ABCDE METRO friday, august 27, 2010
POSTLOCAL.com 70, 9 a.m. 78, noon 81, 5 p.m. 75, 9 p.m.
Obituaries Bonnie Ladin, 59, a professor at the National Labor College, discovered her passion for worker’s rights in the 1970s. B7
Avoid a boring weekend Check the forecast from the Capital Weather Gang and get ideas for things to do from the Going Out Guide. Go to
PostLocal.com.
VIRGINIA
Suspect in Michigan Elias Abuelazam, right, suspected in 18 attacks in three states, including three in Leesburg, is arraigned in Michigan, where the prosecutor calls him evil. B5
THE REGION
Keeping watch in the bus Metro says it is installing a camera system on all its buses to catch errors by its drivers and improve safety. Any episode involving a sudden move or jolt will be kept and analyzed. B4
“He reaches out to people for
information.”
— Fred Cooke, a lawyer who has known Gray since high school
Friendships that last mold Gray’s life
Fenty campaign makes an issue of some political relationships
by Tim Craig When D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C.
Gray decided to “take a civil rights stand” in 1963 by becoming the first African American to rush a fraternity at George Washington Uni- versity, he visited more than a half-dozen fra- ternities to see if any of them wanted him. The Sigma Alpha Epsilon didn’t allow him to come into the house, and no one spoke to him at the Tau Kappa Epsilon house, Gray re- called recently. The brothers at Sigma Nu po- litely told Gray “no Negroes,” and then one of them tried to pick a fight with him. But when Gray, then a junior, showed up at Tau Epsilon Phi, a pre- dominately Jewish fra- ternity, he was greeted by Bruce C. Bereano, who immediately liked Gray and helped convince the other brothers that de- spite the national frater- nity’s ban on blacks and Asians they should admit him. “He became my little brother in the fraternity,” said Bereano, an Annap-
This is one in a series of articles about Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray as they compete for the Democratic mayoral
nomination.
olis lobbyist. “Since then, he and I have re- mained very close personal friends, not just fraternity brothers but just like real brothers.” Bereano is part of a wide network of people
Gray leans on for political and personal advice at crucial moments, such as when his wife, Lo- retta, died of cancer 12 years ago. And as Gray challenges Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary, his friends have reached out to D.C. voters on his behalf, even as he attempts to beat back criticism that some of those friendships are connected to the city’s failed leadership of decades past. Interviews with more than a dozen of Gray’s
fraternity brothers and oldest friends — some of whom share his enthusiasm for hand- dancing and softball — bespeak their loyalty to him. They say they are drawn to his work with the underprivileged and his sense of humor. “The reason they respect him so much, and
gray continued on B10 ASTRID RIECKEN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST Tanim Awwal, a senior at AU and president of the Muslim Student Association there, finds a spot in the Kay Spiritual Life Center to pray.
Hostility across U.S. jars young Muslims Mosque dispute, and others, has students worrying about alienation, radicalism among their own
by Tara Bahrampour A EVY MAGES FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Indulging his love of softball, Vincent C. Gray, D.C. Council chairman and candidate for mayor, makes the play at first base during a game at Randall Field in Southwest.
DON’T MISS THE DEBATE! Watch Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray debate at a Washington Post forum at noon Sept. 1. streamed live at
washingtonpost.com/local.
