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In two separate hazing cases at universities this year members of Sigma Gamma Rho, an African-American sorority, have been charged with beating their pledges with wooden paddles. At Rutgers, six members of Sigma Gamma Rho were arrested in January and charged with aggravated hazing, a felony, after a pledge reported that she had been struck 200 times over seven days before she finally went to the hospital, covered with welts and bloody bruises. Both the university and the national sorority suspended the Rutgers chapter. The charges were reduced to simple hazing, a disorderly persons offense. The trial, originally set for this month, has been delayed because of the prosecutor's surgery. In the San Jose State case, Courtney Howard, a former student at the university, charged in a civil lawsuit, filed Aug. 31, that over a three-week period in 2008 she was subjected to progressively more violent hazing from Sigma Gamma Rho members. Howard claims in her suit that they beat her and other pledges with wooden paddles, slapped them with wooden spoons, shoved them against the wall, and threatened that "snitches get stitches." "One of the girls who was a big sister told me it was supposed to be so you can feel what your ancestors went through in slavery, so you will respect what you came from," Howard said. In 2008, San Jose State suspended the sorority chapter until 2016. Four of the sorority members have pleaded no contest to misdemeanor hazing charges, and been sentenced to 90 days in county jail, two years of probation and barred from any further involvement in the sorority. Howard's civil suit charges that the university and the sorority were negligent in investigating and responding to her accusations of hazing. Larry Carr, a spokesman for San Jose State, said he could not comment on pending litigation. But hazing is illegal, he said, and the university makes serious efforts to educate all incoming students -- and their parents -- about how to deal with it. Jonathan Charleston, general counsel to Sigma Gamma Rho, said Tuesday that the sorority had not yet been served with a copy of the complaint, and that the sorority did not comment on pending litigation. "Any allegations of hazing are taken very seriously and immediately confronted by Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority," said a statement from the sorority.
Howard County
In two separate hazing cases at universities this year members of Sigma Gamma Rho, an African-American sorority, have been charged with beating their pledges with wooden paddles. At Rutgers, six members of Sigma Gamma Rho were arrested in January and charged with aggravated hazing, a felony, after a pledge reported that she had been struck 200 times over seven days before she finally went to the hospital, covered with welts and bloody bruises. Both the university and the national sorority suspended the Rutgers chapter. The charges were reduced to simple hazing, a disorderly persons offense. The trial, originally set for this month, has been delayed because of the prosecutor's surgery. In the San Jose State case, Courtney Howard, a former student at the university, charged in a civil lawsuit, filed Aug. 31, that over a three-week period in 2008 she was subjected to progressively more violent hazing from Sigma Gamma Rho members. Howard claims in her suit that they beat her and other pledges with wooden paddles, slapped them with wooden spoons, shoved them against the wall, and threatened that "snitches get stitches." "One of the girls who was a big sister told me it was supposed to be so you can feel what your ancestors went through in slavery, so you will respect what you came from," Howard said. In 2008, San Jose State suspended the sorority chapter until 2016. Four of the sorority members have pleaded no contest to misdemeanor hazing charges, and been sentenced to 90 days in county jail, two years of probation and barred from any further involvement in the sorority. Howard's civil suit charges that the university and the sorority were negligent in investigating and responding to her accusations of hazing. Larry Carr, a spokesman for San Jose State, said he could not comment on pending litigation. But hazing is illegal, he said, and the university makes serious efforts to educate all incoming students -- and their parents -- about how to deal with it. The Sigma Gamma Rho website, too, clearly states the sorority's anti-hazing policy. "Hazing is wrong, prohibited and unauthorized," it says. "Members found guilty of hazing will be permanently and irrevocably expelled from Sigma Gamma Rho." The two current cases are not the sorority's only hazing violations. The Sigma Gamma Rho chapter at San Jose State was suspended -- that is, stopped from recruiting new members or using university facilities -- seven years ago for hazing violations. And two years ago, because of hazing activities, the sorority's chapter at the University of Texas at Austin was penalized. The sorority has more than 500 chapters, but is the smallest of the four black sororities. Jonathan Charleston, general counsel to Sigma Gamma Rho, said Tuesday that the sorority had not yet been served with a copy of the complaint, and that the sorority did not comment on pending litigation. "Any allegations of hazing are taken very seriously and immediately confronted by Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority," said a statement from the sorority. Many white fraternities and sororities haze their pledges, too, but there are differences, according to Lawrence C. Ross Jr., author of "The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities." "Most predominantly white fraternities and sororities haze around alcohol, but African-American fraternities and sororities typically haze around something physical, violent," he said. After the 1989 death of Joel Harris, a Morehouse student, after being beaten on the chest and face -- a ritual known as "thunder and lightning" -- the nine African-American fraternities and sororities changed their process for taking in new members to try to stop hazing, said Ross, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha. But the changes drove hazing underground, he said, where it has become more violent, giving rise to more criminal charges and lawsuits. Angela Reddock, the lawyer representing Howard, and Ross both say that hazing has been such a strong tradition in black Greek life that it is hard to end. "I believe this kind of hazing is going on in African-American sororities and fraternities all over the