In the 134 years since a splinter group of European-born Orthodox Jews built the city’s first synagogue in downtown Washington, it has been turned over to three congregations; converted into a grocery store and a barbecue joint; slated for demolition, saved and dubbed a historic landmark; literally cut in half and torn from its foundation; and moved, inch by inch, to Third Street NW, where it was renovated and reopened as a museum in an area that has followed the city’s economic fortunes from blighted to prosperous to recession.

And now the Lillian and Albert Small Jewish Museum needs to be moved again — twice — for one more tiring and costly journey to enable three prime blocks, as if a miracle, to be added to downtown’s buildable area. The New York-based Louis Dreyfus Property Group struck an agreement this spring with the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington to help move the building so a deck can be added above an entrance to Interstate 395 south of Massachusetts Avenue NW, with high-rises and greenery where there is now only a recessed highway. Read more at www.washingtonpost.com

Stolen cars which are most costly to insurers Read more at www.economist.com

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq—Everything from helicopters to printer cartridges is being wrapped and stamped and shipped out of Iraq. U.S. military bases that once resembled small towns have transformed into a cross between giant post offices and Office Depots.

“We’re moving out millions of pieces of equipment in one of the largest logistics operations that we’ve seen in decades,” President Barack Obama said in a speech Monday hailing this month’s planned withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

The orderly withdrawal is a far cry from the testosterone-fueled push across the berm separating Kuwait and Iraq, when American Marines and soldiers pushed north in the 2003 invasion, battling Saddam Hussein’s army while sleeping on the hoods of their vehicles and eating prepackaged meals.

Each handover involves a painstaking process of inventorying everything on the base that the soldiers aren’t taking with them. Every item is assessed to see if it can be moved and if so, whether it is needed anywhere else in the country. Many of the materials – water tanks, generators, and furniture – are eventually donated to the Iraqi government. As of July 27, $98.6 million worth of equipment has been handed over, most to the Iraqi army and Interior Ministry.

More than 400 bases are being closed down or handed over to the Iraqi military. By September, the American military will have fewer than 100 bases in the country, down from a high of 505 in January 2008.

The drawdown has not been without hiccups. The military was embarrassed by a report in the Times of London that contractors did not properly dispose of environmental waste removed from U.S. military bases.

But U.S. commanders say they are addressing problems and are confident they will be able to meet the president’s deadline.

Demartino said that while going through shipping containers, buildings and offices at Joint Base Balad, soldiers have been stunned at the materials hoarded over the years in nooks and crannies all over the base.

The biggest surprise was the thousands of printer cartridges tucked away by soldiers worried they would one day run out.

FILE – In this July 3, 2010 file photo, Iraqi truck drivers use hand signals to help guide a U.S. military mine-resistant armored vehicle (MRAP) onto a flat bed truck set to leave Iraq at a staging yard at Joint Base Balad, north of Baghdad, Iraq. Everything from helicopters to printer cartridges are being wrapped and stamped and shipped out of Iraq in one of the most monumental withdrawal operations the American military has ever carried out as U.S. forces flow out of the country. The move is reversing, over the course of months, a U.S. military presence that built up over seven years and dug in so deep it once seemed immovable. More than 400 bases are being closed down or handed over to the Iraqi military, some closer to small towns with elaborate dining facilities serving tacos and crab legs and gyms with rows of treadmills. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File) Read more at www.boston.com

Breaking: Dancing in the Street Still a Bad Idea

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A breath of fresh air

The capital’s filthy atmosphere has improved at last

HEMMED in by mountains and volcanoes, Mexico City is the perfect smog-trap. At its altitude of 2,250m the air is already thin; on days when the toxic “cream”, as the familiar brown cloud of pollution is locally known, descends on the city, it is hard to breathe. Locals used to joke that the only life that could survive in the skies was jumbo jets.

Yet the smog is lifting. The average concentration of ozone, one of the most common pollutants, is about half its level in the early 1990s, when the air was at its dirtiest (see chart). In those days the national ozone limit of 0.11 parts per million was breached for at least an hour on nine days out of ten. Yet last year over half the days were below the cap. Joggers are back in parks and wildlife is airborne once more: a hummingbird regularly looks in on The Economist’s offices.

More recently, a car crackdown has helped: old bangers are checked twice a year for emissions, and all but the newest cars are forbidden from driving in the city on one day of each week. Every Sunday 22km of roads in the centre are roped off for bikes and pedestrians. From next year taxi drivers will be offered tax incentives to use electric technology. Mexico City’s pollution has been so severe that cleaning up the environment “is not a theoretical thing—it’s about life and death,” says Marcelo Ebrard, the mayor. Read more at www.economist.com

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The traffic police of Delhi, India, are using citizen submissions on a Facebook page to catch and ticket misbehaving drivers. The New York Times says officials have issued 665 tickets based on photographs of license plates posted to the Delhi Traffic Police Facebook page, which has almost 18,000 fans. The police didn’t initially solicit these photos, but citizens took the initiative to help the authorities because Delhi, a sprawling metropolis that’s home to more than 12 million people, has only 5,000 traffic cops. This method will only become more useful. The 2010 Commonwealth Games will take place in Delhi in early October, bringing a huge influx of travelers to the roads. Now the info panel at the Facebook () page says: “Managing traffic in Delhi during the Commonwealth Games will be a big challange as well as a great opportunity. Delhi Traffic Police cannot possibly succeed without the active cooperation, participation and support of all the citizens.” Read more at mashable.com

Since Mexico City doesn’t regulate protests, demonstrators can apparently block traffic whenever they please. In just the first three months of 2010, there were 740 street demonstrations, an average of about eight and a half a day. Read more at jalopnik.com