text: Clare Badaracco is the Deputy General Counsel for Sungevity since 2014. Sungevity is working to help improve global community through affordable residential solar power. Clare overseas the law side of business development and focuses on commercial law. Clare was prompted into this profession by a true passion for people, as she always wanted to defend and help others. She attributes the key to her success to be her inner drive and positiveness. In the next 3-5 years, Clare wants to lead a legal group. The highlight of her career has been being able to build the department from 2-3 lawyers to 7. Throughout her time, she has acquired many hybrid traits and for that she is proud.
  HYDERABAD: Leading pharmaceutical companies in India are reacting to the imposition of price regulations by turning their attention to marketing in rural areas where drugs are consequently now more affordable.
  The previous government introduced a new drug pricing policy last year which led to price cuts on 348 drugs and earlier this year another 108 drugs were included in guidelines permitting the drug regulator to cut prices. Pharmaceutical firms are now looking to turn this state of affairs to their advantage.
  R Viswanathan, president of the Federation of Medical Representatives Association of India, told the Economic Times that there had been an increase in the number of medical representatives being recruited in rural and semi-urban markets.
  "The growing hiring is mostly by medium to large pharma companies which focus on medicines for lifestyle diseases in the therapeutic areas such as neurology, cardiac and diabetes," he said.
  There are some 200,000 medical representatives working across the country, with around a quarter now dedicated to rural markets. And one senior pharmaceutical executive thought that proportion was likely to grow further.
  "The number of rural representatives may even reach a third of the total field force in a few years going by the current hiring spree," he said.
  A second executive confirmed the new business direction. "We are viewing the drug price control order's stipulation on bringing down the prices as a business opportunity in the rural markets and we are pushing our brands aggressively in these markets, where consumption of medicines has grown of late due to lifestyle diseases," he said.
  Industry figures suggest that drugs sales in rural and semi-urban areas have been growing at more than 17%, compared with 11-12% in the urban markets. More than one third of the domestic annual sales now come from these rural and semi-urban markets.
  KPMG India also noted opportunities for Indian pharmaceutical businesses to compete overseas, with untapped markets in Japan, South America, the Middle East and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
  At Arts on the Horizon Theatre Company, they mean it when they say “theater is for everyone.” The interactive theater is the first of its kind in the country for children ages 0 to 6. Entirely nonverbal, the shows instead rely on movement, sound and live music to get kids excited about the show.
  Founded in 2009 by Michelle Kozlak, who also serves as the Producing Artistic Director, the goal is to get kids engaged. Kozlak started the company when her son was 2 and she couldn't find any place that had live theater for a very young crowd. “I've been involved in the theater since I was very young” Kozlak says, “and I always wanted this to be a part of my son's life.”
  Arts on the Horizon started doing educational programs in 2010 and produced their first onstage work in 2011. The company has only grown since then, garnering a 2016 Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Emerging Company.
  With four productions slated for this season around the region, it is a busy one for the theater. “This is a big season for us because this is the first time we are producing three brand new shows and we are going for a big age range.”
  The shows are designed with the comfort of kids in mind. “We are very much about making everyone feel welcome,” Kozlak says. “If your child needs to get up and walk around during the show, that is fine. We even allow snacks and drinks; whatever your child needs to feel welcome and comfortable at our theater.”
  The doors to the show don't open until shortly before the performance and a play space with toys and puzzles provides kids an opportunity to get some energy out before sitting down (or not) to enjoy a performance.
  The first show of this season is “Adventures with Mr. Bear” which is designed for theater goers ages 2 – 5. Following that is “Nutt and Bolt,” an adventure about robot rivals who learn that working together yields better results than working apart. The props, costumes and sets, which are entirely made out of recycled and upcycled materials, allow the audience to engage and interact with the show.
  In May of 2017, back by popular demand is their show “Point A to Point B” which was inspired by the “America on the Move” exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. The show, which features two actors, focuses on making a ball move from “point a” to “point b.” The ball keeps appearing, but it can never travel the same way twice! With an athletic risk taker and a calculating scientist, these two combine their skills to solve the problem.
  In the summer, Arts on the Horizon, will mount a production of “By the Seashore” which uses puppetry, movement and sound to transport audiences from as young as 0 – 2 to the shore. “We focus on the sky, the shore and the sea and we travel to them on the beach,” Kozlak says. “The puppets are entirely made out of objects, such as when we make a bird out of shovels.”
