarized the region -- and paralyzed U.S. diplomacy -- for most of the past decade.

  • U.S. ambition alone won't forge Mideast peace

    Jackson Diehl
    10 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Give George Mitchell points for perseverance, at least. Last year the attempt by President Obama's Middle East envoy to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, with an ambitious two-year deadline, was an embarrassing flop. Neither Israelis nor Palestinians showed much interest in new negotiations. As the world watched, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu forced the administration to retreat from its demand for a complete freeze on settlement building, while Saudi King Abdullah directly rebuffed Obama after he traveled to Riyadh to ask for a gesture to Israel.

  • Jackson Diehl on how Obama's policy is bearing fruit

    Jackson Diehl
    13 Dec 2009 | 9:00 pm
    President Obama's appearance in Oslo last week gave cause for his critics to remind the world, again, of everything his peace-prize-winning diplomacy hasn't accomplished so far. There's been no tangible result from his attempts to engage Iran, North Korea, Syria and other rogues; no clear progress toward Middle East peace; no new steps toward global disarmament. The war in Afghanistan -- something the Nobel judges no doubt look on with disfavor -- just got a lot bigger.

  • Jackson Diehl on Arab disappointment with Obama

    Jackson Diehl
    29 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    It's been nearly six months since Barack Obama stirred hearts and raised hopes across much of the Arab world with his much-promoted Cairo address. Many came away from it expecting a new and more vigorous U.S. attempt to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Others hoped for more American sympathy and support for liberal reform in countries where free expression, women's rights and democratic elections are blocked by entrenched autocracies.
 
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    Washington Post: E.J. Dionne Jr.

  • On health care: 'Finish the kitchen'

    E.J. Dionne Jr.
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    If President Obama gets to sign a health-reform bill, as I believe he will, one reason may be Rep. Jay Inslee's difficult experience renovating his kitchen.

  • Off-message, Biden recasts the Obama agenda

    E.J. Dionne Jr.
    3 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Vice President Biden is tired of seeing the Obama administration's economic stimulus plan demeaned, derided and dismissed, and he wanted to talk about it.

  • Justice Alito's candid response to Obama's rebuke

    E.J. Dionne Jr.
    31 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The nation owes a substantial debt to Justice Samuel Alito for his display of unhappiness over President Obama's criticisms of the Supreme Court's recent legislation -- excuse me, decision -- opening our electoral system to a new torrent of corporate money.

  • Obama shows he's a conciliator--and also willing to fight

    E.J. Dionne Jr.
    27 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    There was an unexpected poignancy to the moment . Barack Obama, who once strode across the political landscape as a master of the persuasive arts, found himself needing to prove that mastery all over again.

  • Supreme Court ruling calls for a populist revolt

    E.J. Dionne Jr.
    24 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    "Populism" is the most overused and misused word in the lexicon of commentary. But thanks to a reckless decision by Chief Justice John Roberts's Supreme Court and the greed of the nation's financial barons, we have reached a true populist moment in American politics.
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    Washington Post: Michael Gerson

  • President Obama betrays his community-organizer roots

    Michael Gerson
    4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Former community organizer Barack Obama once seemed to recognize the important role of community institutions. It was among his few credible claims to ideological outreach. On the eve of his inauguration, cameras in tow, Obama took a paint roller to the walls of a D.C. homeless shelter. He retained the White House office that promotes community and faith-based charities. In June, during a speech saluting nonprofits, he said, "Solutions to America's challenges are being developed every day at the grass roots. And government shouldn't be supplanting those efforts, it should be supporting those…

  • U.S. solidarity could boost Iran's Green Revolution

    Michael Gerson
    2 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    It means something in foreign policy circles when realists and idealists converge on a policy -- as they are beginning to do on Iran.

  • In the State of the Union address, 'Principal' Obama had lessons for all

    Michael Gerson
    28 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The most revealing congressional reaction following President Obama's State of the Union address came from Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina: "He sort of took us to the principal's office, didn't he?"

  • The flailing state of Obama's polarized union

    Michael Gerson
    26 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    One of the kinder explanations for President Obama's failed first year is that his agenda was just too darned ambitious. Like Bill Clinton on health reform and George W. Bush on Social Security restructuring, Obama found that, in columnist Ron Brownstein's words, "big legislative crusades aimed at big national problems produce only big political headaches." The fault, in this view, lies in a polarized political system that punishes the bold.

  • Obama's options, in a post-Massachusetts nation

    Michael Gerson
    21 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    If Tuesday had been a national election, Scott Brown's victory merely would have been the high-water mark of a Republican deluge. A five-point win in Massachusetts would have translated into blowout Republican victories throughout the country. Every Democrat with political skills short of Franklin D. Roosevelt's would have suddenly seemed a "weak candidate." President Obama now is left with three options as he stumbles toward the State of the Union: He can try to ignore the anger, embrace the anger or blunt the anger.
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    Washington Post: Fred Hiatt

  • In Obama's first year, successes outweigh missteps

    Fred Hiatt
    18 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    On Wednesday one year will have passed since President Obama's inauguration. Much of the tidal wave of assessments has been negative: Falling poll numbers. Unfulfilled promises. Disappointed supporters, disillusioned independents, angry opponents. He's been too cool or too egotistical, too left-wing or not left-wing enough. And if voters repudiate his policies in a special Massachusetts Senate election on Tuesday, as is quite possible, the tidal wave will become a tsunami.

