After pushing through some of the most sweeping and contentious environmental measures in years, the Obama administration has slowed action on several policies as it calculates what it should undertake before the end of the term. Read full article > >

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Obama administration slows environmental rules as it weighs political cost

District police on Sunday morning were investigating a death in a park near the Lincoln Memorial that officials believe was a suicide. U.S. Park Police were initially handling the investigation after a U.S. Park Service employee made an emergency call early Sunday. Park police handed the investigation over to District police just before 10 a.m., D.C. police spokesman Officer A. Clay said. Read full article > >

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Police investigate death near Lincoln Memorial

Life is tough these days at NASA, the space agency that can’t launch anyone into space. It wrestles with basic questions: Where to go? How to get there? When? And for what purpose? It killed a plan to return to the moon and now is building a jumbo rocket to go to . . . well, it’s unclear. Maybe to an asteroid: a rock to be named later. Read full article > >

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NASA’s science missions bring the universe into sharper focus even as agency struggles with manned flight

They are two of Washington’s architectural and historical gems: The Old Post Office Pavilion on Pennsylvania Avenue and the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building on the Mall. The good news is that both are slated for renovation and what the bureaucrats like to call “re-purposing.” The bad news is that, in both cases, the process is headed in the wrong direction. Read full article > >

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What D.C. doesn’t need: a Trump Tower

U.S. farmers will plant the most acres in a generation this year, led by the biggest corn crop since World War II, taking advantage of the highest agricultural prices in at least four decades. They will sow corn, soybeans and wheat on 226.9 million acres, the most since 1984, a Bloomberg survey of 36 farmers, bankers and analysts showed. The 2.5 percent gain means an expansion the size of New Jersey as growers target fields left fallow last year and land freed up from conservation programs. Read full article > >

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Farmers to plant most acres since 1984, prompted by higher crop prices

Just weeks ago, Muscovites were suffering through an unseasonably warm winter. They were feeling your pain, Washington, and it was brutal. Much of Russia spends more than half the year in wintry conditions. Boots go on in October and come off in April. Gym class at school means cross-country skiing in the nearest park. A well-cared-for baby requires frequent outings in the coldest temperatures. There’s nothing like fresh air. Read full article > >

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In Russia, cold is a matter of degree

W hat in the world is the matter with the Republican Party? This is an election year when pretty much everything should be going the GOP’s way. A Democratic president is facing the worst reelection environment in a generation. The conservative base is fired up to defeat him and should be riding high after securing the largest GOP House majority since the 1940s. Looser campaign finance restrictions have unleashed the ability of the party’s wealthiest donors to spend unlimited amounts. Read full article > >

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Election 2012: Republicans united on goal — beat Obama — divided on how to get there

DURHAM, N.C. — To have any chance against 10th-ranked Duke on Saturday, Maryland’s front court had to do a better job against Mason Plumlee than it had three weeks earlier, when the 6-foot-10 forward paced Duke’s 74-61 victory at Comcast Center with a game-high 23 points . Read full article > >

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Maryland vs. Duke: Plumlees lead Blue Devils past Terrapins

In the opening weeks of the Republican presidential race, Rick Santorum came across as a prickly, exasperated figure on the fringe of the debate stage, spending much of his airtime complaining about the lack of attention from the moderators. Read full article > >

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Rick Santorum has honed his image along the GOP campaign trail

BEIRUT — The daylight assassination of a top general in a residential neighborhood of the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Saturday underscored the growing militarization of the uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, and also perhaps its increasing militancy. Read full article > >

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Top general assassinated in Damascus

Nearly 20 years ago, former Virginia governor L. Douglas Wilder announced that he wanted to create a museum that would tell the story of slavery in the United States. He had the vision, the clout, the charm to make it seem attainable, and he had already made history: the grandson of slaves, he was the nation’s first elected African American governor . Read full article > >

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Two decades later, donors wondering what happened to plans for slavery museum

The swampy heat swaddles everything like a wet diaper. The coffee-colored Sekonyer River looks tempting to cool off in, but then there are the crocodiles and the water snakes. Somewhere out there, too, are rumors of headhunters — and not the K Street kind. Read full article > >

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Visiting orangutans in the wild in Borneo’s Tanjung Puting National Park

BEIRUT — Fears of an as-yet-undefined Middle Eastern war are darkening the horizons of a Middle East that only a year ago was celebrating the fall of dictators, the ascent of people power and the promise of a new era of democracy. Read full article > >

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Threats of war cloud hopes for Middle East

For most of three quarters on Friday, the Washington Wizards played with enough ambition and resolve that on other nights may have been sufficient to produce a victory. The opponent in this case, though, was reigning Eastern Conference champion Miami, so an incomplete performance instead yielded a 106-89 loss before a Verizon Center crowd of 20,282 that booed the Heat’s LeBron James at virtually every turn. Read full article > >

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Wizards vs. Heat: Dwyane Wade torches Washington as Miami rolls to 106-89 win at Verizon Center

For most of three quarters on Friday, the Washington Wizards played with enough ambition and resolve that on other nights may have been sufficient to produce a victory. The opponent in this case, though, was reigning Eastern Conference champion Miami, so an incomplete performance instead yielded a 106-89 loss before a Verizon Center crowd of 20,282 that booed the Heat’s LeBron James at virtually every turn. Read full article > >

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Wizards vs. Heat: Dwyane Wade torches Washington as Miami rolls to 106-89 win at Verizon Center