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November 16, 2009 - WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court is refusing to block Virginia from executing Larry Bill Elliott, who is set to die Tuesday in the state's electric chair. Elliott would be the first person to die of electrocution in the United States this year and in Virginia since 2006.
WASHINGTON (AP) The American Red Cross is selling off decades worth of treasures to save money and help erase a big deficit. The donated items being auctioned off include a 23-inch wax doll with her own Tiffany jewelry, a rare four-faced Cartier clock lamp and nurse uniforms from World War I.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
November 16, 2009 - BALTIMORE (AP) One of the developers who gave Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon holiday gift cards she's accused of stealing has testified against her at her trial. Patrick Turner testified Monday that the cards were intended for city children, not the mayor's personal use.
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) Montgomery County police have identified the man who died after falling off a ladder while trimming a tree branch. Thirty-five-year-old Hector Say Cupil of Germantown died Saturday in Bethesda. Police say Cupil fell about 30 feet to the ground and the chain saw he was using caused an injury to his upper body.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
November 16, 2009 - RICHMOND, Va. (AP) Eighty-five solders from Richmond's 276th Engineer Battalion are arriving back in Virginia after serving in Afghanistan since February. In Afghanistan, the unit cleared patrol routes, provide security and conducted patrols.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) Newport News police say a shooting has left one woman dead and another person in the hospital. The 42-year-old woman and 29-year-old man were shot early Sunday in an apartment complex parking lot.
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) Workers at a Roanoke pet store joined firefighters in safely evacuating 80 puppies, cats and other pets after the pet store filled with dense smoke. Authorities say the pet evacuation took only minutes and no one was hurt.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
November 16, 2009 - By Mana Rabiee
One of the oldest Episcopal churches in Washington entered the modern-day green energy movement by blessing its new solar panels.
In Northwest D.C., the bells of the National Cathedral tolled nearby as worshipers gathered behind the St. Albans rectory for the blessing. Several stories above on the roof, the Reverend Jered Weber-Johnson swung his incense boat at 76 solar panels.
Joelle Novey watched from below. She's Director of the Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light, a group of more than 350 congregations in the D.C. area committed to a "religious response" to climate change. "These panels are a blessing because they generate power in harmony with nature," says Novey to the congregation. "It is literally electricity from above. Power from the Heavens."
Parish Rector Scott Benhase first came up with the idea. "We bless things. That's what we do," says Benhase. "In the Anglican tradition, we have a tendency to bless things that come from God's providence and God's grace, and we believe that these are a gift from God."
Jigar Shaah founded the solar services company SunEdison and was the main consultant on the project. He says the panels were provided by private investors. They sell the power to the church at a fixed rate, which makes a six percent rate of return after taxes.
"It's important that that's the case because if we're relying on people to simply donate these services you can imagine that it may not actually scale as fast." The church estimates the panels will save $20,000 over 20 years, money Rector Benhause says will be better served in mission work.
November 16, 2009 - By Patrick Madden
While police continue to search for the gunman who killed a boy in his apartment in Northwest D.C., authorities are also looking at the safety of the entire building.
Outside the apartment building in Columbia Heights where nine-year-old Oscar Fuentes lived, the white front door hangs loosely off the hinges. The lock is gone, and the entire front of the building is littered with gang graffiti. For Landy Thompson, a local gang outreach coordinator, these are all bad signs.
"You got some MS-13 tags on the building, just the local tags, and it's different people that frequent here, clustered together, so when that happens, a lot of people usually don't get along, it's gonna cause violence," says Thompson. "It's like sending a message. Who's territory it once was, who's territory it is now."
Inside, a team of inspectors from the city's Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs scoured the building top-to-bottom. They found more than a hundred safety violations.
The building's owner, Hermidia Steininger, says she ordered a new front door a few weeks ago. And as for the presence of gangs she says, "don't tell me the police don't know it. I have called police more than 25 times." "Managers have called them. Tenants have called him. Everything stays the same. It cools down a while then it comes up the same thing," says Steininger.
