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Briefly: Amanda Bynes, David Vitter, Jay Carney, Darius Rucker

Brief news from here and elsewhere: Showbiz fame is terrible: Amanda Bynes's oddball behavior of the past year has received way more media attention than her teen-star career ever did. Is that fair? We would like to propose that unless you were a loyal watcher of "The Amanda Show," you have little justification for...

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Boy turns his love of film into a movie-review blog

Benjamin Price doesn’t remember the first movie he ever saw. Was it “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,” about a dance-loving lion named Alex, or was it “Kung Fu Panda” about a panda named Po, whose life dream is to become a kung fu master? Benjamin was only 2 at the time! But watching that first movie planted such a seed...

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These 12 technologies will drive our economic future

Most of the writing you see about the economy speaks to narrow questions: What will growth be this year? When will the unemployment rate get back to normal? And so on. But the things that will determine standards of living a generation from now have almost nothing to do with this month's jobs report or the Federal...

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Hillary Clinton book due out in June 2014

Hillary Clinton's new memoir doesn't have a title yet, but it does have a scheduled release date: June 1, 2014. That's according to the new Amazon.com entry for the book, which features a plain book jacket with the former secretary of state's name and photo, but no title.

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Tantehorse company brings surrealist ‘physical mime’ to Washington

To see Mirenka Cechova prowl the stage in “The Death of the Marquis de Sade” is to feel as if you’re watching three performers at once. Her back is bowed into a “C”-curve so deep that she almost looks deformed, calling to mind the warped beauty of postwar Japan’s butoh. Her sinewy legs dart beneath her with a...

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New burlesque encourages all shapes, sizes and sexes

There are some for whom glitter-tracking is an occupational hazard. Sadie Hawkins and Buster Britches are two of those people. “Glitter gets all over your house; it gets all over everything,” observes Hawkins, an Atlanta-based aerial burlesque virtuoso who’s all too familiar with the sparkly nuisance, a decorative...

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Start your own family traditions

The Book of New Family Traditions By Meg Cox All ages. $16. Many families have rituals, or things they do often, maybe every day. Family dinners might involve a blessing. Friday might be pizza night. Summer vacation might be spent at the same beach town year after year.

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Turtles get unusual treatment: acupuncture

Two rescued sea turtles are getting help easing back into the wild - from an acupuncturist. Dexter and Fletcher Moon, sea turtles stuck on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, get pricks from tiny needles in a therapy called acupuncture, which is used mostly on humans to relieve pain or treat disease.

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Strawberry’s return is cause for a celebration

A spring treat has returned to grocery stores and farmers markets. It’s fat, red and juicy, and tastes good plain or on top of a fancy dessert. It’s strawberry season! This weekend is the perfect time to celebrate the berry’s return, and the Northern Virginia countryside is the place to do it.

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U.S. meat labels to detail animal’s origin; Canada, Mexico raise concern

New rules for U.S. meatpackers will require labeling that tells consumers where the animal was born, raised and slaughtered. Sounds simple. But the regulations, posted Friday by the Department of Agriculture, are the latest move in a trade dispute that has pitted U.S. consumer groups, which favor the labels,...

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U.S. infrastructure spending has plummeted since 2008

Not surprisingly, the collapse of a bridge along Interstate 5 in Washington state yesterday has revived the long-standing debate over whether Congress should spend more to repair the nation's aging roads and bridges.

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British air force diverts Pakistani plane, arrests 2 passengers, after alleged threat

LONDON - Two passengers on board a Pakistan International Airlines flight were arrested Friday on suspicion of endangering an aircraft after Britain scrambled two Royal Air Force Typhoon jets to investigate and escort the plane to safety.

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Two D.C. theaters test new models for putting new plays onstage

Theaters keep rolling out new ways to premiere plays, and two fresh Washington initiatives are in full flower - or in full beast mode - right now. Theater J’s initiative, called Locally Grown, puts the company’s muscle behind Washington-based writers, while Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s Free the Beast program is...

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Richard Wagner at 200: Still powerful and polarizing

Richard Wagner was born 200 years ago this week: on May 22, 1813. In most cases, two centuries is enough to establish a safe distance, a historical world of Empire-waisted gowns and early Romantic piano sonatas. Wagner, however, is neither safe nor distant. We’re still arguing, passionately, about his work. We’re...

