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November 09, 2009 - WASHINGTON (AP) Workers at the National Zoo had to euthanize a wild deer that jumped into an enclosure with two female lions that fatally injured the animal. Officials say the deer apparently entered the zoo from nearby Rock Creek Park and then leapt into the lion enclosure.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
November 09, 2009 - WHEATON, Md. (AP) Serial sniper John Allen Muhammad's upcoming execution has residents in the Washington area reliving the fear they felt during his three-week killing spree seven years ago. Muhammad is set for lethal injection tomorrow in Virginia for shooting a man at a gas station.
BALTIMORE (AP) Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon is about to go on trial on theft charges. Jury selection is scheduled to begin this morning.
BALTIMORE (AP) The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to release its draft strategy for restoring the Chesapeake Bay today. The federal agency gave bay watershed states its expectations last week of what is needed to restore the nation's largest estuary.
BALTIMORE (AP) One of the victims of the mass shooting at Fort Hood was a military physician assistant who lived in Havre de Grace. Lt. Col. Juanita Warman was 55 years old and leaves behind two daughters and six grandchildren.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
November 09, 2009 - RICHMOND, Va. (AP) The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to block Tuesday's planned execution of sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad. The Court had no comment on its decision in the case of Muhammad, who terrorized the Washington area with a series of shootings seven years ago.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) Prosecutors are recommending to a federal judge in Alexandria that a former Louisiana congressman spend no less than 27 years behind bars for bribe-taking. Jefferson is to be sentenced on Friday after his conviction on bribery, racketeering and other counts.
LEXINGTON, Va. (AP) Virginia Military Institute says it will review its training procedures after the weekend death of a freshman who took part in a 10-mile march. John Alexander Evans collapsed after Saturday's march, but a cause of death hasn't yet been determined.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
November 09, 2009 - Phyllis Caldwell has served as president of the Washington Area Women's Foundation for almost two years.
She is leaving for a job in the Obama Administration, but before she does, she has these thoughts about "just who is the Washington, D.C.-area woman?"
Tell us what you think on the Commentary Forum.
November 09, 2009 - By Jonathan Wilson
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to block tomorrow's scheduled execution of sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad. The court did not comment Monday on why it refused to consider the appeal.
Muhammad is scheduled to die by injection at a Virginia prison for the slaying of Dean Harold Meyers. Meyers was shot at a gas station during a three-week spree in 2002 across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Muhammad still has a clemency petition before Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.
Muhammad's attorney, Jonathan Sheldon, says "Virginia will execute a severely mentally ill man who also suffered from Gulf War Syndrome the day before Veterans Day."
November 09, 2009 - By Cathy Duchamp
Nearly 100 new construction jobs have been created in Baltimore, thanks to federal stimulus money to renovate public housing.
Jean Sherrod lives on a dead end street, a place that looked like it had a dead end future because of abandoned housing. "The guys found houses like that they'd go in there, sell drugs, sleep. It was terrible. That brought our neighborhood down," says Sherrod.
But the Hardwood neighborhood of East Baltimore may be coming up, thanks to federal stimulus money from the department of Housing and Urban Development. A small slice of a $33 million grant will pay to renovate two rundown row houses on Sherrod's street to be used for public housing.
The lion's share of federal money will be spent on improving energy efficiency in public housing across Baltimore.
East 26th Street in Baltimore is a dead-end street with a brighter future with federal stimulus funding for public housing renovations.
Courtesy of: Cathy Duchamp
November 09, 2009 - By Stephanie Kaye
(November 8-July 4) AFRICA IN MEXICO The African presence in Mexico is explored at the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum in Southeast D.C. through July 2010. The traveling exhibit comes by way of Chicago, where curators examined the history, culture and art of Afro-Mexicans, beginning with the colonial era and continuing to the present day. Highlights include "casta" paintings delineating racial categories and the hero/slave rebel Yanga.
(November 10) TWELVE CELLISTS Forget about the Three Tenors...the Twelve Cellists come to the Music Center at Strathmore](http://www.strathmore.org) in North Bethesda, Maryland for a performance at 8 p.m. tomorrow night. This renegade ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic shows what a dozen "stringers" can do. The concert commemorates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
(November 10-January 17) SHOWBOAT It's time to get on the Showboat as Signature Theater reinvents yet another classic musical. "Showboat" opens tomorrow and runs through January 17th. The show captures life on the Mississippi River from before the Industrial Revolution to the days of the flapper; and the lives, loves and heartbreaks of three generations of actors and entertainers.
"Showboat" takes to the waters at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia.
Courtesy of: Signature Theatre
November 09, 2009 - By Rebecca Sheir
Update: We've received word that Larry Chang's favorite coffee shop has started accepting Potomacs. Qualia Coffee on Georgia Avenue (NW) is now the second local business to deal with the local currency.
Larry Chang started making "Potomacs" on his inkjet printer this spring, in denominations of one, five, ten and twenty.
The blue-and-white One Potomac bill, equivalent to 95 U.S. cents, is a little bigger than Monopoly money, with pictures of the U.S. Capitol, the Potomac River, George Washington and Marvin Gaye, one of Chang's favorite D.C. natives. Other bills feature local celebrities Frederick Douglass, Pierre L'Enfant and Harriet Tubman.
