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Tuesday, February 9, 2010
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November 06, 2009 - WASHINGTON (AP) The Food and Drug Administration is warning several companies it says are still selling banned flavored cigarettes to U.S. consumers online. The agency sent letters to more than a dozen Web-based companies directing them to stop selling the products and asking the companies to describe in writing what action they have taken.
WASHINGTON (AP) The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations has condemned yesterday's shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, though it's not known whether the shooter was Muslim. The group issued a statement condemning the shootings as a "cowardly attack." They say no political or religious ideology could ever justify or excuse such violence.
WASHINGTON (AP) The biological father of one of two girls whose bodies were kept in their adopted mother's freezer in Maryland has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the District of Columbia and the Board of Child Care of the United Methodist Church. Michael Muhammad's lawsuit seeks $75 million in damages.
WASHINGTON (AP) First lady Michelle Obama asked middle-school children about science during a visit to the Energy Department. She visited the department yesterday, praising agency employees for their role in energy security.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
November 06, 2009 - DUNDALK, Md. (AP) Baltimore County police say two men stabbed a Baltimore city police officer outside a strip club, and one has been arrested. Authorities say 23-year-old Lucas Baumeister has been charged with attempted first-degree murder and is being held without bail.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) Hundreds of University of Maryland students protested at the school's flagship College Park campus against the removal of a popular diversity officer. University officials say they would not reverse the decision regarding Cordell Black but would work with them on other demands.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
November 06, 2009 - RICHMOND, Va. (AP) A Richmond day care worker has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter and child neglect in connection with the death of toddler who was left alone in a van. Keishawn L. Whitfield is scheduled to be sentenced January 8th in Richmond Circuit Court. He was convicted of the charges today.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) A Crozet man will spend more than seven years in prison for running a Ponzi scheme that bilked more than $5 million from more than 30 investors. John Mark Donnelly was sentenced today in federal court.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) Two hotels and a restaurant in Virginia have received AAA's top rating. The travel group gave its Five Diamond Award to The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, The Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Virginia and The Inn at Little Washington's restaurant.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
November 06, 2009 - One-third of Virginia's watermen have offered to sell their licenses back to the state.
It's part of a buyback program intended to ease pressure on the Chesapeake Bay crab. But only a fraction of the 665 watermen who bid will likely be leaving the water because they far exceed the almost $7 million dollars in federal disaster aid bankrolling the buyback.
Over the next few weeks, officials will sort the bids with an eye on retiring the most productive watermen. Virginia stopped issuing crabbing licenses a decade ago because of a steady decline in the shellfish.
Kavitha Cardoza reports...
November 06, 2009 - Nidal Hasan, the alleged gunman in the Fort Hood shootings, had many connections to the D.C. area, and that has left many locals trying to reconcile what they knew of him with what happened--that includes those who gather at a Muslim community center Hasan frequented.
Dr. Asif Qadri, founder and director of the medical clinic at the Silver Spring Muslim Community Center, first got to know Hasan about a year ago. When he found out Hasan was a doctor as well he asked him to volunteer at the clinic. Hasan's work at the military kept him from doing so, but the two became friendly.
"He never talked bad about the war, or Walter Reed, or the military or anything like that," Qadri says. "He was an American guy." Qadri says Hasan seemed grateful for the education he received in the military, and proud to serve.
Imam Mohamed Abdullahi says the same thing. "He used to pray and come and I never see him arguing with anybody," the Imam says. "Sometimes he used to come in his military uniform."
Dr. Qadri says Hasan's motives in the shooting are as much a mystery to the people here as they are to law enforcement, or anyone watching news coverage. But personally, Qadri says he cannot believe Hasan's religious faith was behind the attack. "The only motive personally I can think of, is something medically must've gone wrong. Whatever triggered it,I don't know," he says.
More than 700 people pray at the Silver Spring Muslim Community Center each day.
Jonathan Wilson reports...
Nidal Hasan often prayed at the Silver Spring Muslim Community Center.
Courtesy of: WAMU 88.5 FM
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November 06, 2009 - By Elizabeth Wynne Johnson
Monday came and went without a Senate vote to extend unemployment benefits.