  Tickets for the approximately 30-minute shows start at six dollars. You can learn more about Arts on the Horizon and what they have to offer at artsonthehorizon.org.
  Did you know your local library has thousands of ebooks and audiobooks? You can borrow them, instantly, for free, using just the device in your hand. Users will need a valid library card from a participating system to use Libby, but the app makes it easy to download books and audiobooks for offline reading, or place the titles you want on hold. Little kids can access graphic novels or picture books with read-along audio. FREE Available for IOS and Android devices and Windows 10.
  PBS KIDS’ newest series, “Splash and Bubbles,” features a collection of adventures in four habitats in which children learn about the ocean alongside their “ocean friends” from the popular animated series co-produced by The Jim Henson Company and Herschend Studios. In the app, kids join Splash, Bubbles, Dunk and Ripple on a journey to the world’s undersea habitats, where they discover over 30 species of creatures that live there. Only $2.99 at the App Store for IOS devices.
  Through engaging rhymes and stunning pictures, little ones experience the majesty of the natural world and the thrill of hiking among giant redwoods. They also learn about the trees’ wild neighbors and how to count as they pick out one “soaring” eagle, two “brown and spotted” owls, all the way up to ten ladybugs on “teeny tiny feet.” Chad Wallace’s light-filled illustrations realistically portray the ecosystem of the northern California coast, while zooming in on intriguing details such as the red caps of acorn woodpeckers and the soft yellow bodies of banana slugs. In addition to the pithy poems of the text, Anthony D. Fredericks provides four pages of fun facts about the trees and animals, as well as playful STEAM-related activities.
  Washington author Brenna Maloney captures the affection, support and occasional tiffs of sisters in this delightful tale of three guinea pig siblings. When Philomena gets a glamorous pair of purple glasses, Audrey and Nora Jean are quick to nab their own. Soon the furry sisters acquire handbags, snacks and frocks in a frenzied attempt to keep up with one another. Nora Jean calls a plaintive halt to this – only to show up on the final page sporting a shiny necklace. Adding to the zany fun of it all are the photographs of the three fluffy girls in their accumulated bling and bric-a-brac. Sure to tickle the funny bone of anyone – kid or adult – with a sibling.
  Local author Barbara Carney-Coston draws from her own family history in this spellbinding novel of an 11-year-old girl’s journey from Croatia to Michigan in the late 1800s. Mihaela’s father had traveled ahead of the family, to work the copper mines in the new country, but when he is felled by a painful eye disease, the girl, her two younger brothers and their mother know they must bring healing herbs to him as quickly as possible. The journey is long, though, and when the herbs are lost, it’s up to Michaela to discover the means to cure their father. Carney-Coston’s immigration story and additional material – historic photos, family recipes, map and annotated bibliography – may prompt young readers to ask questions about their long-ago relatives when extended family gathers round the Thanksgiving table.
  The following are among requests scheduled for action Jan. 6 by the Alexandria Board of Architectual Review, Old and Historic District Panel. The meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m., in council chambers at City Hall, 301 King St. For further information, call 838-4666.
  FAIRFAX ST. N., 212 -- By Richard Schoppet to add two dormers to the front of a two-story wood town house and to construct a third-floor rear addition.
  KING ST., 726 -- By R.C. Bhalla to replace a picture window and black tile on the first floor of a two-story brick building wth brick and smaller windows, and to erect an awning over the first floor of the building.
  KING ST., 1008 1/2 -- By Ludmila Raskova to hang on a two-story brick building a 29-by-36 inch hanging wood sign that would read "European Skin Care By Ludmila."
  LEE. ST. S., 626 -- By Samuel L. Parker to construct on the rear of a two-story brick town house a one-story, 10-by-20 foot brick addition and to install a dormer with a French door on the rear of the second floor.
  LEE ST. S., 728 -- By James and Bonnye Manfredi to construct on the rear of a two-story brick town house a three-story, 21-by-21 foot, wood addition, and to construct a brick driveway with a brick retaining wall on the front of the town house.
  QUEEN ST., 607 -- By Charles Richards to construct on the rear of a 1 1/2-story brick town house a two-story, 15-by-10 foot, brick addition.