"The dollars will always be legal tender and rightly so," Change says. "But a huge portion of the wealth that we generate here leaves the area. We basically just want to hold on to some of that wealth and build our local economy."
And that's the thing. Big-box stores won't take a local currency like the Potomac but local businesses will, once they climb on board. So far, Chang's only signed up one: The Potter's House Bookstore and Cafe on Columbia Road. Chang says most of the 200 Potomacs in circulation are used as souvenirs.
"Some people have bought them just to stick up on their fridge or wall. You know, people have found them very attractive," Chang says.
But pretty pieces of paper are one thing and functional pieces of currency are something else. Or so says Peter Morici, an economist and professor at the University of Maryland.
"There's the issue of what do you do with them," Morici says. "It's okay for a few vendors around town, but most people don't limit their purchases to those few vendors, nor can they. Does Comcast take Potomac Dollars? Does the local tax collector? Never!"
Morici says vendors that do take local currency can face the same issue. "Communities are no longer self-contained. Most businesses have to pay outside their community for the basic raw materials of doing business. They need real dollars to buy the products they sell you."
And they can't do that with a glut of Potomacs in their cash register.
Larry Chang, creator of the Potomac, a local currency for the D.C. area.
Courtesy of: Rebecca Sheir
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November 09, 2009 - By Stephanie Kaye
Ushering in Veterans Day, a new film explores the experiences of African Americans serving in World War II.
"My unit went into the Normandy invasion and we didn't have any bullets in our rifles," says John Wood, who was 17-years-old when he enlisted. "We hadn't been issued any ammunition!"
Wood is one of the veterans featured in "Choc'late Soldiers from the USA ," which is being presented by the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The film's writer/producer, Gregory Cooke, says Jim Crow followed him and others to Britain.
"When you're wearing the uniform of your country and you can't be served in a restaurant, but German prisoners-of-war are being served in the restaurant, that does something to you," says Cooke.
Lonnie Bunch, the museum's director, says soldiers returning from Europe played a major part in the civil rights movement.
"This is a different slice of the military story," says Bunch. "Many of these people came home and said, 'No. I not only fought for victory against Germany and Japan; I fought for victory against racism and discrimination.'"
"Choc'late Soldiers from the USA" airs Tuesday, November 10 at the Hirshhorn Museum on the National Mall. Click here to see a trailer of the documentary.
A trio of recruits in training to take their places as fighting Leathernecks in the U.S. Marine Corps, run the rugged obstacle course at Camp Lejeune, NC, Montford Point Camp. April 1943.
Courtesy of: The National Archives
November 09, 2009 - By Patrick Madden
Nearly a quarter of the federal stimulus funds marked for the district's public school system is going to charter schools.
Forty-Five different charter schools were allocated money. The grants total more than $12 million. By contrast, the district's traditional public school system is set to receive almost $40 million in stimulus money.
D.C. Prep, a large charter school with three campuses in the district, is receiving almost $400,000. According to Ibby Jeppson of D.C. Prep, the infusion of cash will go to one-time expenditures such as new computers, updated software and LCD projectors.
"I don't want to say wish list kind of things," says Jeppson. "But we are using the money for things that we have wanted for a very long time but we would not normally be spending our money on."
More than a third of the district's students attend charter schools.
November 09, 2009 - By Peter Granitz
A recent Washington Post investigation discovered millions of dollars misspent by HIV-AIDS care providers in the district. Now, some lawmakers on Capitol Hill hope to investigate.
D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton fired off a letter blasting Republicans for meddling in local issues saying, that no other Congressional district receives the scrutiny that her's does.
Norton blamed Republicans for the district's high infection rate because of their past opposition to needle exchange programs; the ban was only recently lifted.
Dr. Shannon Hader, who heads the D.C. HIV-AIDS Administration, says the district needs such programs to fight a multi-faceted epidemic.
"Not having the evidence-based, effective practice of needle exchange available to us for a decade absolutely contributed to our not seeing the decline HIV injection users that other urban areas were able to see," says Hader.
Now, an amendment to a federal bill that funds the district would regulate where needle exchange programs could exist. Advocates say it's too restrictive, but supporters of the amendment say it would protect children.
Local Republican party officials haven't decided whether to support or oppose the measure, but they have not opposed needle exchanges in the past.
November 09, 2009 - By David Schultz
Local homeless activists met at a homeless shelter yesterday with Raquel Rolnik, who just finished a U.S. tour studying the issue of affordable housing for the United Nations.
Almost as soon as the round table discussion started, an argument erupted between the activists, many of whom live at the shelter. Shelter staffers had to forcibly remove one man. Another left in protest but later returned.
After the meeting, several homeless people pleaded with Rolnik for help on the sidewalk outside of the shelter, but she couldn't give them any concrete answers.
"I don't have the special mandate to deal with this kind of law enforcement," she told one man.
Eric Sheptock is a homeless activist in D.C. who is also homeless himself. He arranged for Rolnik to come to the shelter.
Sheptock says many of the people in on the discussion thought Rolnik was there to help them with their personal issues.
