PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY HOMICIDES are at a three-year high and on pace to exceed 100 for the first time since 2008, according to The Washington Examiner. There have been 52 homicides in the county so far this year — including a rash of deaths in the first two weeks of the year. That number is compared to 44 through June 2010 and 43 through June 2009. Still, crime is down 5.4 percent overall, including significant dips in violent crimes and robberies.
MARYLAND DOES NOT RECOGNIZE SAME SEX MARRIAGE, but a case going to the state’s Special Court of Appeals could show how the state will handle same-sex divorce proceedings. Hyattsville educator Jessica Port is taking her case to the appeals court after being denied in a divorce in a Prince George’s County court, according to WAMU Radio.
SEE RELATED:
Ms. Port was denied the divorce because she is married to a woman in California, says her attorney, Michele Zavos. Ms. Zavos says Maryland courts have been divided on such cases, citing one granted in Anne Arundel County, one denied in Prince George’s and another just recently denied in Baltimore.
VIRGINIA PAID $13,415 FOR FLIGHTS DURING GOV. BOB MCDONNELL’S ASIAN MARKETING TRIP, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The 11-day trip in May included flights from Washington to Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul and back for him and 15 others. The flights cost more than $140,000 when including an economic-development official’s trip in April to make preparations. Dozens of receipts, invoices and expense reports released by the governor’s office in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act give a partial look at the trip’s costs, which the governor’s office has said totaled about $278,000.
FORMER D.C. MAYORAL CANDIDATE SULAIMON BROWN says he isn’t finished fighting with the D.C. Council as it investigates his allegations of unethical behavior by Mayor Vincent C. Gray, Democrat. Mr. Sulaimon Brown tells the Associated Press he will not cooperate with a subpoena that seeks his phone and email records, among other things. He says the subpoena is “too broad” and that the Council is requesting “privileged information.”
Wednesday was the deadline for him to respond to the subpoena. The Council is trying to get a full record of Mr. Brown’s communications with Mr. Gray and his campaign staff. Mr. Brown alleges that Mr. Gray promised him a city job and gave him cash so that Mr. Brown could continue to bash then-Mayor Adrian Fenty at campaign events.
REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT is celebrating its 70th anniversary, reports the Associated Press. President Franklin Roosevelt selected the site for the airport and opened it in 1941. It was originally named National Airport. In 1998, President Bill Clinton signed a bill to change its name to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The airport served about 344,000 passengers in its first year. Today, it serves more than 18 million passengers a year. Washington Dulles International Airport, in Northern Virginia, will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year.
A CAR ACCIDENT LAWSUIT IN A FAIRFAX COUNTY COURT is dropping a few jaws as it heads toward trial next week. Among the latest allegations in the lawsuit about the crash on the Beltway last year: At the time of the collision, the male defendant was going 85 mph, having sex with a female, and partially or totally in the backseat of the car, according to The Washington Post. Records show the defendant, from Woodbridge, was convicted in Fairfax district court of drunken driving near Telegraph Road in May 2010. But now he denies he was driving. The defendant’s lawyer said there was “no statement by anyone that they were driving on the Beltway having sex” and “no facts on it.” The plaintiff, a 28-year-old cab driver, is seeking $75,000 in damages and is represented by Douglas R. Stevens, who declined to comment beyond his court filings.
