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 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.”

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.

Being first to come up with the answers to questions such as “What year was Facebook founded?” and “What is the most-used search engine?”, Jabari Williams, 13, and his three-person team took first place in a “Jeopardy!”-style game Saturday that focused on popular technology.

“I'm into technology and social networking, so many of those questions were easy to answer,” said Jabari, an eighth-grade student at Ernest Everett Just Middle School in Mitchellville. “Plus I'm very competitive.”

The trivia game was one of several interactive and educational games played by both parents and students at the first Patro-Tech Game Show Summit in southern Prince George's County at Gwynn Park High School. The summit was hosted by the Patriots Technology Training Center and Prince George's County Councilman Mel Franklin (D-Dist. 9) of Upper Marlboro to encourage Prince George's youths to consider going into the “STEM” fields of science, technology, engineering and math, which have become vital to the future of the county and the nation, Franklin said.

Prince George’s County and Children’s National Medical Center, seeking to expand pediatric care in communities where many lack access to primary care, are slated to announce plans Wednesday for a new mobile health service.

The county, Children’s and Dimensions Healthcare, which operates Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly, will focus on communities primarily inside the Beltway. Children’s already provides mobile services in the District.

A teen driver whose passenger commits a crime can be charged with conspiracy, even if the driver doesn't know about the crime, a judge told Prince George's County parents and students Saturday.

“It's probably my most difficult decision when I see so many of you young guys: Do I send you to adult court because you think you're big and bad, or do I keep you in juvenile court?” Herman C. Dawson, an associate judge for Prince George's County Circuit Court, told students in his “Guilt By Association” session at Charles H. Flowers High School in Springdale.

Two southern Prince George’s middle schools have been tapped for a $100,000 pilot program throughout the next year to stop youth gang violence, with the community-based effort possibly spreading elsewhere in the county and state if it’s successful.

Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and United Way of the National Capital Area announced the initiative Tuesday morning at Benjamin Stoddert Middle School in Temple Hills, where the 12-month program will be started along with Thurgood G. Marshall Middle, also in Temple Hills.

FEWER THAN HALF of the children from low-income families who qualify for a free or reduced-price breakfast through the federal food program are taking advantage of the opportunity — and it’s not because they aren’t hungry.

Bus schedules and frazzled morning routines prevent many children from getting to school early. Others are reluctant to go to cafeterias when doing so clearly labels them as needy. But children who skip breakfast not only lose nutritionally but also tend to do worse at school. That’s why it makes a lot of sense to provide this critical morning meal where it has the best chance of being eaten — in the classroom.

Prince George’s County schools are among the latest to join a growing national trend of schools that have moved breakfast from the cafeteria to the classroom. Thanks to the $3 million Breakfast in the Classroom initiative promoted by four leading hunger, nutrition and education nonprofits, Prince George’s, where school is already underway this year, is now equipped to improve breakfast services at the schools with the biggest populations of students from low-income families. In addition to moving breakfasts from the cafeteria to the classroom, the program — funded generously by the Wal-Mart Foundation — expands the meal to all students.

About eight 12- to 18-year-old musicians filed in to a small Hyattsville basement Saturday, lugging their instruments down a tight stairwell and arranging their chairs and music stands for yet another improvisational jam session.

This is the weekly routine of the Prince George’s Youth Jazz Orchestra, said Cheyney Thomas of Hyattsville, who directs the middle and high school-aged musicians and offers his home for rehearsals.

A family in Prince George’s County recently told us their horror story. When the mom brought in her notice of consent to drop off in person:

“They asked for my photo ID and told me to have a seat. When they came back, they still wouldn’t give me my ID back. They said they had to have a conference with me about my information and what was required of me. There was nothing wrong with anything I gave them. After they read every single word of everything to me twice they finally gave me my ID back along with all the papers they just read to me ‘to take home and read.’ At one point I was even told I have to teach the exact same information and material as their local school they were attending when I took them out. I finally was able to leave 2½ hours later! I actually had to cancel a doctor’s appointment because of it.”

Today, U.S. Representative Donna Edwards joined Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker, III at the Hillcrest Heights Community Center, where the County and the American Red Cross have opened a shelter for residents displaced by yesterday’s earthquake. The visit was part of the Prince George’s County Government’s ongoing efforts to respond to yesterday’s events.

“The Prince George’s County government is going to be here for all of our students and all of our residents for as long as it takes to handle the aftermath of this earthquake,” said County Executive Rushern L. Baker, III. “We are going to get displaced residents back in their buildings and students back in their classrooms as quickly as possible, but only after those buildings have been deemed safe and secure. In the meantime, I ask that we, as a community, keep the families affected by this event in our thoughts and prayers, and I thank our agencies, the Red Cross and our citizen volunteers for all they’ve done for our citizens.”

Prince George’s County Public Schools were closed today while buildings were inspected for structural damage and safety.

“The safety of our students, teachers and staff is our number one priority,” said Dr. William R. Hite, Jr., Superintendent of Schools. “We are working as quickly as possible to get the necessary building inspections completed so that school can resume for all students.”

Parkdale High School in Riverdale will offer a few of its students a program in the coming year that will break new ground in Prince George’s County.

The program is banking — as in real people moving real cash.

Some Prince George’s County student sailors reached star status during a recent awards ceremony at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Honored by the Brendan Sail Training Program for Youth with Learning Differences, Gordon McIntire of Bowie and Stephen Hunt of Greenbelt earned the sailing stars award for their accomplishments in the 2010 program.

