Laurel's County Council member Mary Lehman and state Del. Barbara Frush are pushing for a law that would requirePrince George's Countyshoppers to pay a fee for disposable bags.

Both lawmakers, who are Democrats, say the bag fee is an environmental initiative aimed to reduce the use of disposable bags, which are not often properly recycled and end up as litter.

"To me, if we get to enact this fee, we will be successful if we collect no revenue at all," Lehman said.

The fee would have to be approved by thePrince George's CountyCouncil, but before the council can take up the issue, the state has to pass enabling legislation.

AsPrince George's Countylawmakers move to impose a tax on plastic bags, environmental organizations said a similar fee in Washington has sharply reduced the amount of trash in the Anacostia River.

Because almost half of the Anacostia River's watershed lies inPrince George's County, the new bag fee under consideration will help further reduce the number of disposable plastic bags that pollute the river, said Mike Bolinder, the Anacostia Waterkeeper.

"The total volume of trash in the river has gone down dramatically," said Bolinder, a member of Waterkeeper Alliance, a group that works to protect bodies of water from pollution.

Supporters and even opponents of same-sex marriage, including Senate President Thomas V. "Mike" Miller (D-Calvert, Prince George's counties), have said publicly they believe the bill will pass the upper chamber with 25 votes once again. The senator whose vote was not counted last year, Sen. Joanne Benson (D-Prince George's), has said she opposes marriage equality.

Prince George's County Police are looking for 8 year-old Brannon Achimbi from Lewisdale.

Brennan was last seen in the 6600 block of 23rd Place around 2:30 p.m. Monday.

He is 4'1", and weighs 90 pounds. He was last seen wearing a white polo shirt, blue pants, black and white plaid jacket.

The owners of the Cafritz property in Riverdale Park want a zoning change to build a major mixed-use development on a wooded, 37-acre single-family-zoned property with, at best, mediocre access to transit. If Prince George's County is serious about its commitment to smart growth and development around its 15 Metro stations, it will deny the rezoning.

In recent years, Prince George's has repeatedly rezoned low-density sites with poor transit access all around the county, such as the Westphalia and Konterra mega-projects.

The county is desperate to attract high-quality mixed-use development, but all too often, this desperation leads it to act against its own best interests. Each time the county allows a huge project in any arbitrary location, it becomes less likely that the right kind of development will come to the Metro sites.

 

A Nigerian immigrant who runs an executive car service, Otigba learned over burgers and potato salad that his new neighbors, all of them black, included a White House staffer, a Grammy-winning producer, a lawyer, a nurse, an engineer and a fellow business owner. That's an impressive lineup in most any community, but here in Prince George's County, the most affluent majority-black county in the United States, the Otigbas and their neighbors were just part of the wave of well-to-do families who arrived in the years before the financial collapse to stake their claim on a 5,000-square-foot version of the American dream.

Outside the cul-de-sac's seven brandy-colored brick neocolonials, party conversation quickly turned to typical middle-class concerns, from the quality of area schools to guidelines for the local homeowners association. By the time the Otigbas cleaned up and helped the hired DJ pack his equipment, several of their new neighbors had made something else clear. Most planned to spend the coming decades living in Balk Hill.

"I found that refreshing," said Otigba, 43. "When we moved here, I told my wife, 'This is it. I'm never moving again.' We were planting our roots."

That was then. Today, the Otigbas and five of their six immediate neighbors are underwater on their mortgages, that is, they owe more than their homes are worth. The lawyer's house sits vacant after a failed short sale. The engineer fears the house he shares with his family will become unaffordable when their mortgage resets in about a year. And having attempted once unsuccessfully to cut a new deal with their bank, the Otigbas are waiting to hear the results of a second effort. For months they've lived in fear that an official foreclosure notice will arrive with an order to vacate.

Laughter and giggling could be heard throughout the Oxon Hill High School gymnasium as freshmen were asked questions relating to parts of the female and male anatomies and about common justifications for having sex or for not using protection during sex.

But toward the end of the questions, the issue of sex was no longer a laughing matter for students who said the assembly Wednesday on STD awareness encouraged them to consider better lifestyle choices.

Prince George's County estimates it will be about $126 million in the red in the coming fiscal year. The county will hold a series of public hearings over the next three weeks to find out which programs should be kept and which should be cut.

The deficit has "a lot of that has to do with the fact that there's a decrease in our residential property values," says County Executive Rushern Baker.

At the same time, he says the county's costs have gone up.

"We're going to have to make some tough choices."

Prince George’s officials hope several proposed bus routes and route expansions in south county will ease commutes and parking for residents, and plan to set up a public task force to work on the final approved routes.

Officials from the county’s Department of Public Works and Transportation met Jan. 18 with residents in the Fort Washington and Oxon Hill areas at Oxon Hill Library to gather feedback on the new bus routes.

Residents and staff of Fort Washington Manor, a senior apartment community off Indian Head Highway that is one of the new stops proposed along Route 35 of TheBus, the county’s bus transportation system, have been pushing for a new bus route nearby since the community opened almost six years ago.

Dolores C. Henderson, 78, who lives at Fort Washington Manor, said even for seniors who still drive, parking is often a hassle at certain locations.

“I am ecstatic,” she said. “Even though I drive, I would like the option to take the bus and to not have to drive. [With the new route] I don’t have to work so hard to get to places.”

Two state lawmakers from Prince George’s want to make sure that the Johnson scenario is not repeated. A bill introduced this week by Del. Jolene Ivey and Sen. Victor Ramirez, both Democrats, proposes amending the Maryland Constitution to immediately force public officials to resign when they plead guilty or are convicted of a felony, rather than wait for sentencing. The measure also would apply to officials convicted of misdemeanors if the crime is related to their official duties.

Amending the Maryland Constitution requires voter approval, and the bill would place a statewide referendum on the November ballot. The proposed change would affect all elected officials in Maryland, from the governor to part-time council members in the state’s tiniest jurisdictions.

Prince George’s County has filed paperwork to demolish the Old Marlboro Elementary School building, to the dismay of Upper Marlboro officials and residents who previously had requested the county either preserve or renovate the building.

In its application, received Jan. 18 by the county Historic Preservation Commission, the county’s Office of Central Services said it wants to tear down the vacant school to build a Family Justice Center on the site. The center would be a one-stop shop for victims of domestic violence to receive services from Prince George’s County Circuit Court, the county sheriff’s office, and other agencies and nonprofits.

The demolition first must be approved by the Historic Preservation Commission, given the site’s historic status, but some members said they were concerned by OCS’ denial of requests by Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission staff to survey the property, a necessity for being able to evaluate its significance and condition.

The commission will hold a hearing, tentatively slated for late February, on the county’s application.

The Old Marlboro Elementary School building, built in 1896, was home to Old Marlboro High School/Marlboro Academy, built in 1921, and used as a school until the 1970s.

The property also is the grave site of Dr. William Beanes, a doctor who treated U.S. soldiers during the Revolutionary War and was captured by British troops during the War of 1812.

Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III and schools Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. may be used to putting out political fires, but Friday they dealt with the real thing as they entered a smoking building at the county’s Fire/EMS training facility in Cheltenham and doused the fire inside.

The two officials weren’t considering a new line of work, but rather donned firefighting gear to demonstrate the skills 24 students at Charles H. Flowers High School in Springdale will learn through a new two-year fire science academy.

After failing to convince school officials to keep existing boundaries, parents at the two Bowie elementary schools most widely affected say their focus now is to make the transition easy for hundreds of local students set to move to new schools next year.

Children take their cues from their parents, and the message now is to set a positive example for them, said Dawn Wampler, co-vice president of the PTO at Heather Hills Elementary, about the choices now facing parents of more than 100 children at her school, where two-thirds of the students are in the Talented and Gifted program.

Also moving will be about 100 students from Rockledge Elementary to Yorktown Elementary, about three miles away, after a vote Jan. 18 by the Prince George’s County Board of Education.

Before arriving at Capitol Heights Elementary School in 2009, Principal Herman Whaley knew it would take more than teachers to boost the school's test scores.

Whaley brought to Capitol Heights Elementary the concept of a community think tank — a network of businesses, churches and nonprofits that donate goods and tutor children — that an area school board member now wants to replicate in more central Prince George’s County schools after the think tank’s volunteerism resulted in some of the county's biggest gains on the Maryland School Assessment in 2011. Whaley said it’s a think tank and not a partnership, because the idea was to get local organizations around a table and think outside the box on how to fit his school's needs.

School Board member Carolyn Boston (Dist. 6) invited civic associations and principals from schools such as Landover’s William Paca Elementary and Capitol Heights’ Carmody Hills Elementary schools to Capitol Heights Elementary on Jan. 12 to ask questions of the think tank and see how their model possibly could be duplicate

Alston is a Washington-based entrepreneur and the head of Alston Marketing. Founded in 2002, the firm has a diverse roster of clients that has included the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Capital Bikeshare and Prince George's County.

Describe your experience as a young black female entrepreneur?

I am a fourth-generation entrepreneur and fourth-generation college graduate from Oklahoma. I was raised to live the dream, work hard and never questioned those beliefs. No one ever said to me 'You can't become anything.' Yes, there's racism, sexism, classism and all the other 'isms,' but that was never an excuse. Sure things get tough, but you persevere and get through it.

Two children are alive today because of the quick thinking and heroic efforts of former police officer Chris Willden.

Willden was the first on the scene when a car skidded off the road into an icy river, trapping an adult and three children inside.

The Prince George’s County school board voted 8-1 to approve a plan that will affect about 4,000 students in the 2012-2013 school year as the school system looks to balance enrollment numbers across the county’s nearly 200 schools.

The controversial plan to alter school boundaries, shift some sixth-grade students into middle schools and offer new buildings to specialty programs drew more than 30 speakers — parents, students, teachers and county residents — at the Jan. 18 special meeting in Upper Marlboro after almost three months of public input on the issue.

“If my teachers have taught me anything, it’s to not give up on what you love and I love this school,” Samantha Lawson, a fifth-grade student at Heather Hills Elementary School in Bowie, told the board. “Please don’t kick me out of my school.”

As Heather Hills Elementary turns into a talented and gifted, or TAG, center for about 375 second- through fifth-grade students under the plan of boundary and program changes, Samantha and about 65 others will be rezoned to Kenilworth Elementary School, about two miles away in Bowie, because they are not part of the TAG program.

Glenarden Woods Elementary School also will become a TAG center for more than 400 elementary students, adding about 575 seats for students in county TAG centers, said Johndel Jones-Brown, the director of pupil accounting and student boundaries.

“Nearly eliminating the TAG waiting list is a very important thing,” said board member Henry P. Armwood Jr. (Dist. 7). “We’re not serving near the number of students we could be serving. Everyone who is identified as TAG should be entitled to that support.”

This support ensures TAG students receive more individualized instruction that challenges them and meets their academic needs, said Joseph L. Kitchen Jr., the president of the Prince George’s Association of Talented and Gifted Education, a parents’ group that advocates for TAG programs.

Students in the autism program at Tayac Elementary School in Fort Washington also need specialized support, parents argued at the meeting. The 17 students in Tayac’s program will be moved to Rosaryville Elementary School in Upper Marlboro, a move that will offer the growing program more space and will increase the efficiency of the busing route, Jones-Brown said.

Terrence Letko, of Accokeek, said his 9-year-old son Daniel, a fourth-grade student in the autism program at Tayac, could be on a school bus for an hour and 20 minutes, up from 40 minutes this year, to get to Rosaryville, which is 10 miles east of Tayac.

The longer travel time leaves less time for homework, said Letko, who also is concerned that the class sizes will be larger at Rosaryville. Daniel now has three classmates.

Results of a survey paint a a complex portrait of black women who feel confident but vulnerable, who have high self-esteem and see physical beauty as important, who find career success more vital to them than marriage.

Instead of solving math problems with pencil and paper in Christina Jerome's eighth-grade classroom at Charles Carroll Middle School, students add and subtract with a simple swipe of a finger.

They're using iPads to take notes, study for quizzes and review homework, part of a federally funded experiment that county leaders say should serve as a national model for integration of new technology into the classroom.

"I can't stand paper," said Jerome, who uses the tablet computers to get instant feedback on student performance in class. "If I have the students use the eClicker app on the iPad, I can immediately see how many students got the right answer and which students need help."

Using a $1.3 million stimulus grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,Prince George's Countyis providing iPads to 3,000 students at four middle schools where a majority of pupils qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, known as Title I schools.

The program is aimed at preparing students for a digital future, said Meri Robinson, technology specialist for the county's Title I office.

 

Prince George’s County is making it easier for residents to learn about emergencies and severe weather in the area.

A new system is allowing residents to receive emergency notifications and alerts through email, text messages and pages.

The alert system is voluntary but covers emergencies including Amber Alerts, severe weather, school and government delays and closures and emergency preparedness measures. Recipients will get updates and sometimes instructions on where to go and what to do.

Anyone interested in getting the alerts can register at the following website: https://notifyme.princegeorgescountymd.gov.

 

Officials working on plans for a regional hospital to replace ailing Prince George’s Hospital Center say they expect by late March to know how many beds are needed and what type of outpatient health care is needed for the county’s nearly 1 million residents.

And they fervently hope that once the needs are established, the money will flow for the proposed $600 million regional medical system that is envisioned by the state, the University of Maryland Medical System and Prince George’s County.

That may prove to be the trickiest part.

Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D-Calvert) has said some of the cost of the hospital could be offset by revenues from slot machine gambling in Prince George’s, which he has been pushing as an antidote to revenue shortfalls. The state is experiencing a budget gap of about $1 billion; Prince George’s County’s gap is about $126 million.

Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission officials say they are proposing a 7.5 percent fee increase to water and sewer fees.

