1. A change of seats led to saved lives
The news flashed around the
world, and legions of fans stam-
peded to the zoo’s panda cams.
Keepers quickly began swap-
ping out the cubs so that Mei had
to care for only one at a time. The
first cub was born at 5:35 p.m.;
the second cub arrived at
10:07 p.m.
The second cub was retrieved
by Thompson and keeper Marty
Dearie shortly after it was born. It
was placed in an incubator, exam-
ined, fed and returned to the den
at 6:30 a.m. Sunday. Then the
older cub was retrieved.
Both cubs squealed loudly, a
sign of good health. “A screaming
baby panda makes us all happy,”
said Don Neiffer, the zoo’s chief
veterinarian.
Zoo officials said pandas that
have twins often are unable to
care for both babies, and one
generally dies. The swapping
process, which can occur every
few hours, increases the likeli-
hood that both cubs will survive.
PANDA CONTINUED ON A5
BY MICHAEL E. RUANE
Laurie Thompson was sitting
at her desk in the National Zoo’s
giant panda house Saturday
night when she heard a noise
from the video monitor showing
Mei Xiang, who had just given
birth.
It sounded as though Mei was
in labor, but she had delivered a
cub about four hours earlier.
Thompson, a biologist, looked at
the monitor, and there, wiggling
and squawking on the floor, was a
second cub.
Thompson jumped out of her
seat, ran into a colleague at the
door and yelled, “We have two!”
On Sunday, the National Zoo
was trying to cope with the joyous
number, and with the task of
caring for two cubs the size of
large mice, and their mother.
It was only the third time that
giant panda twins have been born
in the United States. In one of the
other cases, the twins did not
survive.
Americans’ camaraderie
visible as they describe
assault on shooter
gion of Honor, France’s highest
decoration. But on Sunday, amid
gilding and tapestries in the U.S.
ambassador’s residence in Paris,
they stayed humble. Only chance
led them to change their seats,
one said — not heroism.
“We decided to get up because
the WiFi wasn’t so good on that
car,” said Sadler, 23, a college
student. “We were like, ‘We have a
ticket to first class. We might as
well go sit in first class.’ ”
TRAIN CONTINUED ON A7
they sat elsewhere, said Anthony
Sadler, one of the three vacation-
ing childhood friends.
They have been lauded as he-
roes by President Obama. French
President François Hollande on
Monday will award them the Le-
BY MICHAEL BIRNBAUM
paris — The three American
friends who helped foil what
could have been a mass shooting
on a packed high-speed train
bound for Paris started their jour-
ney in a different car, they said
Sunday, underlining how easily
their triumph could have been a
tragedy.
When they got on the train
Friday in Amsterdam, they could
not find their first-class seats, so
Beirut protests Corruption and political
dysfunction prompt demonstrations in
Lebanon, threatening further instability. A7
Star power A bid to change the name of a
Fairfax County school honoring a Confederate
general gains Hollywood support. B1
METRO 1
Shaping a law
New D.C. regulations for
personal trainers could
be model for country. B1
STYLE
Dixville niche
A New Hampshire corner
fights to maintain its
first-vote tradition. C1
IN THE NEWS
THE NATION
Americans say there is
too much emphasis on
standardized testing in
public schools, a new
national poll says. A3
Senate Minority Lead­
er Harry M. Reid (D­
Nev.) endorsed the nu­
clear deal with Iran, a
key boost that provides
continued momentum
for preventing Congress
from blocking President
Obama’s pact. A3
THE WORLD
Health problems af­
flicting many of the
13,000 Ebola survivors
in Africa have galva­
nized global and local
health officials to find
out how widespread ail­
ments are and how to
remedy them. A7
THE REGION
The District is conduct­
ing its first­ever census
focused solely on the
elusive homeless youth
population. B1
A Maryland training
program places teachers
in the Chesapeake Bay
environment to help
students with gradua­
tion requirements. B1
THE WEEK AHEAD
MONDAY
German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, French
President François Hol­
lande and Ukrainian
President Petro Porosh­
enko meet to discuss
setbacks in Ukraine.
President Obama
speaks before the Na­
tional Clean Energy
Summit in Las Vegas.
TUESDAY
Egyptian President
Abdel Fatah al­Sissi
travels to Russia for
talks with President
Vladimir Putin.
New home sales for Ju­
ly are estimated at a
516,000 annual rate.
WEDNESDAY
Durable goods orders
for July are expected to
drop 0.4 percent.
THURSDAY
Gross domestic prod­
uct for the second quar­
ter is expected to rise
3.2 percent.
Arab League foreign
and defense ministers
gather in Cairo to dis­
cuss a joint Arab mili­
tary force.
FRIDAY
Personal income for
July is expected to
match the 0.4 percent
increase posted in the
previous month.
The Conference of
Presidents of Major
American Jewish Or­
ganizations and the
Jewish Federations of
North America host a
webcast featuring Presi­
dent Obama.
INSIDE
BUSINESS NEWS.........................A8
CLASSIFIEDS...............................D8
COMICS.......................................C6
LOTTERIES...................................B3
OBITUARIES.................................B5
OPINION PAGES.........................A12
TELEVISION.................................C4
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(DETAILS, B2)
DAILY CODE
CONTENT © 2015
The Washington Post / Year 138, No. 262
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JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST
“I knew it was going to be dangerous,” says Ken Bellau of his 2005 boat rescues, “but had no idea I was going to be so alone.”
