ABCDE Partly sunny 65/48 • Tomorrow Showers 65/54 • details, B8 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2010


REPUBLICANS STILL HOLD STRONG EDGE


Survey shows continuing distrust of both parties


BY DAN BALZ AND JON COHEN Less than a month before the mid-


term elections, the political landscape remains strongly tilted toward Republi- cans, although Democrats have made modest improvements with voters since their late-summer low point, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Democrats have cut in half the GOP’s


PHOTOS BY MICHAEL S. WILLIAMSON/THE WASHINGTON POST Joan and Buddy Adkins ofHuttonsville,W.Va., lost son Jessie in a mining accident in July. Buddy Adkins is a disabled miner. Mine safety’s black hole Despite federal efforts to improve conditions,workers are still dying underground


BY DAVID A. FAHRENTHOLD AND KIMBERLY KINDY


In the weeks after the worst U.S.


coal-mining accident in 40 years, federal safety inspectors showed up repeatedly at a mine that snakes under the West Virginia hills: Loveridge No. 22. On July 26, an inspector cited the


mine for concerns that walls might crumble. He noted that this made 87 citations for problems with the roof or walls over two years. Three days later, a chunk of rock 16 feet long and 41/2


Aroadside memorial that honors the 29 miners who were killed at theUpper Big Branch mine inMontcoal, W.Va., still stands six months after the explosion.


feet high broke away


from the mine’s wall, according to a federal accident report. Miner Jessie Adkins, 39, was caught beneath it. He died before he got to a hospital. Adkins is one of nine men who have


died inside U.S. coal mines in the six months since the Upper Big Branch mine disaster inWest Virginia, in which 29menwere killed onApril 5.This string of accidents has revealed key shortfalls in a push by the Obama administration to improvemine safety. Federal regulators have increased


their inspections at 89 coal mines with poor safety records, including Lover- idge. They have also upped their use of orders to shut down mines until safety problems are fixed. But despite their efforts, five men were killed by heavy machinery; four


were killed by falling rock. They died in mines where safety citations had in- creased about 31 percent after theUpper Big Branch blast. For safety experts and miners’ fami-


lies, these recent disasters tell a familiar story: Enforcement efforts have been hampered by a backlogged appeals sys- tem and the lack of penalty for repeat offenders. The new federal crackdown still couldn’t ensure safe conditions underground. “The government should have seen


that the mine took care of their viola- tions,” said Adkins’s mother, Joan Ad-


Ya gotta hand it to ’em Business cards thrive in a digital age as paper goes on decline


BYMICHAEL S. ROSENWALD P


aper is in peril. Hardcover book sales, down; e-book sales, soaring. Magazine and newspaper circula-


tions are in decline. When was the last timeyouletyour fingersdothewalkingin the YellowPages? But one paper tool is thriving. It is


3.5 inches long and 2 inches tall. Its use dates to Victorian times, when respect- able people presented themselves with a formal flourish and a simple calling card. The digital revolution has swept away


many tree-based products, but the lowly business card, against all odds, is thriv- ing. Staples, theoffice supply chain, reports


with some surprise that demand for busi- ness cards has surged, with double-digit growth over the past three years. Vi-


staprint, a largeonlineprinting company, sellsmorebusiness cards thanalmostany other product. Office Depot also reports growing sales. “There is something incredibly genius


about the business card performing a single function very well,” said Ted Stri- phas, author of “The Late Age of Print” and a communications professor at Indi- ana University. “It works right every time.” Nearly every week brings a new app


designed to relegate those little rectan- gles of heavy-stock paper to the shredder. Bump, for example, is an iPhone app that lets users touch their phones to each other to exchange contact information. Facebook and LinkedIn help people cata- logue their contacts. But something about business cards feelsmore intimate


cards continued onA4


kins. “If they would’ve, maybe my son would still be here today.” The nine miners died in accidents at


eight mines, spread across a swath of coal country fromnorthernWest Virgin- ia to southern Illinois. The dead include Michael Carter, 28, a mine worker for only two yearswhen a slab of rock 10 feet thick fell on him in Kentucky, and veterans such as James Robie Erwin, 55, who was three years from retirement after 36 years underground. He was hit by a motorized vehicle


safety continued onA6


early-September advantage on the ques- tion of which party’s candidates voters say they will support on Nov. 2. They have also made small gains on the question of which party people trust to handle big issues, such as the economy and health care. Voters give Democrats a significant


edge as the party that would do a better job in helping the middle class, which has been a key campaign message from theWhite House in recent weeks. President Obama’s approval rating has rebounded to where it was in July


No opinion 2% Less 3%


SOURCE: Washington Post-ABC News poll THE WASHINGTON POST


after hitting an all-time low a month ago.Also, in some state races,Democrat- ic candidates have taken the lead over their Republican opponents or nar- rowed GOP advantages. Despite these apparent signs of im-


provement, the new Post-ABC poll sug- gests thatDemocrats remain at a signifi- cant disadvantage. Their hopes of hold- ing down losses depend more on the performance of individual candidates than on dramatic changes in the overall climate. The poll underscores how much sup-


port Democrats have lost among voters since 2006, the year the party recap-


poll continued onA4


Maliki-Allawi deal could end impasse


Government would represent Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite voting blocs