The agency serves about 1.8 million residents in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. The Washington Post reports that commission Chairman Roscoe M. Moore Jr. said in a letter to both county governments that the agency needs 22.3 percent increase to its capital and operating budgets (http://tinyurl.com/7m5pe74).

There has to be a Footloose-like spinoff in the making in Prince George's County.

WJLA reports today that the two operators of a nightclub located in Capitol Heights will plead guilty today to operating a dance hall without a license. The guilty pleas are being announced today at 3 p.m. According to The Washington Times, they're also facing a civil lawsuit for a drive-by shooting that occurred at the club last August.

Wait, an unlicensed dance hall? Indeed.

Last July, the Prince George County Council passed and County Executive Rushern Baker signed a measure that tightens up licensing requirements for running a dance hall, which is broadly defined as any place where people dance.

Under the new law, separate categories of dance halls were created -- one for adults (21 and above) and the other for teens (18-21). Before a license for either can even be granted, a hopeful club owner has to submit a detailed security plan to the county for approval, undergo a background check and show proof of bodily injury liability insurance and property damage liability insurance.

There's a number of additional rules, including no dancing between 2 a.m. and 11 a.m., allowing county officials to shut down dance halls.

Prince George’s residents may weigh in on the proposed fiscal 2013 budget for Prince George’s County Public Schools at two community forums later this month.

The forums, which both start at 6:30 p.m., are scheduled for Tuesday at Gwynn Park Middle School in Brandywine and Jan. 25 at Cora L. Rice Elementary School in Landover.

Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. presented the budget at the Jan. 5 school board meeting, and the first public forum took place Wednesday at Laurel High School.

Maryland is near the top of the national rankings in median household income, but the state’s great wealth does not equal good health for everyone.

Instead, the state has troubling clusters of chronic disease, low-birth-weight babies and limited access to health care for those who lack the means to pay. Areas with large minority populations, including Prince George’s County, are especially hard-hit.

The NAACP is urging the Maryland legislature to abolish the death penalty.

The organization’s action comes on the heels of efforts to stop the execution of Troy Davis last year. But, the tone of that move represents a marked shift in which death penalty critics are increasingly framing the issue within the context of cost rather than as a moral imperative or as a way to highlight racial disparities. The hope is that states like Maryland, pressed for money during hard economic times, will take a second look at the practice and do away with it.

Annie's Project focuses on the many aspects of farm management and is designed to empower women in overall farm decision-making and to build local networks throughout the state.

The target audience is farm women with a passion for business, agriculture and involvement in the farm operation. Topics for the sessions cover the five areas of risk management production, marketing, financial, legal risk and human resources. This course is open to anyone interested in farm management practices.

...Prince George's County Extension, Clinton

Before Wednesday’s Prince George’s County Board of Education budget hearing, Laurel High School English and journalism teacher Robert Giuliani handed out copies of the school’s award-winning student newspaper. Giuliani was at the meeting to express his concerns about Superintendent Dr. William R. Hite Jr.’s proposed $1.6 billion budget — and how it might affect programs like his journalism course.

Wednesday’s meeting at Laurel High School was the first of three community forums this month regarding the superintendent’s proposed budget for the 2013 fiscal year. Hite, along with the school system’s Chief Financial Officer Matt Stanski, outlined plans for the budget before a group of about 30 Prince George’s County community members. Although the proposed revenue for 2013 looks nearly identical to that of 2012, there are some drastic changes in the decision-making process for how school budgets should be spent.

In the past, the county’s central office dictated the budget and determined how much money each school received using a formula based on student enrollment. This year, the county is adopting the Student-Based Budgeting model, which will grant more control to the individual school communities and allow principals to make some staffing decisions.

The Student-Based Budgeting system assigns a base amount of $3,077 to each student and then allots additional funds based on specific needs of each school’s specific population, including poverty and academic performance.

This year, council members said, they plan to seek ways to shore up education, environmental programs, economic development and public safety, and complete an overhaul of ethics rules that began in last year’s state legislature.

It won’t be easy.

Many council members want to expand the county’s tax base to help close an estimated $126 million budget shortfall without further burdening county residents, who pay among the highest taxes in Maryland. At the same time, Prince George’s officials have to cope with challenges emanating from the state capital: potentially less overall state aid, possibly higher teacher pension costs for localities and an ongoing battle over an income tax formula that leaves Prince George’s at a disadvantage.

Obtaining funding for school construction, infrastructure improvements and a new hospital will be top priorities this year and during the upcoming General Assembly session, said Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III.

Improving schools goes hand-in-hand with fostering economic development, Baker (D) said.

C. Anthony Muse, a well-known minister who leads the Ark of Safety Christian Church in Upper Marlboro, MD, and a state senator representing southern Prince George’s County, will take on U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin in the April 3rd Maryland Democratic Party primary and thus seek to become the first African American in history to represent the state of Maryland.

Muse, 53, announced his intentions at The Camelot by Martin’s Banquet Hall in Upper Marlboro recently before an estimated crowd of 2,000.

“I have traveled this state and people have told me that this country is going in the wrong direction,” he said. “I love this country and I love this state and people need to know that it is all right to have change.”

Muse noted that his opponent, Cardin, has been in public office “since I was 10 years old.”

The Fort Washington man arrested for sexual assault and robbery in Bethesda and Wheaton has also been charged in a Jan. 13 rape in Temple Hills, his third attack in a four-day span, Prince George's police say.

Kevin Darnell Ray, 33, of the 12400 block of Gable Lane is charged with first-degree rape, first-degree assault, armed carjacking, first-degree burglary, firearm use in a felony, and reckless endangerment in the Temple Hills incident, for which he was arrested Saturday morning, police said.

The superintendent's proposed budget for Prince George's County's public schools would barely raise the school system's operating costs and includes no teacher layoffs.

William Hite's $1.61 billion budget, an increase of only $238,200 from last year's budget, requires cost-cutting measures in nearly every department of the public school system to compensate for declining revenue.

Prince George's Public Schools officials face a $44 million budget gap heading into fiscal 2013, one year after shedding about 700 teaching positions in sweeping cuts that reduced school spending by $13 million in 2012.

Declining enrollment and the precarious budget situations at the state and county levels required a conservative budgeting approach, Hite said.

A hunter is in the hospital and four of his friends have been charged with multiple counts of illegal hunting after an incident Saturday afternoon just off a major thoroughfare in Prince George's County, Maryland Natural Resources Police reported.

Roy A. Contee, 57, of Upper Marlboro, was charged with negligent hunting, hunting without written permission and hunting with buckshot after he allegedly shot a member of his hunting group in the abdomen and knee, Maryland Natural Resources Police said Sunday.

Ricky L. Johnson, 59, of Clinton, was taken to Prince George's County Hospital for treatment of his wounds, which were not considered life-threatening, the police said.

The five men were hunting just off Indian Head Highway and Oxon Hill Road on land owned by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Shortly before 2 p.m., as some of the hunters were moving toward the others in an attempt to flush out deer from the underbrush, a deer leapt out and startled the group. Contee fired a shotgun loaded with buckshot, striking Johnson, NRP Sgt. Art Windemuth said.