McIntire, who participated in the program at the Annapolis school, received the “NoGutsNoGlory” award in the 11-14 age group. The award is named after the sailboat “Nogutsnoglory,” owned by long-time program volunteers. During his award presentation, McIntire was described as someone who loves being on and around the water, and is always mindful of the environment and the needs of his fellow students. Program officials added that he is safety conscious for himself, as well as for others, and is always willing to lend a helping hand.

The Prince George's County Council unanimously passed a bill Tuesday to tighten restrictions on teen and adult dance halls throughout the county.

The measure, which was introduced by Councilwoman Karen Toles (D-Dist. 7) of Suitland, increases dance hall license fees from $200 to $1,000, requires dance halls to submit evacuation and safety plans prior to receiving a permit and explicitly prohibits establishments from allowing dancing between 2 and 11 a.m.

Thursday, July 14, 7 pm
Description: Please join us for edge-of-your-seat storytelling presented by The Maryland Shakespeare Festival. Be transported by live music, thrilling swordplay, and Shakespeare’s enchanting poetry… all under the stars. Bring your lawn chair or blanket and enjoy a FREE performance in your favorite park!

Cost:
FREE 

Ages:
All ages 

 

Summer vacation may be in full swing, but on Saturday morning, a group of elementary school students sat in the North Brentwood Community Center and did their homework. Whether reading a book, writing unfamiliar vocabulary down and making a diorama inside a shoebox illustrating a scene from the book, the 15 students remained on task.

The students were taking part in North Brentwood's summer reading program, a six-week course aimed at boosting reading, writing and vocabulary skills. And while there was some grumbling about having to squeeze the work between camp commitments and video-game playing, students admitted that the program got results.

Every day, Sheriff's Deputies fan out across the region, serving warrants for parents who owe child support, and they don't stop on Father's Day.

In fact, the Prince George's County Sheriff's Office picks up the pace on Father's Day.

In a countywide sweep, 88 warrants for parents who owed court-ordered child support were issued for a total of $933,000.

"Children are honoring parents, and we feel that it's a time that we should remember the children and supporting the children," says Lt. Col. Kenneth Payne

As I was reading the Saturday paper, I came across an article that made me very sad. The outdoor environmental education center in Prince George's County, Maryland, commonly known as Camp Schmidt will likely close this summer. This school year may be the last time that fifth graders from across the county will participate in the environmental education activities at Camp Schmidt.

As one environmental education center for students in southern Prince George's County fights for its life this budget cycle, the county is slated to funnel $3 million toward building another center.

Although the two facilities are not competing in the same funding pool, the situation has officials at the struggling William S. Schmidt Outdoor Education Center in Brandywine, affectionately known as "Camp Schmidt," feeling betrayed.

As you may have heard, the Schmidt Center, commonly referred to as Camp Schmidt, in Prince George's County, is in danger of being cut out of the budget next school year. This budget was proposed by Superintendent Hite, approved by the school board, and is currently in the hands of the Prince George's County Council. The Schmidt Center is a close partner of AFF, and as a partner outdoor education organization, we are deeply concerned about the ramifications of their closure for the students of Prince George's County and the precedent this sets for outdoor education throughout the state of Maryland. There has recently been a groundswell of media attention being given to this situation, so we hold out hope that with enough attention and concern, the tides can be reversed.

The sheriff of Prince George's County is adopting a more aggressive approach to maintaining the peace at county schools, following a string of violence recently documented on video.

Sheriff's deputies will be placed at High Point High School -- where an attack on a student last week was documented on YouTube -- and other schools which Sheriff Melvin High would not identify.

"The chief mission that they have is to make sure they are safe schools," High says, adding the additional police presence is only the first step.

High Point High School Principal Michael Brooks has been removed from his post following accusations that rowdy and violent students have been essentially running amuck and unchallenged for weeks, creating what other students say is a frightening environment that interferes with their ability to learn.

Prince George's County Schools Superintendent Dr. William Hite made the announcement of Brooks' removal in a letter sent home to parents after school Tuesday.

Outraged High Point High students posted disturbing cell phone videos on Facebook and YouTube last Thursday, documenting a brawl on campus that apparently started in the cafeteria.

School officials said they can no longer afford to fund Camp Schmidt, especially when faced with a $155 million gap in the school system's $1.6 billion budget. Officials are also cutting 400 teachers and 92 librarians, among other personnel. Barring a last-minute influx of cash, the camp will close June 30, officials said.

The possibility of closing the camp - which has hosted, on average, 7,000 students a year for nearly four decades - has sparked an outcry from politicians, parents and Camp Schmidt alumni. Bowie resident Rachael Dickey has started a Save Camp Schmidt group on Facebook. As of Friday, there were a little more than 200 people who had joined.

A youth who was 13 years old when he allegedly sexually assaulted and killed a teacher at the Cheltenham Youth Facility a year ago will be tried as an adult, a circuit court judge in Prince George's County has ruled.

Following a hearing that lasted several days, Prince George's County Circuit Court Judge C. Philip Nichols Jr. issued a written ruling Tuesday that the boy should be tried in adult court rather than in juvenile court, according to the decision, which has not been made public but was provided by a courthouse source.

The overnight trip she took last week at the William S. Schmidt Outdoor Education Center in Brandywine was the first time camping for Oxon Hill Elementary fifth-grader Aimy Hernandez.

After a day of trust-building exercises and observing insects as part of a program on stream ecology, among other activities, Aimy, 10, and her classmates were preparing for a campfire that evening.

"It's been really great. My parents work very late, so I don't get to go outside very much," she said. A self-described "bookworm," Aimy has read about bugs and other environmental topics, but said that "to come out here, it's different than what you imagine."

A year after a teacher was raped and killed at a Prince George's County youth detention center, many of the conditions that contributed to her death still persist, according to the watchdog that monitors the state's juvenile justice system. Those conditions include chronic overcrowding, overburdened staff and a lack of security cameras, a new report by the state's Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit says.

A 14-year-old boy is charged with sexually assaulting, beating and strangling 65-year-old Hannah Wheeling at the Cheltenham Youth Facility last February. The Department of Juvenile Services says improvements have been made at the facility since then, but the monitoring unit says the reforms don't go far enough.

The youth, whose name has not been released because of his juvenile status, was arraigned July 28, at which point the state's attorney's office requested the court waive the boy's juvenile status and try him as an adult given the nature of the crime. Conflicting schedules, witness availability and the sheer complexity of the case stretched what Nichols said would normally be a weeklong process into a six-month-long affair.

The youth, who has been present in court but has not spoken, would be the youngest-ever juvenile charged as an adult in the county. Previously the youngest juvenile to face adult charges was 14 at the time of the crime, according to the county state's attorney's office.

More than half of family households in parts of the District of Columbia and Prince George's County are run by single parents, a home life that experts say increases their children's chances of following in the same footsteps.

The section of D.C. across the Anacostia River is home to the biggest percentage of single-parent households, with 65 percent of family households run by women and 9 percent run by men. The remaining one-quarter of the roughly 32,000 family households are run by married couples, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

A Landover man filed a complaint Monday in Prince George's County Circuit Court against the Woodmore Towne Center at Glenarden alleging Glenarden city police officers racially profiled him for going to multiple stores Nov. 26 without making noticeable purchases.

Jonathan Lancaster, 19, a black male, is suing for $70,000 in punitive damages after Glenarden police officers allegedly told him they observed him going to two stores without buying anything and after they asked him to leave the property despite his having no previous criminal history.

"I knew his rights were violated because the officers did not articulate a reasonable suspicion that a crime had occurred or was going to occur," said Lancaster's attorney, Jim Bell, adding that Lancaster is not talking to the press. "That was just blatant."

Dressed in the orange and navy blue jumpsuit issued to juveniles at the Prince George's County jail, 16-year-old Joshua McFadden may not look like an accomplished chess player at first glance.

But when he sits down at a board, McFadden plays like a pro, never taking more than one or two seconds each turn to expertly navigate his plastic pawns, bishops, knights and other pieces around the board.

Although not eligible to vote, area teens from Bowie and Eleanor Roosevelt high schools and Howard Community College carved time out of their busy school and extracurricular schedules to be involved in the primary election campaign efforts for Shukoor Ahmed, a democratic candidate for Maryland House of Delegates.

Ahmed has also encouraged some of them to run for public office in the future. The teens used words such as "enlightened," "motivated" and "excited" to describe their experience during and after the campaign.

It was a Friday night and young people were doing what they've done for centuries —socializing at a dance.

What made the dance on Oct. 15 in Hyattsville different is that the boys were dancing with the boys, and the girls were dancing with girls. It was the third dance organized by the Youth Equality Project, the user-friendly name of the Prince George's County Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Youth Task Force.

Concerns over bullying and staffing cuts at Prince George's County schools were raised at a community forum held this week by incoming county executive Rushern Baker.

Joe Murchison, a Laurel resident and the executive director of the nonprofit Side by Side, said he was worried about the effect recent parent liaison layoffs at county schools would have on the Hispanic community.

"Our Spanish-speaking families, they make up a sizable number of our families," said Murchison, at the Tuesday night forum at Lake Arbor Elementary School. Census Bureau data from 2009 reveals that persons of Hispanic or Latino origin make up 13.5 percent of the population of Prince George's County. Many of those families don't speak English and need bilingual parent liaisons to help them get involved, Murchison said.

he Prince George's County Police Department partnered with the Maryland Park and Planning Commission yesterday to host the 29th Annual Hispanic Festival. Community Oriented Policing officers set up several booths during the festivities and were on hand to share informative pamphlets, discuss crime prevention solutions and highlight the on-going collaboration between Prince George's County Police Department and the Hispanic community. The Hispanic Festival offered a wide variety of activities, entertainment and cultural experiences for all ages. Activities included the main stage with live entertainment, dance performers, ethnic foods, interactive children's area, carnival rides and games, craft booths, a teen area, exhibitors/displays, face painting, music, more.

Prince George's County schools will open to students Aug. 23 with a new cell phone policy, orientation program and plan to prevent the class schedule glitches that plagued the start of last school year.

Last year, a computer glitch left 8,000 county students without class schedules for the first week of school. This year, schedules will be mailed and available on SchoolMAX, the school system's centralized software program for student records, possibly before the start of school, school spokeswoman Tanzi West Barbour said.

The Cheltenham Youth Facility was the most overcrowded of Maryland's four largest youth detention sites between April and June, according to a new report from the watchdog group that monitors the state's Department of Juvenile Services.

The report, released Monday by the Maryland Attorney General's Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit, warns that, in general, overcrowding creates a potentially unsafe environment for both the youths and staff....

The monitoring unit's first and second quarterly reports do not reference the slaying, but Director Marlana Valdez said her office has been investigating the incident and plans to release a special report in September.

