Metro Briefs

DISTRICT

Audit finds fault with financial controls

An independent auditors report released yesterday identified significant deficiencies and weaknesses in the District’s financial controls.

Auditors BDO Seidman LLP, in the “Yellow Book” of the fiscal 2007 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, said the city showed “significant deficiencies” in its internal financial reporting controls in areas like the public school system, Medicaid management program and grant management.

The city’s tax and revenue office — the subject of a probe after an embezzlement scandal that cost the District tens of millions of dollars — also was faulted.

The auditors also said the public school system, Medicaid management and tax and revenue office were “material weaknesses” in the city’s financial controls.

The material weaknesses could harm the District’s standing on Wall Street if not corrected, although a spokeswoman for the city’s chief financial officer said that result was “highly unlikely.”

Overall, the auditors gave the city an unqualified, or clean, opinion for the 11th straight year.

MARYLAND

BALTIMORE

Attack on teacher appears on MySpace

An art teacher at Reginald F. Lewis High School said she was beaten by a student in her classroom, an attack that was recorded on a cell phone camera and ended up on MySpace.com.

Jolita Berry told WBAL-TV (Channel 11) that she was attacked Friday after she told a student to sit down and behave. As the girl’s friends cheered her on, the girl hit her in the face, Miss Berry said.

Miss Berry said the principal told her that telling the student that she was going to defend herself triggered the attack.

WHITE MARSH

Road worker killed when hit on I-95

A Maryland Transportation Authority worker was killed yesterday when he was hit by a car while picking up debris on southbound Interstate 95.

The MTA said Gregory Anthony Bauer, 37, of Abingdon, Md., was pronounced dead at Franklin Square Hospital.

Maryland State Police said Mr. Bauer was working between mile markers 67 and 74 about 2 p.m., when a Mazda lost control and hit the median. Police said the car slid down the median and hit Mr. Bauer, throwing him into the northbound shoulder.

Kathryn Eileen Cote, 35, of Salisbury, who was driving the Mazda, was taken to Franklin Square Hospital with injuries described as not life-threatening.

ALLEN

Sod farmer cleared of causing dry wells

A sod farmer is not to blame for the failure of 27 nearby wells last year, Wicomico County officials determined.

In a decision released Monday, the county’s Agriculture Reconciliation Committee ruled in favor of Fred Moore. The panel said there is no evidence that Mr. Moore was using too much water for irrigation on his sod farm.

Residents in the Allen area had their wells go dry last summer. Their attorney said he plans to appeal the committee’s decision in court.

COLUMBIA

Man fatally shot; schools locked down

A 20-year-old man was fatally shot yesterday morning near the Wilde Lake Village Center, Howard County police said.

Police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said an officer heard gunshots at about 11:30 a.m. The officer ran to help the victim, Bryan Antoine Adams Jr., who was taken by ambulance to Howard County General Hospital.

Police said doctors were preparing to transport Mr. Adams to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore when he died early in the afternoon.

A male thought to be in his teens was spotted running from the scene, and police said six nearby schools were locked down. They were: Wilde Lake High, Wilde Lake Middle, Bryant Woods Elementary, Swansfield Elementary, Harper’s Choice Middle and Oakland Mills High.

WILLIAMSPORT

Bookkeeper charged in theft from tavern

A bookkeeper at a tavern was charged with stealing nearly $240,000 from the bar.

Charging documents say Craig Spriggs, 48, of Williamsport, is charged with one count of theft scheme.

A co-owner of the Corner Pub, Darryl Sword, said Mr. Spriggs worked for the tavern for eight years. According to charging documents, the thefts spanned more than three years, ending in November.

Mr. Spriggs was released on bail.

VIRGINIA

NORFOLK

Students’ nude art deemed inappropriate

Art lovers are raising money for two teens who lost their top prizes in an art contest after their work depicting nudity was deemed inappropriate.

The contest was sponsored by the Virginian-Pilot, but the paper’s publisher, Bruce Bradley, rejected the selections by the judges.

Acoustical Sheetmetal Inc. of Virginia Beach donated $1,000 — the winner’s prize — to Nancy “Beth” Reid, 17, of Portsmouth, who painted a nude self-portrait.

A similar reward will go to Jasmine Childs, 17, of Chesapeake, whose winning sculpture of a nude, pregnant torso was rejected.

Mr. Bradley said that while the rules don’t address nudity, he had concerns about a 17-year-old girl doing a portrait of herself in the nude. He told the newspaper’s editor not to publish a photograph of that work for the same reason.

From wire dispatches and staff reports