Prince George’s and Howard counties are among the jurisdictions statewide that are exploring following in Montgomery County's footsteps and imposing a tax on plastic bags used at retail establishments....

Prince George’s County officials are actively pursuing the tax. State Sen. Paul Pinskey and Del. Barbara Frush, both Democrats from Prince George’s, have said they plan to seek legislative approval to allow county officials to levy the tax.

Would you support a tax on plastic bags in Maryland?

 

Prince George's County Police are looking for the suspect or suspects that shot a man Thursday afternoon in Capitol Heights.

Police say officers responded to the 2000 block of Brooks Drive Thursday at approximately 2:18 p.m. and found 19-year-old Darryl Nicholas McCoy of Suitland, lying near the parking lot of an apartment complex. They say he was suffering from an apparent gunshot wound and was pronounced deceased at the scene.

Detectives are trying to identify a suspect or suspect and a motive in this case.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Prince George's County Police Department at 301-772-4925. You may also call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411 TIPS (8477), text "PGPD plus your message" to CRIMES (274637) or go here to submit a tip.

Prince George's County Police are conducting a crackdown on crime in one of the most populated parts of our region.

Similar to the District's All Hands on Deck program, police are flooding local neighborhoods, aiming to keep people safe.

ABC7's Ben Eisler rode with one of the officers on duty, Sgt. Jim Davis. Watch Ben's report, which includes a traffic stop with a suspect wielding a taser, and  the discovery of marijuana residue in the car.

The department has assigned 150 officers to this team. Their mission? To prevent the deadly beginning to 2011 from repeating itself.

The department describes it as a proactive approach to deterring crime. Officers go into some of the most problem-prone areas, into the lion's den, to find perpetrators before they strike.

Prince George's County is expanding its speed camera program -- just a few months after it started.

The county began ticketing with speed cameras in September, and in the first 40 days speeding in school zones where cameras were located was reduced almost 50 percent.

"Believe it or not, after you've gotten a couple of those tickets, you tend to be aware that you're speeding," says Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker.

Baker says the county is regularly adding more speed cameras, and the goal is to have 72 mobile cameras by later this year.

The cameras operate between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and they go off when a car is going at least 12 miles per hour over the posted speed limit.

Dr. William R. Hite Jr., Superintendent of Schools, presented his Fiscal Year 2013 Proposed Operating Budget to the Board of Education on Thursday, a $1.6 billion spending plan that reflects a stable fiscal outlook.     

The proposed budget includes a $238,200 increase over last year to bring the total budget to $1,614,596,800. 

The school system faces a $44 million budget gap due to declining enrollment and rising costs in employee health ($14 million) and retirement benefits ($2.2 million), and fuel ($1.3 million). 

“Despite our challenges in this tough economic climate, our goal is to create a budget that keeps  our schools moving forward,” said Dr. Hite. “We have made difficult cuts and we still face difficult decisions. However, we must focus our vision and priorities on the school district’s long-term success.”

Prince George’s County expects a deficit of $126 million in the coming fiscal year, which officials hope to address without layoffs or furloughs, according to a county budget official.

The county is projecting $2.71 billion in expenditures for fiscal 2013 but only $2.58 billion in revenues, according a report provided by County Executive Rushern L. Baker’s staff.

The report shows a 2.7 percent decrease in revenue from the current fiscal year and a 1.7 percent increase in expenditures. The fiscal 2012 budget was $2.65 billion.

Obtaining funding for school construction, infrastructure improvements and a new hospital will be top priorities this year and during the approaching General Assembly session, said Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III.

Improving schools goes hand-in-hand with fostering economic development, Baker (D) added.

“I think there’s a tremendous opportunity ... to help not only Prince George’s County, but also help the state, because the growth in the state is going to happen in the Washington region,” Baker said.

A push to expand gambling from slot-machine-only casinos to include table games like blackjack and craps will stir debate. There's also talk of trying to allow a casino in Prince George's County, either at Rosecroft Raceway or National Harbor, near the nation's capital. Both proposals would have to be approved not just by the General Assembly, but also by voters on the 2012 ballot.

Busch said he believes expanding gambling opportunities to table games would find support, but he said a proposed new site will complicate the debate. That's because people who have already invested in three casinos — with plans for two more — made their decisions based on the market share of five casinos in the state.

But Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said Prince George's County is prime casino territory, due to its proximity to the nation's capital and Virginia.

"I'm not interested in table games unless Prince George's has a site," Miller said Tuesday.

Many people made resolutions to live better, save money and be kinder to the earth in the year 2012. In that vein, there's a farm in Prince George's County that just might help you live up to your New Year's resolution. It's called ECO City Farms, located in Edmonston, Md.

Established in 2010 on County park land, ECO City Farms provides healthy produce, eggs, and honey to the Port Towns communities, and offers many hands-on educational and vocational training opportunities, including the first-ever urban agriculture certificate program with Prince George's Community College.

In just two years, the nonprofit organization not only built the first urban farm in the county, but grew and sold vegetables year-round, engaged more than 1, 000 volunteers, held the first ever Chesapeake region urban farming summit with 400 attendees.

In addition, produce from ECO-City is available for sale at the Riverdale Farmers Market.

The Prince George’s school board shut three dozen magnet programs after court-ordered desegregation ended in 2004. Diversity goals had become harder to achieve in the predominantly black school system, and officials found that extra program costs were not leading to better results. Now county schools offer a smaller number of “specialty programs” with goals of “raising student achievement and appealing to different students’ interests,” she said.

Experts say disparities appear to have complex causes. A disproportionate number of black students live below the poverty line or with a single parent, factors that affect disciplinary patterns. But experts say those factors do not fully explain racial differences in suspensions. Other contributing factors could include unintended bias, unequal access to highly effective teachers and differences in school leadership styles.

Klout measures how much influence you have on others via social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

It also lets you know about which topics you're influencing others, and who you are making an impact on. Scores range from 1 to 100, with higher ratings signifying greater reach.

Patch did a run down of some local officials and Prince George's County officials and agencies to find out what their Twitter Klout score is. Here are the results:

It's 2,000 square feet. Three bedrooms. Four baths. But it's something numbers can't fully explain. It is the American dream. Mildred Hardin says it feels like "the beginning of something great."

And it's been a long time in the making for Hardin and her family. After a lifetime of renting, Hardin is a homeowner. And it would not have been possible right now without help from a Prince George's County program called "My Home."

"What we do is assist them, either with a down payment, or closing costs or some combination thereof," says Eric Brown, Director of Prince George's County Department of Housing and Community Development.

"I'm sure that our good friends in Washington and Virginia are eager to either attract them or keep them and Prince George's County is ready for the game," said David Iannucci, Head of Economic Development for Prince George's County. "We've met with the Redskins, and a team with the Maryland Stadium Authority and Prince George's County has met with the Redskins, has interviewed them, and had a tour of their facility."