When Wendy Holland heard that a security guard was gunned down at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum last June, she didn't think much of it. She saw the clip on the evening news and went back to life as a 17-year-old in Prince George's County: advanced classes, sports practices, hanging out with friends.

The Transition Program for Middle and High Schools is an orientation program that is being presented system-wide for rising sixth, seventh and ninth grade students that will be entering middle or high school for the first time. Our goal is to help students successfully transition in order to begin the road to help them become college and career ready and provide them the support to help them be successful.

All county middle and high schools will participate in this program on August 19, 2010 during the transportations' dry run day. All schools will operate on a three-hour early dismissal schedule.

The Prince George's County Police Gang Tip Line is now fully operational. The tip line will be monitored by Prince George's County Police Gang Investigators. Vital intelligence received on the tip line will be disseminated accordingly. Callers will have the option of remaining anonymous or leaving contact information so that a Gang Investigator can contact them. The nationwide toll free phone number for the tip line is 1-877-629-4264 (GANG) and the local number is 301-985-5365. Both numbers are operational and bilingual (English and Spanish). These numbers may be given out to the community.

...He explained his thinking: "I can't sing. And I'm not going to take my clothes off. Or give people the bird at a stadium. And I ain't no Lady Gaga. So this is the best I could come up with to make people stop and listen to me."

On Bladensburg Road, two teens on their way to their summer jobs started clowning with his barrel.

"Either of y'all ever been bullied?" Nash asked them.

"Nah," they said.

He gave them his brochure, which explains his anti-bullying program.

"Pull yer britches up -- I don't wanna see yer butts," he yelled at them as they turned to leave.

Metro is increasing security at its bus facilities after a teenager wearing a Metro uniform drove off in a bus from a Bladensburg garage Friday and picked up passengers before crashing into a tree, officials said.

Aaron Gamez was returned safe around 2 p.m. this afternoon, Prince George's County police said. Jose Alex Turciso, the ex-boyfriend of Gamez's mother, dropped the boy off in front of a family member's residence in the 6000 block of Rosedale Drive in Hyattsville and then fled, police said.

Greatness comes when you stand up for what is right and are willing to take a chance without knowing the outcome, the Rev. Al Sharpton Jr. told graduates at a special baccalaureate service Sun., June 27.

Sharpton, a tireless civil rights leader and a candidate for the democratic nomination for U.S. president in 2004, pointed to the efforts of former South African president and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela and U.S. President Barack Obama to persevere without knowing whether they would achieve their goals. Their successes are examples of greatness, he said.

"Everybody was born to some purpose," Sharpton told an enthusiastic crowd jammed into First Baptist Church of Highland Park.

"Part of the purpose of life and the challenge of life is to seek your calling and fulfill your calling. If you fulfill your calling, you will wear a crown."

An Amber Alert has been issued by D.C. Police for a missing nine-year-old girl.

Lamoury Bryant was last seen wearing a green shirt, denim skirt and flip flops.

Bryant was taken by 49-year-old Lamont Johnson. Johnson is described as a black male, 5 feet, 9 inches tall, weighing 200 pounds. Johnson is bald with a dark complexion and was last seen wearing a red baseball cap, white tank top and blue jeans.

Johnson also abducted an adult female.

The child and suspect were last seen in a cream or white Chrysler 300 with the Maryland tag 4GAX63.

As an eighth-grader at G. James Gholson Middle School in Landover, Daja Tyree said, she had a bad temper and no goals.

Now, two years later, Daja says her outlook has changed, a fact she credits to her involvement in the Hillside Work-Scholarship Connection, a program available at five Prince George's County schools that targets students who are at risk of dropping out and pairs them with mentors for tutoring, planning or just chatting. The mentors are adult employees of the nonprofit Hillside who have offices in the schools. "It's hard to find someone who talks to you and who understands you," Daja, 16, said. "Once you find that person, you don't want to let them go."

Single-parent families aren't less than, just different than, says Kristina Parker, co-founder of the Raising Our Kids Solo support group. This organization, which meets monthly in District Heights, brings attention to the plight of single parents and highlights available resources in Prince George's County.

Whether parents need answers or just a listening ear, "We want you to know you have a place to go," said Parker, who lives in Capitol Heights.

Young men who have been "tripped up" by the criminal justice system can still dream of productive careers and make "a difference in the lives of others," Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson told 13 inmates during a Department of Corrections GED graduation ceremony, Thu., June 3.

Johnson gave the keynote address at the facility for the first time in his eight-year stint as the county's top official.

"Today, you have taken an amazing first step in earning your high school diplomas," Johnson told the mostly African-American graduates as guards stood nearby. Passing the State of Maryland GED Examination is a clear signal "that you're going to go in a different direction" than the one that led to the criminal justice system, he said.

Elizabeth "Lizzy" Garcia slowly tapped her head on the headrest of her wheelchair.

"I'm surprised, very excited and amazed. I hope kids like the book," an electronic voice said.

Garcia, 18, has cerebral palsy. She has little control over her body, except for her head. To speak, she uses a text-to-speech computer that she operates by tapping her headrest.

At 18, Aaron Lancaster never expected he would be headed to South Africa -- let alone to cover the FIFA World Cup, international soccer's premier event.

Lancaster, of Bowie, and Anamarie Shreeves, 21, of District Heights will be among six Florida A&M University students who will embark on a trip organized by FAMU journalism professor and former Washington Post foreign desk copy editor Joe Ritchie.

Nearly 570 children are in foster care in Prince George's, but the county has only 134 foster families, according to Lavette Sims, a spokeswoman for the county social services department.

