ABCDE METRO wednesday, july 28, 2010
POSTLOCAL.com 79, 9 a.m. 87, noon 90, 5 p.m. 82, 9 p.m.
Obituaries Jack Tatum, 61, a former Oakland Raiders defensive back, earned the nickname “the Assassin” for his hard-hitting moves and bone-jarring tackles on the field. B5
Extra funds for Fairfax schools, and a scolding
by Fredrick Kunkle The Fairfax County Board of
Supervisors agreed Tuesday to commit an extra $1.3million to public schools for their neediest students — but not without grum- bling over whether the School Board and the superintendent had manipulated the budget and public emotion to secure the funds. The board voted 7 to 2 to en- dorse additional money for the Priority Schools Initiative so the district can pay for additional teachers and additional instruc- tional time, such as summer class- es, at 11 elementary schools serv- ing impoverished children. But before the board agreed to
the extra funding, two Repub- lican supervisors and a Democrat lashed out at the Fairfax County School Board and Superintendent Jack D. Dale for how the budget funding request was handled. Noting that they had given schools $1.6 billion, or more than half of all county spending, super- visors accused the district of us- ing needy children as hostages to pry more money out of taxpayers. “They do it every year at budget
time,” Supervisor Pat S. Herrity (R-Springfield) said in an inter- view, likening the district’s ma- neuver to “blackmail.” Herrity said he voted against the request for the additional funding be- cause he thought that the district could have found the money if it tried to trim its bureaucracy to save money, as County Executive Anthony Griffin has done. Supervisor Jeff C. McKay (D-
Lee) also expressed annoyance, saying that if the funding had been so key to the district’s mis-
fairfax continued on B5
ARMY FAULTED ON OVERSIGHT
Report says IT contracts cost Arlington $8 million
Hot air
Te temperature at 2:52 p.m., right before the storm, was 99 degrees at Reagan National Airport, some of the hottest air of the season. As fast-moving, cool, dense air from the storm came through from the northwest, the lighter, hotter air offered little resistance. Cool downdraſts spreading into warm, humid air produced shelf clouds. By 3:15, the temperature had dropped to 75 degrees.
‘Cold pool’ A mass of chilly air called a “cold pool” behind the line of storms produced rain, which cooled the air even more and propelled this storm with a continuous cycle of precipitation and evaporation.
SOURCES: National Weather Service, NOAA
BONNIE BERKOWITZ AND PATTERSON CLARK/ THE WASHINGTON POST
VIRGINIA Satellite view: Te storm barrels through the District. NASA
Wind shear Wind across the region was stronger as it went higher, a definition of wind shear. Tis caused the storm to tilt, exaggerating the precipitation that was fueling it and extending its life.
Maturity
Te squall line started in Ohio and was well-developed by the time it reached our area. It moved quickly — about 50 mph — and kept going past the Delmarva Peninsula.
Te result Tis storm was “severe,” a label given to only about 5 percent of U.S. thunderstorms. To rate “severe,” a storm must have gusts of 58 mph or more (or produce inch-diameter hail). Tis storm had widespread gusts of 60 to 70 mph and pockets that reached 80 to 90 mph. No tornadoes occurred; all the damage was done by straight-line winds from the storm’s downdraſt, blowing west to east.
by Aaron C. Davis
and Christian Davenport Arlington National Cemetery
officials knew more than five years ago that many burials did not match Arlington’s maps and paper records, according to documents released Tuesday by a Senate subcommittee investigat- ing millions of dollars in botched contracts overseen by the Army. The Senate documents reveal
Delmarva Peninsula
Atlantic Ocean
For many, outages aren’t just inconvenient COURTLAND MILLOY
Two guys, two parties, one issue
Chairman Michael Steele were being hailed as the post-racial hope of our times. But the two black men soon became mired in racial muck. Circumstances cried out for them to meet and have their own conversation about race.
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What happened was not a beer summit so much as a Johnny Walker Black talk. Obama: Notorious G.O.P.
What’s up? Steele: We’ve got a problem,
Hawaii 5-0. When a right-wing race baiter can get away with doctoring a videotape to make a woman like Shirley Sherrod sound like a bigot, the head of the Republican Party comes off looking like a weak-kneed Stepin Fetchit.
Obama: Tell me about it. When the White House panics without even seeing the video and gets Sherrod fired from her federal job, the president ends up looking like a spineless Uncle Tom.
Steele: Two brothers tarred with one brush stroke. We ought to be driving this conversation on race, not getting run over by it.
Obama: How did things go milloy continued on B5
ot so long ago, President Obama and Republican National Committee
BILL O’LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POST
Iylene Becker, holding Rosebud, lives with her mother in Silver Spring and uses an electrical oxygen machine. With power out, Iylene’s mother bought liquid oxygen for a system that does not use electricity.
Lack of electricity can put those with medical needs in peril Pepco spokesman David More-
by Stephanie Lee and Rick Rojas
When the lights flickered in Adele Becker’s Silver Spring home Sunday, she didn’t think much of it at first.
But when minutes in the dark became hours, Becker, 73, real- ized that the storm-induced blackout could pose problems for her 50-year-old daughter, Iylene, who had her windpipe surgically opened last year and relies on an electrical oxygen concentrator system to breathe at night. Becker tried calling Pepco’s
emergency line several times, she said, seeking help. What she got was a busy signal, she said. The Beckers were among the thousands whose power had not been restored Tuesday, two days after one of the most violent
on
washingtonpost.com
Assessing damage, attempting cleanup
A day with a Pepco truck sheds light on the challen-
ges of restoring power; readers share storm images; charts, maps on outages.
postlocal.com
thunderstorms in years killed three people, downed power lines and disrupted life in the region. Abut 113,000 Pepco customers were still without power Tuesday afternoon — 91,000 in Montgom- ery County, 15,000 in Prince George’s County and 7,000 in the District.