The building is now under 24-hour surveillance.
November 16, 2009 - By Meymo Lyons
Washington Blade, the oldest newspaper in the country for gays and lesbians, is shutting down.
The announcement of the closure of the Blade, a weekly, and other titles in the Window Media group was made in a posting on Twitter which read: "Washington Blade, like all Window Media publications, is closing today," "thank you for your support."
Window Media is the largest gay and lesbian newspaper publisher in the country. It claims more than 400,000 readers a week for its publications.
Washington Blade was founded in 1969 and recently celebrated its 40th anniversary. It was purchased by Window Media in 2001. Steven Myers, co-president of Window Media in Washington, D.C., declined comment.
November 16, 2009 - By Meymo Lyons
Amtrak is preparing for what it believes will be its busiest travel day this year.
Amtrak said Monday that it believes the Wednesday before Thanksgiving Nov. 25 will be its busiest travel day. The railroad predicts ridership could be as high as 125,000 passengers that day. On an average Wednesday the railroad carries approximately 74,000 passengers.
Amtrak says it is scheduling extra trains to accommodate additional passengers, but the company is encouraging riders to plan ahead. All Amtrak trains in the northeast will require reservations. A special timetable for Thanksgiving travel in the northeast corridor is now available online at the company's Web site.
Amtrak said it believes the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Nov. 25, will be its busiest travel day.
Courtesy of: www.flickr.com/Sam Ruaat
November 16, 2009 - By Matt Bush
A Montgomery County council committee is recommending cheaper tolls along the Intercounty Connector.
The council's transportation and environment committee recommended tolls that would at least be 10 cents per mile cheaper during rush hour periods. If the state transportation authority's proposed tolls are adopted, a trip on the road's full-length during rush hour periods would cost more than $6. All tolls will also be collected electronically using the EZ-Pass system.
The state does not have to follow the council's recommendation.
November 16, 2009 - By Jonathan Wilson
In Virginia, Governor Tim Kaine visited Fairfax to announce hundreds of high-paying jobs coming the county's way.
The jobs, 415 of them, will come from a new non-profit medical research center called the Ignite Institute. Geneticist Dr. Dietrich Stephan is the company's founder and CEO. He told a crowd of hundreds inside Fairfax County's Government Center that Fairfax, with its well-educated workforce and proximity to the federal government, was really the only place for a facility like Ignite.
Governor Kaine pointed out that Virginia already leads the country in technology jobs per capita, but he says Ignite's decision to come to Fairfax marks a new era.
Governor-Elect McDonnell says he's confident the state's $25 million incentive grant to the Ignite Institute is an excellent investment.
November 16, 2009 - From the day she started her job, D.C. Schools' Chancellor Michelle Rhee has made teachers her number one goal getting rid of the bad ones, and making all the others great. She says the most important factor affecting student achievement is the quality of teachers. Last year Rhee used an existing evaluation system to fire dozens of what she said were under-performing teachers, but she was forced to rehire 25 of them.
Now she's turning to a new idea- master teachers. She's hired 30 former successful teachers to coach and evaluate D.C.'s teachers in their subject area. Rhee hopes the coaching will improve the good teachers and that the master teachers' critical eye will help get rid of the bad ones. Their input, along with reports by principals, will account for 40 to 80 percent of a teacher's annual evaluation.
Kavitha Cardoza reports that, not surprisingly, the process has been controversial...
November 16, 2009 - (Nov 16) KRONOS QUARTET Jimi Hendrix? Nine Inch Nails? Stravinsky? Anything is possible when the Kronos Quartet teams up with students from Maryland University's School of Music at the [Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center] for a free "Public Reading" tonight at 7pm. The concert is the culmination of a year's worth of collaboration between the acclaimed quartet and UMD students.
