Good morning, Washington. You know, the Post really ought to take it a little easier on us. It’s only been two weeks since they made the case for urban chicken farming, sending who knows how many crunchies, foodies and trend-chasers onto the internet to price coop-building material. The chicks whose purchase that article inspired are no doubt still incubating, yet the paper is already foisting another urban agriculture fad on us: bees in the city. How can we be expected to keep up? Personally, I’m hoping to get ahead of the game by installing a few hogs in my English basement.
Justice Dept. Will Review P.G. Prisoner’s Death: Yesterday ended with the surprising news that Prince George’s County wouldn’t be filing any charges in the death of Ronnie White, the man who was found dead while being held for the alleged killing of a police officer (White’s death was later ruled a homicide by a state medical examiner). But it now looks like that won’t the end of the matter: WJLA reports that P.G. County State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey is saying that he’s asked the Justice Department to review the case, and that they’ve agreed to do so. This action was apparently motivated at least in part by criticisms raised by the NAACP and White’s family. The Post’s article is less forgiving of Ivey than the WJLA account, and includes a quote castigating him for taking such a long time only to decline to bring charges.
Embezzlement Scheme Busted: The Post reports on a newly-discovered embezzling operation based in the Prince William County IT department. Maneesh Gupta and John Roessler created a company called Praetorian Systems, then falsified bids from other companies in order to steer technical contracts to Praetorian, using their positions to cover up the wrongdoing. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it should be pointed out that the evil software vendor in the abysmal 1995 Sandra Bullock hacker thriller The Net was also known as “Praetorian”, raising the possibility that Gupta and Roessler were brazenly flaunting their wrongdoing and/or bad taste in movies. Fortunately, a quick survey of the Prince William County web properties that Praetorian is said to have worked on reveals no stupid little pi symbols.
Briefly Noted: First swine flu-related death in Va… National Gallery adding first new piece to sculpture garden in a decade… Maryland’s Comptroller will document an upcoming public works meeting on Twitter (quick, turn SMS updates back on!)… Alleged multi-million-dollar towing scams uncovered in Prince William County (video)… Va. Governor’s race tighter than expected… Backstory of Justice Thomas’s high school commencement address… Police seek men in photo connected to club shooting… Four people shot, one fatally, near Fedex Field…
This Day In DCist: One year ago we shared a secret spot for a cheap lunch and the city council passed a gutted noise bill.
Image posted to DCist Photos by Flickr user akkleis
