Unexpected event

Every Friday our editor takes us to lunch. We usually get takeout from somewhere nearby and eat in the conference room while we have our weekly meeting. Today we went across the street to an Indian restuarant called "Spice Express."

There's a Bank of America on the first floor of our office building and when we walked outside we noticed the bank's street entrance was blocked off with yellow police tape and a few police cars were parked near the entrance. When we came back with our lunch a building security guard told us a man in his mid 50s to early 60s attempted an armed robbery but was caught by police just a few hours before. We were upstairs in our office completely unaware and I was just at the bank yesterday.

Lights out

Saturday night join millions of people around the world and "vote" for action on climate change by turning off your lights and other unnecessary electronics from 8:30 to 9:30, or longer if you're really ambitious. 2,800 cities in 83 countries plan to participate in the World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour 2009.
To learn more about it read my story.

I went to another hearing on Capitol Hill today, this time about Michigan's "Sixth Amendment crisis." I wish some good news would come out of the state.

20 years later spilled oil still lingers in Alaska waters

I met Captain Keith Colburn of the Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch," on Capitol Hill today, the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He appeared before before two subcommittees of the Natural Resources Committee that deal with energy, minerals, oceans and wildlife that held a hearing on energy development on the outer continental shelf and the health of Earth's oceans.

He brought with him a glass jar full of oil soaked sand and stones taken from Alaska's Prince William Sound coast a month ago. Two decades after the spill, an estimated 21,000 gallons of spilled oil still remain.

Never eat in Metro

Saturday Caitlyn and I went to the Pentagon City Mall and on the way learned that Metro rules are not to be taken lightly.

While waiting for the train we heard an announcement over the loud speaker, but this was no ordinary, pleasant prerecorded reminder of Metro rules. The woman shouted for all of D.C. to hear that there is to be absolutely NO eating or drinking in Metro. Her angry order was directed to a man who will only be known as "You sir, with the unwrapped Chipotle."

I'm pretty sure he'll never ride Metro again.

I also went with Megan and Alex to the National Aquarium. It was kind of a dud. Dark, gloomy, smaller than I expected it to be. But we saw an octopus swimming which made it worthwhile.

Look closely, there is a fish in this photo...

Police arrest student protesters in downtown D.C.

Today was the 6th anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq and I had a very long day of following several groups of protesters around the city. At least two protesters were arrested.

Giant produce

I went to Trader Joe's yesterday after work because I had almost no food left at the apartment. I was very happy to find that some produce, especially fruit, is less expensive than it was a few weeks ago - one of the reasons I love summer. But the lower price wasn't the only change I noticed.

I happen to like New York

I'm happy to be home, well, back in D.C. We had a nice time in New York, but because we were busy with the convention we hardly left the hotel.

I was impressed by the keynote speakers, Bryon Pitts and Brian Storm. Pitts is a CBS reporter and recently took a job with 60 Minutes, and Storm is the president of MediaStorm. Charles Gibson also spoke but I didn't go because Caitlyn and I were on a tour of Marie Claire. Tours were limited, so we woke up early Sunday morning and waited around the sign-up desk for about an hour to ensure our spots.

New York is famous for greasy pizza, cheesecake and street vendors selling hot dogs and salted soft pretzels on every corner, so deprived of fresh foods and desperate for anything green, I discovered my love for "Green Machine" Naked Juice. It looks like swamp water, probably thanks to the kiwi puree, broccoli, spinach, algae and barley grass, but it's actually quite delicious.

We were all busy with different things most of the time. I went with a few of the girls to Macy's - the largest store in the world - and we had cheesecake at Junior's. Monday night Jody took us all to dinner in Chinatown and we stopped at a few shops.

Times Square seemed more crowded than usual on St. Patrick's day. Street vendors sold funny hats and the traditional I love New York t-shirts, but green with a four leaf clover in place of a heart.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention how expensive everything is in New York? After dinner Monday night a few of us went to The View, a rotating restaurant on top of the hotel where we stayed. The restaurant has a beautiful view of the city and takes about 60 minutes to rotate completely. Caitlyn and I ordered milkshakes without knowing the price - they were $10 each.