On Tuesday, Chairwoman Barbara Boxer gaveled the Senate environment committee to order--more precisely, the Democratic half of the committee. Republicans had decided to boycott the markup of Boxer's climate change bill.
Senator George Voinovich of Ohio led the show of no-faith, saying lawmakers should wait an extra five weeks for a so-called "completed" economic assessment.
"We had the EPA here and they showed us the truth," says Boxer. Boxer points to years of study on the effects of carbon emissions, already yielding thousands of pages of data and countless Congressional hearings.
"When you face a situation where there's an issue that is not real, you have to be honest and say it," says Boxer. "They don't have a real issue."
Captain Boxer vowed to continue the voyage of the U.S.S. Climate Bill Markup, with or without Republicans on board. And indeed the Dems-only committee voted to pass the bill on to its next port in the storm.
Meanwhile, Tuesday came and went without a Senate vote to extend unemployment benefits.
There was, however, an election. The following morning, there was a predictable partisan pattern to the patter. Congressman and GOP leader Eric Cantor said people voted in favor of Republican ideas.
"The vote also represented a rejection of the economic policies being pursued here in Congress and by the White House," says Cantor. "And frankly for a better way."
Democrats like Tom Perriello warned against reading too much into the Party's losses. The GOP has Perriello's seat very much in its sights for the mid-term Congressional elections.
"I don't think this has any implications from next year," says Perriello. "I think people in my district, they appreciate hard work, they appreciate results and that's what we are trying to do and focus on."
In the meantime he's raised more than $700,000 dollars for that campaign. On Wednesday, the Senate actually voted on a bill to extend unemployment benefits. It passed unanimously.
House Democrats, on the other had, remained a long way from unanimity on health care. Henry Cuellar represents a Texas district with one of the highest rates of uninsured residents in the country. More than 30 percent. He's not yet convinced this particular health care bill is the right way to help them.
"You don't just give everything away, you have to make sure you have a system that works well," says Cuellar.
Even as some Dems climb on board, others stand ready to jump ship. Fiscal conservatives like Allen Boyd of Florida have major doubts this trillion-dollar plan will dramatically cut health care costs over the long run.
"If you can't reduce or put something in the bill which bends that cost curve reduces that number or gives some hope of lowering those costs, then I won't support it," says Boyd. "And I don't think we are there yet. I think we have a ways to go."
Leadership announced plans to vote on the bill this Saturday. Could this weekend come and go without a vote on the health care bill? Stay tuned.
House Minority Leader John Boehner unveiled the Republicans' alternative plan: "our approach is a step-by-step approach to make the current system work better."
It would allow private companies sell insurance across state lines. It would not stop companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
Next week, the House will either be home recovering from a health care bill hangover, or members will be continuing the legislative bender for another few days. The Senate convenes Monday to debate spending plans for military construction. A Health subcommittee panel will take up the matter of paid sick days for people with the H1N1 flu virus.
November 06, 2009 - WASHINGTON (AP) A classmate of the Fort Hood shooting suspect says Maj. Nidal Hasan was an outspoken opponent of the U.S. war on terror and called it a "war against Islam."
Dr. Val Finnell was a classmate of Hasan's at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. Both attended a master's in public health program in 2007 and 2008.
Finnell says he got to know Hasan in an environmental health class. At the end of the class, students gave presentations. Finnell says other classmates wrote on subjects such as dry cleaning chemicals and mold in homes, but Hasan's topic was whether the war against terror was "a war against Islam." Finnell described Hasan as a "vociferous opponent" of the terror war.
Finnell says Hasan told classmates he was "a Muslim first and an American second."
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
November 06, 2009 - The suspect in the Fort Hood shooting, Army Major Nidal Hasan, has roots in the Washington area.
Hasan was born in Arlington, Virginia and studied at Virginia Tech. He received his medical degree from the military's Uniformed Services University in Bethesda. For six years before reporting for duty at Fort Hood, the 39-year-old Army major worked in psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
He also attended a local mosque, the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. Imam Faizul Khan says he knew Hasan for more than 10 years. Khan says they mostly discussed religion and says Hasan was quiet, reserved and never seemed controversial.