Iannucci said the county owns land near Bowie State University that would be ideal for a new team headquarters and training complex. He also said the deal to bring the Redskins to Landover 14 years ago had important strings attached.

"Under the 30-year lease that the Redskins have with Prince George's County, Prince George's County is owed the right of first refusal should the Redskins think about relocating their training facility. And the county has essentially said we intend to exercise that right," Iannucci explained.

Since his election, President Barack Obama (D) has had a strong presence in Prince George's County. He has used local sites as the backdrop for national issues: rallies for health care reform at the University of Maryland, College Park; voter turnout at Bowie State University; and economic initiatives at businesses in Bladensburg and Landover. Not to mention, he travels to the county when he uses Air Force One, which flies in and out of Joint Base Andrews in Camp Springs, where he's also been known to hit the links.

Prince George’s officials say the visits — numbering about 10 since 2009 — raise the county’s visibility nationally and provide a boost to the businesses he visits, though others dispute the financial benefits, and costs incurred by the county are closely guarded.

“The president needs to be out there,” said David Abshire, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. “The worst thing is a president that is out of touch when you have an economy that's worse than the year before.”

The county’s popularity among presidents is not new. Former Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening (D), who served as Prince George’s County executive from 1982 to 1994, said the county’s diversity and proximity to the White House make it an ideal backdrop for presidential announcements. The president can make a speech in the county and get back to Washington, D.C., without any major travel time, Glendening said.

Years after being a foster child and having a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer assigned to her case, Tomika Holmes was selected to receive an inaugural "Forty UNDER 40" award for her efforts as a CASA/Prince George's County volunteer, paying it forward to the organization that helped her find a safe home as a youth.

"I send a heartfelt thank-you to the voting committee for my selection of such an honored award, and I thank my CASA supervisor, Gabrielle Smith, and the whole CASA/Prince George's County family for my nomination," Holmes said. "I truly do not feel worthy of such an award, but I am thankful nonetheless."

A man who ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Prince George’s County Council in 2010 pleaded guilty Wednesday to using campaign money on personal expenses such as gas, groceries and auto repairs, authorities said.

Darrell Miller, 47, the former mayor of Capitol Heights, was fined $2,000 and sentenced to 300 hours of community service as part of the plea agreement, in which he admitted violating election law during his 2010 council run, according to a news release from the Office of the Maryland State Prosecutor. He was also sentenced to two years of supervised probation, according to the release.

According to the state prosecutor’s office, Miller violated two facets of election law during his campaign between July 1, 2010, and November 15, 2010. First, Miller served as chairman of his own election committee and paid out money from the committee’s account, “Friends of Darrell A. Miller.” An election committee chairman who is also running for office is expressly prohibited from disbursing money, as that function is usually reserved for the committee’s treasurer, said Deputy State Prosecutor Mike McDonough.

Is there hope to turn around the falling prices and foreclosure rates in Prince George’s County? While some areas of the Washington region have seen signs of rebounding from the housing crash, Prince George’s home values have lagged. Total volume of sales was down 11 percent in 2011 compared to 2010 and the average home was on the market more than 100 days last year, according to Alease Bowles, president of the Prince George’s County Association of Realtors .

What’s worse, it’s possible that prices will fall further this year as foreclosures nationwide are expected to rise, according to some economists, and Prince George’s already leads Maryland in foreclosures. But help might be on the way. Two new programs aim to try to revive the local real estate market in the county by providing homebuyers with some pretty attractive incentives.One program, Buy Suitland, offers 0 percent interest grants for people who have not owned a home in the last three years and who are buying a home in Suitland, Md, within certain census track boundaries.

With the Maryland legislature set to reconvene next week, a plan to bring slots to Prince George’s County faces several obstacles, including division among local lawmakers and resistance from Maryland jurisdictions that already have casinos.

Representatives of Penn National Gaming, which began a concerted push over the summer to put slots at Rosecroft Raceway, say they remain optimistic that a bill will pass once legislators realize the economic benefits for the county and state.

Non-emergency 911 calls delay real help in Prince George's County

“I hate you, that’s my emergency!”

The woman had called into the Prince Georges County 911 Call Center to rant about nothing in particular. She may have been trying to hurt the operator’s feelings, but she could have been hurting a total stranger in need of real emergency assistance.

“The 9-1-1 number is for emergencies only,” says Charlynn Flaherty, the county’s Assistant Director at the call center. “It’s life and death, you’re having a heart attack, your house is on fire, you’re under immediate threat, there’s a crime in progress.”

Flaherty says that of the 1.2 million calls they receive every year, about 20 percent are either pranks or non-emergencies.

 

Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker is pushing for approval of a feasibility study into bringing slot machines into the county to help mend a budget shortfall.

In an interview with The Washington Post ahead of next month's opening of the Maryland General Assembly, Baker said "it would be irresponsible" to not take gambling proposals into consideration.

"We have to look at almost everything," Baker told the paper.

Prince George's County is facing a $100 million budget gap next year, while the state of Maryland is facing a $1 billion shortfall. In addition to slot machines, a raise in the state's gas tax and the shifting of teacher pension costs to individual counties.

Many local organizations are offering to pick up and recycle Christmas trees.

It may be time to take down the tinsel, ut some officials in Maryland's Prince George's County say the second biggest holiday for Christmas trees is still on the horizon.

Beginning Tuesday, residents can place their trees, completely undecorated and unbagged at curbside and they will be collected on residents' regularly scheduled collection day, which is a yard waste day.

Instead of merely throwing the trees away, however, workers scoop up used Christmas trees, take them to the county's composting facility, and turn them into mulch. The county then turns around and distributes the mulch to residents for Earth Day on April 20.

"We're giving our trees back to our residents, but we're also taking that natural product and giving it another natural use," says Denice Curry is an environmental planner with Department of Environmental Resources in Prince George's County.

Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker says he'll be looking at "almost everything" as an option to raise new revenue and deal with a possible budget shortfall.

The county has a projected budget gap of more than $100 million dollars, and new data expected next month could widen that figure. Prince George's has a $2.7 billion dollar budget and has limited ability to raise property taxes because of a voter-approved tax cap.

A board weighing the fate of 200 acres of property near Bowie State University is expected to make a recommendation next year about what to do with the land.

Among the options for the county-owned land are a mixed-use development and a training facility for the Washington Redskins.

Racial politics and concerns about community cohesion dominated a three-hour hearing Thursday as scores of people from across Maryland came to Annapolis to condemn, offer suggestions and even praise the new legislative district map drawn by Gov. Martin O’Malley’s Redistricting Advisory Committee.

The map, which was the product of census data and comments from a dozen hearings across the state this summer, was first unveiled online last Friday. O’Malley said he had the hearing to give the people a chance to see and comment on it before he sends it to the General Assembly next month.

O’Malley listened to all of the testimony and said no one would likely say that the new map was better than the old one, but it was made necessary by shifting populations found in last year’s census. He said he would try to address as many concerns as possible before finalizing the map and presenting it to the legislature.

In the spirit of the season, several Prince George’s County agencies are donating their time and energy to help the less fortunate.

Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker joined with public safety officials to kick off the Public Safety Assistance Program’s 27th Annual Christmas Food Basket Event. Held at Bunker Hill Fire/Ems Station in Mt. Rainier, the program’s purpose is to make sure needy families have a meal this holiday season.

Baker who made his first official public appearance as county executive at this same event in 2010, thanked the officials involved saying, “Our heroes never stop being heroic. We are thankful.”

Volunteers from Prince George’s Community College (PGCC) pitched in also. PGCC President Charlene Dukes sent out a campus-wide call for help after learning about the programs existence. In all, members of the college’s Hillman Entrepreneurs Program, Pathways Student Leadership Program and the softball team packed 500 baskets to assist in the effort.

A federal district court judge has ruled Prince George's County must once again consider the application of Reaching Hearts International for sewer service on the church's West Laurel property, saying the County Council's decision in September to grant service on only a portion of the property did not comply with an earlier court ruling.

Judge Roger Titus's opinion, handed down today, is the latest victory for the church in a long line of litigation with the county over the property, which the county has said is environmentally sensitive, where the church wants to build new facilities and a school.

Titus wrote that the county's reasons for denying a portion of the church's application were based on similar environmental arguments that were "found utterly wanting by a jury" in a 2008 case for which Titus also served as judge, in which the jury determined the county's stance constituted religious discrimination.

Despite public perception that Prince George’s County’s crime rate is high, it’s actually dropping dramatically, particularly violent crime.

Police say crime in Prince George’s County is at its lowest in 35 years and continues to drop. So far in 2011, reports show violent crime is down 13 percent compared to this time last year.

The county’s Assistant Police Chief Kevin Davis called the decrease a “significant stride” for a county that started out the year with a reported 11 homicides in 11 days.

In 2005, the county investigated 164 murders and 784 automobile thefts, two of the most common types of crimes in Prince George’s, and in 2011, those numbers decreased to 90 murders and 119 auto thefts, police report.

Property crime has also decreased, by 10 percent from the first 10 months in 2010 to the same time in 2011.

A committee appointed by Gov. Martin O’Malley released its recommendations for a new state legislative map Friday evening that reduces the number of districts that cross county lines and increases the amount of so-called “majority-minority” districts.

Though lawmakers were still busy early this week examining details of the proposal, initial reactions indicated the map is unlikely to draw as much criticism as the new congressional districts that were signed into law Oct. 20.

The proposed map includes 12 districts where a majority of the residents are black, up from 10 on the current map and another four “majority-minority” districts, including District 28 in Charles County.

Also notably, the recommendations include for the first time in state history a majority Hispanic district. As proposed, District 47B in Prince George’s County is more than 63 percent Hispanic.

The proposal also cuts the number of districts that cross county boundaries from 14 to 13.

The long-awaited Melrose Skate Park in Hyattsville is nearing its final stages of construction. A glass tile mosaic of rushing waves is being installed near the site where youths will soon roll on cement waves of their own.

“I’ve found that art is the perfect complement to a skate park. It goes with their creativity and adds a vibrancy to their physicality,” said Mount Rainier artist Valerie Theberge, who was hired to create the 6-by-9-foot mural of more than 17,000 tiles depicting rushing water and swimming shad. “To have artwork here is a perfect match.”

ames Breedin cannot keep track of how often he has been admitted to Howard University Hospital for heart problems. "It's been so many," said Breedin, a 75-year-old disabled former truck driver from Northeast Washington.

One reason for his frequent returns, he says, is that he often can't afford the medications his doctor prescribes to keep his heart problems in check, "so I have to do without." Another is that he fears exercising outside because of neighborhood violence.

Medicare is preparing to penalize hospitals with frequent potentially avoidable readmissions, which by one estimate cost the government $12 billion a year. Medicare's aim is to prod hospitals to make sure patients get the care they need after discharge. But this new policy is likely to disproportionately affect hospitals that treat the most low-income patients, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

 

There have been 15 police-involved shootings in Prince George's County this year.

Eight people were killed, which equals the number of deadly police shootings in the District, Montgomery and Fairfax counties combined.

Prince George's County officials said they are encountering more violent suspects in the line of duty. In all but two of the 15 police-involved shootings, the suspect was armed.

"That's unusual," said Asst. Chief Kevin Davis. "That should be something [...] that concerns this community."

 

Despite being sentenced to more than seven years in jail, former Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson will still receive a good-sized annual pension, an ABC7 I-Team investigation has uncovered.

Due to a loophole in Maryland law, Johnson will collect nearly $50,000 from a pension fund, even after his conviction on federal corruption charges earlier this year.

Johnson admitted to extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from developers and business owners while in office.

 

The Prince George’s County Department of Environmental Resources’ (DER) Waste Management Division (WMD) will provide County residents with Christmas tree collection and drop-off services for recycling of their live Christmas trees, at no charge beginning December 27.

“This is a perfect way to “go green” after the holidays,” says DER Director Samuel E. Wynkoop, Jr. “Recycling your Christmas tree helps ensure the sustainability of our community by saving valuable landfill space.” Every tree collected will be shredded and cured into mulch for DER’s annual spring Mulch Giveaway event. Last year, more than 26 tons of Christmas trees were collected.

The owner of several Prince George’s County liquor stores has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for his role in a corruption scheme that involved former county executive Jack Johnson.

Fifty-two-year-old Amrik Melhi was sentenced Tuesday to three years and 10 months in prison. He pleaded guilty in June to conspiring to transport and distribute untaxed alcoholic beverages.

Three federal judges expressed skepticism Tuesday that Maryland's political mapmakers intentionally diluted black voting power when they drew new congressional districts, as the map's opponents have argued.

The three-judge panel held a hearing in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt to determine whether the state's new congressional map passes constitutional muster.

Judge Paul V. Neimeyer, one of the three deciding the matter, said that the General Assembly-approved plan appeared to be drawn with an eye toward ensuring that some incumbent members of Congress would be re-elected. "If that is the motivation, it is hard to get racial discrimination out of that evidence," Neimeyer said. The other two judges made similar comments.

As a three-judge panel heard arguments about whether Maryland's redistricting map dilutes the African-American vote, one of those judges said Tuesday he doesn't believe a case has been made to require a third black-majority congressional district.

Still, the judges noted that some changes in the map might be necessary after further review, and they asked an assistant attorney general representing the state elections board how that might affect the timeline for Maryland's scheduled April 3 primary.

The Prince George's County youth detention facility where a teacher was killed last year remains plagued by assaults, security lapses, crowding and understaffing, according to a new report.

Maryland's Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit, a watchdog for the state's youth detention centers, says assaults and disturbances at the Cheltenham Youth Facility spiked in July, August and September compared with those months last year.

Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker said an inspector general's office may not be necessary to help the county clean up its ethics lapses, and instead favors cheaper approaches to government oversight through better employee training and established bodies such as the defunct Board of Ethics.