country," she said. "It's so deeply ingrained in the culture that I think the only thing that will stop it is if they're put out of business because their insurance companies drop them." In Texas, a Phi Beta Sigma fraternity pledge at Prairie View A&M died last year after collapsing during a rigorous predawn pledging exercise. And in January, the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity stopped accepting new members because of hazing incidents; new members will be accepted again later this fall. While some students do cross the color lines, in both directions, Greek life remains one of the most segregated aspects of higher education. Howard said that, as an only child, she had looked forward to forging close bonds with sorority sisters at San Jose State. "I'd heard rumors about paddling," she said. "But when I went to all the black Greek welcome nights, they made it very clear that they don't condone hazing." And yet, she said, the required "set nights" quickly turned violent. "The hazing got progressively worse," Howard said. "But I thought I could tolerate it, and I just kept going out of fear. They drill into you that if you drop, you're weak, and snitches get stitches." After the fifth night, Sept. 13, the complaint said, Howard was injured enough that she went to a doctor. On the 10th night, a pledge was knocked unconscious, and the others were told to carry her into the bathroom and wake her by splashing water on her face, but not to take her to a doctor or tell anyone what happened. The paddling began on the 11th night, and continued through the final night, Sept. 29. Pledges were told that they would each be hit with the wooden paddle seven times each night, once for each founder of the sorority. According to the complaint, both Howard's roommates, who saw her bruises, and her mother reported the hazing to representatives of the sorority and the university. Howard filed a formal complaint with the university and her mother met with the associate vice president of student life, who, the mother said, told her that hazing had been getting worse at the university, and asked for suggestions for fixing the problem. That fall, sorority members began to harass her, Howard said, so she did not return to campus after winter break.
Howard County
Oliver Stone's new movie, "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," is not the only cultural artifact of the moment to feature the financial crisis. Rappers like Young Jeezy rhyme about "The Recession," while some Barnes & Noble stores have entire shelves devoted to what can only be called crisis lit. On his latest album, Neil Young, the weathered rocker, intones, "There's a bailout coming, but it's not for me. It's for all these creeps watching tickers on TV." Even "Despicable Me," an animated movie for children, finds room to wink at Wall Street. (What does the sign say on the Bank of Evil? "Formerly Lehman Brothers.") Not since the Great Depression has an economic upheaval coursed through so many avenues of American popular culture. Over the past few years, Homer Simpson has lost his family's home to foreclosure, while the recession has taken its toll on the male housekeeper on the new sitcom "Melissa and Joey" and the desperate housewives of Wisteria Lane. Several new novels, like Janelle Brown's "This Is Where We Live," incorporate the housing crisis into their plotlines. And that's not counting the half-dozen or so films related to the financial crisis that are scheduled for release. "This is one of those events where you say it will ripple through the world of art," said Penn Badgley, the "Gossip Girl" star who plays a junior trader in "Margin Call," a financial thriller. "It has a global focus, but also one that affected everybody. There is not a single person that I have met who hasn't lost money or been forced to tighten up spending in some way." Today's financial pop atmosphere is also distinctive because the events that inspired it are so fresh. "What is really striking about the popular culture of the Depression is how long it took for the Depression to show up," said Jackson Lears, a cultural historian at Rutgers. "The Grapes of Wrath," for example, the gripping tale of farmers migrating from the Dust Bowl, was not published until 1939, and "It's a Wonderful Life," where James Stewart staves off a run on the local bank, did not reach movie theaters until 1946. Instead, the movies and music of the Depression era provided escapist entertainment: screwball comedies and fantasy films like "The Wizard of Oz," the elegant dancing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and silky Cole Porter melodies. The cultural references of the current recession have a realistic and ironic bite. Take "The Other Guys," a recent police comedy starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. Ferrell's character chides a Securities and Exchange Commission agent whom he is assisting on a financial fraud case. "I hear you guys are the best with these kinds of investigations," he snaps, "except for Enron, and AIG and Madoff." Schadenfreude is another driving force behind the current wave of financial crisis references, suggests Alexandra Lebenthal, the author of "The Recessionistas" and a fixture of the Manhattan finance and society scenes. "We like to see the people with houses all over the world, unbelievable fur coats or cars take a fall," she said. "There is no better image of that than when you see Wall Street CEOs testifying before Congress with people wearing masks with pigs' faces on them sitting behind them." Stone, the director, said he believed that the crisis brought closure to "the apotheosis of greed" that took shape during the Reagan years, when he created the original film. "This was a good moment to bring back Gordon Gekko. It's a bookend and an end of era," he said. "It's like the bubble popped and people said enough." To be sure, it may all just be a matter of timing: Publishing and movie executives approved many of today's projects two years ago when the crisis was the biggest news story in the world. And art doesn't always imitate life. Sometimes the opposite is true. The financial reform legislation, for example, was rife with allusions to popular culture. Lawmakers referred to a strict ban on insider trading of commodities as the "Eddie Murphy rule" after his role in the 1980s comedy "Trading Places." And something known as the "Hotel California" provision was intended, with apologies to the Eagles, to prevent Wall Street firms from "checking out" of their bank holding company status once they "checked in."
