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1Rain. 50/38 • Tomorrow: Partly sunny. 63/49 • details, B10
TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2010
AGAINST FENTY
Developer Peebles is ‘planning’ candidacy
by Tim Craig,
Nikita Stewart and Paul Schwartzman
The race for D.C. mayor will
SERGEY PONOMAREV/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A train passes the flowers left at the Lubyanka subway station in Moscow, where a suicide bomber had set off a deadly explosion.
In Russia, fear returns
Country braces for surge in terrorism after suicide bombings kill 38
by Philip P. Pan
moscow — With a pair of pow- erful blasts on Moscow subway cars that killed at least 38 people Monday,
two female suicide
bombers shattered Prime Min- ister Vladimir Putin’s claim to have contained a separatist in-
surgency in Russia’s southwest and forced the nation’s capital to brace for a terrorist comeback af- ter several years of calm. The explosions occurred about 45 minutes apart at downtown stations during the morning rush hour. They followed triumphant reports in recent weeks that Rus- sian security forces had killed sev- eral top leaders of the Islamist rebel movement, which seeks to establish a fundamentalist state in the North Caucasus region. The elimination of each mil- itant leader was portrayed as a
Bomb hit station next to top security agency. A15
victory for Putin’s tough ap- proach to suppressing the insur- gency, which had not mounted an attack in Moscow in nearly six years. “We have been able to break the spine of terrorism,” Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin’s strongman governor in Chech- nya, declared two days ago. But as crowds of dazed, blood- ied passengers emerged from smoke-filled subway stations Monday, and national television showed images of mangled bod- ies strewn on subway cars and station platforms, officials ac-
russia continued on A14
Moscow
Lubyanka station
Red Kremlin Square
Federal Security Service
start in earnest Tuesday, when Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray is set to officially announce a long-anticipated bid to take on Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, setting up a battle between two men who have been at odds for much of the past four years. The contest could get consider- ably more competitive and un- predictable in the coming days: Millionaire developer R. Dona- hue Peebles said Monday that he is “planning to run” as well, back- ing off earlier statements that family issues would keep him out of the race. Until earlier this year, few ex-
pected Fenty to face one serious challenger, much less two, but it appears that there will be a five- month scramble for the Demo- cratic nomination, which is tan- tamount to victory in the over- whelmingly Democratic city. With recent polls showing Fen-
Park Kultury station
ty struggling with many voters, particularly African Americans, Gray immediately sought to pre- sent himself as someone who would unify the city. “I really believe the city needs a
0 MILE
M.K. CANNISTRA/THE WASHINGTON POST
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style of leadership that can bring people together,” Gray said in an interview. “I’m running out of a sense of responsibility to the city.” Gray, a former Ward 7 council member, has a natural base among African Americans in the eastern part of the city but is less-
Obama’s focus abroad shifts from the people to their leaders
by Scott Wilson
mercurial Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, about the need to fight corruption in his govern- ment. It was a brief, unhappy encoun- ter in which Obama conveyed concerns that corruption is un-
P
resident Obama traveled halfway around the world last weekend to lecture his
dermining Karzai’s government at the very time that the United States is attempting to strengthen it. But the meeting revealed a shift in Obama’s foreign policy: a growing emphasis on one-on-one encounters with foreign leaders. For many world leaders, sup-
porting Obama has been less a personal decision than one based on domestic politics. The presi- dent broke with the personality- based foreign policy of George W.
RNC expense report renews criticism of Steele’s spending
by Dan Eggen
The Republican National Com-
mittee and its chairman, Michael S. Steele, were engulfed in contro- versy again Monday after new fi- nancial reports showed that the party used tens of thousands of donor dollars for luxe hotels, pri- vate jets and other questionable expenditures. The disclosures, some of which stem from Steele’s travels to Cali- fornia in January and a subse- quent RNC retreat to Hawaii, re- ignited criticism from fellow Re- publicans who are troubled by the chairman’s financial stewardship of the GOP’s main committee since he took over more than a year ago.
Although it is not unusual for
either party to spend money in tony settings to cater to wealthy donors, the RNC’s latest filings captured widespread attention for one expenditure at a risque nightclub: $1,946.25 for “meals” at Voyeur in West Hollywood, which features topless dancers wearing horse bridles and other bondage gear while mimicking sex acts. The committee fired an uniden-
tified staff member as a result of the disbursement and empha- sized Monday that Steele had not visited the club and was not aware of the expenditure. The re- imbursement went to Erik Brown, a Southern California GOP donor who has spent time with Steele in the past and whose
rnc continued on A9
Bush in favor of a more populist diplomacy, which seeks to lever- age his appeal in other nations to further the national interests he is pursuing with their leaders. His conservative critics have said he has no friends abroad to turn to for help in promoting American interests overseas. But after 14 months in office, Obama is turning his attention from the global audience to heads of state, hoping to develop a rap-
The right accessory
port that will help him reap the benefits of his effort to repair America’s image abroad. The shift is a recognition that he must ap- peal more directly and frequently to the people who set policy, as well as to their constituents. “Presidents are politicians, af- ter all, and politics is based on the ability to forge personal relation- ships,” said former congressman
obama continued on A15
LINDA DAVIDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST
“I’m running out of a sense of responsibility,” says Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, who will officially announce today.