  • Humanizing war policy in 'The Good Soldiers'

    Fred Hiatt
    20 Dec 2009 | 9:00 pm
    In the Humvee patrolling Baghdad's deadly roads, one soldier kept both hands tucked inside his body armor, hoping they would not be blown off if a bomb penetrated the vehicle.

  • Does Japan still matter?

    Fred Hiatt
    10 Dec 2009 | 9:00 pm
    TOKYO

  • Fred Hiatt on parallels between the Iraq, Afghanistan troop surges

    Fred Hiatt
    6 Dec 2009 | 9:00 pm
    No wonder conservatives are unhappy with the president. Imagine undermining an announced escalation of troops by simultaneously laying out a schedule for them to step back -- and suggesting that the mission will end if the government that America is trying to help doesn't shape up.

  • Fred Hiatt: Will health reform signal progress or paralysis?

    Fred Hiatt
    21 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Is American democracy in paralysis? That question emerged at a conference of big thinkers and experts in various fields organized last week by Foreign Policy magazine, our sister publication.
 
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    Washington Post: David Ignatius

  • A new thaw between India and Pakistan

    David Ignatius
    6 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The key to Kabul lies in Islamabad, Adm. Mike Mullen likes to say, meaning that success in Afghanistan will be impossible without Pakistan's help. But the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is said to have an additional rubric: Given the political complications in that part of the world, the key to Islamabad lies in the Indian capital of New Delhi.

  • Revenge on the Taliban, from 10,000 feet

    David Ignatius
    3 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    In their joint operations against Taliban militants hiding in the tribal areas, the United States and Pakistan seem to have embraced a classic bit of battlefield advice: Don't get mad, get even.

  • Populism popular at the World Economic Forum in Davos

    David Ignatius
    30 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    DAVOS, SWITZERLAND The World Economic Forum is the last place I would have expected to encounter the new populism. But when a venerable European central banker, a man whose very bearing connotes the old capitalist values, told me privately that he is now convinced that the financial system is too important to be left to the free market, I knew we were wandering into new territory.

  • Military partnerships may be the nation's best path to peace

    David Ignatius
    27 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Gen. Stanley McChrystal this week expressed a truth that military commanders know better than anyone: "A political solution to all conflicts is the inevitable outcome," he told the Financial Times. The problem is getting to that political settlement in a way that the combatants find acceptable. This can take years, even decades.

  • Health-care experts say Obama can get some reform himself

    David Ignatius
    23 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    It's the truism of the week: To surmount his political troubles, President Obama needs to show leadership -- especially on his signature issue of health-care reform. But how can he do that with a Congress that will be even more gridlocked after last Tuesday's election shocker in Massachusetts than it was before?
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    Washington Post: Colbert I. King

  • Obama must protect himself against political attacks from both sides

    Colbert I. King
    29 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    On Jan. 19, a Maryland weapons owner accused of plotting to kill then-presidential candidate Barack Obama -- reportedly because he didn't like Obama's gun-control positions -- was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison. On that same date, the liberal Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence awarded Obama a grade of "F" for failed leadership on common-sense gun laws.

  • Obama must protect himself against political attacks from both sides

    Colbert I. King
    29 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    On Jan. 19, a Maryland weapons owner accused of plotting to kill then-presidential candidate Barack Obama -- reportedly because he didn't like Obama's gun-control positions -- was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison. On that same date, the liberal Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence awarded Obama a grade of "F" for failed leadership on common-sense gun laws.

  • District teen murdered, but who cares?

    Colbert I. King
    22 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    What are we coming to in this city?

  • District teen murdered, but who cares?

    Colbert I. King
    22 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    What are we coming to in this city?

  • Peter Orszag strays from President Obama's prescription for responsible fatherhood

    Colbert I. King
    15 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    If it became known that a Cabinet-level official in George W. Bush's administration -- a divorced father of two -- was the father of a baby born out of wedlock to an ex-girlfriend, and that the official had announced his engagement to a woman he met while the ex-girlfriend was pregnant, do you believe for one second that reporters, and not just gossip columnists, wouldn't be having a field day?
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    Washington Post: Charles Krauthammer

  • The great peasant revolt of 2010

    Charles Krauthammer
    4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    "Iam not an ideologue," protested President Obama at a gathering with Republican House members last week. Perhaps, but he does have a tenacious commitment to a set of political convictions.

  • The handling of the Christmas Day bombing suspect: the scandal grows

    Charles Krauthammer
    28 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The real scandal surrounding the failed Christmas Day airline bombing was not the fact that a terrorist got on a plane -- that can happen to any administration, as it surely did to the Bush administration -- but what happened afterward when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was captured and came under the full control of the U.S. government.