"We take these matters very seriously," Pressley said. "It is our intention to protect students from predators and others who engage in any and all illegal activity."

If your teenager still needs a summer job, they can get a jump on their search today.

For the second year in a row, police and faith leaders in Prince George's County are holding a kickoff event to promoting safe programs for kids between the ages of 12 and 18.

A well-known author and therapist helped Prince George's County educators to better understand the mysteries of the male and female minds and the distinct differences between how girls and boys process information.

Michael Gurian, author of "The Purpose of Boys" and co-founder of the Gurian Institute in Colorado Springs, Colo., discussed gender differences in brain development before a group of teachers at Prince George's County Community College in Upper Marlboro, Md.

The hour-long presentation, Fri., April 16 served as a kickoff for the Prince George's County Early Childhood Interagency Committee's 13th annual Celebrate Children Conference.

The child welfare system in Prince George's County isn't doing enough to ensure that troubled families receive the services that might help a parent regain custody of a child or avoid the removal of the child in the first place, advocates and officials say.

Social workers often provide referrals for drug treatment or mental health care but don't follow up, leaving families to fend for themselves with results that are predictably disappointing....

More than 500 Prince George's children are in foster care, according to the state.

A teacher's aide at Oxon Hill Middle School allegedly assaulted a 14-year-old developmentally disabled student, according to a spokeswoman for the student's family.

Natalie Williams, the spokeswoman, said the teacher's aide slammed a basketball into the student's face during the April 6 incident, then picked him up and threw him into the bleachers. As another staff member tried to intervene, the aide threw a punch at the student, Williams said.

One month ago Thursday, a 65-year-old teacher was found murdered just off campus at a Maryland juvenile facility.

...Devore announced Thursday that two employees have been terminated, two more have been suspended, and one high-level administrator has been demoted....

"All of the employees have a very thankless job working in that particular environment," says Marshall....

"I don't think this is going to be a case where there is going to be an inability to bring charges. I think the decision is going to be about what types of charges are brought and most significantly whether it's in adult or juvenile court," said Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn Ivey.

That 13-year-old suspect has been moved to another facility.

Maryland's only secure detention center for girls is so old and outdated that frustrated state legislators have raised the prospect of closing the Laurel facility by next year....

"It's draconian," said Prince George's Circuit Court Judge Cathy H. Serrette, who is her court's family division coordinator. She added: "It might be a jail in most people's minds, but that's not what it's supposed to be. The point of the whole juvenile justice system is rehabilitative."

The Prince George's County Police Department's District II COPS office, continuing their partnership with the Cops and Kids program, will be hosting the Spring Break Edition of the "Kids Empowerment Camp".

This four-day camp is a unique way for teens age 13-18 to have positive interactions with law enforcement. Campers will meet a gang awareness speaker, representatives from Mother's Against Drunk Driving (MAAD) and the States Attorney's Teenage Victim Advocate Office, take a tour of the Prince George's County Upper Marlboro Court House and more. After completing a community service project, the teens will receive 7 hours of community service during the camp. Other activities will include bowling, skating, and a fun day at Adventure Park USA indoor amusement park.

The March of Dimes Maryland National Capital Area Chapter has awarded a grant to Greater Baden Medical Services, Inc to support "Hip Hop to a Healthier Life", that is aimed at underserved maternal and child health needs here in Prince George's County. This program will provide health education to teens and young women to link them to resources to address the serious need for pre-conception health and poor birth outcomes in Prince George's county.

A trio of federal agency heads strapped on hard hats and lent their support to Sunday's episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which featured two building projects just outside the nation's capital.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Education Secretary Arne Duncan joined show host Ty Pennington for a tour of the two projects, in which the popular ABC program built a new home and community center that will be used to provide after-school programs to at-risk youths in Prince George's County, Md.

Principals, police and prosecutors would share confidential information about Maryland public school students suspected of gang activity under a bill House Speaker Michael E. Busch plans to introduce Tuesday.

The bill, which is raising concerns about student privacy and civil liberties, would be among the most aggressive in the country in the level of coordination between law enforcement and school officials to root out gang activity.

An 11-year-old Prince George's County girl was found safe late Saturday in Tennessee, shortly after authorities issued an Amber Alert reporting that they suspected she had been abducted, officials said....

County police said late Saturday that a man was being questioned in Jackson Tenn., in connection with the incident.

Students at Surrattsville High School in Clinton are taking the initiative to create healthier lives by kicking off a semester-long service project funded by a $1,000 grant from United Healthcare through the Youth Service America organization.

Parent volunteer and event coordinator Kim Carrington said she is excited about how the students are looking out for others and themselves by encouraging healthy lifestyle choices.

Huddled around a table with other members of The Lego Bros., a Clinton-based robotics team for youth, 11-year-old Anthony Griffin Jr. didn't take his eyes off the robotic car the team had built using Lego pieces as it jerked around an obstacle course.

When the car jumped off track and rammed into one of the barriers, Anthony, who lives in Fort Washington, began testing different parts of the car with his teammates. After tinkering for a few minutes, they discovered the culprit: The back wheel was loose.

It's the questions that haunt them: Why was I abandoned? Was I not lovable enough? Who are my biological parents? And now, for the 600 children in its foster care program, the Prince George's County Department of Social Services (DSS) has implemented a new program that will help some of these children find answers.

"It's May or June and our kids are graduating and the only person going to their graduation was their social worker," said Judith C. Wilson, acting deputy director of Prince George's DSS. "We just said this is not right; we have got to do something about this."