  ROYAL ST. N., 112 -- By William Dougherty to hang on a five-story brick building a 8-inch by 30-foot sign of plastic lettering that would read "Appraisals, Gems, The Gem Lab, Estates, Sales."
  UNION ST. S., 103 -- By James Tischler to hang on a three-story brick building a 24-by-36 inch wood sign that would read "Pfister Swiss Chocolatier, Imported Fine Chocolates," and to erect a U.S. flag and a flag of Switzerland.
  WASHINGTON ST. N., 107 -- By Richard Hetherington to hang on a three-story brick building a 24-by-24 inch wood sign that would read "A.H. Moore, Men's and Women's Footwear, 549-7860," and an 8-inch by 5-foot sign of plastic lettering that would read "A.H. Moore."
  It was a bleak evening last week and chilly inside the abandoned, unheated propulsion research hangar at the David Taylor Research Center. Outside, the rain was coming down in buckets. Inside, representatives from Anne Arundel County, the Navy and a private firm huddled together for warmth and saw only the silver lining.
  After seven years of negotiation, the three parties had just signed a $250 million deal to transform the shuttered naval research center across the Severn River from Annapolis into a high-tech office park. Work on the redevelopment project could take 12 years to complete.
  "We will be good stewards of this land," said Maurice Tose, a telecommunications executive whose company will be the first to move into the site, before accepting a large key to the base given to him by Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens (D).
  The deal was a political victory for Owens, who has dealt with three different secretaries of the Navy since taking on the crusade in 1998 to transform the research center.
  "I'm happy because we already have it on the tax rolls," Owens said. "We have it assessed at $16 million."
  Howard Kelsey, the Navy's representative at the ceremony, just seemed glad to have the base out of his hair.
  "There were times when we had disagreements, but it was never contentious," Kelsey said in a speech to the gathered officials.
  The audience laughed at the diplomatic understatement. "Well, maybe serious disagreements," Kelsey added with a chuckle.
  Anne Arundel's first county executive and political patriarch, Joseph W. Alton Jr., chose a late October day to formalize his May-December romance with a county-employed computer programmer, Brenda Donaldson.
  Alton, 83, married Donaldson, 39, on Oct. 23 in California. The wedding was his fourth and her first.
  Alton told the Annapolis Capital that the two met through Donaldson's father, who was, and still is, a good friend of Alton's. The couple could not be reached this week. They were away on a 10-day honeymoon.
  Old Mill senior forward Anthony Dailey is 6-foot-2 and realistic. If he plays basketball in college, he expects to be a guard.
  At the University of Maryland, forwards Tahj Holden and Travis Garrison are 6-10 and 6-8, respectively. Guards Steve Blake and Drew Nicholas are listed at 6-3, about the average height of Anne Arundel County's tallest post players.
  Most Anne Arundel County public schools, like so many high school leagues, lack a true "big man," a center who stretches at least 6-8, pulls down rebounds and is the focal point of his team's offense and defense.
  While such players dominate the college game, the lack of height this season in Anne Arundel County has acted as an equalizer, quickening the game pace and making the small forward position more critical.
  "In Anne Arundel County, I can count on my one hand the players who are 6-8 or above," Annapolis Coach John Brady said. "I like coaching versatile players. I wouldn't want a 6-10, 300-pound player that was a plodder. I like quickness."
  The last time Broadneck Coach Ken Kazmarek remembers a true center in Anne Arundel County was when he had 7-foot center Boris Beck, a foreign exchange student from Germany in the 1991-92 season. The norm is more like the Bruins' 6-4, 160-pound forward Alex Denny.
  "I'm really skinny as well as being undersized," Denny said. Because of that, he said, "you just have to concentrate on your fundamentals and outplay anyone who is bigger than you. A lot of rebounding is technique. It's frustrating to get beat by a more athletic player. . . . It's just concentration."
  At Arundel, sophomore forward James O'Rourke said life would be a lot easier if the Wildcats had a 7-footer to help out. "Our team is kind of weak with rebounds, so someone big down there would help a lot," said O'Rourke, one of the tallest players on the team at 6-2.
  Instead, he said, "we try to work hard and box out and do the best we can with what we have. I've never really had to play as big other years as I have this year because I'm only a sophomore and there are so many juniors and seniors who are bigger and more experienced."