  • What Scott Brown's win means for the Democrats

    Charles Krauthammer
    21 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    On Jan. 14, five days before the Massachusetts special election, President Obama was in full bring-it-on mode as he rallied House Democrats behind his health-care reform. "If Republicans want to campaign against what we've done by standing up for the status quo and for insurance companies over American families and businesses, that is a fight I want to have."

  • One year out: President Obama's fall

    Charles Krauthammer
    14 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    What went wrong? A year ago, he was king of the world. Now President Obama's approval rating, according to CBS, has dropped to 46 percent -- and his disapproval rating is the highest ever recorded by Gallup at the beginning of an (elected) president's second year.

  • Obama's Guantanamo obsession

    Charles Krauthammer
    7 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    On Wednesday, Nigerian would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was indicted by a Michigan grand jury for attempted murder and sundry other criminal charges. The previous day, the State Department announced that his visa had been revoked. The system worked.
 
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    Washington Post: Sebastian Mallaby

  • Obama's bank solution goes too far -- and not far enough

    Sebastian Mallaby
    21 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Last week and again Thursday, President Obama took aim at the central challenge in financial regulation: The top Wall Street behemoths have grown too big to fail. But despite two runs at the problem, Obama has yet to propose the correct solution. Last week he was too timid. Yesterday he went too far.

  • Brazil's China headache

    Sebastian Mallaby
    13 Dec 2009 | 9:00 pm
    RIO DE JANEIRO

  • Dubai World bankruptcy portends more financial woes

    Sebastian Mallaby
    3 Dec 2009 | 9:00 pm
    No other country built a ski resort in a desert. No other country constructed an archipelago of 300 artificial islands, complete with a man-made reef colonized by parrot fish. But even if Dubai is a gaudy outlier -- a sort of Donald Trump of a nation -- the bankruptcy of its flagship investment company, Dubai World, holds a warning for others. The nonchalance with which global financial markets have reacted is not reassuring in the least. The lack of alarm is alarming.

  • China's Dollar Problem

    Sebastian Mallaby
    25 May 2009 | 9:00 pm
    With extraordinary speed, China has morphed from a diffident player in international finance into an impatient table-banger. Six months ago, one could muse about whether the Chinese were interested in a larger role within the International Monetary Fund or in helping to rebuild the crisis-battered global system. Now, the Chinese are pumping almost $40 billion into a new East Asian version of the IMF, browbeating trading partners into using the yuan, and floating fantastical ideas about a new international reserve currency. Visiting Beijing last week, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da…

  • A War Over Exchange Rates Could Undermine Recovery

    Sebastian Mallaby
    16 May 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Those who are ignorant of history will be condemned to repeat it, as a teacher no doubt told you long ago. But the urgent question today is actually the opposite one: Can a team that is positively steeped in history -- particularly the history of the 1930s -- avoid the mistakes of that era and engineer a quick recovery from a Depression-size shock? Christina Romer, the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and an authority on the 1930s, recently gave a hopeful answer to this question at the Council on Foreign Relations. But there was one gap in her argument, and therein lies a…
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    Washington Post: Ruth Marcus

  • A working parent's babysitter blues

    Ruth Marcus
    2 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    My husband and I were away last week -- working, but away. My mother was watching the kids, but she also works. So it was particularly important, I told my new but already somewhat spotty babysitter, that she turn up on time, every day.

  • Why the filibuster is frustrating but necessary

    Ruth Marcus
    26 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    This won't comfort Democrats mourning the loss of their filibuster-proof majority, but the existence of the filibuster is, on balance, a good thing.

  • Court's campaign finance decision a case of shoddy scholarship

    Ruth Marcus
    22 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    In opening the floodgates for corporate money in election campaigns, the Supreme Court did not simply engage in a brazen power grab. It did so in an opinion stunning in its intellectual dishonesty.

  • It's too soon to grade Obama's performance as president

    Ruth Marcus
    19 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Since the start of Barack Obama's presidency, I've been wrestling with three questions: Did he take on too much? Is he too hands-off in his dealings with Congress? And the biggest, which puzzled me throughout the campaign as well: Where is he, exactly, on the political spectrum?

  • Gender aside, the fall of Irish politician Iris Robinson is the same old sex scandal

    Ruth Marcus
    14 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    So the tables-turned, she-cheated-on-him political sex scandal we've all been waiting for has finally arrived, albeit across the pond. The fortuitously named Iris Robinson -- and here's to you, etc. -- is a 60-year-old member of Parliament from Northern Ireland. Robinson not only had an affair; she had an affair with a teenage boy.
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    Washington Post: Harold Meyerson

  • A jobs lesson from the New Dealers

    Harold Meyerson
    2 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The Democrats have shifted their focus, they tell us relentlessly, to jobs, jobs, jobs.