The Finding Family program is an initiative based on a project set forth by Kevin Campbell, founder of the Center for Family Finding and Youth Connectedness.

The program's aim is to maintain or reestablish healthy, safe contacts with family

As many as 150 people, including dozens of elementary school students, might have come in contact with a rabid calf at an Accokeek farm, and state and local health officials are urging anyone who visited the farm in the past month to call them for medical advice.

The incident could have deadly consequences. Anyone who demonstrates symptoms of rabies, including headaches and nervous system problems, is likely to die, said Donald Shell, the health officer for Prince George's County.

Because early treatment can be effective, officials were trying over the weekend to identify and contact everyone who visited the Hard Bargain Farm in Accokeek between Dec. 21 and Tuesday, when the infected calf was on display, he said.

State prosecutors will push for strengthened anti-gang legislation in Annapolis this spring in hopes of garnering more convictions of gang-related crimes — and helping to combat growing numbers of Maryland youth participating in gangs and at younger ages....

In July, his client 16-year-old Edgar Garcia of Germantown, pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder after he and a 16-year-old friend from Gaithersburg stabbed another teen nearly 50 times and left him in a park in 2008. The victim, a fellow member of the Vampire Bloods street gang, was attempting to leave the group for another faction of the Bloods gang, prosecutors said. Garcia said at sentencing that he joined the Vampire Bloods while attending Neelsview Middle School.

"Kids who were white were calling him racial epithets and beating him up and the only people who stood up for him were members of the black community and ultimately gangs," said Malouf. "For him at least, it was: 'These guys are friends.'"

If a gang leader encouraging 11, 12 and 13-year olds to participate in criminal gang activity had been a child predator manipulating sexual activity, his client would be considered too young to make his own decision, Malouf told the judge. The gang leader would have been charged with a felony.

Advisory
Help sought to find missing girls ages 14, 11. Roxann, Deja Owen last seen in Suitland on Tuesday. Photos available.

The Prince George's County Police Department is seeking the public's assistance in locating two missing juveniles who were last seen in Suitland.

On December 29, 2009, at approximately 5:30 p.m., Roxann Alexus Owen,14, and her sister Déjà Michelle Owen,11, walked away from a friends house in the 4200 block of Suitland Road and have not been seen or heard from since.

A dinosaur park may sound like something you'd see in the movies, with dinosaurs roaming among humans. Rather, it is an area of land where dinosaur fossils have been found that is open for public use.

Dinosaur Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, is a 41-acre piece of land that is open the first and third Saturday of each month, so anyone who has an interest can hunt for fossils.

Gabrielle made her big find on just the second day the park was open to the public.

South county residents will have a community center rivaling the size of the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex in Landover when a new facility for recreation, education and job training opens in Fort Washington.

The pattern hit Prince George's County prosecutor C.T. Wilson with the subtlety of a blast from a 12-gauge shotgun: The young men he was sending to prison were victims before they were criminals.

Sitting in his office in Upper Marlboro, Wilson read five pre-sentencing reports in about a month, and all said the defendants had been abandoned or neglected by their parents and tossed into the foster care system or group homes.

Disney pursued Mocha Moms, which started in Prince George's County in 1997, as a group with the potential to spread positive word of mouth. Mocha Moms draws its membership from stay-at-home mothers and mothers who work full time or part time, or have designed businesses that allow them to work at home. These women are ecstatic that their daughters will be growing up with Tiana, who is as pretty and glamorous as any previous Disney princess but also has an ethic of hard work and self-respect. And if the dusky Prince Naveen has a heritage and ambience that are hard to pin down (at times he looks as if he just stepped off the beach at Cannes) ... well, that's a topic for further conversation, along with whether the voodoo is too glamorous or scary, or Tiana's mom too subservient to her white employers, even if she is voiced by Oprah.

Prince George's County Police are holding what they're calling a "Youth Explosion."

The first inaugural event is scheduled for Saturday.

It will be held at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt and will highlight youth programs like the Police Athletic League and anti-gang and crime prevention initiatives. There will be prizes and giveaways for participants.

The event runs from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

"This issue has received a lot more attention because anytime you see underwear, people may be offended by that," says Dr. Wendy Buskey, a Clinical Psychologist with a practice in Prince George's County in Maryland. The style, which sometimes resembles a limp flag at half-mast, can be found virtually anywhere throughout the States within any population of young blacks, whites, Latinos and females. Dr. Buskey believes that the trend of sagging pants is a specific African-American creation that has been absorbed and embraced by the mainstream culture.

"African-Americans define and redefine what's stylish and cool," says Dr. Buskey. "[Yet] the negative appraisal of African-American styles of dress is nothing new. " But even if parents and older generations disapprove of the style, Dr. Buskey cautions against lecturing adolescents above 15 about sagging pants. "It's not effective," Dr. Buskey emphasizes. "What [adolescents] need at that time is to [be able] to express their point of view. As a parent this is difficult because you do have to allow your children to establish their own identity. For parents, it becomes important to be curious about this style of dress. For some adolescents this style might actually increases their self-esteem or make them feel more comfortable. For another person this type of dress could lead to antisocial behavior."

Fox Run Community Park, the staging ground for the "Tour de Creek" competition June 13, has been allotted $425,000 beginning July 1 under the Capital Improvement Program after residents lobbied for nearly four years.

The money will transform the 21-acre park from a grassy field with a baseball diamond and football field to a park with a playground, paved walking and biking trail, two lighted tennis courts and two covered pavilions.