Muslim groups say they've received threatening phone calls and e-mails in the wake of the shootings and are urging calm, saying this was the act of one man.
Natalie Neumann reports...
November 06, 2009 - As co-founder of Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence, Chris Farris tracks certain statistics from the Metropolitan Police Department.
"There was a 15 percent increase in hate crimes against the GLBT community from 2007 to 2008. If you stopped counting at the end of September of this year, there would still be a 33 percent increase in 2009 from 2008," says Farris.
Yet in spite of the rise, "there is consensus within the law enforcement community that hate-related incidents go unreported," says Albert Herring, who works in the U.S. Attorney's Office, the agency that prosecutes hate crimes.
Both Farris and Herring are encouraging anyone with information on hate crimes to call the D.C. Hate Crimes Hotline at 202.727.0500.
Rebecca Sheir reports...
Representatives from the US Attorney's Office address members of D.C.'s GLBT community.
Courtesy of: Rebecca Sheir
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November 06, 2009 - During World War II, 140,000 African Americans joined the armed forces and were sent overseas to fight. The story of how they were welcomed by British civilians after facing discrimination at home is captured in a new documentary, 'Choc'late Soldiers from the USA: Race, Sex and Rhythm.'
The film will be screened at the Ring Auditorium of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden on Tuesday, November 10th. The filmmakers will be on hand, along with some of the veterans who served. Click here to watch a trailer of the documentary.
Stephanie Kaye has more on war, segregation... and romance.
Negro soldiers draw rations at the camp cook house at their station in Northern Ireland. Detachments of Negro troops were among the latest arrivals with the American forces in Northern Ireland. Ca. August 1942.
Courtesy of: The National Archives
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November 06, 2009 - Gov. Martin O'Malley has signed an executive order to enlist extra medical personnel to administer swine flu vaccinations, if needed.
The order will help boost emergency medical personnel and other licensed medical professionals who volunteer to be part of the state's swine flu response effort to give vaccinations. Now, emergency medical personnel are allowed limited legal authority to vaccinate each other, not the general public.
Kavitha Cardoza reports...
November 06, 2009 - Montgomery County's elected leaders will fight an opinion from the Maryland attorney general that the county did not comply with a state law on school funding requirements.
On Wednesday, attorney general Doug Gansler said Montgomery and Prince George's counties did not properly make the same level of funding for the schools as was provided the year before.
Montgomery County Council president Phil Andrews and county executive Ike Leggett said the county could face penalties, simply because it could not maintain one of the state's highest local contributions to education because of the recession. And the two said they are prepared to sue the state, if necessary.
Andrews says the state could withhold an estimated $30 to $40 million in funding for schools in Montgomery County as a result of the opinion.
Bill Redlin reports...
November 06, 2009 -
(November 7-December 31) CHICKEN PROJECT The Cosmopolitan Chicken Project breaks through the shell separating science from art at Conner Contemporary Art gallery in Northeast D.C., opening tomorrow and running through the end of the year. Live chickens...sculpted chickens...painted chickens...taxidermy and blown glass all pay homage to the farmer's feathered friend in surprising and eye-catching works.
(November 7 & 8) LIFE, RHYTHM, MOVE The Life, Rhythm Move Project busts out a hip-hop extravaganza at Dance Place in D.C. tomorrow and Sunday. The award-winning ensemble combines various dance styles with hip-hop and spoken word. The show, Retrofuturistic plays on time travel and science fiction within the idea that "Men are from Mars and women are from Venus."
(November 7) FREEDOM FESTIVAL Country music superstars host the American Freedom Festival at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia, tomorrow night at 7:30. The festival is a tribute to veterans, honoring their sacrifices and raising money for soldiers' families.
From Belgium, the Cosmopolitan Chicken Project plays with genetics and "kopies" like this one at Conner Contemporary.
Courtesy of: Koen Vanmechelen
November 06, 2009 - Astronauts aboard the International Space station encouraged students in D.C. and Maryland to study math and science to one day take people even further into space.
Six astronauts bobbed on screen in a meeting room at the U.S. Department of Education, as hundreds of rapt students looked on. The students came from D.C.'s Math Science and Technology Public Charter School, and Maryland's Parkland Magnet School for Aerospace Technology. They lined up to ask questions like "how does water technology relate to providing cleaner water on Earth?" and they got some interesting answers.
