Yes, comedian Ali Wentworth is turning into her mother. “She’s not as out there as I am,” Wentworth told us about her mom, Muffie Brandon Cabot , Washington hostess, former White House social secretary and font of pithy one-liners. “But I definitely have her values and morals, even though I talk a funny game.” Read full article > >

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Ali Wentworth on growing up in D.C., her social secretary mom, and the wrong way to deliver a thank you gift to Donald Rumsfeld

He could have been the main character in one of the many books stacked wall to wall in his Parisian book store. George Whitman , 98, lived a large life — even though most of it from 1948 onwards, was spent in a tiny store across the river from the Notre Dame. Whitman, the owner of Shakespeare and Company bookstore, died in his apartment above the store Wednesday morning. Read full article > >

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Shakespeare and Co. owner George Whitman dies (Video)

NEARLY ALL THE Republican presidential hopefuls are now on record as wanting to build a 2,000-mile-long fence on the U.S. border with Mexico — a wildly expensive, staggeringly wasteful project that would do little to deter illegal immigration. The candidates have coalesced around this chimera even though illegal crossings, as measured by apprehensions by U.S. Border Patrol along the Southwestern frontier, are at their lowest level in 40 years. Read full article > >

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Editorial:
Republicans are fencing with the truth on immigration

DENISON, Iowa Nine months ago, on a frigid winter night, a small group of local Republican leaders gathered at Cronk’s Cafe in this small Iowa town to talk about the presidential campaign. They had a dim view of Newt Gingrich that night. Arlan Ecklund was outspoken in his criticism of the former House speaker. “I think he’s polarizing,” he said then. “I don’t think he’s electable.” Today, he has changed his mind. “The problems that face our nation are greater than they’ve ever been,” he said. “I believe he’s the one candidate who doesn’t need on-the-job training. . . . I think he is electable, even though he has some baggage.” Read full article > >

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Iowa activists reevaluating Newt Gingrich’s candidacy

Open season for the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program has been deceptively dull. With the average increase for health insurance programs at a modest 3.8 percent for 2012, complaints by workers also have been modest, even though their salaries are frozen through the end of next year. Perhaps they remember this year’s 7.3 percent hike. Read full article > >

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Open enrollment for federal health benefits starts quietly

A man who married in 2003 is suing a photographer, citing omissions and demanding the re-creation of his wedding, even though the marriage ended in divorce.

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Suit Against Photographer Seeks Re-creation of Wedding After Divorce

Have you ever heard the expression “From one acorn, a mighty oak can grow.” That means that things of lasting value often start small, even though the final results may not be seen for years. A very cool volunteer project called Growing Native is like that. Volunteers contribute a small amount of time collecting seeds. But their goal is a long-term one: saving local forests and the Potomac River. Read full article > >

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Fun seed collection project for kids

Once every season or so, the TV critic finds himself in the tricky spot of recommending a new series even though he knows most of you are not going to like it very much. HBO’s “Enlightened,” which stars the achingly talented Laura Dern as a corporate drone in the throes of a disastrous midlife crisis, is just that kind of show. It is certainly not the comedy that the network’s ads have touted it as being; nor is it a straight drama with a clearly defined protagonist or particularly gripping plot developments. Nothing about it will cheer you up. Read full article > >

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HBO’s ‘Enlightened’: Portrait of a crazy lady

The Nobel Prize committee said it would stick with its decision to award a Nobel in medicine to Dr. Ralph M. Steinman for advances in immunology, even though he died on Friday.

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One of 3 Chosen for Nobel in Medicine Died Days Ago

Tech analysts rushed to make comments on Amazon’s latest additions to it Kindle Line — particularly the Kindle Fire tablet the company unveiled at a Wednesday event in New York. Overall, analysts seem to think the Kindle Fire will do well in the tablet space, and may likely emerge as the leading Android tablet. But this first edition shouldn’t be enough to unnerve Apple, even though it should take a glance in its rearview mirror. Read full article > >

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Kindle Fire a hit with analysts, though most say it’s no iPad killer

German Morales dressed for work in tattered painter’s jeans and a stained white T-shirt, even though he didn’t know when or whether he would paint again. He tucked a brush into his back left pocket and a rag into his right. He walked outside to the utility truck he had bought with the last money in his family’s emergency fund and called the only employee he had left. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything,” he said. Read full article > >

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Virginia house painter fights to keep business as recession becomes a way of life

Kandula is a regular elephant Einstein. The youngest pachyderm at the National Zoo flashed a moment of insight when he rolled a cube under a tasty branch, stood on the cube and stretched his trunk to grab a treat. Never before had scientists seen such an “aha!” moment in elephants, even though the animals recognize themselves in mirrors, drop logs on fences to get to food and even dig wells. Read full article > >

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National Zoo elephant has an ‘aha’ moment

HAVANA — Hundreds of thousands of Cubans marched through Havana and other cities on Sunday to mark May Day in a demonstration touted as a vast show of support for economic changes recently approved by the Communist Party — even though the people holding placards and shouting slogans haven’t seen the details yet.

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Cubans march in support of economic changes, despite lack of details of what they are

The Obama administration and its allies have been seeking a country, most likely in Africa, where Col. Muammar Gaddafi could legally stay if he’s forced out of Libya, even though the leader has marched through Tripoli’s streets in recent days and…

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White House Seeks Gaddafi Refuge

D.C. police officers still do not have one of the most basic tools for catching drunk drivers, even though more than a year has passed since city officials promised to develop a new breath test program after errors and tainted court cases doomed the old one.

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Year after pledge, D.C. police still don’t have new breath-alcohol test program