lthough the Muslim students hadn’t eaten since dawn, something besides food was on their minds as they loaded plates with tandoori chicken, chickpeas and rice at American University to break their Rama-
dan fast. For weeks, their faith had been under attack by some opponents of a proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero. Every time they turned on the TV, there were new reports of anti-Muslim sentiment: mosque construction being opposed hundreds of
miles from Ground Zero; a Florida pastor vowing to burn copies of the Koran to mark the anniversary of Sept. 11; a poll showing that 43 percent of Americans hold unfavorable views of Muslims. And just this week, a Muslim cabbie was stabbed in New York. All of it points to a swelling hostility that many of these students had scarcely known was there and that religious and political leaders worry could fuel alienation and radicalism among some young Amer- ican Muslims. At AU, there is little evidence of that, although the students who gathered on Tuesday for an iftar, the banquet that marks sundown, said the backlash has been particularly jarring, coinciding with the holy
month of Ramadan, a time of fasting, prayer and re- flection. “We’ve all been talking about it,” said Farah Mo- hamed, 19, a sophomore who grew up in Massachu- setts, adding that the conversations have permeated every layer of their world — from class discussions to Facebook status updates. She and many of her peers have never felt like out- siders, not even in the tense days after the Sept 11 at- tacks. With their scoopneck shirts and skinny jeans, they are part of the patchwork of ethnicities and re- ligions woven through most U.S. campuses. For
muslims continued on B5 Life term for Pr. George’s man convicted of killing wife
Judge rejects plea for leniency; victim’s daughter recalls phone call asking about life insurance money
by Ruben Castaneda
For more than an hour, Spencer Ellsworth Chase listened as relatives and friends of the wife he’d murdered told a Prince George’s County judge that he deserved no leniency, countering his defense at- torney and supporters, who argued for mercy. When it was his turn to speak, Chase, clad in an orange jail jumpsuit, stood and told Circuit Court
Judge Beverly J. Woodard, “I did not kill my wife, your honor.” Chase, 50, then asked for mercy. “I heard all the evidence in this case,” Woodard
said. “You killed your wife. There’s no doubt in my mind you killed Antoinette Chase.” Woodard sentenced Chase to life in prison. Relatives and friends of Antoinette Chase hugged
Assistant State’s Attorneys Ann Wagner-Stewart and Saman Danai as well as Benjamin Brown, the Prince George’s homicide detective who tracked down key evidence. Shortly after noon on May 20, 2008, Spencer
Chase called 911 to report that he had found Antoi- nette Renee Chase, 46, facedown on the floor with an extension cord around her neck when he re-
turned to their Upper Marlboro home after running errands, according to trial testimony. She was taken to Prince George’s Hospital Center and pronounced dead.
Eight months earlier, in October 2007, county po- lice had charged Spencer Chase with assaulting her. Those charges were dropped when she declined to proceed with the case. In June, a Circuit Court jury convicted Chase of
first-degree murder. An earlier trial ended in a mis- trial when the jury failed to reach a verdict. Antoinette’s daughter, Monique Davis, 27, said she was pleased with her stepfather’s sentence. “I’m very glad that it’s come to an end,” she said.
killing continued on B4 D.C. seeks input on slug sites for ride-sharers
INSTANT CARPOOLERS GETTING TICKETS
Commuters are asked to weigh in on new pickup spots along 14th St.
by Derek Kravitz
The District is asking commuters to help find new sites for slug ride-sharing lines after vehicles stop- ping along the heavily traveled 14th Street corridor near the National Mall have been ticketed by police.
Slugging, or instant carpooling, is a Washington area commuting tradition dating from the 1970s in which drivers wanting to use high-occupancy vehi- cle (HOV) lanes stop to pick up passengers (the “slugs”) on their way into Arlington, the District or other destinations. The District Department of Transportation said it will evaluate responses to a commuter survey. Details on how the survey will be conducted were unclear. A pilot test of potential pickup sites is tentatively scheduled for October. “We understand there is a real need for people to utilize these ride shares, however we need to make sure people are also safe and that traffic can flow in an orderly fashion,” DDOT Director Gabe Klein said. Officials said traffic engineers and safety experts will identify locations for slug lines that minimize traffic problems and provide “a safer waiting envi-
ronment.” The new sites would include signage to clearly identify ride-share locations. There are at least 18 slug lines in Northern Vir- ginia, serving thousands of daily commuters. Along 14th Street, seven lines have formed, including at the intersections with New York, Constitution and Independence avenues, according to the slug line Web site,
Slug-Lines.com. This summer, passengers have complained about D.C. police handing out tick- ets in no-stopping zones on 14th Street. U.S. Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) sent a letter
to D.C. officials in early July, noting that many Prince William County residents who lack access to Metrorail rely on slugging to get into the city via in- terstates 95 and 395.
slugging continued on B5 B DC MD VA S
SUSAN BIDDLE FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Salma Omar breaks the Ramadan fast during a dinner at American University, where she is a sophomore.
ASTRID RIECKEN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
“If you’re going to say that we’re separate from people, you’re going to do what the radicals want — on both sides,” says Awwal.
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