While some progress has been made to achieve more accountability and openness a year into Baker's first term, more sweeping changes outlined by his transition team and ethics task force, from strengthening the Board of Ethics to exploring the benefits of an inspector general's office, await action.

Despite public perception that Prince George’s County’s crime rate is high, it’s actually dropping dramatically, particularly violent crime.

Police say crime in Prince George’s County is at its lowest in 35 years and continues to drop. So far in 2011, reports show violent crime is down 13 percent compared to this time last year.

The county’s Assistant Police Chief Kevin Davis called the decrease a “significant stride” for a county that started out the year with a reported 11 homicides in 11 days.

In 2005, the county investigated 164 murders and 784 automobile thefts, two of the most common types of crimes in Prince George’s, and in 2011, those numbers decreased to 90 murders and 119 auto thefts, police report.

Republicans and a voters-rights advocacy group are rallying against an initial proposal to redraw the state’s legislative districts.

The plan, released Friday by the Governor’s Redistricting Advisory, calls for increasing from 10 to 12 the number of majority-black Senate districts and creating a majority-Hispanic district in Prince George’s County. But a spokesman for the Fannie Lou Hamer Political Action Committee said the plan does not do enough to provide adequate representation to blacks and other minorities.

Radamese Cabrera, a consultant who works for the PAC, called the plan “pure racism,” arguing the map should have as many as 14 majority-black districts to more accurately represent black Marylanders.

Maestro's Tail of Prince George's County, MD has been honored with a recognition by The Washingtonian in its selection of "Guide To The Best Pet Care."

Announcing a special recognition appearing in the February, 2011 issue of The Washingtonian published by Washington Magazine, Inc..

For 14 years, police hunted for a man they dubbed the East Coast Rapist.

The man attacked women in Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maryland, including some in Prince George’s County.

It was an anonymous tip to the Prince George’s County Crime Solvers that led to an arrest earlier this year.

Crime Solvers coordinator Zel Windsor said that the tip led officers to Aaron Thomas, who they believed to be in Connecticut. Calls were made, and officers in New Haven arrested the truck driver in March.

County Council district 2 experienced "moderate to large" increases in its Hispanic population and corresponding decreases in its African-American population over the previous decade, according to an analysis from the Urban Institute.

The study, based on U.S. Census and American Community Survey data, looked at demographic shifts in Prince George's County between 2000 and 2010.

The developer who wants to build the first Whole Foods market in Prince George’s County was given an ultimatum this week: Delay the project, or lose town support.

The Cafritz family, in return, asked the county Planning Board to reschedule Thursday’s meeting to discuss a rezoning request until next month.

The action stalls the ambitious project, which would bring a 120-room hotel, 995 residential units, 168,200 square feet of retail and 22,000 square feet of office space to Riverdale Park.

Representatives for the Cafritz family have scheduled additional meetings with officials in Riverdale Park, College Park and University Park to hammer out an agreement about the design, environmental standards and the mitigation of traffic.

 

The freshmen state lawmaker known most for her flip-flop last year on same-sex marriage has been indicted again for theft. State prosecutors say they have uncovered evidence that she used taxpayer money to pay the salary of an aide working at her private law firm.

The indictment comes three months after Alston was charged with stealing campaign funds to pay for her wedding, and also using campaign funds to pay for the salary of a law firm employee. Alston denied wrongdoing on those charges.

“The new charges allege that Delegate Alston sought to pay an employee of her private law firm for her work for the firm by arranging for her to be added to the state payroll and paid by the Maryland General Assembly at a rate of $100.00 per day,” according to a release Thursday by the Office of the Maryland State Prosecutor.

 

A robotic bunny armed with a rocket launcher fights zombies that can change shape in Chicago because the bunny needs chalk.

Sound like a video game that children might play?

Absolutely, said students who together created the game concept Saturday with help from Hyattsville native Gabriel Pendleton during the third annual Video Gaming Conference: Imagine-Innovation-Serious Play II, held at Walker Mill Middle School in Capitol Heights.

Hosted by the nonprofit Patriots Technology Training Center based in Seat Pleasant, the half-day event introduced more than 50 students in grades five through 12 to some of the skills needed to work in the video game business, from designing the graphics to composing the music.

The technology center organizes workshops and competitions to encourage students to enter the S.T.E.M. fields of science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Pendleton, who currently tests and develops video games in Baltimore, randomly selected words off the lists made by the students to illustrate the basic elements of a video game — heroes, villains, weapons and goals — in a fun way.

The National Honor Society at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville is hosting its first coat drive this winter to provide warmth to those in need.

NHS co-sponsor Billy Shulman said the donation drive is run nearly entirely by the students as something they wanted to do for the community.

“This is something new that the students really wanted to do,” he said. “They’re trying to start a new tradition.”

A large donation bin is located inside the school’s main office for anyone interested in donating a gently used coat.

Regarding the Dec. 1 editorial “The wrong message,” on Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s attack on the University of Maryland’s Environmental Law Clinic:

We have fought since 2004 against efforts to build a concrete plant adjacent to the residential neighborhoods where we live. Without the dedicated work of the Environmental Law Clinic, one more small, moderate-income African American community would have fallen victim to a system concerned too little with the quality of the air we breathe.

The Cedar Heights Civic Association rallied the support of nearby communities, but we were still no match for the lawyers and the complexities of land-use law as practiced in Prince George’s County. By securing the free help of the law clinic, we were at least able to stave off for a while further damage to our health and communities caused by air, water and noise pollution. Although we are not sure of the final disposition, the legal help, which we could not otherwise afford, was a godsend.

Low-interest disaster loans are available to Maryland small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small aquaculture businesses and most private non-profit organizations affected by Tropical Storm Lee on Sept. 6 -14, 2011.

SBA Administrator Karen G. Mills made the loans available following a request from Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley on Dec. 1 for a disaster declaration by the SBA. The declaration covers Prince George’s County and the adjacent counties of Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, Howard and Montgomery in Maryland; the Independent City of Alexandria and Fairfax County in Virginia and the District of Columbia.

“The Small Business Administration is strongly committed to providing the most effective and customer-focused response possible to help small businesses and non-profits in Maryland with their federal disaster loans,” said Mills. “Getting our businesses and communities up and running after a disaster is our highest priority at SBA.”

Her children have been taught by teachers who are black, Asian, white and Hispanic, those who are young and those a bit older, and teachers with foreign accents and those without. And for that, Kathryn Holmes Johnson is thankful.

The Glenn Dale mother’s daughters, Bailey and Peri — in fourth and seventh grades at Benjamin Foulois Creative and Performing Arts Academy in Morningside — have benefited greatly from the diversity of their teachers’ backgrounds, Johnson said.

In Prince George’s County, the percentage of teachers of color, 67 percent this year, is more than twice the statewide average of 26 percent last year, but the county still is working to close the gap between the vastly nonwhite student population and the diversity of teachers.

Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III said Monday that he plans to ask lawmakers in Annapolis for a great deal of funding in the upcoming legislative session and that he remains open to the possibility of a slot-machine gambling site in his county to help cover the cost.

...