The funds have been disbursed in two stages, beginning with $100,000 allocated July 1, 2008. The second part of the funding, amounting to $325,000, will become available July 1 and has been approved by the Prince George's County Council.

How many hundreds of thousands of kids have grown up around Washington and never set foot in, on or even alongside the Potomac River? It's impossible to know, but the simple answer is: Far too many.

Living Classrooms, the Baltimore-based nonprofit that's branched into the D.C. area on a mission to put youngsters in touch with nature, did its bit to amend that last week. With help from 10 corporate and government sponsors, the organization dragged 330 kids down to National Harbor on a bright spring morning to cast a line, tickle a fish, eyeball a turtle and learn about bobbers and worms, underwater grasses, snakeheads and other peculiarities that make life not just interesting but irresistible when you're 10 or 12 or even 17, before complications of adulthood set in.

Prince George's County has announced that it will provide free late-night activities for youth this summer in an effort to discourage violence.

The county's parks department will open 27 community facilities and public schools between 10 p.m. and midnight from June 22 to Aug. 22 for the "Safe Summer" initiative.

Officials expect as many as 25,000 teenagers and young adults will participate in the activities, which include everything from basketball to poetry competitions.

More than 7,000 people participated in a pilot "Safe Summer" program last year.

Prince George's County Maryland | Youth participants of Teens Express, a Prince George's County based, nonprofit, youth development and performing arts organization, gathered together in April, 2009, at the Prince George's Community College's Hollow Tree Student Club to have a rap session regarding the Chris Brown, Rihanna incident.

The session proved to be very powerful, as teens; ages 10 – 16 shared how the incident has affected their views and lives.

The National Children's Museum on Wednesday unveiled plans for its building, to be designed by the architectural firm Pelli Clarke Pelli. In a news release, the museum said that the 150,000-square-foot space, at National Harbor in Prince George's County, Md., would offer several environmentally friendly features including a wind turbine that will supply the building with energy, a sun reflector on the roof to reduce the use of artificial light and a roof system that will absorb rainwater and improve insulation. The museum said that its exhibits, which will highlight the environment, health, play and other subjects, would be created by the design firms Amaze Design, Roto Studio and AldrichPears. The museum is expected to open in 2013 and anticipates 600,000 visitors annually.

School districts around the nation are increasing the price of lunch to make up for the high cost of food.

Cash-strapped counties like Prince George's say it's a small price to pay for a healthy meal.

For 10 years, students in Prince George's County only paid $1.85 for their lunch. But the high cost of food and gas has forced the school system to raise its price to $2.25 at the beginning of the academic year.

The Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, one of the region's largest youth organizations, will close four clubs as part of a major restructuring that will cut its budget by more than 30 percent, officials announced today.

...Officials said they are exploring ways to serve students from the Northwestern club, which is the only facility in Prince George's County. (Today's decision does not affect the Prince George's County Boys and Girls Clubs, a separate regional organization that operates sports teams across the county.)

Mentoring Program Has Reduced Bad Behavior, Improved Attitudes at Greenbelt Elementary

Nick Covington, 11, sat down with his mentor in a little library room at Greenbelt Elementary School. The conversation was soft, with long pauses and unexpected turns.

Those expecting a mentor relationship in the Hollywood style, with breakdown, tears and catharsis, might be disappointed. Yet the results of these patient talks have been dramatic in this school of 630 students in Prince George's County: Principal Kimberly Seidel estimates the rate of disciplinary referrals and suspensions has been cut in half since the mentoring partnership with the University of Maryland began last year.

The Prince George's County Planning Board took an unconventional approach to acquire photographs for a Lanham-area sector plan, which is currently being updated: the board enlisted the help of DuVal High School photography students.

Junior and senior photography students from the Lanham school were hand-picked to capture on film beautiful area landscapes and architecture for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission's "Photos in Planning" contest.

The students were honored March 5 and awarded for their work by the Prince George's County Planning Board at the Prince George's County Administration Building in Upper Marlboro.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel will host its Youth Conservation Corps from June 22 through Aug. 14. Teenagers 15 through 18 will work full time on outdoor conservation projects in the summer employment program. The workers will be chosen by a lottery.

Previous work projects on the refuge have included repairing fencing, clearing vegetation, building and improving trails, cleaning water control structures, removing invasive plants and contributing to wildlife management programs. The students also participate in educational activities.

For an application and details, visit http://patuxent.fws.gov or call 301-776-3090. Applications must be postmarked by April 13 and sent to YCC Coordinator, Patuxent Research Refuge, 12100 Beech Forest Rd., Laurel, Md. 20708.

The Prince George's County Youth Employment Services and Summer Jobs Program provides the youth of Prince George's County, Maryland with the opportunity for a structured, supervised, and quality work experience that builds skills and assists in career decision making.

Gov. Martin O'Malley announced last Thursday that state funds will be set aside to expand a Baltimore program for at-risk youths into Prince George's County.

O'Malley (D) started Operation Safe Kids in 2002 when he was mayor of Baltimore. It assists juveniles and young adults referred by the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services.

Part of the $350,000 from the state will allow the county health department to hire five social workers for counseling. The funds also will support finding jobs for participants, enrolling them in school and matching them with drug treatment and therapy programs.

In tough economic times, they've shelled out big bucks for airfare and lodging. Some have taken off work and pulled their kids out of school. They've traveled the length of the country to stand among millions in the bitter cold and watch Barack Obama become president.