Hollywood gossip
New York gossip will never be the same. Richard Johnson, who for nearly a quarter century lorded it over Manhattan society, high and low, with a patrician manner and acerbic pen as editor of The New York Post's Page Six gossip column, will leave the tabloid for a job in Los Angeles. Suitably, the news was announced Thursday in a Page Six item, which reported that Johnson was "moving to Hollywood to work on new digital ventures for News Corp., the parent company of The Post." "I love Page Six and The Post, but I've always wanted to give Los Angeles a try," Johnson said in the column. Emily Smith, a veteran of Fleet Street who is a writer for Page Six, will take Johnson's place at the helm of the column. In chronicling the fancy frolicking of the famous (alliteration is a Page Six characteristic), Johnson became a boldface name himself, a journalistic descendant of Walter Winchell, and lived a large New York newspaper life of the sort that is increasingly of a bygone era. It was a tableau of glitzy parties and carousing, and Johnson often seemed to relish the trouble he caused. (Johnson once told a rival gossip columnist he was "too well-mannered" to fight back after a talent agent tossed a drink on him at a party.) "Richard was a true NYC icon," said the financier Ronald O. Perelman, a frequent Page Six subject, in an e-mail message. "He brought class and fun to this city. He made Page Six the must-read for everyone who wanted to be in the know." Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, described the column's place among the city's upper crust as, "high entertainment, mixed with frequent tears and suicidal thoughts." His own exploits, and those of his writers, sometimes became the news. In 2006, one of the column's writers was caught on videotape seemingly trying to extort money from the billionaire Ronald W. Burkle in exchange for positive coverage. A federal investigation ensued, but no charges were filed. Johnson has indelibly influenced -- for better or worse, depending on how one views such matters -- the rise of celebrity journalism in America, an arena that has been forever altered by the digital age, cable news and the 24-hour news cycle and the advent of websites like TMZ and Perezhilton.com. Page Six has been a uniquely New-York institution, a guidebook for the generations of the young and fabulous who have come to the city in search of fame. It covers not just A-list celebrities but all segments of New York society -- like finance, fashion and real estate. "It's still a must read," said Matthew Hiltzik, a public relations executive who has had a long relationship with Johnson. Hiltzik recalled an item Johnson was preparing to publish about the private life of one his clients. But after some bargaining, the news was downgraded to a blind item after Hiltzik argued it would hurt the subject's children. "He understood the impact items could have on people and he used that influence wisely," said Hiltzik. On one occasion, Lloyd Grove, who competed against Page Six as a gossip columnist for The Daily News, wrote an item poking fun at a "sighting" in Page Six of a famous, but long-dead, media executive. "He did send me an e-mail back and did mention the word 'retribution,' but I think he was bluffing," recalled Grove, who is now a writer at The Daily Beast website.