(Nov 17-Dec 20) AS YOU LIKE IT The wonders of wrestling, young love and freedom are explored in The Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of [As You Like It] (http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/plays/details.aspx?id=181&source=l) at the Sidney Harman Hall in downtown D.C., opening tonight and running through December 20th. In these tales from the Forest of Arden, Shakespeare's heroine pursues true love while in disguise, proving that "all the world's a stage."
(November 17) BUSINESS AND PLEASURE The arts have played an integral role in the City of Alexandria's economy for years. The Torpedo Factory Art Center hosts Behind the Scenes, a discussion on business and the arts tomorrow night at 6:30 in Old Town. Panelists will explore how the arts attract commerce to local communities.
All the world's a stage from November 17th through December 20th at The Shakespeare Theatre's Sidney Harman Hall.
Courtesy of: The Shakespeare Theatre Company
November 16, 2009 - By Rebecca Sheir
A man in Washington D.C., is running 10 marathons in 12 months to honor wounded service members. Thirty-one-year-old Doug Eldridge isn't a seasoned marathoner: "I'm just not that guy," he says.
And the first nine marathons haven't been a run in the park. He describes the 8th marathon in Colorado Springs as "horrific. It was like seeing the Death Star explode at mile 16!"
But Eldridge says all the "suffering, hurting, cramping and puking" pales beside what wounded troops experience coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. He met many a few years back, when his mother was admitted to Walter Reed Army Hospital.
So Eldridge created the 10-12-100 Campaign, to raise $100,000 dollars for the Wounded Warrior Project, a non-profit supporting injured veterans like Ryan Kules, who lost an arm and leg in a bomb-blast in Iraq. His first experience with WWP was a ski trip.
"With some assistance I was skiing again," he says. "I may have been knocked down but certainly wasn't out, and was going to be able to lead a productive, eventful life."
The 28-year-old now lives in Bowie, Maryland with his wife and two daughters, and directs WWP's alumni program. 6,000 vets participate, but both he and Doug Eldridge know many more injured vets are out there.
"It's your brother, it's my sister, it's somebody's mom, somebody's dad. This is everybody," Eldridge says.
Eldridge is halfway to reaching his $100,000 goal. But even though he's scheduled to run his tenth and final marathon next month, he says he won't give up 'til his mission is accomplished.
November 16, 2009 - The Maryland Board of Education has yet to decide whether it will fine Montgomery County for not adequately fulfilling a school funding formula.
The county fell short in funding its "maintenance of effort" requirement, which essentially makes each county in Maryland spend more each year per student. County council president Phil Andrews believes it would be unfair if the state went through with the fines, which could top 60-million dollars.
The county asked the state for a waiver for the funding requirement last year, citing the economy as the reason it could not fulfill it. It was denied.
Matt Bush reports...
November 16, 2009 - A Montgomery County council committee will meet later this morning to discuss tolls on the Intercounty Connector.
The first portion of the ICC is expected to open next year. If the tolls proposed by the state of Maryland are adopted, a one-way trip on the ICC's full length from Gaithersburg to Laurel would be more than six dollars during rush hour. County council president Phil Andrews says tolls that high defeat the purpose of the road...
The county council can only make a recommendation to the state, which does not have to follow it when a final decision is made.
Matt Bush reports...
November 16, 2009 - By Elliott Francis
A local attorney who developed a relationship with D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad is writing a book about him. J. Wyndal Gordon was standby counsel during the 2006 trial in Montgomery County in which Muhammad represented himself. Gordon says it was during that period that Muhammad suggested he write a book about that trial..
Gordon, who says he forged a bond with the convicted killer, claims the book will present Muhammad's story "without the filters and rules of evidence that prevented him from getting things in court."
Muhammad was put to death last week in Virginia for killing Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas gas station back in October 2002.
Attorney Jonathan Sheldon, who most recently represented Muhammad, called the book "inappropriate."