... U.S. Marine Corps Master Sgt. Eric Holland, of Hemet, first heard Obama speak in 2002 while watching television with his mother. They were captivated by Obama's words and realized he had great potential as a leader.

Four years later, Holland was in serving in Iraq when his son, Eric, was shot to death in the violence-plagued Prince George's County of Maryland, where the boy was living with his mother.

Holland, 44, who has spent his entire adult life in the military, was told he didn't have to go back to the war. But having lost his own son, Holland didn't see any way he could abandon the younger soldiers serving under him, he said.

"I had promised a lot of people I'd bring their kids back," he said.

In the Prince George's County community of Riverdale Park, town officials have noted a distressing sign of the national economic downturn: more children left home alone to fend for themselves by working parents too strapped to afford child care.

The problem was discovered by code enforcement officers who inspect apartments in the town of 7,000. They used to come across such cases once every couple of years. Then, six months ago, they found one child left alone, followed by another and another.

School leaders say strain not contagious

School and health leaders in Prince George's County are reassured parents that students were not at risk after a seventh-grader died of bacterial meningitis.

Students attending Walker Mill Middle School in Capitol Heights took letters home on Tuesday.

According to the letters, the meningitis strain was not contagious, and no preventive treatment is necessary for students or staff.

Providing child care for working parents has long been a goal of the Prince George's Child Resource Center, and a new grant may help the organization spread its mission to National Harbor in Oxon Hill.

About 60 percent of the 2,200 employees at the $4 billion project's Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center have young children who need care, said the hotel's Sheila Liverpool. Although Liverpool said she couldn't comment on how many workers have child care, she said it is likely many may lack resources.

"We want to help them do their job, as well as maintain commitments to their families," she said.

The Prince George's County Office of Homeland Security will be starting an "Explorer Program" for young men and women between the ages of 14 and 20 years old.

The 14-year-old participants must have completed the eighth grade.

The program is a "Learning for Life" career education program for young men and women, officials said. Involvement in the program prepares the participants to successfully deal with the complexities of today's society and enhances their self-confidence and motivation.

Program targets problem-solving, communication skills

State and county officials gathered in Landover on Friday to celebrate a form of therapy designed to keep county youths out of the juvenile justice system and to keep those in the system from slipping even further from reach.

The Prince George's Functional Family Therapy Kick-Off was held at Landover's Progressive Life Center and funded by the county's Department of Family Services Administration for Children, Youth and Families and the state's Department of Juvenile Services.

Regarding the June 11 front-page story "4 Pr. George's Teens Held in Fatal Beating":

The killing of a man, allegedly by four teenagers? Prince George's School Superintendent John E. Deasy said the crime "defies logic," but it does not defy logic at all. I agree wholeheartedly with Del. Doyle L. Niemann (D-Prince George's) in his assessment of the situation. Children are increasingly exposed to values that contradict good behavior (such as intense materialism and, yes, glorification of disrespect and violence) and are being given more and more control (for example, through impotent disciplining techniques -- if any at all -- that send the unspoken message that children essentially can "get away with murder"). And, yes, all of this is being supported, directly or indirectly, by us, the "adults."

A 4-year-old boy abducted from his Fort Washington home has been found safe and unharmed. Prince George's County police spokeswoman Corporal Diane Richardson says Jose Mejia was found Thursday afternoon in Takoma Park, apparently by himself and lost.

Jose was the subject of an Amber Alert. Richardson says at least two people came into the boy's home Wednesday night, tied up his mother and one of his siblings, and took him.

Detectives said they have noticed you men carrying guns as if they are pocket change and shooting with little cause.

The name "wear and carry" comes from a statute that outlines the penalties for wearing and carrying a weapon.

According to the Washington Post, police confiscated more than 1,700 guns last year.

Most of the county's illegal-gun charges involved men between the ages of 18 and 24.

Hundreds of African-American men gathered last night to rally against the tide of violence, drug use and absent fathers plaguing Annapolis' black community....

Bishop Muse is pastor of Ark of Safety Christian Church in Prince George's County and also a state senator. He was brought in to help move the participants from talk to action.

Parents of adopted children have a friend in Janni P. McNeil-Hayes.

The Upper Marlboro resident heads the Coalition of Adoption Programs Inc., a nonprofit that helps parents work their way through the challenging adoption process and adopted children to adjust to their new families.

She called attention to a little-noticed change in interpretation of state law. Maryland was one of nine states, including Virginia, that allowed 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they reached 18 by the general election. (The District does not.) But the Maryland State Board of Elections quietly halted the practice in December 2006 in response to a state court ruling...

The botched theft in Harford County led police to uncover an international car theft ring in which hundreds of new vehicles were shipped to West Africa, authorities said....

Del. Victor R. Ramirez (D-Prince George's), whose district includes many immigrants, said the policy change would upend life for thousands of Maryland residents. Calling O'Malley's proposal a "setback," Ramirez questioned how the parents of children born in this country could be denied permission to drive their children.

Board OKs plan to allow county students up to four school days per year to work on elections

Prince George's County students will soon get up to four schooldays off every year to work for political campaigns.

Students will have to write a report – signed by the candidate – detailing their campaign work, and get consent forms from their parents and a school administrator to exchange school time for campaigning. The excused days must fall within the two weeks prior to an election; two days are allowed for primary elections and an additional two days are allowed for general elections.

The time away from the classroom would be considered an important part of students' education, said school board members, who approved the plan Dec. 3. The policy, which allows for a maximum of four days per year, took effect immediately.