Metro Briefs

REGION

BALTIMORE

Governors request aid for watermen

The governors of Maryland and Virginia are seeking federal disaster assistance for watermen who are expected to take a financial hit because of recently imposed limits on blue crab harvests in the Chesapeake Bay.

Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine said in a statement the blue crab fishery is in dire straits and said watermen are enduring serious hardship.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley added in a separate statement that he and Mr. Kaine are committed to working together to restore the crab populations.

Both governors, who are Democrats, have sent letters to U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez seeking the Fishery Resource Disaster designation. A disaster designation would allow Congress to appropriate economic assistance for hard-hit watermen.

DISTRICT

Family agency reforms advance

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty yesterday said the city’s troubled Child and Family Services Agency is continuing to implement reforms following the deaths of four girls in January.

The bodies of Brittany Jacks, 16; Tatianna Jacks, 11; N’Kiah Fogle, 6; and Aja Fogle, 5; were found Jan. 9 by U.S. Marshals serving an eviction notice at a row house on Sixth Street in Southeast. The girls’ mother, Banita Jacks, has been charged with killing them.

The agency, in the wake of the girls’ deaths, was required to keep investigations open until potentially at-risk children are identified and located. Mr. Fenty, a Democrat, said yesterday that the agency — along with two other organizations — reviewed more than 300 abuse and neglect cases previously closed as incomplete last year.

More than 80 of those investigations were reopened, Mr. Fenty said, and immediate action was taken on six. All investigations will be completed by July, officials said.

The agency also is increasing training for hot line workers and investigative social workers as well as adding 20 cars to its fleet.

VIRGINIA

RICHMOND

Official accused of sex with inmates

The former security chief at a Virginia women’s prison faces 30 counts of having sex with inmates.

Patrick Owen Gee was indicted this week in Fluvanna County. He faces a maximum of five years in prison on each felony count of having carnal knowledge of inmates.

Officials said the offenses occurred over a nearly two-year period and involved three inmates at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Jeff Haislip said Mr. Gee is expected to make his first court appearance May 9.

MANASSAS

Immigration group shoos businesses

A group that opposes Prince William County’s illegal-immigration policies is urging companies to stay away from the county.

Alexandria-based Tenants and Workers United says it distributed hundreds of leaflets Thursday to those on a commercial real estate bus tour of the region’s office parks and industrial areas.

The warning was directed at high-tech and biotech companies, which Prince William officials have been trying to lure to Innovation Technology Park and other areas.

The flier says that Prince William’s policies have “helped to create a hostile environment for all who ’look’ like immigrants.” And it said that foreign-born workers probably would not want to live in such an area.

MARYLAND

GREENBELT

Tax fraud defendant pleads guilty

Federal prosecutors said the first defendant in a multimillion dollar D.C. tax refund fraud case has pleaded guilty.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland said Ricardo Walters, 33, of Fort Washington, pleaded guilty yesterday to receipt of stolen property and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

He is a relative of Harriette Walters, who is charged with leading a group of city tax office employees that investigators say wrote and cashed fake property tax refunds for companies that didn’t exist or weren’t owed a refund. Prosecutors estimate at least $20 million was stolen over at least seven years.

Prosecutors said more than $4.2 million in fraudulently issued checks from the D.C. tax office were deposited in the bank account of Ricardo Walters’ home cleaning business. Walters took $795,000 for himself and distributed more than $2.3 million to four coconspirators.

Ricardo Walters faces up to 30 years in prison for the two charges at sentencing on July 23.

BALTIMORE

Labor union backs slots

The AFL-CIO supports legalizing slot machines in Maryland, saying slots parlors have the potential to create thousands of new jobs.

Maryland State and District of Columbia AFL-CIO president Fred Mason said the union’s 300,000 members will work to persuade people to vote “yes” on this November’s slots referendum.

Mr. Mason said in a statement that slots will help ensure that education is adequately funded. He also said that Maryland is losing revenue to neighboring states that have slots.

The referendum would amend the state constitution to allow up to 15,000 slot machines at five locations.

Slots opponents quickly denounced the powerful union after its announcement yesterday. Charles Graham, chair of Marylanders United to Stop Slots and a union member, said slots won’t lower taxes or create good jobs. Instead, Mr. Graham said expanded gambling will make a bad economy worse.

From wire dispatches and staff reports