"As I publicized the issue," Sheptock says, "A lot of people were saying 'Is she going to get you housing, Eric?' Or 'Is she going to get me housing? What's she going to do?'"
Rolnik will issue a report to the United Nations on affordable housing early next year.
Nathaniel Anderson, a resident of the Community for Creative Non-Violence homeless shelter in Northwest D.C., talks with UN representative Raquel Rolnik about problems the city's homeless population faces.
Courtesy of: David Schultz
November 09, 2009 - By Elliott Francis
A majority of Virginia's congressional representatives voted against the health care legislation, thanks to two Democrats who crossed party lines.
Democrats Glenn Nye and Rick Boucher voted with the state's five Republican representatives in opposing the legislation. The house version of the health care bill passed with a five-vote margin of victory.
The measure would provide health coverage for nearly all Americans and impose new restrictions on the health insurance industry. Republicans, though, say it's too expensive for taxpayers.
Virginia's four other Democrats backed the bill, which is now before the Senate.
November 09, 2009 - By Mana Rabiee
The district's largest food pantry is taking a lesson from the Old Testament to feed the hungry.
On the Parker family farm in Colonial Beach, Va., 20 nicely dressed professionals hack away at broccoli plants with kitchen knives.
They're volunteers with a D.C. non-profit called Bread for the City, which partners with local farms for a program called Glean for the City.
Glean for the City collects tens of thousands of pounds fresh fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be thrown out.
Jeffrey Wankel is a volunteer coordinator. "I don't know the scripture, but to sum it up it says that all farmers are obligated to allow the poor and the less fortunate to glean the food from their fields when they're done," says Wankel. "So it's almost a biblical mandate in the Old Testament and that's what farmers should be doing."
Farmer Rod Parker points to neighboring fields with his knife. "Hey, don't skip any rows guys. Get in and fill all these rows," says Parker. He waves the knife around like a machete. "If you brought everybody out here and harvested this field there's a tractor trailer full of produce that's going to be thrown away," says Parker.
Parker would like Glean for the City to take away all of his excess crop but they can only glean a tiny fraction because of limited volunteers and resources.
Kristin Valentine, development director of Bread for the City, hands over a 25 pound box of freshly harvested broccoli to a volunteer.
Courtesy of: Mana Rabiee
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November 09, 2009 - In his 11 years in the House, never has Congressman Joe Crowley (D-NY) experienced anything like the what happened Saturday night when the House narrowly passed a health care reform bill.
Elizabeth Wynne Johnson reports...
November 09, 2009 - By Cathy Duchamp
Jury selection begins today, November 9, in the trial of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, on charges she stole gift cards intended for needy families.
Mayor Dixon is accused of making purchases at Target, Best Buy, Old Navy and other retail stores with gift cards that developers had donated to the city to give out to the poor.
Dixon has denied any wrongdoing. She says she is feeling good heading into trial. "I take one day at a time in life, there's no guarantee in life, everyday you wake up so I take one day at a time," says Dixon.
The trial stems from a state investigation of Baltimore city finances that has dogged Dixon for more than three years.
But many Baltimore residents are taking little note of it. That includes Serena Hamlett who lives in the Harwood neighborhood of East Baltimore. "If it's true I'm sorry it is, if it's not I'm sorry she had to go through what she went through," says Hamlett. "It just goes to show you nobody's above life, nobody's above a bad decision or whatever."
In addition to theft charges, Dixon faces a second trial over claims she lied about gifts she got from a former boyfriend and developer who got tax breaks from the city.
November 09, 2009 - By Patrick Madden
The Environmental Protection Agency has released its draft strategy for restoring the Chesapeake Bay in response to an order issued by President Obama on May 12th.
The EPA says states in the bay watershed have achieved measurable pollution reductions, but that federal agencies are uniquely positioned to usher in a new era of restoration.
The strategy includes expanded regulation of large-scale animal farms and urban-suburban storm water runoff. It also calls for tracking progress every two years.
There is now a 60-day comment period before the development of a final strategy.
November 09, 2009 - By Patrick Madden
The outreach director for the mosque in Virginia where the suspected Fort Hood shooter sometimes attended prayer services says Major Nidal Hasan was not an active member.
November 09, 2009 - By Kavitha Cardoza
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Leaders and Laggards report, which grades states based on education innovation, has given Virginia top marks for removing ineffective teachers from the classroom while Maryland and D.C. got a failing grade.
The report card doesn't look at academic successes of today. Rather, it focuses on what states are doing to prepare for challenges that lie ahead, saying there cannot be achievement in the long run without innovation.
Both Maryland and D.C. received an "F" grade when it came to removing ineffective teachers.
Approximately 75 percent of principals say teacher's unions are a barrier.
Arthur Rothkopf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce helped write the report. "We're not saying there should be mass firings," says Rothkopf, "but if you can't deal with teachers who are not improving performance of students then it's clear innovation will not take place."
Rothkopf says D.C.'s Chancellor Michelle Rhee has not been here long enough for her practices to be reflected in the data.
Maryland, Virginia and D.C. all received a B grade for how they hire and evaluate teachers.
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