More than 50 D.C. youths in the custody of the city’s juvenile justice agency either have been killed or have been found guilty of killing someone else over the past five years — and the majority of them had been categorized in advance as posing a risk of reoffending, reports Jeffrey Anderson of The Washington Times.
A House subcommittee on national parks and public lands will consider a bill today that would make a national monument out of the District of Columbia World War I Memorial. D.C. lawmakers object because the memorial is the only one on the Mall exclusively for D.C. veterans. The bill is being introduced by Rep. Ted Poe, Texas Republican, reports Tom Howell Jr. of The Times.
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A GOP-led House oversight committee is holding a hearing today on why Occupy D.C. has been allowed remain for months in the federal McPherson Square. Among those scheduled to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis and D.C. police Chief Cathy L. Lanier The committee is led by Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, reports Meredith Somers of The Times.
While Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, is mulling whether to propose increasing the state’s gas tax amid mixed public opinion, a General Assembly leader is suggesting he increase the tax beyond what a state commission has suggested. The commission has recommended increasing the 23.5-cents-a-gallon tax by 5 cents in each of the next three years. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., a Democrat, thinks a nickel increase in the first year might prove inadequate, considering Maryland’s urgent and desperate need of money to rebuild and improve roads, reports David Hill of The Times.
The U.S. Coast Guard is establishing temporary security zones today in the Potomac and Anacostia rivers for the State of the Union address. Boaters may be limited or prohibited from navigating along parts of the rivers in the zones from 4 p.m. until midnight. The security zone includes the Potomac River south from the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the Anacostia River from the 11th Street Bridge to its confluence with the Potomac. The security zone also will include the Georgetown Channel Tidal Basin, according to the Associated Press.
Former Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. used $168,000 in leftover campaign funds to pay for defense attorneys in his aide Paul Schurick’s election fraud trial. The payments were outlined in a campaign finance report filed last week by the Bob Ehrlich for Maryland Committee. A Baltimore jury last month convicted Schurick on charges that he authorized a 2010 Election Day automated-call campaign to suppress the black vote by falsely suggesting that Gov. Martin O’Malley already had won and voters could stay home. The use of the money to pay an aide’s legal defense is not clearly addressed in Maryland law, the Baltimore Sun reports.
A Prince George’s County police officer assigned to a Maryland gun seizure task force stole weapons from an evidence locker and resold them on the street, prosecutors told jurors Monday at the start of the officer’s trial. Cpl. Juan D. Carter faces six counts of misconduct in office and seven theft charges related to 16 weapons that went missing while he served as a property officer for the Maryland State Police-led Gun Interdiction Task Force, reports Andrea Noble of The Times.
