ARTS CAPTURING THE REAL D.C. ON FILM
MAGAZINE THE AREA’S NEW FASHION MAVENS
TRAVEL OUR 2010 PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS
SPORTS REDSKINS FALL TO RAVENS, 23-3
ABCDE Thunderstorm. 88/70 • Tomorrow: Thunderstorm. 82/70 • details, C10
Egg firm has long record of violations Salmonella outbreaks
by Alec MacGillis The Iowa egg producer that federal
officials say is at the center of a salmo- nella outbreak and recalls of more than a half-billion eggs has repeatedly paid fines and settled complaints over health and safety violations and allega- tions ranging from maintaining a “sex- ually hostile work environment” to abusing the hens that lay the eggs. In the past 20 years, according to the public record, the DeCoster family op- eration, one of the 10 largest egg pro- ducers in the country, has withstood a string of reprimands, penalties and complaints about its performance in several states. In June, for instance, the family agreed to pay a $34,675 fine stemming from allegations of animal cruelty against hens in its 5million-bird Maine facility. An animal rights group used a hidden camera to document hens suffo- cating in garbage cans, twirled by their necks , kicked into manure pits to drown and hanging by their feet over conveyer belts. Hinda Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the company, declined to answer ques- tions about its record. She said in an e- mail, “We are focused on doing the right thing with the recall and on our continued cooperation with FDA.” DeCoster owns Wright County Egg in
Iowa, which last week recalled 380mil- lion eggs distributed nationwide. A fed- eral investigation into 26 outbreaks of salmonella enteritidis, the second-lead- ing cause of food-borne illness, found that 15 of the outbreaks pointed to Wright County Egg. The DeCoster family also has close ties to Hillandale Farms of Iowa, which on Friday recalled 170 million eggs dis- tributed to 14 states in the Midwest and West after scientists in Minnesota linked one salmonella outbreak to Hil- landale. Wright County Egg and Hillan- dale share suppliers of young chickens and feed, and the DeCoster family put
eggs continued on A11 INSIDE POLITICS
Should he or shouldn’t he? President Obama and the first family are on Martha’s Vineyard for a vacation. Does he deserve the time off? That’s up for debate. A3
METRO Local ‘Road’ trip Collectors flock to the Washington Convention Center as “Antiques Roadshow” rolls into town. C1
SPORTS Strasburg exits with injury After a strong start to Saturday’s game, Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg left in the fifth inning. He winced after delivering a pitch and shook his right hand in distress before being pulled. D1
More than 1 million Haitians remain displaced 7 months after devastating earthquake
By Edward Cody
port-au-prince, haiti — Immacula Pierre had a question. Why, she wanted to know, are she and 50,000 other homeless Haitians still living in a squalid tent city on the Champ de Mars, an esplanade in the heart of Port-au-Prince just across the street from the destroyed National Pal- ace.
“I’m still here,” she said, gesturing at a tattered tarp-and-plywood shelter that
covered a soaked bed on ground left mud- dy by an overnight downpour. “I wake up every morning here, and I just stare up at the sky. Nothing else.” More than seven months after the
earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12, an estimated 1.3 million Haitians — 15 percent of the population — are still liv- ing in tents or under leaky tarps, unable to protect themselves from the Carib- bean’s relentless summer rains, even though foreign governments and chari- ties have pledged billions of dollars for re- lief and reconstruction. The international spotlight returned to
Haiti this month when hip-hop star Wy- clef Jean announced his plan to run for president in November. His image as an outsider, born in Haiti but a longtime res-
ident of New Jersey, brought a wave of op- timism, especially among younger Hai- tians.