Friends recall storm victim’s vibrant spirit. B8
head expressed satisfaction that Montgomery outages had been cut to fewer than 100,000. “They’re all continuing to climb down,” he said. Outages peaked Sunday at about 300,000. But the shrinking numbers were little consolation to resi- dents facing another night in a dark, hot house with a squalling baby, frazzled spouse or sick rela- tive. The wait has been particularly
frustrating for residents who rely on electricity for medical needs, such as refrigerating insulin, us- ing a heart monitor or, as with the Beckers, charging an oxygen support system. “In the case of medical emergencies, you need electricity,” Becker said. “We have to have electricity.”
power continued on B8
that a contractor hired to test the accuracy of Arlington records told cemetery officials about the errors in 2005, but they were not corrected. The Senate investiga- tors also found that Arlington of- ficials spent millions more than the Army has previously ac- knowledged in the failed effort to digitize its records and did not tell Office of Management and Budget officials about a report that recommended it use an ex- isting, cheaper system rather than attempt to build its own. The documents paint a picture of Arlington officials who selec- tively shared information with superiors about problems at the cemetery. The documents also conclude that Army officials up the chain of command did not exercise “even the most basic oversight” when continued spending on the same blunders raised obvious questions. The findings set the stage for a
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcom- mittee hearing on Thursday that
John C. Metzler Jr., left, the cemetery’s superintendent, and his chief deputy, Thurman Higginbotham, have retired.
follow revelations that hundreds of graves at Arlington have been left unmarked or mismarked, and that some burial urns were dumped in an area with excess grave dirt. On Monday, The Washington Post reported prob- lems with an additional 130 graves, including one section where the cemetery’s map shows the burial sites of 70 freed slaves where a walkway and a drainage
“It is the kind of environment where we know
waste occurs.” — Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.)
ditch exist. On Tuesday, Sen. Claire
McCaskill (D-Mo.), chair of the Contracting Oversight subcom- mittee, announced that she and ranking Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts had decided to subpoena John C. Metzler Jr., 62, and Thurman Higginbotham, 68, the cemetery’s longtime superin- tendent and second in command, who both were allowed to retire this month. “This problem has been fester- ing for so long. It is the kind of environment where we know
arlington continued on B5
Medical marijuana will take time in D.C.
Patients shouldn’t expect legal sale until at least early next year
by Tim Craig
District leaders say it will be months before the city begins al- lowing the sale of medical mari- juana, even though the law au- thorizing up to eight dispensa- ries took effect Tuesday after the Democratic-controlled Congress declined to intervene. The delay is driven by a lack of
detail about how the city will op- erate the program, which in- cludes a first-in-the-nation pro- vision requiring dispensaries to price the marijuana on a sliding scale so the city’s poorest pa- tients can obtain medicinal pot for free. The administration of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) will draft regulations to license dispensa- ries, track doctors and users, and identify where to allow the wholesale production of mari- juana. Health Department offi- cials and Attorney General Peter Nickles said Tuesday they expect a draft of the regulations to be made public next week. The rules would then undergo a public comment and review period, which could take months. Council member David A. Ca- tania (I-At Large), chairman of the Health Committee, said he does not expect the first dispen-
saries to open until at least early next year. “I know people are ea- ger for this go to forward, but I think we have to do this judi- ciously and slowly and carefully,” Catania said. Catania said he expects the
Fenty administration to formally solicit bids in the fall to operate the dispensaries, which can be run by nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Winning bidders, he said, would ideally have ex- perience growing medical mari- juana and would be able to com- ply with rigorous security pro- cedures. The law also requires dispen- saries to set aside a portion of their proceeds to subsidize the cost of the drug for low-income patients. Other patients will have to pay market value for the drug as well as a 6 percent sales tax to the city.
Distributors will be limited to growing no more than 95 mari- juana plants at a given location, an apparent effort to meet a fed- eral law that heightens penalties on anyone arrested with at least 100 plants. After the Health Department licenses the dispensaries and cul- tivation centers, zoning objec- tions from residents could fur- ther delay implementation. The law, for instance, calls for not al- lowing dispensaries within 300 feet of a school. The council approved the ini- tiative in May, and under home
marijuana continued on B8
Washingtology It’s your chance to stump The Post. Send in trivia questions that only a true Washingtonian would know the answers to for a 2 p.m. chat. Go to
PostLocal.com.
MARYLAND
Time off gives pause Montgomery County Council members say they are unhappy with a deal made by the county executive to give public workers extra comp time, but they aren’t fighting it. B4
Why was Sunday’s storm so bad?
Te storm that blew through the D.C. area Sunday aſternoon was one of the strongest since 2008. Meteorologist Bryan Jackson of the National Weather Service said a combination of factors made it worse than our average summer storm:
From above From the side B DC MD VA S
JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON
Send a Kid to Camp Camp Moss Hollow gives 11-year-old Kayla Day, who went for the third time this summer, a chance to enjoy the great outdoors. You can help other kids have the same experience. In the final week of camp fundraising, the total is about $175,000 short. B2
Cemetery failed to fix problems found in 2005
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