known elsewhere and starts the race with no campaign money. A Washington Post poll conducted in January showed Gray edging Fenty in a hypothetical matchup, although many respondents said they were undecided. Fenty, who swept to office four years ago by winning every pre- cinct in the city, must win back the trust of many residents who have been turned off by what they see as his aloof and abrasive style. The mayor still enjoys solid support among white voters in Northwest Washington and will seek to run on his accomplish- ments, which include improving student test scores at long-trou- bled city schools and reducing crime. Fenty has also amassed $4 million for the race. Peebles, whose personal for-
tune Forbes magazine has esti- mated at $350million, has the money to match Fenty but no po- litical base and minimal name recognition, and it’s unclear whether he has enough time to connect with voters. His candi- dacy would add a large element of unpredictability: He could
gray continued on A7
At U.S. dinner tables, the food may be a fraud
Deception, mislabeling increase, but FDA lacks enforcement resources
by Lyndsey Layton
The expensive “sheep’s milk” cheese in a Manhattan market was really made from cow’s milk. And a jar of “Sturgeon caviar” was, in fact, Mississippi paddle- fish.
Some honey makers dilute their honey with sugar beets or corn syrup, their competitors say, but still market it as 100 percent pure at a premium price. And last year, a Fairfax man was convicted of selling 10 mil- lion pounds of cheap, frozen cat- fish fillets from Vietnam as much more expensive grouper, red snapper and flounder. The fish was bought by national chain re- tailers, wholesalers and food service companies, and ended up on dinner plates across the coun- try.
SARAH L. VOISIN/THE WASHINGTON POST
Just as others did throughout the area Monday, pedestrians at Connecticut Avenue and K Street NW take cover under umbrellas.
INSIDE
POSTAL SERVICE
Support for 5-day mail
In a poll, most Americans support ending Saturday delivery to help the financially strapped Postal Service, but most oppose closing post offices. A23
BUSINESS NEWS............A16 CLASSIFIEDS .....................F1 COMICS..............................C7
Tell me about your childhood.
HEALTH & SCIENCE
Psychiatry in the Internet age
The Web presents a host of new ethical problems for
therapists. E1
THE WORLD
Iraq challenge
A panel wants six parliament candidates’ victories canceled, which could help the ruling party. A10
EDITORIALS/LETTERS...A24 FED PAGE ........................A23 GOING OUT GUIDE............C5
LOTTERIES.........................B4 MOVIES..............................C4 OBITUARIES...................B7-9
STOCKS............................A20 TELEVISION.......................C6 WORLD NEWS.................A10
THE REGION
Bag tax nets $150,000
The District says use of disposable plastic sacks is way down as it collects a nickel a pop to help clean the Anacostia River. B1
OPINION
Eugene Robinson:
A militia and the risks of angry rhetoric. A25
Online at washingtonpost.com Printed using recycled fiber
SPORTS
Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau on expectations for his team:
“The last thing I ever want
to do is have an expectation where the bar is too low. If anything, you want to make it so high that you can hardly ever achieve it. That’s where we’re at right now.”
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Details, B2
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The Washington Post Year 133, No. 115
CONTENTS© 2010
“Food fraud” has been docu- mented in fruit juice, olive oil, spices, vinegar, wine, spirits and maple syrup, and appears to pose a significant problem in the sea- food industry. Victims range from the shopper at the local super- market to multimillion compa-
nies, including E&J Gallo and Heinz USA.
Such deception has been hap- pening since Roman times, but it is getting new attention as more products are imported and a tight economy heightens competition. And the U.S. food industry says federal regulators are not doing enough to combat it. “It’s growing very rapidly, and
there’s more of it than you might think,” said James Morehouse, a senior partner at A.T. Kearney Inc., which is studying the issue for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents the food and beverage industry. John Spink, an expert on food and packaging fraud at Michigan State University, estimates that 5 to 7 percent of the U.S. food sup- ply is affected but acknowledges the number could be greater. “We know what we seized at the bor- der, but we have no idea what we didn’t seize,” he said. The job of ensuring that food is
accurately labeled largely rests with the Food and Drug Adminis- tration. But it has been over- whelmed in trying to prevent food contamination, and combat- ing fraud has remained on a back burner. The recent development of high-tech tools — including DNA
food continued on A22
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Gray jump-starts D.C. mayor’s race
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