Metro Briefs

DISTRICT

Ads urge Hill to nix gun measure

D.C. voting rights advocates have launched an ad campaign urging Congress to give the city a full vote in the House without also repealing its gun restrictions.

Ilir Zherka, executive director of the group DC Vote, says the ads are running on local and national blogs, radio stations and Capitol Hill newspapers.

One online ad includes an image of a gun and reads, “D.C.’s rights held hostage.”

The Senate passed the D.C. voting rights bill last month with an amendment that would repeal most of the city’s strict gun-control laws. A vote in the House has been postponed while Democratic leaders strategize on how to move forward.

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, told reporters Tuesday he hopes to have a vote before the House takes a one-week break April 4.

MARYLAND

BETHESDA

Officials may seize land for traffic plan

Maryland is considering seizing land in Bethesda to make room for expanded intersections around the National Naval Medical Center.

The center expects 4,000 more visitors daily when Walter Reed Army Medical Center moves to the Rockville Pike campus, and state leaders are mulling major road improvements to cope with the expected traffic congestion. Nearby homeowners, a Catholic girls school and the National Institutes of Health could lose land in the process.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat, said he plans to ask for $40 million in federal funding for the improvements.

Under a Base Realignment and Closure panel mandate, the naval medical center will incorporate Walter Reed in 2011.

Phil Alperson, Montgomery County’s BRAC coordinator, said residents who could be affected aren’t pleased with the state’s proposals.

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