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‘Threads of Feeling’: Mothers’ tokens of love in 1700s Britain

The blockbuster fashion exhibition of summer, the Met’s underwhelming “PUNK: Chaos to Couture,” tries to capture the subversive spirit of youths in 1970s London and their enduring influence on the closets of magazine editors. But another exhibition of British history and influence is making its way to Colonial...

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Scandals usually lead to reform. Maybe not this time.

Put aside the politics, and the question of who-knew-what-when. There are two policy problems highlighted by the controversies at the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice. The first is the growth of 501(c)(4) groups into vehicles for anonymous and unlimited political spending. The second is the...

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Massive Russian earthquake felt 4,000 miles from epicenter

MOSCOW If an earthquake can shake Moscow, what's next? Anyone taking a look at the Global Seismic Hazard Map, can see that the capital of Russia sits squarely in a big boring gray blotch, which means no hazard. At all. Yet on Friday, a great big earthquake let loose deep under the Sea of Okhotsk, way off by the...

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President Obama speaks at Naval Academy graduation

President Obama addressed the U.S. Naval Academy’s graduating class of 2013 Friday morning, his second commencement speech in Annapolis since taking office. Every spring, the president has spoken at the graduation of one of the service academies as well as other colleges or universities. He addressed the Naval...

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The unflagging spirit of Moore, Okla.: ‘It’s about hope’

MOORE, Okla. - The first thing Kevin Gibson did after returning to his house, torn apart by a powerful tornado Monday, was pull an American flag and a temporary flagpole from the corner of his partially standing garage.

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Gomez compares Markey to 'pond scum'

The Massachusetts Senate race has gotten quite heated, with Republican Gabriel Gomez calling Democratic Rep. Ed Markey "pond scum" for a web video that invokes Osama bin Laden. "You know I've got four young kids, and they've got to sit there and they've got to see an ad with their dad, who's a SEAL, who served...

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Mulhauser named chief of staff at Ex-Im bank

Scott Mulhauser, a veteran Senate staffer and former aide to Vice President Biden, is the new chief of staff at the Export-Import Bank. Mulhauser was a senior advisor to the Presidential Inaugural Committee was worked for the presidential re-election campaign as Biden’s deputy chief of staff. Before that, he spent...

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Blasts, gun battle erupt in key Kabul district

KABUL - Several rapid bomb blasts and a gun battle erupted Friday afternoon in a district of the Afghan capital that includes key government buildings, shattering the quiet after weekly prayer services and sending clouds of smoke into the air.

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In HBO’s ‘Behind the Candelabra,’ Liberace is a real drag

Steven Soderbergh’s HBO movie, “Behind the Candelabra,” is a dramatized account of the latter days and misdirected affections of one Władziu Valentino Liberace, and it’s a sordid and at times beguiling glimpse into one of the world’s blingiest closets and the closet-case who occupied it.

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Obama's six-point plan to wind down the 'war on terror'

Like all presidential speeches, President Obama's Thursday address at the National Defense University was suffused with soaring rhetoric. But it was also a substantive and analytical speech, laying out the president's conceptual framework for counterterrorism operations and announcing a number of new policy...

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David Young running for Senate in Iowa

The chief of staff to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) will try to join his boss in the Senate, strategists familiar with his plans confirm. As first reported by the Iowa Republican Web site, David Young plans to quit his job in the Capitol and run for Senate in Iowa.

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How Medea Benjamin got to heckle Obama

How did Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin, a well-known anti-war protester, get into President Obama's speech Thursday at the National Defense University? By listing herself as press. In a statement, the university explained that Benjamin "was given access via the list of media attendees expected."

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Cuomo's swipe at Weiner was a joke, office says

When New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared to condemn mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner he was only joking, his office says. Cuomo told the Syracuse Post-Standard's editorial board on Thursday that it would be "shame on us" if New Yorkers elect Anthony Weiner as mayor. He was the first high-profile Democrat to come out...

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Five ways to protect journalists and their anonymous sources

In a speech Thursday at National Defense University, President Obama discussed the Justice Department's prosecution of leakers, emphasizing the need to "strike the right balance between our security and our open society." Many observers believe that current laws do too little to protect the rights of journalists to...

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