Guest List: Today’s Newsmakers

• Susanne Eisner. Arlington County’s human-services director must be doing something right in the programs she oversees—ranging from public-health services to aging and disability programs: The American Human Development Project just announced that Virginia’s 8th Congressional District is the healthiest in the country. At a time when health-care costs are spiraling, anything that keeps people from needing care is good health policy and good business.

• Paul Quander. We’d like to ask the District’s deputy mayor for public safety and justice a few questions after learning that furloughs of city employees left 200 emergency calls unanswered February 22. We know times are tight. But emergency services probably aren’t the place to start cutting costs.

• Pat Ronsteel. Speaking of tough times, the director of Frederick County Head Start is trying to use $250,000 in new budgets to talk Head Start teachers who have left for higher-paying jobs back into the program. That money doesn’t match the $2.3 million in funding the program lost earlier this month, and it remains to be seen what will happen as a federal contractor takes over. But 135 children are about to be cut from the program unless teachers come back.

• Mike Rizzo. The Nationals’ general manager turned the rivalry in the National League East up to a boil this weekend when he declared his hatred for division foes the Phillies in unprintable terms. We like the fire Rizzo is showing—we just hope the Nats can back it up with wins.

• Jeremy Bernard. Okay, we’d rather the new White House social secretary invite us to things, but as he returns from the US Embassy in Paris, we’ll host the first time around. Bernard’s the first man and the first out gay person to helm the White House’s social affairs—and he’s also a savvy event planner and fundraiser, just what the administration needs as it gears up for the 2012 elections.

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