Hollywood gossip
San Francisco -- Everybody wants it. Not a lot have it. And, frankly, even if you get it, that doesn't mean you can sustain it. In the world of television, there is no formula for a hit. All new series have going for them is word of mouth -- either from excited critics and fanboys/girls on the Internet or from chatter among producers and programmers in the business. The reason buzz is important should be self-evident if you look at your TV channel guide. Most people pay for more channels than they watch (or even know about). An alarming number of those channels are producing original content. Mostly, it's unscripted series about trucks that drive on ice, deadly sharks or some such thing. But an ever-increasing number of channels are getting into the scripted game. How can any new show survive? The honest answer to that is hype and hope. And luck. And buzz, of course. Here's a short rundown of new fall shows and their relative buzz. Just remember that last year the undisputed series that had mouths talking and fingers typing was ABC's "Flash Forward." That series no longer exists. Heavy buzz: "Boardwalk Empire," HBO (premiering next Sunday). Created, written and produced by "Sopranos" writer Terence Winter and executive-produced by Martin Scorsese (who directed the pilot and wants to direct more episodes), the series is set in Atlantic City in the 1920s and centers on Prohibition, gangsters and politicians. Steve Buscemi stars, with a string of superb supporting actors. May it have a better fortune than "Flash Forward." Early buzz (which often translates, by the time the show actually arrives, into heavy buzz): "Game of Thrones," HBO (spring 2011). Based on the books by George R.R. Martin (called by some "the American Tolkien"), this medieval fantasy series is so geeked out that any misstep will cause a fan backlash. "Episodes," Showtime (Jan. 10), stars Matt LeBlanc as himself in a self-deprecating look at the industry. A hit British series is bought by an American network and, well, pretty much ruined. Deemed "too British" by those who bought it, LeBlanc is hired as the lead. Clips had a very jaded room of critics roaring with laughter. "Shameless," Showtime (Jan. 9). Starring William H. Macy and Emmy Rossum, about a happily dysfunctional family. "Lights Out," FX (no set date; will air in January). This series about a fading former heavyweight boxing champ has the look of something truly special. "Sherlock," PBS (Oct. 24). A modern version of the classic characters, updated by Steven Moffat, who also breathed new life into "Doctor Who." And last, "The Walking Dead," AMC (Oct. 31). Six episodes of zombie mayhem. Good buzz: "No Ordinary Family," ABC (Sept. 28). Michael Chiklis goes from bad cop on "The Shield" to superhero dad here. "Luther," BBC America (Oct. 24). Idris Elba, who played Stringer Bell on "The Wire," is on the other side of the law as a troubled Brit detective. "The Event," NBC (Sept. 20). With "Lost" gone, something brashly mysterious had to pop up. "Lone Star," Fox (Sept. 29). Big oil, big cons. A dark horse for network surprise story. "Baseball: The Tenth Inning," PBS (Sept. 28). Ken Burns and Lynn Novick revisit their famous documentary to bring it up to date, including the steroids era. "Restrepo," National Geographic (Nov. 29). The Grand Jury Prize winner at Sundance, this documentary about the war in Afghanistan gets a global TV audience after wowing film critics. "Great Migrations," National Geographic (no set date; fall 2010). Like "Planet Earth" and "Life," this seven-parter is going to be one of those must-see HD nature series. This is the channel's biggest venture. "Luck," HBO (no date set). Dustin Hoffman will star in his first TV series, set in the world of horse racing and created by David Milch ("Deadwood"). Extended clips got people talking that Milch has found a new, rich milieu. "Terriers," FX (premiered Wednesday). Low-rent private detectives, buddies and a little something more, thanks to fine writing. Decent buzz: "Nikita," CW (premiered Thursday). This remake of "La Femme Nikita" has bullets, babes and butt-kicking. Pure escapist fare. "Blue Bloods," CBS (Sept. 24). Tom Selleck goes dark here. There's hope that the show escapes convention for cable-like depth. "Running Wilde," Fox; "Raising Hope," Fox (Sept. 21). From Mitch Hurwitz ("Arrested Development") and Greg Garcia ("My Name Is Earl"), there's hope and faith that audiences will turn out. Worried buzz: "Top Gear," History Channel (no set date; fall 2010). Um, you really want to remake the iconic car series? How thick is your skin? Speaking of that: "Skins," MTV (no date set). Did MTV go pay-cable? If not, how does this bare-it-all Brit import get Americanized and not seem like a dirtier "Gossip Girl"? Bad buzz: "$...! My Dad Says," CBS (Sept. 23). Doesn't translate from Twitter because it's not funny. But the pilot is being reshot. "Outsourced," NBC (Sept. 23). Borderline racist humor about people from India? An outsourcing comedy in this economy? Hmm. "Sister Wives," TLC (Sept. 26). Four polygamist wives, 15 kids, one husband. There's a law against this. No, really. "Sarah Palin's Alaska," TLC. (Nov. 14). The sides are split and hardened, just like politics. Travelogue? Propaganda? Irony-heavy eco-show? No buzz: The rest. And that's a lot. But just as the biggest buzz show can fizzle out quickly, a no-buzz show can grow slowly and surprise everyone. E-mail Tim Goodman at tgoodmansfchronicle.com. Follow him at www.twitter.com/bastardmachine.
