HEALTHCARE

Courtesy the office of Rep. Jack KingstonTRAMPOLINES SHOULD NOT BE WASTED on the young. This is what we discovered while researching adult gymnastics classes for this week's Fit section in today's print edition. At a class at Preston Gymnastics in Gaithersburg, we saw a mom of three do a triple flip, and we decided that this has to be the awesomest workout ever. Another student, former personal trainer Mani Hassan, agreed: "It's great for weight loss, stamina, speed. It's the best thing out there."

» RUNNING FOR CONGRESS: If you see an awful lot of sneakers around Capitol Hill today, it could be that staffers are squeezing in some last-minute training for tomorrow's ACLI Capital Challenge. Tons of politicians, executive-branch folk, journalists and their minions will be racing a 5K on Anacostia Drive. And even if they're not all speed demons, they've got some entertaining team names. We're particularly partial to US News & World Report's "It's Hard Out Here for a Gimp." Another team is gonna be led by Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., whose amateur baseball player's tushie is pictured here in a photo provided by his office. Kingston happens to be featured in our "Running for Congress" profile in today's print edition (which you can find out on the racks or download in PDF format at the top of this page).

Continue Reading "Bits from Fit: A Workout With Bounce" »

Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington PostIT DREW ONLY ABOUT 10,000-15,000 people to the National Mall, on the small side in the context of this city's history of protests. But organizers of Sunday's rally to raise awareness about the situation in the Darfur region of western Sudan did manage to gather demonstrators of every creed, color and political stripe to join in their call for action. The Rally to Stop Genocide also featured actor George Clooney, who said of the mass killings:

If we turn our heads and look away and hope it will all go away, then they will and an entire generation will disappear.
While countless people, including Clooney, came to D.C. this weekend for the White House Correspondents Association dinner and its after-parties -- something we'll discuss in greater detail later this morning -- more out-of-towners journeyed to the nation's capital to speak out on the Darfur issue. Although the buses have left town on this Monday, May 1, 2006, the terrible situation in Darfur remains. On to the news.
Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post

» New Hospital Plan Still Has Faint Pulse
» Storm Surge From Strong Hurricane Would Trump Isabel Levels
» Five Years Later, Still No Answers in Chandra Levy Case

WAIT, THE NATIONAL CAPITAL MEDICAL CENTER isn't dead yet? After D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams expressed doubts about the plan for Howard University and the District to team up to build a new medical center on the site of the old D.C. General Hospital, the project appeared to be on shaky footing. But the D.C. Council is still moving forward with legislation that's related to the $400 million hospital proposal, The Post's Elissa Silverman reports. Up for vote tomorrow: Approval of the allocation of more than $200 million from D.C.'s settlement with tobacco settlements for projects including the hospital proposal.
» "Hospital Plan Still In Play on Council" [WaPo]

FORTUNATELY, most of the Washington area is far enough above sea level not to need a New Orleans-style levee system to protect it from rising floodwaters. But there is plenty of low-lying land along the Potomac River that is prone to flooding, including Old Town Alexandria and the Georgetown waterfront. The AP, via The Washington Times, reports that new simulations predict disaster for much of the Chesapeake Bay if a Category 4 storm impacts the Chesapeake at high tide. Although places like Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis, lie hundreds of miles away from where a hurricane might make landfall, water from the Chesapeake and its river estuaries can be pushed up onto low-lying areas, something that happened during Tropical Storm Isabel in 2003. If a stronger storm gets it just right, an 18- or 20-foot storm surge could hit Baltimore, 10 feet higher than Isabel's powerful inundation.
» "Storm Surges Seen Rising" [AP via WT]

REMEMBER CHANDRA LEVY? It's been five years since the Bureau of Prisons intern left her Dupont Circle apartment and never returned. Her body was discovered in a remote part of Rock Creek Park near Broad Branch a year later and the mystery has yet to be solved, despite plenty of attention and initiative by investigators. Longtime FBI agent Brad Garrett is probing a number of different angles, The Post's Allan Lengel and Petula Dvorak report. Says Garrett of the possibilities:

Do I lean toward a stranger or somebody who knew her? ... I do, but I'm not going to voice that opinion. But having said that, I don't have a strong leaning. New information can either change or adjust what you're doing.
In the meantime, Levy's family has launched a new Web site aimed at helping to find Chandra's killer.
»"After 5 Years, Levy Case Yields Plenty of Theories but No Break" [WaPo]

» MORE LOCAL NEWS, as always, is available at washingtonpost.com and on Washington Post Radio.

» TODAY'S POLL CENTER QUESTION: Should the national anthem be sung in Spanish?

Vote at the top of this page and see how your fellow commuters weighed in.

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