Metro Briefs

MARYLAND

ANNAPOLIS

MVA canceling license appointments

Maryland’s Motor Vehicle Administration is canceling appointments for thousands of immigrants applying for driver’s licenses.

The agency has been booking 2,000 appointments a week for drivers who provide foreign documents that lack a U.S. visa stamp. The system allowed hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to drive but has made Maryland vulnerable to fraud.

But a ban on licenses for illegal immigrants that passed this week is set to go into effect on June 1. It will require drivers to present a Social Security card or other proof that they are in the country legally to get a license.

MVA officials say they will send cancellation letters to the 8,000 applicants who have already made appointments for June.

BETHESDA

Former firefighter settles lawsuit

A volunteer firefighter who lost his job after complaining that Montgomery County was ill-prepared for a biological or chemical attack has settled a lawsuit for $259,000.

Lewis German, a former deputy chief with the Bethesda fire department, was terminated in February 2002 after his comments in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Mr. German accused the fire department of violating his First Amendment rights by demanding that he apologize and never again contact the media if he wanted to keep his job.

The case had been scheduled to go to trial in June.

Mr. German and other volunteers said thousands of dollars’ worth of protective suits would be useless in an attack because they were never distributed to firefighters or appropriately maintained.

ANNAPOLIS

Panel votes to maintain tax rate

Marylanders will pay the same state property-tax rate in the coming fiscal year as they have for the past three years.

The state’s three-member Board of Public Works voted unanimously Wednesday to hold the line on state property taxes. Property owners will pay 11.22 cents in state property taxes per $100 of the full assessed property value. Public utilities will pay 28 cents in state property tax per $100 of assessed value.

Individual counties set their own, separate property-tax rate.

State Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Gov. Martin O’Malley hold seats on the board, but Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown took Mr. O’Malley’s place Wednesday because the governor is on vacation.

BALTIMORE

Board approves slots proposal

Developers of a proposed Baltimore slots parlor would lease land from the city under an agreement approved by the city’s Board of Estimates.

The board voted 2-1 Wednesday for the proposal. Mayor Sheila Dixon and City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake voted in favor and Comptroller Joan Pratt against.

Mrs. Dixon says revenues will be used to lower property taxes and build schools. Miss Pratt says she doesn’t think Washington and Virginia gamblers will favor the city parlor over one planned for Anne Arundel County and says most gambling will be done by city residents who can least afford it.

The agreement calls for the Baltimore City Entertainment Group to build the parlor by 2011 and pay a portion of its gross revenue to the city.

CROFTON

School worker faces sex assault charge

Anne Arundel County Police have charged a D.C. schools employee with sexually assaulting a woman selling newspapers door to door.

An 18-year-old woman called police Tuesday evening from the 1000 block of Chilmark Court in Crofton, saying a man had forced her to perform a sex act on him.

She told police that when she went to 29-year-old Brannon Joel Powell’s home to sell newspapers he invited her in and then forced her to perform the sex act.

She ran to another house and called police. Officers interviewed her and then arrested Mr. Powell on sex offense and assault charges.

Police say he works for D.C. Public Schools as a staff professional development instructor and has minimal contact with children.

VIRGINIA

RICHMOND

Federal panel denies inmate’s appeal

A panel of federal judges has refused the appeal of a Virginia man who bragged to prosecutors that he killed a teenage girl and tried to rape her after he thought he couldn’t face the death penalty.

In a 2-1 ruling Wednesday, justices rejected Paul Warner Powell’s argument that he couldn’t be convicted twice for the same crime.

Powell was convicted of Stacie Reed’s capital murder in 2000, but the Virginia Supreme Court overturned that verdict, ruling he could not be executed because prosecutors lacked evidence that he tried to either rape or rob the Manassas teenager.

Powell then wrote the taunting letter to prosecutors. He was convicted again in 2003.

The dissenting justice said Powell’s conviction constituted double jeopardy and must be thrown out.

From wire dispatches and staff reports