Penn National Gaming, owner of Rosecroft Raceway, is pushing a plan to make the facility the sixth slots site authorized in Maryland. Other options have also been talked about in recent months. Baker said that he is not limiting consideration of slots solely to Rosecroft.

The vast majority of Prince George’s lawmakers opposed hosting a slots venue in 2007, when the state launched its program. Since then, some legislators have begun to reconsider their positions based on the potential revenue a facility could generate for both the state and county.

Having trucked 100 participants, including 43 businesses, through the rapidly growing international markets of India, the state's largest economic trade mission returned this week with more than $37 million in business deals.

Deals included an $8 million theme park ride contract, a $3.7 million highway upgrades contract and a partnership for a Prince George's County call center that could employ as many as 50 people.

or many women, shoes can be described as a critical accessory, a passion, or even an obsession, however two local businesses used women’s shoes as a vehicle to help less fortunate Prince George's County residents take a step in the right direction.

Harris and Harris Wealth Management Group teamed with SimplySoles to host a shoe extravaganza and fundraiser for The Ivy Community Charities of Prince Georges County, Inc.

"This event was a way to bring socially conscious women together in a comfortable environment to share our love of shoes, support our neighbors in Prince George County, and learn more about how we can create a better financial future," said Zaneilia Harris, president of Harris and Harris Wealth Management group and author of the blog, Finance 'N Stilettos.

The fundraiser, which attracted women from around the county and beyond, was part reception, celebration, and shopping opportunity. SimplySoles hosted the reception at its National Harbor location and donated 20 percent of all sales at the fundraiser and from SimplySoles.com over the weekend to The Ivy Community Charities of Prince George’s County, Inc.

Proposed changes to Prince George’s school boundaries, grade structures and special programs should save the school system money, but many parents attending a series of public forums this week and last week on the plan are wary.

“We want our children to have more of a nurturing environment,” said Melissa Sweeney, who has two children at Mattaponi Elementary School in Upper Marlboro and opposes the plan to shift about 700 sixth-grade students countywide to middle schools next fall.

“We’re not ready for our elementary-schoolers to be exposed to [middle school],” she said, although Mattaponi Elementary is not slated for changes.

For county consumers, a proposed 5- cent plastic bags tax could make shopping at retail stores a bit more expensive.

Prince George's County will look to join both Montgomery County and Washington in promoting sustainable consumer practices, as both state and county officials push for legislation that would encourage the use of reusable shopping bags in the county. The state legislature, led by the efforts of Del. Barbara Frush (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George's) and Sen. Paul Pinsky (D-Prince George's), will present a bill in the next legislative session to allow the county council to impose mandatory fees on customers when using disposable bags at retail stores.

The legislation will encourage customers to bring reusable shopping bags to stores, which would cut down on the use of plastic bags, according to District 1 Councilwoman Mary Lehman. Plastic bags have proven to be a significant pollutant in the area, specifically the Anacostia River, according to Brent Bolin, director of advocacy at the Anacostia Watershed Society, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to restoring the river.

The Prince George’s County Council had a change in leadership for the 2012 legislative year as Andrea Harrison, D.-Dist. 5, was named council chair while Eric Olson, D.-Dist. 3, reprises his role as vice-chair.

“Together as ‘One Prince George’s County,’ I believe that Prince George’s County Government can do even better by working smarter, more efficiently, streamlining how we do business, and helping to foster an environment that encourages growth,” Harrison said in a statement. “As Prince Georgians we face our challenges together.

And it will take all of us; elected officials, citizens and residents of Prince George’s County, business, non-profit, and faith communities, working together as a team to accomplish our goals and move our beloved County forward.”

Harrison, who replaces outgoing Chairwoman Ingrid Turner, D.-Dist. 4, was elected to the council in 2008 after David C. Harrington left the council when he was appointed state senator. She was reelected easily in last year’s primary election with over 69 percent of the vote.

Prince George's County ranks 17th among the 24 Maryland counties in health outcomes, according to data compiled by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released in a report today by Maryland Nonprofits.

Prince George's highest ranking was 12th in the state for healthy behaviors, with lower than average rates of adult smoking and drinking. However, Prince George's ranked 23rd out of 24 counties in its environment, with high levels of air pollution and fewer recreational facilities than other counties.

The Prince George’s County Department of Environmental Resources Animal Management Division is encouraging animal adoption with its new 500 Paws for Claus event this month.

The agency has set a goal to find homes for 500 animals from its Animal Services Facility on Brown Station Road in Upper Marlboro.

The agency is offering a 50 percent discount on all of its adoption fees from now until Dec. 31.

Former Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson was sentenced Tuesday to more than seven years in prison for extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from developers and accepting assorted gifts during a tenure that prosecutors say was rife with greed, corruption and an unchecked pay-to-play culture.

The investigation into Johnson, who led Prince George’s County from 2002 until 2010, came to light more than a year ago when federal authorities tapping his phone heard him directing his wife to flush down the toilet an illicit $100,000 check from a developer and to stuff nearly $80,000 in cash in her undergarments. The orders came as FBI agents tried to get into the couple’s home after witnessing Johnson accepting $15,000 in cash from a developer.

A new law is forcing restaurants and bars across Prince George's County to beef up security.

County officials hope the new restrictions - which take effect Jan. 1 - will help prevent fights outside bars and nightclubs like the ones that led to the closings of the Thirsty Turtle in College Park and Music, Sports & Games in Capitol Heights.

Children in Prince George’s County may one day be attending school year-round. That’s if the Board of Education (BOE) has its way. Year-round school is when a school’s schedule has several short breaks rather than that a long summer breaks. In November, the BOE in Prince George’s County voted in favor of the year round schedule.

Marvin E. Holmes is sitting on the fence when it comes to gay marriage in Maryland.

Activists who met at the Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church in Adelphi Tuesday want him to say yes to gay marriage bill when it comes before the Maryland General Assembly in January 2012. Holmes is a house delegate representing district 23rd in Prince George's County.

Unitarian Universalists are an affirming and welcoming “church” where people from different religious backgrounds or no religion get together on the basis of shared values. They firmly advocate civil liberties and equal rights for all humans

Cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay watershed in Prince George's County could cost roughly $800 million over the next decade -- possibly triggering new fees for already cash-strapped residents and businesses.

Local and state environmental officials are drafting proposals to implement the Environmental Protection Agency's plans for reducing pollution into the Bay, a "pollution diet" designed to restore the once vibrant Bay over the next 15 years.

The Prince George’s County Police Department offers these crime prevention tips on its PGPD News Blog to help residents stay safe during the holiday shopping season.

When Shopping:

Prince George's County hazmat crews assisted CSX with a diesel fuel spill caused by a derailment in Bladensburg, Md., Tuesday afternoon.

On a side track, a locomotive struck a derailer, causing the locomotive to flip on its side in an industrial park in the 2900 block of 52nd Avenue.

No injuries were reported, according to the Prince George’s County Fire Department. No evacuations were necessary, and there were no disruptions in commuter rail or vehicle traffic.