  • It's no time for Democrats to think small

    Harold Meyerson
    26 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The State of the Union looms and, with it, a shift in Barack Obama's agenda. Last year, the new president proposed big solutions to big problems. This year, as many of those solutions languish, he's come up with some proposals reminiscent of the cosmetics of Clintonism.

  • More action on health care

    Harold Meyerson
    19 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    It's there in "Hamlet," in Shakespeare's most famous soliloquy. Item, under reasons "not to be": "the law's delay."

  • Health-reform headaches the Democrats don't need

    Harold Meyerson
    12 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    One of the few things we can be sure of when Congress finally enacts health-care reform is that the battle will rage on, unabated. Republicans will attack the law's weaknesses (and strengths), while Democrats will point to provisions that are popular and take effect immediately, such as the ban on insurers denying coverage for preexisting conditions.

  • Without a movement, progressives can't aid Obama's agenda

    Harold Meyerson
    5 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Every Democratic president since Lyndon Johnson -- Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama -- has raised the hope that he would bring with him a new era of progressive reform. The legislative torrents of the New Deal and the Great Society -- a few brief years in the 1930s and the '60s that fundamentally reshaped the nation's economy and society -- are the templates that fire the liberal imagination.
 
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    Washington Post: Eugene Robinson

  • Kidnapping of Haitian children was no act of charity

    Eugene Robinson
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Anyone sitting in a dank, fetid Haitian jail for any reason probably deserves at least a measure of sympathy, so in that sense I feel sorry for the Baptist missionaries from Idaho charged with kidnapping 33 "orphans" and trying to take them out of the country. But what the do-gooders allegedly did was not just misguided. It could be criminal, and Haitian authorities are right to hold them accountable.

  • Toyota's payback for stealing fire from the gods

    Eugene Robinson
    4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Afriend of mine once had a Toyota that wouldn't die. The odometer had only a dim recollection of passing 100,000 miles, the body was dinged, the paint was faded and the interior was worn, but the thing just kept running. He finally parked it at the airport, removed the plates and walked away.

  • Scott Brown could be another lone wolf the Senate doesn't need

    Eugene Robinson
    1 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    When I heard Scott Brown, the newly elected senator from Massachusetts, describe himself as a "Scott Brown Republican," I groaned. It sounded as if he's coming to Washington to be part of the problem, not part of the solution.

  • In State of the Union address, President Obama put himself on the outside looking in

    Eugene Robinson
    28 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    President Obama's State of the Union address didn't signal a political shift to the left or the right. It sounded more like a shrewd attempt to move from the inside to the outside -- to position himself alongside disaffected voters, peering through the windows of the den of iniquity called Washington and reacting with dismay at the depravity within.

  • Obama can't create change with words alone

    Eugene Robinson
    25 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    It's ironic that President Obama could never be convincing as populist in chief. He had a modest upbringing -- his family was on food stamps for a time -- and he needed scholarships and loans to pay for his fancy education. He is no stranger to the struggles of everyday Americans.
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    Washington Post: Robert Samuelson

  • America's candor gap on the budget

    Robert J. Samuelson
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    In all the recent reports, speeches and news conferences concerning the federal budget outlook -- including the administration's proposed budget for 2011 -- hardly anyone has posed these crucial questions: What should the federal government do and why; and who should pay? We ought to go back to first principles of defining a desirable role for government and abandon the expedient of assuming that anyone receiving a federal benefit is morally entitled to it simply because it's been received before.

  • What to do before spending more on health care

    Robert J. Samuelson
    31 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    By now, it ought to be obvious why President Obama has wanted his health-care overhaul passed quickly. It would be (and now will be) inconvenient to promote expanded government health spending while simultaneously pledging to rein in future budget deficits -- when unrestrained health spending is a major cause. It's like promising to go on a diet but first treating yourself to one last binge.

  • China's $2.4 trillion grip on the global economy

    Robert J. Samuelson
    24 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    China disclosed the other day that its foreign exchange reserves had increased to about $2.4 trillion in 2009, up $453 billion for the year. These stupendous figures -- and the likelihood that the country's reserves will rise by a comparable amount this year -- have become a financial, economic and geopolitical reality of surpassing significance. The significance is not, as many imagine, that China might suddenly "dump" the dollar and dethrone it as the world's major international currency, undermining American economic power and prestige. Two-thirds or more of China's reserves are estimated…

  • A Wall Street pay puzzle

    Robert J. Samuelson
    17 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Why does Wall Street make the big bucks? A nation with 10 percent unemployment is understandably puzzled and outraged when the very people at the center of the financial crisis seem to be the first to recover and are pulling down fabulous pay packages. At Goldman Sachs, the average pay for 2009 has been estimated at nearly $600,000; at J.P. Morgan Chase's investment bank, it's been reckoned at slightly below $400,000. These averages conceal multimillion-dollar bonuses for top traders and investment bankers; underlings get smaller sums. Are Wall Street's leaders that much smarter and more…

