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Metro

Thursday, July 16, 2009

JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON »D.C. issued parking tickets, but was the vehicle in Virginia? B3

MCCARTNEY

Chop a Tree, Save the

Environment

spoil an enchanting walking and bike trail to protect the environment. Sounds crazy. But it’s not.

M

That’s a tradeoff that

Montgomery and Prince George’s counties need to make to build the Purple Line properly. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) is scheduled to formally endorse a plan for the long-sought transit link by Labor Day. He is expected to bless the two counties’ consensus favoring light rail over buses, and a route between Bethesda and New Carrollton running down part of a now-bucolic stretch of trail in Chevy Chase. The project would be a significant step toward “smart growth,” promoting development close to mass transit. It would also finally provide a rail hookup among some of Metrorail’s suburban spokes, so it wouldn’t be necessary to go downtown to travel between east and west in the Maryland suburbs.

Those trees are safe for awhile, though. O’Malley’s decision would merely start the process of getting federal funds for the effort. That would require at least four years before construction begins, assuming everything goes smoothly, which it won’t. First, although Maryland would ask the U.S. Treasury to cover half the project’s cost, now estimated at $1.68 billion, it might have to settle for less. Moreover, opponents of the Purple Line plan, currently on the defensive, might find a powerful friend at the Federal Transit Administration. The agency must approve the project and would want to see strong evidence that it’s worth paying for light rail rather than less costly express buses.

The FTA could force Maryland to scale back the Purple Line, just as it blocked Northern Virginia from spending enough money to dig a tunnel under Tysons Corner for Metro’s Silver Line to Dulles International Airport. Virginians had to settle for an elevated track, which will make the new Tysons less pedestrian-friendly and much uglier.

Admittedly, the Purple Line also presents bitter choices. The plan that O’Malley is likely to approve calls for building two tracks for light rail vehicles, the modern equivalent of streetcars. They would push pedestrians and riders to the side of the Georgetown Branch Trail, an unpaved

See MCCARTNEY, Page B3

aryland’s inner suburbs should bulldoze 17 acres of mature forest and

ROBERT

Some Work and Some Play Make a Better Recreation Center

D.C. Misses Payment to 60 Charter Schools

Staffs’ Checks May Be Delayed as City Turns to Reserves

By Bill Turque

Washington Post Staff Writer

The District missed a $103 mil-

lion payment due to its 60 charter schools yesterday, meaning a pay- less Friday for some teachers and other cash flow troubles for many of the publicly funded, independ- ently operated schools. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D)

has asked Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi to dip into contingency cash reserves to come up with $57 million, about half of the amount due, which should be available to the schools early next week.

PHOTOS BY BILL O’LEARY — THE WASHINGTON POST

Children gather to help instructor Ndunduma Williams, center, spread fresh mulch around the base of a tree in front of Trinidad Recreation Center in Northeast Washington. The yardwork at the center yesterday was part of a program sponsored by the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust and the National Center for Summer Learning that included beautification and a showcase for summer activities such as baseball.

Man Shot Dead Near Capitol After Chase

Gun Recovered; Motorcycle Officer Injured

By Clarence Williams

Washington Post Staff Writer

U.S. Capitol Police fatally shot a man about a block from the Cap- itol late yesterday after he fled a routine traffic stop, “nearly ran over two officers” and shot at sev- eral officers, police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider said. Two Capitol Police officers re-

ceived minor injuries and were treated at the scene.

Schneider said the attempted traffic stop occurred about 5:15 p.m. in the 100 block of Mas- sachusetts Avenue NW. A white Mercedes-Benz fled “at a high rate of speed, driving erratically and dangerously,” and struck an officer on foot outside Union Sta- tion, Schneider said.

Officers chased the car to New Jersey Avenue NW, where it struck a parked vehicle and then crashed into a police cruiser be- fore coming to a stop. A motorcy- cle officer was injured; it was not immediately clear what hap- pened.

Officers saw that the man had a

BY LINDA DAVIDSON — THE WASHINGTON POST

Medical personnel carry the man from the scene. He was declared dead at Washington Hospital Center.

weapon and ordered him to drop it and show his hands, Schneider said. The man began shooting, and at least two officers “fired

and struck the suspect,” she said. “Our officers fired because they believed their lives were in danger,” Schneider said.

A gun was recovered at the scene, Schneider said. The man

See CAPITOL, Page B4

Kaine, Howell Oppose Wal-Mart Close to Wilderness Battlefield

By Fredrick Kunkle

Washington Post Staff Writer

Threatened with the possibility that an army of cashiers with bar- code-reading guns could invade hallowed ground near the site of one of the Civil War’s most hellish battles, Virginia’s two most power- ful political foes have united in a bi- partisan stand to relocate a pro- posed Wal-Mart in Orange County. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) and House of Delegates Speaker Wil- liam J. Howell (R) — who have been on warring sides of many state issues — have written to the Board of Supervisors, asking it to help Wal-Mart find a site farther from the Wilderness battlefield. “We strongly encourage your Board to work closely with Wal-

Mart to find an appropriate alter- native site for the proposed retail center in the vicinity of the pro- posed site yet situated outside the boundaries of Wilderness Battlefield and out of the view of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park,” says Mon- day’s letter co-signed by Kaine and Howell. In their letter, Kaine and Howell also offered state resources in helping to work out an alterna- tive.