BY LEILA FADEL


baghdad — Key supporters of Prime MinisterNouri al-Maliki and representa- tives of his biggest rival are discussing a power-sharing deal that could break the nearly seven-month political impasse in Iraq and deliver the kind of inclusive government the United States has been advocating. Officials from the Sunni-backed slate


thatwonmore seats thanany other party in Iraq’s March 7 parliamentary elec- tions said Monday that they would probably lift their boycott of Maliki and support the controversial Shiite leader for another term if their candidate becomes president and the powers of that traditionally ceremonial job are


expanded. The potential deal would end a tense


period that has polarized the nation along sectarian and ethnic lines as political blocs traded accusations and violence remained steady in Iraq’s streets. With Maliki and secular Shiite Ayad


Allawi sharing power, the government would represent both Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite Arab votes. Much of the support for Allawi’s faction came from Iraq’s Sunni Arabs. Worried that political deadlock could


eat away at security gains made in the past two years, the United States has pushed for an arrangement between Maliki and Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc that would leaveMaliki as primeminister but put Allawi into another powerful role in Iraq’s government. Vice President Biden has called all the


major players in Iraq in recent days, according to a seniorObama administra-


iraq continued onA8


Developer of in vitro fertilization wins Nobel With ‘test-tube baby,’


parent or a family. “The impact on society has been


of scientific and ethical issues BY ROB STEIN


Robert G. Edwards’s breakthrough


development of in vitro fertilization, which led to the birth of the first “test-tube baby,” Louise Brown, in 1978, gave humanity the power to do what previously was considered the province of God: create and manipulate human life. In the ensuing decades, the pioneer-


ing techniques that won the British biologist a Nobel Prize on Monday have played a part in controversial scientific advances such as cloning and the cre- ation of human embryonic stem cells while redefining fundamental social roles such as what it means to be a


INSIDE


FASHION1 The runway of doom


The presentations in Paris are dark and dour, but the clothes? Not so much. C10


HEALTH&SCIENCE Defending cavemen


Scientists used to think Neanderthals were like our cousins, but they may be more like our brothers. E1


BUSINESS NEWS................A9 CLASSIFIEDS......................F1 COMICS..............................C7


EDITORIALS/LETTERS.....A14 FED PAGE.........................A13 GOING OUT GUIDE.............C4


ECONOMY&BUSINESS


Why doesn’t the recovery feel better?


Because of a gap between what the country can produce and what it is producing. A graphic explains. A9


OPINIONS


Anne Applebaum: Terrorism warnings without specifics are essentially useless. A15


KIDSPOST........................C10 LOTTERIES.........................B4 MOVIES..............................C6


OBITUARIES.......................B6 TELEVISION.......................C5 WORLD NEWS....................A7


HOUSING&FINANCE Foreclosures face a reckoning in court


Across the country, judges are beginning to question old foreclosures and dismiss pending ones. The trend may help homeowners who face evictions, but the rulings could also clog the market with unsold houses. A9


Aglobal impasse


World leaders are deadlocked over how to restructure the global financial system, and the chance for real reform may be slipping away. A12


Printed using recycled fiber


DAILY CODE Details, B2


5 3 4 5 


The Washington Post Year 133, No. 304


CONTENT © 2010 advance gave birth to a host


profound,” said Lori B. Andrews of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, who stud- ies reproductive technologies. “The cre- ation of a child outside the body for the first time has had scientific and personal implications far, far beyond the 4 mil- lion children who have been born through in vitro fertilization.” IVF has been crucial for human


embryonic stem cell research because the cells are obtained fromembryos left over at infertility clinics. At the same time, the techniques helped lay the groundwork for the 1996 cloning of Dolly the sheep, a procedure that could eventually be tried in humans. “In exploring the fundamental mech-


anisms of how human reproduction actually works, Edwards unleashed a social, ethical and cultural tsunami that he could not have predicted and I don’t think anyone at the time could have anticipated,” said Arthur Caplan, a Uni-


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Democrats make slight gains in poll


Q:Compared to past congressional elections


in your lifetime, do you see the 2010 elections as more important to the country, less important or about as important as past congressional elections? (among registered voters)


Same 26%


More 70%


versity of Pennsylvania bioethicist. “It opened so many doors that I’m not sure we even fully appreciate it today.” Edwards, who began his work in the


1950s and persevered with gynecologist Patrick Steptoe despite fears it would produce monstrously deformed babies and other problems, was motivated primarily by the desire to help infertile couples. Although the procedure re- mains controversial and is opposed by the Roman Catholic Church and others, it has become widely accepted. “His achievements have made it pos-


sible to treat infertility, amedical condi- tion affecting a large proportion of humanity,” the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden said in announcing the $1.5 million prize. “To- day, IVF is an established therapy throughout the world.” The procedure involves taking an egg


fromawoman’s ovaries, fertilizing it in a nobel continued onA4


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