  The equal size matchups have contributed to the unusual parity in the county this season: Broadneck surprised Southern, Chesapeake defeated Severna Park and, most recently, South River defeated Arundel on a three-point buzzer beater. Without a dominant force controlling the inside game, smaller players are working harder. The fight under the basket is often more intense, with teams playing up-tempo, driving to the basket and drawing fouls.
  Small, athletic guards are often the teams' leading scorers. Glen Burnie 5-8 junior guard Mitch Guest, Chesapeake 5-10 sophomore guard Kerwin Porter and Old Mill sophomore guard Alex Bucholz each lead their teams, and most of the coaches prefer it that way.
  Even the bigger players in the county, like 6-6 Severna Park junior center Jim Ledsome and Glen Burnie 6-7, 330-pound center Brandon Albert, look to get the ball to their smaller teammates.
  For the first time in 17 years, Glen Burnie Coach Mike Rudd has a dominant inside presense in Albert. Although his contribution is clear, it forced Rudd and the Gophers to change their usual fast-paced style.
  "That's the way we like to play -- we're up and down the floor; we like to press," Rudd said. "If you have a large person, they have a hard time keeping up with that pace. Brandon struggles with it. The key to having an unbelievably successful team is a true point guard and a center. I've never had that. They're few and far between."
  Even 6-6 senior forward Josh Johnson, who led Annapolis to a 69-59 win against Old Mill on Friday, would be a small forward in college. Still, players such as Johnson and Southern 6-6 senior center Adrian Gross give their teams an advantage. While they may not have the height colleges are looking for, they play like post players, facing the basket and leading the county in rebounds.
  "You have to work harder than the next man," said Dailey, who went one-on-one with Johnson on Friday. "If it's a bigger man, you have to keep a body on him and keep him away from the basket. It's hard, don't get me wrong. Josh went up on me and I kept my hands straight up but he drew the contact. When you're bigger, you can do that."
  Smaller teams such as Old Mill often lean on perimeter shooting with the hopes of opening up inside opportunities. As a team, the Patriots shot seven three-pointers against Annapolis but couldn't stop Johnson from scoring his usual 18 points.
  "We don't have that go-to guy in the middle to get the ball in his hands," Old Mill Coach Greg Smith said. "You have to work so much harder in there. They bust their butts to try and compensate for their size. That's why I think we'll be competitive -- at least our kids are athletic and they can mix it up with some of the kids who are a little bigger than them."
  Senior forward Joshua Johnson of Annapolis, left, tries to hold his position against Old Mill's Tion Jackson. At 6-feet-6, Johnson is one of the bigger players in the county, even though he would be a small forward among the college ranks.Tion Jackson brings the ball upcourt for Old Mill last Friday against Annapolis. The small Patriots often have to rely on outside shooting.
  The new state law mandates that transgender people use the public restroom that correspond with the gender on their birth certificate.
  April 11, 2016 Supporters of the legislation gather outside the North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh. Gerry Broome/AP
  This week began when McCrory, looking pale from a virus, emerged from the executive mansion to tell reporters that he would not discuss the raging national controversy over the state’s new law rolling back local government protections for gay and transgender people — which he has been defending since he signed it three weeks ago.
  McCrory referred to the matter only as the issue in which “I know there are people out on the streets.” After a few minutes listing his state budget priorities, he cut himself off and concluded: “I’m going to crawl back and continue to get rest.”
  Then, Tuesday, McCrory backpedaled, issuing a surprising call for changes to the law — known as House Bill 2 — and signing an executive order to give state employees more nondiscrimination protections.
  “After listening to people’s feedback,” he declared in a video posted on YouTube, “I am taking action to affirm and improve the state’s commitment to privacy and equality.”
  McCrory’s delicate dance shows how a Republican governor, elected four years ago by mobilizing a coalition of suburban centrists and rural conservatives, is struggling to navigate the wildly shifting contours of the modern-day GOP as he readies for a tough reelection campaign this fall.
  The national intra-party battle over what it means to be a conservative — with billionaire Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas offering near-opposite versions — is affecting state and local party officials such as McCrory, who are finding it difficult to gauge the mood of their supporters.
  HB2 drew national attention for forcing people to use only the bathroom that matches the gender on their birth certificate. It also drew fire for provisions that restrict an individual’s power to sue for discrimination in state court and block local gay rights protections.