But Jean’s disqualification Friday on the grounds that he did not meet the resi- dency requirement left many worried that interest in Haiti will again fade de- spite the country’s tremendous unmet needs. The homeless are scattered in more than a thousand fetid camps; the Champ de Mars is far from being the worst. One tent city welcomes visitors as soon as they drive out of Toussaint L’Ouverture Inter- national Airport. Residents live jammed together — sleeping, eating, washing and waiting — a situation that has promoted a
haiti continued on A6 SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 2010 D.C. MAYORAL RACE
FENTY’S NEW APPROACH: HUMILITY Effort to make amends with voters is an unexpected move late in a tougher-than-expected campaign
by Nikita Stewart
focusing attention on health, safety infractions
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has been checking off a long list. An Advisory Neighborhood Commis- sion member in Brightwood. A deacon at a Takoma church. A community activist in Chevy Chase. They were identified by his reelection campaign as used-to-be, could-be sup- porters who have walked away from the 39-year-old mayor, turned off by the per- sistent perception that he is arrogant, that he is incapable of listening to oppos-
ing views and, worse, that he doesn’t care.
Acknowledging that he is in a tougher
reelection campaign than he ever fore- saw, Fenty is admitting failings in his bid for a second term and is modifying his pitch to D.C. residents at candidate fo- rums, in interviews and in a TV ad re- leased last week. Discreetly, he is also contacting voters to apologize for dis- missing their views and promising to be more inclusive if reelected. Over the past few weeks, he has called at least 100 of these activists and other voters. Rattled by the strong showing of chal-
lenger Vincent C. Gray, the D.C. Council chairman, in the Democratic primary race, Fenty has turned the campaign trail into a tour of contrition — a path sup- porters and advisers privately say he was not initially willing to travel. “We were so focused on getting results,
we . . . didn’t take into account people’s feelings and their desire to be heard and listened to,” Fenty said in an interview. “There’s a lot of people who right now may be on the fence or thinking about voting against me who we’ve probably done a lot [for] in their community. But because we’ve just been focused on doing
it rather than doing it with them, they don’t feel as good about it as I would have thought just by delivering the results.” The softening of his tenor is a sharp turn from just four months ago, when he opened a reelection campaign headquar- ters with a markedly unapologetic speech. Yes, he had “ruffled some feath- ers,” he said then. Yes, he had made some “unpopular decisions.” But, he said again and again, “we did it because it was the right thing to do.” Fenty, who sources say wrote his latest
fenty continued on A12
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RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST A boy bathes in a fountain clogged with plastic bottles on the Champ de Mars, across from the ruins of the National Palace in Port-au-Prince. In tent cities, no sign of ‘all that money’
washingtonpost.com/world
Post photographer Ricky Carioti’s trip to Haiti seven months after a historic earthquake devastated that country. See the conditions in the tent cities, the rebuilding effort and a slice of Haitian life.
Women at head of the table when U.S. engages in nuclear talks
Female officials’ leading role in negotiations reflects a quietly changing dynamic in the arenas of national security, foreign policy by Mary Beth Sheridan
W
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hen Rose Gottemoeller began ne- gotiating the new nuclear treaty with Moscow, the U.S. diplomat
got questions on the usual topics: missile defense, warheads, inspections. And then there was this one from the
Russian generals: “How come you’ve got so many women?” To the Russians’ astonishment, an ar- ray of American women faced them
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across the negotiating table. Gottemoell- er led the American team during the ne- gotiations, which concluded in March. Her deputy was Marcie Ries, another diplomat. The top two U.S. scientists were female. And helping to close the deal on the New START agreement was Ellen O. Tauscher, a State Department undersecretary and former congress- woman. The U.S. delegation reflected a little-
noticed shift in the tough-guy world of national security. Twenty-five years after White House aide Donald Regan fa- mously opined that women were “not go- ing to understand throw-weights,” Amer- ican females clearly get nuclear policy. They also run it. Or a lot of it, anyway. Women hold sen- ior nuclear positions at the Pentagon and White House. Search out the old office of Gen. Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan
Iran begins fueling its first nuclear power plant. A8 Printed using recycled fiber
DAILY CODE Details, C2
528 7
Project’s “Indispensable Man,” and you will find a woman. She is Karin Look, who helped oversee the dismantling of Libya’s nuclear weapons program. “From me to the secretary, it’s all
female,” said Look, a senior verification official whose chain of command ex- tends up to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The nuclear experts are indicative of an expanding cast of top female national
7 nuclear continued on A7
The Washington Post Year 133, No. 260
CONTENTS© 2010 IGallery: See a variety of images from
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