TV shows
Americans used to gather in front of their TV sets on, say, Thursday at 8 p.m. and tune to channel 3. The upside: The whole country had a common cultural bond. The downside: Everyone had to sit down Thursday at 8 p.m. The requirement for the whole population to watch the same shows simultaneously has evaporated as technology advanced. But what will replace the old system? Will we be able to sign up for just the channels we want? Will we pay for one episode at a time? Will the Internet become the new delivery system? At this point, the future of TV is still up in the air, if not over the air. But already, all kinds of on-demand variations are available in the form of set-top boxes. ("Set-top" may be an obsolete term. To balance one of these boxes on top of today's flat screens, you'd have to be in Cirque du Soleil.) This week alone, there's both a new Apple TV box and a new Roku box. Each is inexpensive, each is half-finished -- but each could be the gateway to a disruptive new future of a la carte TV. The new, black Apple TV ($100) is a tiny shiny box, 1 inch tall. It comes ingeniously packaged with its gorgeous aluminum remote and its coiled, brickless black power cord enveloped in a tiny white 4-inch cardboard box. The Apple TV works only with high-definition TV sets, and connects with an HDMI cable (not included). It connects to your home network, and therefore to the Internet, either by wireless Wi-Fi network or via an Ethernet cable. Its main menu offers four features: Movies: The Apple TV no longer has a hard drive, so you can't download movies to have and to hold. All you can do is "rent" them -- pay $4 or $5 and watch as they stream from the Internet. All the usual stupid restrictions apply. You have to finish watching within 24 hours of starting. You have to start within 30 days. Not all movies are available, and once they've appeared, they may disappear again for six to nine months during the "HBO window," as the industry calls it. All of this makes you wonder if anyone involved with Apple TV has children. Children watch movies over and over -- what are you going to do, rent the same one twice a week? (You can still buy movies from Apple, but there's a catch; read on.) And second, early bedtime often means that you need to finish a movie tomorrow night, which the 24-hour window makes impossible. Would it really dent the studios' bottom line if they gave you two days to watch a movie? Apple advertises that its movies are available the same day they come out on DVD. That's great; until recently, you'd have to wait 30 days before such movies were available online. But beware: Apple is talking about buying movies, not renting them on Apple TV. You won't find "Iron Man 2," "Karate Kid," "Zombieland" or "Prince of Persia" for rent on Apple TV, though they're out on DVD. Movie quality is terrific. You may have to wait a minute or two for enough of the movie to arrive before playback begins. TV shows: Here is what could be the real game-changer: $1 a show, on demand. Imagine: you wouldn't need cable. You wouldn't need channels. You wouldn't need a TiVo. Any show, any time, for a reasonable price. If any idea ever had "THE FUTURE" stamped across its forehead, this one's it. Unfortunately, that future requires the participation of the TV networks, and few of them are playing ball with Apple. You can choose certain shows from ABC/Disney, Fox and the BBC -- but the selection is pretty puny. Right now, $1 on-demand TV is a brilliant idea in search of studio executives with a clue. Internet: Here's your access to YouTube videos, Internet radio (a hidden gem), photo galleries from Flickr or MobileMe, and on-demand movies from Netflix. This feature -- the ability to watch any of 12,000 movies, any time, from Netflix -- is a truly great development. It's free and unlimited if you have a regular Netflix DVD-by-mail account. This feature is built into many DVD players and video recorders, but you still have to browse and choose your movies on a computer; all you can do on your TV is watch them. On the Apple TV, though, you can both choose and watch them, all within Apple's attractive menu screens. Computers: The Apple TV can play the photos, music and videos on the computers in your house -- as long as they're running the iTunes software. This is a workaround for the limitations of the Apple TV movie and TV catalogs. On your computer, you can both rent and buy movies. And you can buy TV shows from dozens more TV networks. All of it is then available to watch on your Apple TV, as long as the computer you bought it on is still powered up. Confusing? Yes. The coolest Apple TV feature of all is AirPlay, which lets you send video from your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to your TV screen. It might be handy if you were watching a show on the plane, and arrive home to watch the exciting conclusion on the big screen. Unfortunately, Apple says that this feature won't be ready until next month. If ever there were a more classic case of the Apple Way versus the Open Way, it's Apple TV's rival, the Roku box. Apple product: beautiful, clean, simple, controlled, uniformly polished. Open product: expandable, unlimited, chaotic, mismatched, uneven quality. (See also: iPhone versus Android, Mac versus PC.) The Roku box ($60, or up to $100 for versions with more jacks) is a larger, uglier plastic box. It works with both hi-def and standard TVs. Independent programmers can create "channels" for it -- something like apps -- that deliver Web videos to your TV. There are 85 at the moment. Some you've heard of: Netflix, Pandora Internet radio, Major League Baseball (for a fee). Most you haven't: Blubrry, YuppTV, MHz Network, Roxwel. Installing each of these "networks" requires visiting a website and typing in a code that appears on your TV screen. After that, you're in streaming-Web-video heaven. Weirdly, YouTube is not one of the available channels. The company says there's a way to get it, but since it's not in the channel catalog, the average customer will never know about it. (Ditto with accessing the music and videos from your home computers. It's possible, but not built-in or publicized.) The Roku box lets you rent or buy movies, thanks to its integration with Amazon's video store. It lets you buy the same $1 TV shows from ABC/Disney, Fox and the BBC. In this case, though, you're buying the show, not renting it. You can watch it over and over. Apple says that Amazon can offer this benefit only because it's taking a loss on every show it sells -- an unsustainable business model. Well, whatever; if you want to buy or rent TV and movies, Amazon outdoes Apple. (Don't you wish Apple held more negotiating sway with the studios?) So here we are, at the dawn of the new on-demand era, with various companies jockeying for a leadership position -- the first Google TV boxes are on their way -- and winding up with confusing, poorly stocked, not-quite-there boxes. You can choose Apple's dazzling but limited experience; you can have Roku's expandable, much larger selection of more uneven material; or you can wait a while until more of the pieces are in place. The future of TV is certainly on its way, but there's no urgent reason to park yourself on the bleeding edge.
