David McCullough and his wife, Rosalee, join his former student Cathy Merrill Williams (left) at the American Concil of Trustees and Alumni award ceremony Saturday evening. Photographs by Zaid Hamid

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) is an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to encourage academic freedom, excellence, and accountability at America’s colleges and universities. Since 1995, it has worked with alumni, donors, trustees, and education leaders across the United States to endow the next generations with a high-quality education that will prepare them to be informed citizens.

Most Powerful Women Debbie Dingell, Julie Rogers, and Mary Kay Henderson. Photograph by Erik Uecke

The Washingtonian honored the 100 Most Powerful Women featured in the October issue at a luncheon at the elegant St. Regis hotel. The honorees were encouraged to bring as a guest a woman with talent and tenacity whom Washingtonian should watch in the future.

PricewaterhouseCoopers was the presenting sponsor of the luncheon, and managing partner Chris Simmons served as the keynote speaker. Washingtonian partnered with Vital Voices, an international organization dedicated to identifying, investing in, and bringing visibility to women around the world.  Guests had the opportunity to appear on a mock Washingtonian cover, thanks to Event Digital Photography. Lexus, the automotive sponsor, provided a sleek RX 450h, which was parked out front for attendees to admire. Floral arrangements by MultiFlor decorated the venue, which was equipped with tables and linens from Select Event Rentals. Music inside and out was provided by Elan Artists, while Event EQ coordinated the audio and visual elements of the afternoon's presentations.

We alerted you to the fact that five cheetah cubs were born in Fort Royal, Virginia, at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute earlier this month, but now there are pictures! Can you say, "Aww"?

The five cubs, which were born on May 28, underwent their first weigh-in this week. The cubs weigh an average of two pounds each."When I was weighing the last cub, he was being a very tough little guy," said Adrienne Crosier, SCBI cheetah biologist in statement from the National Zoo Park. "We’re already starting to see differences in their dispositions and look forward to watching them grow and learning all we can from them."

In Green Giants, a feature in our May 2011 issue, The Washingtonian honors five individuals who protect our environment by finding local food treasures, by sending kids into the wild, and by building and living in ways that benefit us all. This year's winners include LEED-certified housing constructor Peter Guida, former CIA director R. James Woolsey, Casey Tree's president Barbara Shea, Poste restaurant chef Robert Weland, and Newton Marasco Foundation founder Amy Marasco Newton. The award recipients were honored with a reception Monday night.  

To read more about the work of our Green Awards winners, pick up a copy of our May 2011 issue, on stands today!  

Tim Hetherington. Photo courtesy Outpost Films.

I first met Tim Hetherington, who died Wednesday alongside Pulitzer Prize-winning Getty Images photographer Chris Hondros in Libya, in the fall of 2007, at a New York event hosted by the Frontline Club, a British society for journalists covering conflict overseas. Hetherington had just won the World Press Photo competition for his Vanity Fair photograph of an American soldier in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, and he was on crutches following a fall down a mountain in the middle of the night, which had resulted in a broken ankle. Hetherington and his Vanity Fair collaborator, author Sebastian Junger, screened footage the pair had captured from Afghanistan for ABC News—images of graphic conflict that were seen by over 22 million Americans. “I don’t want to preach to the converted,” Hetherington said later about the project. “I don’t want to reach intellectuals who already know what the story is. I want to reach the road sweeper who has ABC News on in the morning, or the mom who’s taking her kids to school. In some ways I think that has much more utility.”

Hetherington agreed to talk to me for a class project, and we met in a brunch place on the Upper West Side where he told me about his life. He was born in Liverpool, England, and had what he called “an unusual upbringing,” living in 12 different cities with his family before he was sent to Stoneyhurst, a Jesuit boarding school. “It was a strange place,” he said, “a real Jesuit prison camp. Hard weather, and they used to beat you in that private schoolboy tradition.” He studied English, Latin, and Greek at university, and worked for a while publishing and editing children’s books. After his grandmother died and left him a few thousand pounds, Hetherington took two years off and traveled alone to China, India, and Pakistan, staying mostly out of contact with family and friends. When he returned to England, he felt dissatisfied with writing as a medium. “I’d had a lot of experiences, and I was suffering from culture shock,” he said. “I had a lot of things inside me that I needed to express, and I was having difficulty expressing them with words. I said to myself there and then that I wanted to get involved in more visual culture.”

Between swooning over the picture of the sweet couple that Danie Smallwood submitted to last month’s “Caught in the Moment” contest and planning for our stuffed-to-the-brim Valentine’s Day Guide (be sure to check it out for restaurant specials and dozens of great date ideas), it seemed only fitting to focus on falling in love for our February photo contest. Are your friends and family sick of staring at all your mushy photos? Send them our way. Proposals, first dates, hand-holding, wedding pictures, Eskimo kisses—if the picture’s got anything to do with love, sweet love (in Washington, of course), we can’t wait to see it. PS—We’re also on the lookout for love stories for a special Valentnine’s Day feature. If you’re better at writing this stuff down than capturing it with a camera, be sure to share those as well!

In December, we ran a Snowmaggedon photo contest, and readers submitted hundreds of awesome pictures from last February's storm. Today, we're showing you thirteen of our favorite runners up (view the finalists here) because the current weather situation is just one big, grey-sky tease. Let's get to the white stuff already!