November 16, 2009 - By Mana Rabiee
A group in D.C. that's helped young people leave the world of inner-city violence has published a manual with the A-B-C's of how to negotiate a truce between rival gangs. For 20 years, the Alliance of Concerned Men has helped young people in the DC area pull themselves out of local gangs.
Tyrone Parker founded the Alliance, based in the Columbia heights neighborhood of Northwest D.C.
"It started 15 years ago when we first began to understand we were putting together a road map, a road map for peace," says Parker.
The new guide offers common sense recommendations like brining a mediator to the truce who doesn't carry 'bad blood' for either side.
Nineteen year-old Ivan Cloyd used to hang out in gangs but now mentors younger kids for the Alliance.
"The low point for me was to see a lot of my friends get killed and realizing that I'm a part of something that was destroying my community," Cloyd says.
Parker says a truce is usually formalized with hand shakes among the gang leaders who are then encouraged to spread the peace to other members.
November 16, 2009 - By Sabri Ben-Achour
A pile of pulverized plastic flower pots sits on the pavement by the Envion test reactor in Derwood, Maryland.
"In a matter of minutes, you'll see it go through the reactor," says Michael Han, Envion's CEO.
"This is the heating element that breaks down, melts down the plastic."
Han's emission-free reactor converts plastic into oil - jet fuel, gasoline, kerosene. He says it could reduce dependence on foreign oil and keep plastic out of landfills.
Richard Wool is a professor of chemistry at the University of Delaware. He says even if all the world's plastic was converted to fuel, it wouldn't make a dent in the need for oil. Plus, he says, fuel may not be the most efficient use for plastic.
"The best thing you can do for plastics is primary and secondary recycling"
i.e. reusing a milk bottle or using it to make more milk bottles. Making fuel - especially lower cost fuel - may not be economical especially if you have to buy and transport the plastic. But, Wool says, "if this person is getting the material for free and the conversion cost is not too high, it could be a very useful way to eliminate a huge waste stream."
CEO Han says counties are spending money on plastic disposal anyway, and he claims his process is cheaper.
November 16, 2009 - Moments after the House passed its version of a health care overhaul bill, reporters sought out any lawmaker willing to parse the significance of two words: Stupak amendment. The restrictive anti-abortion language that was championed and passed with the support of pro-life Democrats.
Elizabeth Wynne Johnson reports...
November 16, 2009 - By Natalie Neumann
Baltimore County could become the latest Maryland jurisdiction to prohibit the use of tanning facilities by minors.
Last week, the Howard County Board of Health voted unanimously to ban people under age 18 from using indoor tanning devices. Now the Baltimore County Council will consider a similar ban tonight.
The bill would establish a $500 fine or 90 days in jail for violations. Under the bill minors would be able to use tanning beds only with a written prescription from a physician.
County health officer Dr. Gregory Branch tells the Baltimore Sun a ban on tanning for minors will send a message about how big a health risk tanning is. Branch says tanning beds have a direct link to skin cancer.
November 16, 2009 - By Matt McCleskey
The U.S. Supreme Court will not be considering the question of whether the name of the Washington Redskins football team is offensive. A group of Native Americans had petitioned the court to take up the case, but the justices today turned away the appeal.
The plaintiffs have been trying since 1992 to have the name declared invalid. Their suit is based on a law that prohibits trademarks that are disparaging. A panel of the U.S. Patent and Trademark office ruled for the plaintiffs in 1999 and canceled the trademarks, but a federal District Court judge overturned that ruling in part because of the time that had elapsed since the Redskins first trademark was issued in the late 1960s.
Today's ruling doesn't settle the legal question. Another group of younger Native Americans has filed a similar claim. They argue they weren't alive to challenge the trademark when it was first issued.
November 16, 2009 - The D.C. city council is considering a bill to legalize same sex marriage that could change the relationship between the District and some of the caregivers it contracts with to provide needed services.
Commentator Ed Orzechowski is president and CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington...
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