TV shows
If you care about Tuesday's primary elections in the District of Columbia, you've benefited from The Post's wall-to-wall coverage of the fascinating race for mayor and contests for D.C. Council. But if you've relied on The Post for coverage of campaigns in Maryland's Montgomery County or Prince George's County, you may be excused for feeling neglected. Until last week, The Post largely ignored scores of contested races there. The disparity is glaring. About 50 stories or columns about D.C. races appeared on The Post's news pages from Aug. 1 through Friday. That's at least three times more coverage than that for races in Montgomery County, and roughly 10 times more than that for Prince George's. The extensive coverage of D.C. races is appropriate, especially given D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray's bold challenge to incumbent Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. The outcome is important for District of Columbia residents. And many living in the suburbs, especially those who work or play in the District, also are closely following the campaign. The city is the hub of the region, after all. And it's the nation's capital. But the huge coverage gap is confounding, given who reads The Post. Its daily circulation in Montgomery County far exceeds that in D.C. (about 118,000 to 90,000, according to the latest breakdowns). On Sundays, it's about 150,000 in Montgomery, compared with about 95,000 in the District of Columbia. And while daily circulation in Prince George's is smaller than in the city, it exceeds D.C. on Sundays. So readers feel short-changed. In those two Maryland counties, coverage has been late, and little. That's unfortunate, because the stakes are high. In Prince George's, voters will elect a new county executive, an array of County Council members, a state's attorney and a sheriff. Like D.C., the county is so heavily Democratic that victory Tuesday is tantamount to winning the general election. In Montgomery, races for County Council, state legislature and other offices are hotly contested and well financed. Yet The Post has provided scant coverage about where candidates stand on issues or even who is running. "If a resident wanted to know something about the candidates and their positions, you would not find it in The Post," said Richard B. Kabat, campaign treasurer for Montgomery Democrat Mark Winston, who is running for the Maryland House of Delegates from the 16th District (which includes Bethesda). Coverage has been "pretty thin," agreed Eric C. Olson, an incumbent Democratic Prince George's council member. The "lack of Post coverage ... is on the mind of every politician that I've talked to in this county," said Adam Pagnucco,a Montgomery resident who writes the popular Maryland Politics Watch blog. "They all comment on how The Post is absent." "I'm not saying the (D.C. mayor's) race shouldn't be covered. I'm just saying it shouldn't be the only coverage," said Sharon Dooley, a Democratic council candidate from Montgomery's 2nd District, the northern part of the county. She urged Post editors to "look at your demographics. Who reads your paper?" Candidates and public officials always want more media coverage, of course. But of the 11 from Montgomery and Prince George's who were interviewed for this column, most spoke of a decline in coverage that coincides with the paper's staff cuts in recent years. Top Post editors heard complaints in meetings with the Montgomery County Council in May and the Prince George's County Council in June. "We got the warning. The shot was fired across the bow," recalled David J. Jones, the former Post public relations manager who arranged the meetings as part of an outreach campaign. The limited election coverage in the two counties is a "missed opportunity," he said. "That's where our revenue dollars are, and that's where our readers are, and you don't get one without the other." Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, The Post's top editor for local coverage, said staffing reductions are partly to blame for the diminished Maryland election coverage. "We just don't have the numbers of people we used to have," he said, acknowledging that "we probably should have moved some staff around" to assign more reporters to the two counties. Institutional knowledge of local issues and politics also has been lost through staff buyouts and restructuring. But readers want coverage, not explanations. "We have tons of subscribers who respect The Post," said Pagnucco. But if it can't provide sustained local coverage, "they're going to go elsewhere." He's right. A news organization thrives by serving its community. Not just parts of it. Alexander is ombudsman for The Washington Post.
Maryland
President Barack Obama Thursday hit out at a wave of private and foreign cash swamping the US mid-term election campaign, urging backers to fight millions of dollars with millions of voices. Obama stepped up his attack on the flood of outside money, often from unidentifiable sources and much of it financing opposition Republicans as they try to recapture Congress, pouring into races across the country. "It could be the oil companies. It could be the insurance industry. It could be Wall Street. You don't know. Their lips are sealed. The floodgates are open, though," Obama said at a Democratic campaign rally in Maryland. "Almost every one of these independent organizations is run by Republican operatives. They're posing as nonprofit, non-political groups," Obama said in his most outspoken attack yet on special interest cash. "They’ve got names like "Americans for Prosperity," or the "Committee for Truth in Politics," or "Moms for Motherhood" -- actually, the last one I made up," Obama quipped. The torrent of cash has been swelled in this election by a Supreme Court decision in January that ruled campaign finance laws limiting the spending power of corporations, unions or advocacy groups infringed freedom of speech. The top court's justices narrowly decided that big business firms could dip freely into their general funds to finance unlimited campaign advertising either in support or against a political candidate. Obama mentioned a report by an offshoot of the liberal think-tank Center for American Progress this week, which said the US Chamber of Commerce may be using money from foreign corporations to attack Democratic candidates. "We learned that one of the largest groups paying for these ads regularly takes in money from foreign corporations," Obama said, without mentioning the Chamber, often a fierce critic of his administration, by name. "So groups that receive foreign money are spending huge sums to influence American elections, and they won't tell you where the money for their ads come from," Obama charged before a crowd estimated at 4,000 people, mostly students. The president, who many analysts thought had rewritten campaign finance orthodoxy with his bumper fundraising in 2008, based on millions of small donors, complained conservative groups were outspending Democratic groups seven to one. "This is a threat to our democracy. The American people deserve to know who's trying to sway their elections. "So here's the bottom line. We’re going to need to work even harder in this election. We're going to need to fight their millions of dollars with millions of voices." Obama appeared at a historically black college in Bowie in his latest bid to convince the coalition of young and ethnically diverse voters who flocked to his campaign in 2008 to show up this year, even when he is not on the ballot. His Democratic Party, reeling from high unemployment and the lingering economic crisis, fears heavy losses in mid-term polls in which the party of a first-term president often takes a beating. Republicans, energized by the conservative Tea Party movement, need to win 39 seats to take the House and 10 seats to take the Senate.
Maryland
When they retreated from the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate troops passed by the area that is now Richard Masser's orchards. If only the latest enemy -- the brown marmorated stink bug -- would follow suit. Damage to fruit and vegetable crops from stink bugs in Middle Atlantic states has reached critical levels, according to a government report. That is in addition to the headaches the bugs are giving homeowners who cannot keep them out of their living rooms -- especially the people who unwittingly step on them. When stink bugs are crushed or become irritated, they emit a pungent odor that is sometimes described as skunklike. Suddenly, the bedbug has competition for pest of the year. Farmers in Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states are battling a pest whose appetite has left dry boreholes in everything from apples and grapes to tomatoes and soybeans. Stink bugs have made their mark on 20 percent of the apple crop at Masser's Scenic View Orchards here. Other farmers report far worse damage. "They're taking money out of your pocket, just like a thief," said Masser, flicking stink bugs off his shirt and baseball cap as he overlooked his 325 acres, a few miles south of the Pennsylvania border. "We need to stop them." No one seems to know how. Government and university researchers say they need more time to study the bug, which has been in the United States since about 1998. Native to Asia, it was first found in Allentown, Pa., and has no natural enemies here. Some people noticed an increase in the stink bug population last year, but all agreed that this year's swarm was out of control. Researchers say the bugs reproduced at a faster rate this year, but they are unsure why. "These are the hot spots right now, but they're spreading everywhere," Masser said. "They even found them out in Oregon." Populations of the brown marmorated stink bug -- different from the green stink bugs that are kept in check by natural predators here -- have been found in 15 states, and specimens in 14 other states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The bug travels well, especially as it seeks warm homes before the onset of cold weather. "It's an incredible hitchhiker," said Tracy Leskey, an entomologist with the Agriculture Department's Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, W.Va. "The adults are moving and looking for places to spend the winter." The research station is among three laboratories looking for a solution. Government and university researchers also formed a working group this summer. But Kevin Hackett, national program leader for invasive insects for the Agriculture Department's research arm, said no immediate solution was in sight. "We need to do considerable more research to solve the problem," he said. "We don't even have a way to monitor the pests. I'm confident that we have excellent researchers. I'm not confident we're going to find a solution immediately." The department is spending $800,000 this fiscal year on stink bug research, double last year's budget, Hackett said. But he estimated that seven more full-time researchers were needed, at a cost of about $3.5 million a year for salaries and research expenses. In Asia, a parasitic wasp helps control stink bug populations by attacking their eggs. Unleashing those wasps here, however, is at least several years away because they would first need to be quarantined and studied. There has been limited success using black pyramid traps in orchards, Leskey said. The traps contain scents that trigger sexual arousal. The nymphs, or young bugs, respond seasonlong, Leskey wrote in a recent report, but adults respond only late in the season, in late August. Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, R-Md., convened a meeting last week of officials from the Agriculture Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. He is pushing to have the stink bug reclassified, which would allow farmers to use stronger pesticides, and is advocating that the Agriculture Department reallocate $3 million of its budget for research. A problem that can arise when more pesticides are used, experts and farmers say, is that many years' worth of effective "integrated pest management" can be ruined in the process. Farmers kill some pests but allow others to live because they prey on yet other pests. Wasps, for example, eat worms that otherwise would kill crops. "It is a way to use nature's own defenses against pests in orchards," said Steve Jacobs, an urban entomologist at Pennsylvania State University. "That's been finely tuned and works well. This brown marmorated stink bug blows all that out the window. You kill them today, new ones come tomorrow. So this is a serious problem." Meanwhile, homeowners in the region are coping with this latest nuisance. Vicky Angell of Thurmont, Md., said she first noticed the stink bugs last year, but "not in flocks" like this summer. She kills about six a day and suspects that they get inside her home when she leaves the door open to let the dog out. Angell said she flushes them down the toilet after catching them in a napkin. Other people use their vacuum. And many have turned to exterminators. Stink bugs, with backs that resemble knights' shields, do not bite humans and pose no known health hazards -- even the fruit they have gotten to is edible, once the hardened parts are cut out. They leave small craters on the surface of an apple or pear, and the inside can get brown and corklike. Females can grow to nearly the size of a quarter. "Marmorated" refers to their marbled or streaked appearance. Still, sometimes they are just too close for comfort. Angell said she got a surprise when she put on her pants Friday morning, having washed them and left them to dry in her laundry room. She felt something in the right rear pocket. "I thought I left a piece of paper in them when I washed them," she said. But it was not paper. "Pulled it out. He was alive. Stink bug. Flushed him down the toilet," she said. "I thought, I'm glad I didn't sit on that." Kelli Wilson of Burkittsville, Md., said her home had been overrun by the bugs, especially in the past week. In the afternoon sun, the north-facing exterior of the house "is black with stink bugs," she said. "It looks like the wall is crawling." Wilson's husband, Raymond, skipped services on Sunday at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Burkittsville to remove stink bugs from the house. Wilson discovered a little hitchhiker as she and her children arrived at the church. "I just pulled into the parking lot and there's one on my purse," she said. "They travel with me now." Jacobs, the urban entomologist, said the response to stink bugs so far is not an overreaction. "I'm standing here in my living room watching some of them crawl up my walls," he said. "The best thing to do is make your house as tight as possible. Use masking tape to seal around sliding glass doors, air-conditioners." Masser, the Sabillasville farmer, said that he had not yet raised his prices to offset losses, but added that it was a possibility next year if a solution to the stink bug invasion was not found. "Stink bugs are going to destroy a lot of food -- it's just starting," he said. "When Joe Blow starts hollering because he can't find the food he wants, they'll respond then."
MD
When they retreated from the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate troops passed by the area that is now Richard Masser's orchards. If only the latest enemy -- the brown marmorated stink bug -- would follow suit. Damage to fruit and vegetable crops from stink bugs in Middle Atlantic states has reached critical levels, according to a government report. That is in addition to the headaches the bugs are giving homeowners who cannot keep them out of their living rooms -- especially the people who unwittingly step on them. When stink bugs are crushed or become irritated, they emit a pungent odor that is sometimes described as skunklike. Suddenly, the bedbug has competition for pest of the year. Farmers in Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states are battling a pest whose appetite has left dry boreholes in everything from apples and grapes to tomatoes and soybeans. Stink bugs have made their mark on 20 percent of the apple crop at Masser's Scenic View Orchards here. Other farmers report far worse damage. No one seems to know how. Government and university researchers say they need more time to study the bug, which has been in the United States since about 1998. Populations of the brown marmorated stink bug have been found in 15 states, and specimens in 14 other states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The bug travels well, especially as it seeks warm homes before the onset of cold weather. "It's an incredible hitchhiker," said Tracy Leskey, an entomologist with the Agriculture Department's Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, W.Va. "The adults are moving and looking for places to spend the winter." The research station is among three laboratories looking for a solution. Government and university researchers also formed a working group this summer. But Kevin Hackett, national program leader for invasive insects for the Agriculture Department's research arm, said no immediate solution was in sight. In Asia, a parasitic wasp helps control stink bug populations by attacking their eggs. Unleashing those wasps here, however, is at least several years away because they would first need to be quarantined and studied. There has been limited success using black pyramid traps in orchards, Leskey said. The traps contain scents that trigger sexual arousal. The nymphs, or young bugs, respond seasonlong, Leskey wrote in a recent report, but adults respond only late in the season, in late August. Stink bugs, with backs that resemble knights' shields, do not bite humans and pose no known health hazards -- even the fruit they have gotten to is edible, once the hardened parts are cut out. They leave small craters on the surface of an apple or pear, and the inside can get brown and corklike. Females can grow to nearly the size of a quarter. "Marmorated" refers to their marbled or streaked appearance.
MD