  • The numbers behind Americans' everyday lives

    Robert J. Samuelson
    10 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    You may think that the last place to find a portrait of a nation is a book full of numbers. But turn to Page 673 of the Statistical Abstract of the United States, and you find these intriguing figures. About three-quarters of Americans (76.1 percent in 2007, to be exact) get to work by driving alone. Only 10.4 percent carpool, while 4.9 percent use public transportation and 2.8 percent walk. On average, Americans spend 25.3 minutes commuting each way. The state with the longest commuting time is New York, at 31.5 minutes; the states with the shortest are North and South Dakota, at about 16…
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    Washington Post: George F. Will

  • How to get the country to solvency on entitlements

    George F. Will
    6 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    In 2013, when President Mitch Daniels, former Indiana governor, is counting his blessings, at the top of his list will be the name of his vice president: Paul Ryan. The former congressman from Wisconsin will have come to office with ideas for steering the federal government to solvency.

  • A growth lesson from China

    George F. Will
    3 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    On Day One of his vow to take "meaningful steps to rein in our debt," Barack Obama asked Congress to freeze portions of discretionary domestic spending. This would follow an astonishing permanent expansion: Republicans on the House Budget Committee say appropriations bills Obama has signed, along with his stimulus spending, have increased discretionary domestic spending 84 percent. He almost certainly will not keep his promise to veto spending bills when Congress, as it almost certainly will, largely disregards his request.

  • The State of the Union address reveals a president of two minds

    George F. Will
    28 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Barack Obama tiptoed Wednesday night along the seam that bifurcates the Democratic Party's brain. The seam separates that brain's John Quincy Adams lobe from its Sigmund Freud lobe.

  • Campaign finance: a 'reform' wisely struck down

    George F. Will
    27 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Last week's Supreme Court decision that substantially deregulates political speech has provoked an edifying torrent of hyperbole. Critics' dismay reveals their conviction: Speech about the elections that determine the government's composition is not a constitutional right but a mere privilege that exists at the sufferance of government.

  • For Obama, a mandate to be moderate

    George F. Will
    23 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Churchill's wife said that his being turned out of office by British voters in July 1945 -- the war in the Pacific still raged, and he was participating in the Potsdam conference -- might be a blessing in disguise. He replied: It is very well disguised.
 
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    Washington Post: Sports

  • Nebraska moves up to No. 3 in women's Top 25 poll

    DOUG FEINBERG
    8 Feb 2010 | 11:10 pm
    -- Nebraska keeps winning and climbing up the Top 25.

  • Terry leads Dallas past Golden State

    AP
    8 Feb 2010 | 10:32 pm
    OAKLAND, Calif. -- Jason Terry scored a season-high 36 points, including the go-ahead 3-pointer, and the Dallas Mavericks rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat the Golden State Warriors 127-117 on Monday night.

  • South Carolina State defeats Howard, 77-64

    AP
    8 Feb 2010 | 10:31 pm
    ORANGEBURG, S.C. -- Arsenio Williams tallied his first career double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds to help South Carolina State defeat Howard 77-64 on Monday night.

  • No Bryant, no Bynum, Lakers beat San Antonio

    BETH HARRIS
    8 Feb 2010 | 10:22 pm
    LOS ANGELES -- Pau Gasol had 21 points and 19 rebounds to lead five players in double figures, and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs 101-89 Monday night without injured Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum.

  • Stewart, Yip lead Colorado over St. Louis

    AP
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:49 pm
    DENVER -- Brandon Yip scored two goals, Chris Stewart had a goal and two assists and the Colorado Avalanche beat the St. Louis Blues 5-2 on Monday night.
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    Washington Post: NFL

  • Santa Clara to discuss wording of stadium measure

    AP
    8 Feb 2010 | 7:34 pm
    SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Santa Clara city leaders are set to discuss the final wording of the ballot measure for a proposed stadium for the San Francisco 49ers.

  • Super Bowl is most watched TV show ever

    DAVID BAUDER
    8 Feb 2010 | 6:05 pm
    NEW YORK -- The New Orleans Saints' victory over Indianapolis in the Super Bowl was watched by more than 106 million people, surpassing the 1983 finale of "M-A-S-H" to become the most-watched program in U.S. television history, the Nielsen Co. said Monday.

  • Browns release WR Stallworth

    AP
    8 Feb 2010 | 3:12 pm
    CLEVELAND -- Donte' Stallworth will get the chance to resurrect his NFL career, but it won't happen in Cleveland.

  • Colts hope loss fuels another Super Bowl run

    MICHAEL MAROT
    8 Feb 2010 | 2:26 pm
    MIAMI -- Reggie Wayne stared right through all those reporters.

  • NFL future: Spotlight off the field

    BARRY WILNER
    8 Feb 2010 | 2:13 pm
    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A memorable season capped by a super title game with a record TV audience has NFL executives and fans beaming.
 