Kaine has made his preservation of 400,000 acres of open land a cen- terpiece of his tenure; Howell is a Civil War buff who has also been co-chairman of the Sesquicentenni- al of the American Civil War Com- mission.

See BATTLEFIELD, Page B4

Flashy Va. Businessman Vanishes, Leaving Huge Debts Behind

By Derek Kravitz

Washington Post Staff Writer

Subtlety was never one of Osama El-Atari’s strong suits.

The son of Jordanian immigrants

was a self-described “car nut” who racked up a fierce number of speed- ing tickets across Northern Vir- ginia. He told a reporter that he owned two Lamborghinis, two Fer- raris and a Rolls-Royce Phantom, among other vehicles, and that his insurance bill was $18,000 a month. One car dealer said El-Atari would occasionally bring a chauffeur to dealerships.

Gov. Timothy Kaine (D), top, and House Speaker William Howell (R) want Wal-Mart to be farther away.

The Loudoun County restaura- teur tried to show off his wealth whenever he could, by donating thousands to local political candi- dates or purchasing expensive

Inside

Obituaries

Jane Dalton Weinberger, 91

The wife of Caspar Weinberger, secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan, wrote a dozen books and founded a children’s book publishing company. B5

Fairfax County

Standoff Ends

A man who held police at bay for almost 24 hours was hospitalized in critical condition after shooting himself, authorities say. B2

D.C. Business

Watergate on the Block

The hotel is scheduled to be auc- tioned Tuesday, five years after a developer bought it with hopes of restoring its former glory. A19

Index

John Kelly’s Washington...................B3 Lotteries .............................................B4 Post Points..........................................B5 Obituaries...........................................B5 Death Notices ................................B6-7 Regional Briefing ...............................B8

Today’s Forecast

77°

9 a.m.

84°

Noon

88°

5 p.m.

79°

9 p.m.

Weather ..............................................B8

sports memorabilia at charity galas. He told The Washington Post a year ago that he had “no other bad hab- its.”

But now El-Atari has apparently

vanished, leaving behind a growing number of debts, lawsuits and con- fused creditors. He was nowhere to be found at a hearing Friday to con- sider his creditors’ petition to force him into bankruptcy. One bank was told that he might be in London. An- other said his vehicles might have been shipped to Jordan. “We looked into the accounts for El-Atari Holdings, and there’s noth- ing left,” said David B. Tatge, the D.C. attorney for the creditors. “I guess I’m not really surprised.” Three banks say in court docu-

See EL-ATARI, Page B2

Charter schools, which are due to receive almost $400 million to serve about 25,000 District school children on 90 campuses, are paid quarterly based on pro- jected enrollment. The District traditionally advances the July payment to the schools against the budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. But the city has been unable to submit a balanced budget for fiscal 2010 to Congress because of persistently deteriorat- ing revenue forecasts. Revised projections released last month by Gandhi showed that the city faces a $340 million deficit spread over two years: $190 million for fiscal 2009 and $150 million for 2010.

Gandhi said the law prohibits

any advancing of funds from the 2010 budget until submission to

See SCHOOLS, Page B4

Jacks Defense Denies Guilt As Grim Tale Opens Trial

By Keith L. Alexander

Washington Post Staff Writer

Banita Jacks had a secret in her upstairs bedrooms, a secret so ter- rible that she spent most of 2007 try- ing to convince the world that she had moved away from her Southeast Washington home, a federal pros- ecutor said yesterday. For months, the prosecutor told a judge, Jacks kept her blinds drawn, let mail pile up outside the house, stopped pay- ing bills and left by the back door. “Her secret was the rotting bodies of her daughters. And that secret un- raveled when the marshals arrived on Jan. 9, 2008,” Assistant U.S. At- torney Deborah Sines said in her opening statement at Jacks’s mur- der trial in D.C. Superior Court. When the federal marshals, who

were there to serve an eviction no- tice, forced their way into the rented rowhouse, they found the bodies of Jacks’s four daughters — Brittany Jacks, 16, Tatianna Jacks, 11, N’Kiah Fogle, 6, and Aja Fogle, 5 — in two upstairs bedrooms. Jacks said the girls had died in their sleep. In the defense’s 20-minute open- ing statement, one of her public de- fenders, Lloyd Nolan, said that al- though his client lived in the house, she was “completely innocent” of killing the girls. “This was a tragic event,” Nolan said. “But Ms. Jacks was in no way responsible for the death of her children.”

See JACKS, Page B2

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