  Many Republicans here felt that HB2 would energize evangelical voters who have been skeptical of McCrory, especially after he vetoed a religious-exemption bill a year ago that allowed court magistrates to opt out of administering gay marriages. The overwhelmingly Republican legislature overrode him on that measure.
  But, in recent days, McCrory was caught off-guard by the backlash over HB2 from another pillar of the GOP — corporate America. PayPal last week scrapped plans to open an office that would have employed 400 people, citing the unfriendly business climate. On Tuesday, Deutsche Bank said it will no longer create 250 jobs in Cary. Several groups have canceled conventions, and the state may lose next year’s NBA All-Star Game.
  Tuesday’s executive order served as an acknowledgment that McCrory is still trying to find the right political balance.
  The governor does not want evangelicals to think he caved to pressure from big business, but he also wants to convince his friends in the country-club wing of the party that he understands the law overreached.
  A transgender woman gathers likeminded North Carolinians in Charlotte to protest the state's controversial new law that restricts transgender people from using the bathroom that corresponds with their chosen gender. (Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)
  “In a presidential year, you have to run a base campaign and run a campaign based on appealing to the middle,” said Chris LaCivita, McCrory’s chief political strategist. “To fold up the tent and ignore a portion of the electorate — moderates in the suburbs — is ceding defeat.”
  Both sides agree that, considering this year’s unpredictable dynamic, North Carolina is effectively a 50-50 state.
  Barack Obama won here in 2008. He lost the state to Mitt Romney in 2012. But surveys show Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton either tied with or narrowly ahead of Trump and Cruz.
  Polls show that McCrory is embroiled in a neck-and-neck race against his challenger, Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper.
  Criticism has grown inside the state as well. University of North Carolina system President Margaret Spellings, the education secretary under President George W. Bush whose past criticism of same-sex relationships became a controversy when her UNC appointment was announced, warned that the law could endanger her system’s federal funding, hurt alumni giving and make recruiting the best talent harder. Bruce Springsteen canceled a Greensboro show last week.
  Prior to Tuesday’s announcement, McCrory allies had become increasingly alarmed that the legislation would make it harder to tout a declining unemployment rate and other good economic news.
  “The governor can [now] say he took action to fix it,” LaCivita said. “But he’s not budging on the core issue — bathrooms.”
  McCrory, 59, was mayor of Charlotte for 14 years before getting elected governor. Perceived as a centrist, he got 48,000 more votes out of Mecklenburg County, the most populous in the state and home to Charlotte, than Romney. Obama won the county by 22 points. McCrory won it by one point.
  Cooper has seized on the law, using it to activate his liberal base, to woo moderates and to raise money from the deep-pocketed LGBT community.
  Cooper has refused to defend the measure in court, where it faces challenges from the American Civil Liberties Union and other liberal groups.
  Cooper, 58, has taken on banks, utilities and pharmaceutical companies during his 15 years as attorney general. In the wake of HB2, he’s positioning himself as more friendly to business than McCrory, who was once an executive at Duke Energy.
  “I believe that North Carolina should help businesses when they need help and stay out of the way when they don’t,” Cooper said.
  It is ironic that McCrory has become the face of HB2. In many respects, he was dragged to the center of the controversy by the state’s conservative, GOP-led legislature, which was swept into power in 2010 and has engineered a major shift to the right in a state with a long tradition of centrist politics.
  McCrory was reluctant to hold a special session to invalidate the Charlotte ordinance. After he declined to call for one, legislative leaders used a parliamentary tactic to call themselves back into session.
  Then, the legislature went further than his staff anticipated. Intended to be a “bathroom bill,” it wound up — among other things — preventing cities from setting a minimum wage higher than $7.25 an hour.
  Instead of trying to negotiate to water down the bill, McCrory signed it hours after it passed. He knew the legislature would probably override his veto anyway — as it did with the religious-exemption bill last year. Another veto would have angered the grass-roots activists who he needs ginned up for the fall while also making him look weak.
  Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, argued that the bathroom bill — if properly framed — will help McCrory with suburban women, not just rural voters.
  “Any time you deal with this stuff, you sometimes have some cleanup work,” Woodhouse said of the proposed changes. “I personally think the politics will work in our favor. . . . Moms want to be able to send their 11-year-old daughters into the bathroom and not worry about grown men being in there.”