 
 
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    Washington Post: Celebritology

  • For Oscars, time to sing a new song

    9 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am
    Two of this year's nominees in Oscar's best original song category: T. Bone Burnett (left) and Ryan Bingham, already Golden Globe winner for "The Weary Kind" from "Crazy Heart." (AP) Here's a challenge for your Tuesday: look at the list of this year's Academy Award nominees for best original song. Now try to hum one of them. Can't do it, can you? Don't worry, you're not alone. Most avid filmgoers and award-season scorekeepers couldn't sing "Loin de Paname" from "Paris 36" if their very "vies" depended on it. In what has become an annual phenomenon, we're once again looking at a slate of…

  • Jackson's doctor charged with involuntary manslaughter; Brangelina sues tabloid

    9 Feb 2010 | 5:34 am
    Michael Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, makes his way into an L.A. courthouse. (AP) Headlines: Michael Jackson doctor Conrad Murray charged with involuntary manslaughter, will return for hearing in April; Jackson's family thinks the charge wasn't enough... Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie sues British tabloid over split rumors... Howard Stern to replace Simon Cowell on "American Idol"?... Summit Entertainment suing company over "Twilight"-related DVD... K-Fed says he would get married again (that whooshing sound is me, breathing a sigh of relief)... Bill Murray says he's proud of his difficult…

  • Can anyone quarterback a good movie?

    8 Feb 2010 | 7:45 am
    In the last two Super Bowls, we've been treated to four virtuoso performances by quarterbacks as the Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger outdueled the Cardinals' Kurt Warner in 2009 and last night, the Saints' Drew Brees prevailed over the Colts' Peyton Manning. For years, the adage in the NFL has been that to win, you need a franchise quarterback. The same should be said for football movies. Let's take a look back as some recent gridiron films and their signal-callers and see who passed muster. The Replacements (2000) QB: Keanu Reeves (Shane Falco) The notion that these scab players were filling in…

  • 'Avatar' falls from top spot; Butler and Aniston vacation in Mexico

    8 Feb 2010 | 5:15 am
    Headlines: "Dear John" sacks box-office reign of "Avatar"... Sarah Palin's Tea Party crib notes... Justin Timberlake revels in Harvard's Hasty Pudding... Jamie Lynn Spears splits from baby daddy, moves out to be with new dude... Heidi Montag: "I'm not in a good place right now"... Jay Leno's mea culpa tour continues with Super Bowl ad with Oprah, Letterman... Carrie Prejean engaged to former Baltimore Raven... NBC considers lifting tape delay for Emmys... Andrew Shue and NBC's "Today" co-host Amy Robach get hitched... DWTS finalist, former NFLer Warren Sapp arrested on domestic battery…

  • Emma Watson named Hollywood's highest paid actress; Howard Stern headed to 'Idol'?

    5 Feb 2010 | 4:34 am
    Mel Gibson, who tells French reporters he's trying to work on his 'short fuse,' poses at a photocall to promote his new movie 'Edge of Darkness,' in Paris Thursday. (AP) Headlines: Emma Watson named Hollywood's highest paid actress... Coroner: Pnuemonia, drugs killed Brittany Murphy; Casey Johnson died of diabetes complications... Murphy's husband, Simon Monjack, says she didn't seem that sick... Tila Tequila returns to Twitter... Scarlett Johansson designing handbag for Haiti relief... Naomi Campbell plans fashion show to raise Haiti funds... "K-Fat" nickname motivated Kevin Federline to…
 
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    Washington Post: Going Out Gurus

  • Valentine's dates for wine lovers

    9 Feb 2010 | 4:00 am
    Chocolates and flowers are oh-so-lovely, but few gifts are as romantic as a nice bottle of wine. This weekend, wine lovers can sample hundreds of varieties at a smattering of events around the city. On Friday, Zola Wine and Kitchen adds a Valentine's theme to once of its twice-weekly wine tastings. Taste a rosé, red and white varieties from Chateau Coupe-Roses and the Chocolate Block wine from South Africa. The tasting is free -- just stop by between 5 and 7 p.m. Cork Wine Bar and Cork Market offer two opportunities to indulge in vino this weekend. From 3 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Cork…

  • What's closed Tuesday

    8 Feb 2010 | 7:30 pm
    Since reports say there's more of the white stuff on the way, some major venues are still closed on Tuesday. (We're beginning to think the Snoverkill option in the name-this-storm poll could be a winner.) We'll keep a running list of Tuesday updates on this post. Closed on Tuesday: • All Smithsonian museums, except the Museum of Natural History and the Air and Space Museum • National Gallery of Art • National Archives • Phillips Collection • Folger Shakespeare Library • The Strathmore will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday Event updates: • The major outdoor…

  • Snowy Monday: What's open

    8 Feb 2010 | 11:03 am
    While some major museums (including the Smithsonian) are closed today, some bars and restaurants are seizing on the unscheduled holiday to try and drum up business. Tonight's Gist concert at the Black Cat was postponed until March 2, so instead, the club is showing a free double feature of "A Mighty Wind" and "Waiting for Guffman" on the backstage. While you watch, enjoy Mrs. T's warming winter cocktails. Doors open at 8:30. The Argonaut opened at noon to serve lunch. (This is the regular menu, not brunch.) And don't forget: It's Monday, so all bottles of wine are half-price. Getting tired of…

  • 'S No way out: What's still closed

    8 Feb 2010 | 6:49 am
    We reported about cancelations through the weekend, but some major venues are still keeping the doors shut on Monday. We'll update this post as we hear more. Closed on Monday: • All Smithsonian museums, including the zoo; • National Gallery of Art • Strathmore's entire venue Cancelations: • The Dressed to Dance program scheduled for Monday at the Corcoran has been canceled. • The Gist and Kodiak show at the Black Cat has been postponed until March 2. • The National Theatre has canceled its Monday Night at the National performance. • Bossa has canceled…

  • A theatrical Valentine's Day

    8 Feb 2010 | 4:00 am
    Looking for a special way to spend an evening with your valentine? Check out one of these love-themed productions, from futuristic Shakespeare to tell-all improv. Love means being able to bare your soul to the person you love, right? Well how about sharing your desires to an audience of strangers? Every month Synergy in Action: A Playback Theatre Company presents a themed improvisation show and February's theme is -- you guessed it -- love. Company members ask audience members to tell their stories, then they act out the sometimes poignant, sometimes funny vignettes. More…
 
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    Washington Post: Food and Dining

  • Spirits: How liquor wholesalers hobble consumer choice

    Jason Wilson
    2 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    When the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America announced that Sarah Palin would be the keynote speaker at its April convention, the drinks blogosphere reacted as you might expect: with partisan outrage, rehashed jokes ("Which wine goes with caribou?") and an overall sense of "what the hell?" But one relevant question was raised across the political spectrum: If Palin is such a staunch supporter of the free market, will she dare call out liquor wholesalers as obstructionists who, with the blessing of most state governments, stand directly in the path of consumer choice and free trade?

  • Good to Go takeout: Big Chair Coffee n' Grill in Anacostia

    Post
    2 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    When giving directions to their home in Anacostia, my friends often say, "We live just past the big chair." Until last month, they were referring to the giant structure on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue that, as most locals know, was erected in 1959 to advertise the Curtis Brothers furniture store, now long shuttered. These days, in addition to that larger-than-life landmark, my friends are also referring to the coffee shop that recently opened across the street from it. For this community, where sit-down spots are lacking, the new eatery is huge news.

  • Restaurateur Michael Landrum is cranking out more Ray's

    Jane Black
    2 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The new restaurant in the East River shopping center is nothing like the fast-food takeouts that are the norm in Washington's Ward 7. There will be seafood and steaks, all priced under $20, for Mom and Dad; fried chicken for the kids. The space, with its pressed-tin ceiling and shiny black granite bar, will also offer something else the neighborhood needs: jobs. Eventually, 45 people, mostly residents, will be trained as waiters, hosts and cooks. And, as at the owner's other restaurants, the staff will be eligible for bonuses and will get health-care coverage and guaranteed hours.

  • Calendar of regional food events

    Post
    2 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  • Super Bowl smackdown: Nachos vs. nachos

    Bonnie S. Benwick and Joe Yonan
    2 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    As far as we're concerned, the most egregious fouls committed during Sunday's Super Bowl will involve tortilla chips and melted cheese.
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    Washington Post: Today's Horoscope

  • Libra (9/23-10/22)

    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    For Tuesday, February 9 - For days, just about everyone you know and love has been telling you that things will get better if you just hang tough and keep your chin up. Just this once, they are actually right. You can stop worrying now, and forget about the thousand little things that have been keeping you from getting a good night's sleep for far too long. Just relax and the stars will work it out!

  • Aquarius (1/20-2/18)

    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    For Tuesday, February 9 - What a great day! You'll have all the energy you need to get your chores out of the way bright and early. Then, just as you're winding down from work and preparing to play, a team of heavenly ambassadors will arrive, ready to furnish you with a substantial second wind and some interesting playmates from a far-off place to help you spend it. Everything looks good, so take advantage of those cosmic gifts. Enjoy!

  • Taurus (4/20-5/20)

    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    For Tuesday, February 9 - Although you've lightened things up a bit, you're still not in the mood for exaggeration. So when a certain person starts to feed you all kinds of stories, you won't be patient. Not even a tiny bit. And if they start to try the old deflection technique, taking the attention off of themselves by asking questions about you? Well, that's almost laughable. Didn't you invent that ploy?

  • Sagittarius (11/22-12/21)

    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    For Tuesday, February 9 - February is turning out to be quite interesting so far, thanks to a mixed bag of heavenly influences. On the one hand, you're feeling especially close to an elder or authority figure. On the other, you're not quite sure who to trust -- or if you can trust anyone at all. Don't fall into that trap. There's always someone out there to confide in. You know who your someone is. Get in touch and start talking.

  • Gemini (5/21-6/21)

    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    For Tuesday, February 9 - Being excessive is at the very top of your list of favorite qualities -- or, more accurately, your guilty pleasures. Alongside it, you'll find a tendency toward the lavish, an urge to overdo just about everything and ... oh, but those are just other ways of saying 'excessive,' aren't they? You see where this is going. Enjoy it. It's what you do best.
 
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    Washington Post: Tom Shales TV Column

  • Once again, Letterman's 'Late Show' promo is spot on

    Tom Shales
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    CBS may have stolen its own show last night with the telecast of Super Bowl XLIV, thanks to a network promo that stole thunder from all the costly commercials sprinkled liberally through the game.

  • By George, she's good

    Tom Shales
    1 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The last time I tossed off programming advice for network executives was to suggest that NBC put Jay Leno on every night at 10 o'clock. Gosh, what a swell idea.

  • Tom Shales on TV: President Obama is tough during the State of the Union

    Tom Shales
    27 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Americans watch the State of the Union speech largely to check out the state of the president. And the state of Barack Obama appears to be rough, tough and undaunted, though it would be going too far to say it's now "No more Mr. Nice Guy."

  • In dying color: No. 4 NBC has cast itself in the role of the fading peacock

    Tom Shales
    25 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Where there's mire, there's muck, and NBC is just the place to find both. It's long been a kooky little tradition that when TV columnists and critics write about which of the four major broadcast networks is doing worst in the ratings, they say it is "mired in fourth place" or "mired" in third. The practice seems to be phasing out, but then, networks seem to be phasing out, too.

  • TV review of the MTV 'Hope for Haiti Now' benefit

    Tom Shales
    22 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm
    As it has for past catastrophes, the entertainment aristocracy marshaled its forces Friday night and used television and the Internet to stage a global fundraiser for the victims of a natural disaster. "Hope for Haiti Now," aired on stations throughout the world, including at least six in the Washington area, spread the gospel of "give" on behalf of Haitian earthquake victims.
 
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    Washington Post: Theater and Dance

  • GALA Hispanic Theatre stages 'Beauty of the Father' by playwright Nilo Cruz

    Michael O'Sullivan
    4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Playwright Nilo Cruz is only half joking when he calls "Beauty of the Father" his version of "The Graduate." Like that 1967 film, the drama, now in previews at GALA Hispanic Theatre, centers on an intergenerational love triangle. Only here, Mrs. Robinson is a man.

  • Bolshoi Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet visit Kennedy Center

    Lisa Traiger
    4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    While lobby conversation at the Kennedy Center may focus on pointe work and pirouettes when a pair of Russian ballet companies come to Washington this month, their works say as much about politics as they do about artistry.

  • In "Constellation," historic preservation meets homelessness in a feel-good way

    Nelson Pressley
    4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    The title of "The Constellation" refers to a ship permanently anchored in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, a sloop of war that had a role in busting up slave-running vessels. The USS Constellation is a ship to fall in love with, which is what happens in Gwydion Suilebhan's gently inspiring play for all ages.

  • A 'Miser' generous with laughs

    Celia Wren
    3 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Keep the editors of Real Simple magazine away from Washington Shakespeare Company's "The Miser." Director Akiva Fox has devised an eloquently cluttered environmental staging for this funny, if sometimes irritating, production, and the aesthetic might cause fits among organized-household zealots.

  • Review: The rising passion, and artistry, of Synetic's 'Antony and Cleopatra'

    Peter Marks
    3 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Graduation day is always a big event. But when it happens in the life of a theater company, it's cause for a rarer brand of jubilation.
 
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    Washington Post: Obituaries

  • Beth Shulman, 60, dies; fought for low-wage workers

    Patricia Sullivan
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Beth Shulman, 60, a lawyer, author and union leader who fought for improving conditions for low-wage workers throughout her career, died Feb. 5 of complications from brain cancer at Georgetown University Medical Center. She lived in Washington.

  • African activist Raymond Almeida dies at 66

    Post
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Raymond "Ray" Almeida, 66, who worked for more than 30 years on development issues in the Cape Verde islands off western Africa and throughout the African continent, died Jan. 30 at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston of complications after heart bypass surgery.

  • John Murtha dies; longtime congressman was master of pork-barrel politics

    Carol D. Leonnig and Martin Weil
    8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), a Vietnam War veteran who staunchly supported military spending and became a master of pork-barrel politics, died Monday at Virginia Hospital Center. The 19-term lawmaker died from complications of gallbladder surgery. He was 77.

  • Frank N. Magid dies at 78, created news anchor 'happy talk'

    Patricia Sullivan
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Frank N. Magid, 78, the television "news doctor" whose survey research and advice to local television stations in the 1970s resulted in co-anchors who chatted between stories, fast-paced graphics, sports tickers and live shots, and a heavy reliance on both crime coverage and feel-good segments, died...

  • 'Bullet Bill' Dudley dies; U-Va. star, NFL Hall of Famer

    Matt Schudel
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm
    William M. "Bullet Bill" Dudley, 88, one of the most storied football players in Virginia history who later had a Hall of Fame career in the National Football League, died Feb. 4 of a stroke at a hospital in Lynchburg, Va.
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