Traveling five miles a second, astronaut Nicole Stott explained that some space technologies relate directly to Earth's problems: "we are self-sustaining up here with our solar power, recycling our urine and other fluids to provide clean water."
The students also got some orbital encouragement from NASA administrator Charles Bolden, who told them they needed to study math and science to develop better engines to send humanity even further into space.
Lauren Lincoln is a senior at Washington Mathematics Science Technology Public Charter school. Lincoln said she thought one of the most important messages students received was "that you can still be cool but very smart at the same time, that's very important for kids my age now, they think you can't be cool and smart at the same time."
Astronauts regularly show off their coolness to students across the country, as part of their Teaching from Space program.
Sabri Ben-Achour reports...
NASA astronauts speak to a group of D.C. and Maryland students.
Courtesy of: Sabri Ben-Achour
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November 06, 2009 - In early October, a Kindergarten student boarded a bus he wasn't supposed to board and ended up wandering the streets alone and crying. Since then, bus drivers have left two other kindergarten students without their parents.
Superintendent Morton Sherman said he has asked bus drivers to sign a document acknowledging they know the policies. He's also created a system that identifies all Kindergarten students with stickers, and he's formed a group of parents and administrators to make other recommendations.
Michael Pope reports...
November 06, 2009 - November is national American Indian Heritage Month and just yesterday, President Obama met at the Interior Department with native American leaders at the largest such gathering in history.
That history includes the taking of their ancestral lands through what's known as the "Doctrine of Discovery."
Jesse Dukes reports...
November 06, 2009 - Smoking marijuana is more popular per capita in D.C. than other parts of the country and if you do smoke here, you're more likely to get busted.
The Marijuana Policy Project -- which supports the legalization of marijuana used data compiled by the Metropolitan Police Department.
Researcher Jon Gettman says white people are twice as likely to be arrested, and for African-Americans, the odds are even worse.
"Past year marijuana use is reported at 15.7% of the overall population. Past month use is at about 9.7% that's compared to roughly 10% and 6% for the rest of the nation. So the high arrest total in DC reflects the fact that marijuana is very popular."
He says arrests for possession of marijuana have nearly doubled in the District since 1991 and African-Americans are about eight times more likely to be arrested than whites.
"I suspect it has to do with other enforcement priorities- that marijuana arrests happen to be incidental to other policies like street sweeps or deployment of officers to different parts of town based on crime rates. And there also may cultural differences in that it may be that more African Americans are out in public in posession of marijuana than whites are."
The MPD would not comment. A spokesperson hung up on this reporter during one of many calls.
Jamila Bey reports...
November 06, 2009 - There will be a new People's Counsel in the District. WAMU has learned the official advocate for utility consumers will not be re-nominated by Mayor Adrian Fenty. Since 1991, Elizabeth Noel has served as the People's Counsel. For six straight terms, she was appointed to represent District residents in disputes with utility companies, push for lower rates, and help educate consumers about energy efficiency.
The Office of the People's Counsel is an independent agency of the D.C. Government. The office also represents D.C. consumers before federal regulatory agencies.
The Mayor's office has not said who they want to replace Noel or why she wasn't re-nominated.
Patrick Madden reports...
November 06, 2009 - A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that in 2007, almost 15 percent of high school students in the District had missed at least one day of school within the previous month because they felt unsafe in the building or in transit- that's the highest rate in the nation.
Metropolitan Police Department officers patrol regular city schools, but not charter schools. And with more than a third of students now attending charter schools, that difference is starting to stand out.
Kavitha Cardoza reports....
November 06, 2009 - One of the District's most famous roads is getting a facelift: Pennsylvania Avenue. Some call it America's Main Street for the famous residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and for its role in parades, processions, and protests.
For years, District leaders, such as Mayor Adrian Fenty, have wanted to renovate the 7-mile stretch of road and revitalize some of its surrounding neighborhoods. Fenty says an $18 million grant in federal stimulus money coupled with about $12 million in taxpayer funds -- have made it possible to finally begin work on the avenue. The project covers about two miles of Pennsylvania Avenue. Construction could begin as early as this month.