10 YEARS AFTER KATRINA
The only hope for so many
A hero: Ken Bellau
hopped into a boat and
saved more than 400
who were trapped in
the sweltering hell
of a flooded city
BY MARK GUARINO
IN NEW ORLEANS
Ten years later, the recovery is so strong in
certain parts of the city that visitors might
never know what happened. But for people
like Bellau, Katrina remains close.
The 10th-generation New Orleans native
spent three weeks on the water in the chaotic
aftermath of the hurricane, coaxing people
into his boat, dodging their bullets, rescuing
their pets and breaking into their houses for
supplies when the city was dark, dangerous
and uninhabitable. His efforts have been
credited with saving more than 400 lives, a
feat that prompted the Presbytere, part of the
Louisiana State Museum, to put his boat on
permanent display outside its main entrance
in Jackson Square.
“Every day he went out there, he was
KATRINA CONTINUED ON A14
Student
loan
criticism
mounts
U.S. OVERSEES DEBT
OF $1.2 TRILLION
Middlemen, interest
rates are questioned
‘We have two!’: At zoo, joy and
surprise over panda births
‘Ground zero’
for the heroin
crisis: 2 days,
25 overdoses
“He seemed like he was ready to fight to the end. So were we.”
Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, center, describing how he and childhood friends Anthony Sadler, left, and Army
National Guard Spec. Alek Skarlatos overpowered and then tied up a gunman on a high-speed train en route to Paris.
A national
crusade
vs. Planned
Parenthood
Cruz’s lead role in push
to end federal funding
could boost 2016 hopes
FRANCOIS MORI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The man, nearly 90 years old, feebly made
his way into Ken Bellau’s fiberglass fishing
boat. Once onboard, he quietly asked Bellau
to check on his grandson. “He’s right over
there,” the old man said.
Bellau agreed, motoring slowly down the
street. He didn’t see anybody needing rescue.
He was hot and anxious, and had already
been in the water too long that day in 2005.
Then he spotted the body, a teenage boy
face-down in the water. The old man had
watched the boy tread water, panic when
something caught his leg, drown and then
float in silence for days. The old man made
the sign of the cross, and Bellau hit the motor
and moved on.
In New Orleans, moving on is what survi-
vors of Hurricane Katrina are expected to do.
BY DANIELLE
DOUGLAS-GABRIEL
The Education Department
has grown into one of the biggest
money lenders in the country,
overseeing a $1.2 trillion portfo-
lio of student debt rivaling the
entire loan business of JPMorgan
Chase with a staff roughly the size
of the National Weather Service.
But instead of fulfilling a presi-
dential mission of remaking and
simplifying a confusing and cor-
rupt system that enriched finan-
cial firms at the expense of tax-
payers — and ultimately the na-
tion’s college students — serious
problems have emerged.
The government hired con-
tractors to service and collect the
loans, but state and federal au-
thorities have accused the com-
panies of ignoring borrowers’ re-
quests for help, misleading them
about their rights and mismanag-
ing their payments. And while the
EDUCATION CONTINUED ON A10
BY KATIE ZEZIMA
AND TOM HAMBURGER
Sen. Ted Cruz, who has assidu-
ously courted evangelicals
throughout his presidential run,
will take a lead role in the launch
thisweekofanambitious50-state
campaign to end taxpayer sup-
port for Planned Parenthood — a
move that is likely to give the GOP
candidate a major primary-
season boost in the fierce battle
for social-conservative and evan-
gelical voters.
More than 100,000 pastors re-
ceived e-mail invitations over the
weekend to participate in confer-
ence calls with Cruz on Tuesday in
whichtheywilllearndetailsofthe
plan to mobilize churchgoers in
every congressional district be-
ginning Aug. 30. The requests
were sent on the heels of the Texas
Republican’s “Rally for Religious
Liberty,” which drew 2,500 people
to a Des Moines ballroom Friday.
“The recent exposure of
Planned Parenthood’s barbaric
practices . . . has brought about a
pressing need to end taxpayer
support of this institution,” Cruz
said in the e-mail call to action
distributed by the American Re-
newal Project, an organization of
conservative pastors.
ThepushcomesasCruzseeksto
grab a decisive edge in a crowded
CRUZ CONTINUED ON A5
BY LENNY BERNSTEIN
washington,pa.—Thefirstcall
cameat7:33p.m.lastSunday:Two
people had overdosed on heroin
in a home just a few hundred
yards from the station where fire-
fighterswereawaitingtheirnight-
ly round of drug emergencies.
Six minutes later, there was an-
other. A 50-year-old man had
been found in his bedroom, blue
fromlackofoxygen,emptybagsof
heroin by his body.
At 8:11, a third call. Then an-
other, and another, and another
and another.
By 8:42 — 69 minutes after the
first report — a county of slightly
more than 200,000 people had
recorded eight overdoses, all be-
lieved to be caused by heroin.
There would be a total of 16 over-
doses in 24 hours and 25 over two
days. Three people died. Many of
the others were saved by a recent
decision to equip every first re-
sponder with the fast-acting anti-
dote naloxone.
The toll wasn’t from a supply of
heroin that had been poisoned on
its journey from South America to
southwestern Pennsylvania. Nor
was there an isolated party where
carelessjunkiesmiscalculatedthe
amount of heroin they could han-
HEROIN CONTINUED ON A4
ETIENNE LAURENT/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY ETIENNE LAURENT/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY