A Maryland commission recommended Tuesday that the state increase its gas tax by more than 60 percent over the next three years, but members acknowledged that taxpayers facing a dire economy could find the increase hard to swallow. The proposed increase, approved by the state-appointed Blue Ribbon Commission on Maryland Transportation Funding, would raise the gas tax on wholesalers by 5 cents a year for three years, from the current rate of 23.5 cents per gallon, according to The Washington Times.
Opening arguments in the Lululemon murder trial are expected to begin today and will include several graphic photos of the crime scene, officials said in court Tuesday. Jury selection for the first-degree-murder trial neared a close Tuesday evening with only 65 of the 300-member jury pool instructed to return to the Montgomery County courthouse in the morning, The Times reports.
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A teenager arrested in Maryland over the weekend and charged with armed carjacking is a ward of the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation. Adrian Terrell Duncan, who court records say is 16 but who is charged as an adult in Prince George’s County, is the second youth in the custody of DYRS this week to have been arrested in connection with a violent crime. DYRS ward Rashad Slye, 20, whose aunt is a youth-family team coordinator with the agency, was arrested Sunday and charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of a cab driver, The Times reports.
Glenn F. Ivey, a former Prince George’s County state’s attorney, is preparing a run for Congress next year against incumbent Democratic Rep. Donna F. Edwards, his spokesman told multiple news agencies Tuesday. Mr. Ivey, a Democrat, spent eight years as state’s attorney before leaving office in January and has worked on Capitol Hill. Miss Edwards was elected to the House in 2008 and is in her second full term. Her district was drastically changed last week when the General Assembly approved a new congressional map, altering her district to include sections of Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties rather than parts of Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, according to The Times.
The D.C. Council on Wednesday will discuss several legislative proposals aimed at upping the city government’s ethical standards, according to The Washington Post. Council member Muriel Bowser, Ward 4 Democrat, whose Government Operations Committee is holding the hearing, is charged with hammering out an ethics overhaul from nine competing bills, the proposals in which run the gamut from tightening campaign finance disclosure requirements to banning campaign contributions from lobbyists and city contractors to overhauling constituent service funds to term limits for elected officials.
In perhaps the most talked-about court case in the region Tuesday, a Fairfax County jury deliberated for less than 20 minutes before exonerating a Fairfax woman of failing to clean up after Baxter, the fluffy Westie-bichon frise mix for which she cares. The verdict came after a tense, funny and strange day-long trial that featured photos of dog piles submitted as evidence, a lengthy dissection of Baxter’s diet and a witness who brought a bag of poop to the courthouse, though not inside, according to The Post.
Two D.C. men were arrested in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday in connection with the killing of a 22-year-old man last week on a Metrobus in Southeast Washington, D.C. police said. The killing was one of at least nine in the city in eight days, according to The Post.