Patrick Madden reports...
November 06, 2009 - DC Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff says she'll issue a written ruling sometime next week on whether teachers in D.C. who were laid off, should be reinstated to their former positions. At an all day hearing, attorneys for the Washington Teachers Union said the almost 300 teachers and support staff were laid off because of a "manufactured deficit."
George Parker, president of the WTU, says this was not a Reduction in Force or RIF, rather, a "mass discharge" camoflagued as a RIF. "Becasue to do that they could circumvent the union countract that could guarantee teacher's due process rights."
But attorneys for DC Public Schools insist it was a RIF, and that the lay offs happened only because of budgetary pressures. And they say under RIF rules, they don't have to go to arbitration.
Lisa Ruda, the Chief of Staff for DCPS says if these teachers were put back on the rolls, other teachers or support staff would have to be laid off for a balanced budget.
Kavitha Cardoza reports...
November 06, 2009 - Local Muslims are urging for calm after the shooting at Fort Hood.
As Matt Bush reports, they're also wary of possible retaliatory crimes...
November 06, 2009 - Every few weeks we head out into the wilderness with naturalist Mark Garland. This time, we head to the top of the Chesapeake Bay. Speaking with David Furst, Mark focuses on the winged visitors returning after their summers in the Arctic.
November 06, 2009 - A grassroots group in Washington is working to boost trust between the GLBT community and the agency charged with prosecuting hate crimes.
Chris Farris co-founded Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence, or GLOV, last year, after a friend was attacked in Adams Morgan.
"You could look underneath one of his eyes and see a shoeprint. Someone hated him so much just for being gay they could stomp into his face, and they got away with it," says Farris.
The U.S. Attorney's Office is responsible for prosecuting such hate crimes. So last night Farris invited its members to meet with GLOV supporters, including Rickey Williams
"We rely on you all to hold and capture violent people. And that's just not happening," says Williams.
"It isn't the case that police are arresting people and bringing them to the US Attorneys Office and were just turning them loose out the back door. If we don't have the evidence, we have no choice," says Herring.
Albert Herring, an assistant U.S. Attorney, says a lack of evidence led to last months ruling in the case of Robert Hannah. The 19-year-old was charged in last year's beating death of local gay man Tony Hunter and received a 3-month prison sentence.
Chris Farris says the ruling is a call for the GLBT community and USAO to team up.
"We have to do something out of this that is positive and then begin the roll-up-our-sleeves kind of work that's going to be necessary to reduce these crimes," says Farris.
Rebecca Sheir reports...
November 06, 2009 - Before a health care overhaul bill can make it to the House floor tomorrow - the Rules Committee has the all-important task of cementing the final framework of the debate.
Elizabeth Wynne Johnson reports...
November 06, 2009 - Election Day is still having ripple effects across the region. Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney joins WAMU's Morning Edition Host Matt McCleskey to talk about some of the region's top stories...
November 06, 2009 - Whether it's tornadoes, fires or floods, a new natural disaster "toolkit" is helping artists prepare for emergencies.
In the words of Craig Nutt, "Emergency preparedness is possibly the only topic in the world that is both terrifying and boring."
So he and others with CERF -- the Craft Emergency Relief Fund -- created the "Studio Protector," a wall-hanging kit. It's full of lessons learned by artists who lost their works in Hurricane Katrina. The kit has pull-out pamphlets, a spin-the-wheel disaster chart and emergency phone numbers.
Carol Barton is a paper engineer in Glenn Echo, Maryland. She helped make sure the toolkit would appeal to the artistically inclined. "It's colorful, it's got dramatic imagery on it, disasters hitting! It's really eye-catching."
But it could be useful for NON-artists as well. "This can help you when your computer crashes." CERF's Meg Ostrum knows of what she speaks. Three weeks ago a leaky shower would up flooding two floors of her house. "And becuase I had the Studio Protector, I knew just what to do."
CERF plans to market the kit to art supply stores and city arts organizations.
Stephanie Kaye reports...
An image of the studio protector.
Courtesy of: Craft Emergency Relief Fund
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