New York trip

I'll be leaving the office soon and spending my evening packing for our trip to New York. Our train leaves tomorrow morning and I am not at all prepared.

We're spending four days and three nights in New York at the Marriott Marquis on Times Square.
The purspose of the trip is for us to attend the College Media Advisers spring convention. The convention is held in the hotel and we'll have the opportunity to take short journalism classes on a variety of topics from how to use multimedia to how to get a job. We'll also have time to enjoy the city and do some sightseeing.

MRSA story spreading

On March 3 I published a story about a recent study that found MRSA in swine and their human handlers for the first time in the U.S. a few weeks ago and it looks like the story is catching on. A few days later I wrote a follow-up from the animal agriculture industry's point of view.
The study was done by Tara Smith, a University of Iowa epidemiologist. Iowa produces more pork than any other state. Smith joined two other scientists for a discussion of antibiotic resistance on Capitol Hill in February.

The New York Times published an opinion article about that same study Wednesday.

Jane Goodall on Capitol Hill

I met primatologist Jane Goodall yesterday on Capitol Hill, where she spoke about her conservation work and how geospatial science plays an important role in forest conservation.

She began her research of chimpanzees decades ago and now spends 300 days a year traveling the world. Her 75th birthday will be April 3.

Something odd

I saw this while walking to McPherson Square Metro station yesterday afternoon.

Warm weekend in D.C.

The weather was beautiful this weekend, 70ish both Saturday and Sunday. Scott was here for a few days and he and I spent as much time as we could outside.

Friday night we went to Legal Seafoods in Chinatown for a late dinner. The food was good - a wide variety of seafood and Asian inspired dishes, and the atmosphere was nice, but unfortunately our table was practically in the kitchen, despite our having made a reservation.

Saturday we spent the entire day at the National Museum of Natural History. We saw the special exhibit, "Orchids Through Darwin's Eyes," and ate lunch in the Fossil Cafe.

Sunday we packed a lunch and had a picnic on the National Mall. There were so many people out walking their dogs and playing with their kids, and because it's March, school
groups are everywhere throughout the city.

We walked to the National Archives and on the way we found an outdoor ice skating rink at the National Gallery of Art. It was odd to see people ice skating outside in the 69 degree weather.


We also saw the Navy Memorial and found Michigan on the world map and later had dinner in Georgetown at Papa Razzi.

Maternal health not a political priority

I went to a discussion about why maternal health is not a political priority at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars yesterday and I found some interesting statistics from the World Health Organization.

The Safe Motherhood Initiative, an international effort to raise awareness of maternal health, was launched in 1987 and a goal was set to reduce the world's maternal mortality rate, or MMR, by 75 percent between 1990 and 2015. It's 2009 and progress so far has been very minimal.
Between 1990 and 2005, the MMR saw only about a 1 percent improvement.

Ireland has the lowest maternal mortality ratio, or MMR, in the world: 1 per every 100,000 live births. Niger has the highest: 1,800 per every 100,000 live births, according to WHO.

The U.S. MMR is 11 per every 100,000 live births. I was surprised to find that the following countries have a lower MMR than the U.S.: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Solomon Islands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the former Yugoslaz Republic of Macedonia and the United Kingdom.

When it snows...

Jody told us the big joke is that when any snow is forecasted for D.C. everyone rushes to the store to stock up on bread, milk and toilet paper. Yesterday Caitlyn and I found Trader Joe's surprisingly busy when we went to get groceries and we later learned that looming snow was the reason.

Seven to 10 inches of snow was predicted for D.C. by the afternoon and because of the "snow emergency" many people did not go to work today. It turns out the forecast was wrong though, becasue it's 4:30 p.m. and the streets are dry and the sun is shining (notice the photo taken from my office window). It did snow for a while but it melted quickly. Unfortunately a talk we were planning to go to at 5 p.m. has been cancelled because of the weather.