ABCDE METRO saturday, august 28, 2010 POSTLOCAL.com 73, 9 a.m. 83, noon 87, 5 p.m. 79, 9 p.m.


Obituaries Martin E. Dannenberg, 94, uncovered original Hitler-signed document known as the Nuremberg Laws in 1945. B4


Got a gripe? Potholes were reported, and potholes are being fixed. Have a problem with roads, trees or playgrounds in your neighbor- hood? Tell us on the Daily Gripe.


ON FAITH


What should Imam Rauf say? Figures from the world of faith discuss what message the imam, at right, behind the planned Islamic center near Ground Zero could offer to turn this moment of division into a time of healing. B2


THE DISTRICT


Jury sides with officer A D.C. Superior Court jury rules that senior police officials, including Chief Cathy L. Lanier, violated the District’s whistleblower act when they suspended an officer in 2005. B3


Md. officials accuse Konterra developer of permit violations COMPLAINT SETS


$170,000 FINE


Dept. of Environment alleges water pollution


by Ovetta Wiggins The State of Maryland has


fined the developer of a massive mixed-use project in Prince George’s County $170,000 for al- leged violations of regulations re- garding sediment control and water pollution. The state Department of the


A swinging time at Nationals Park


J


oshua Jurack, 9, of Manassas practices his swing Friday during an Extreme Recess Baseball Clinic at Nationals Park. The children’s charity Dreams for Kids and the Nationals teamed up for the


event attended by about 60 youths with physical and developmental disabilities, their families and volunteers. The children were able to participate in adaptive baseball activities. At right, Connor Andahl, 10, of Manassas chats with Nationals pitcher Craig Stammen. View a photo gallery and video at washingtonpost.com/dc.


Environment filed the complaint last month against Laurel Sand and Gravel Inc. and 1325 G Street Associates for work at the site of a former sand and gravel mine that is being turned into Konterra Town Center East. The town cen- ter will be the anchor of Konterra, a 2,200-acre mixed-use develop- ment along the Interstate 95 cor- ridor in Laurel. Laurel Sand and Gravel and 1325 G Street Associates are part of a group of related companies controlled by Konterra develop- ers Kingdon Gould Jr. and his son, Caleb Gould. The state’s complaint alleges


that the defendants’ activities re- sulted “in the discharge of vast amounts of sediment pollution to Indian Creek causing actual and substantial harm to the environ- ment.” Jay Apperson, a spokesman for the Department of the Environ- ment, said that the Goulds have requested an administrative hearing but that a date has not been set.


Andre Gingles, an attorney for the developer, said, “It is a matter


B DC MD VA S


of pending litigation; therefore, we cannot comment at this time.” The state alleges in the five- count complaint that the defen- dants did not obtain the proper permit before they began grading the land in May 2007 and that they failed to maintain the site, which resulted in the “discharge of a pollutant from the site into waters of the state.” The defen- dants continued to prepare the ground for development without the necessary permit until Febru- ary 2008, according to the com- plaint. The state says that when its en- vironmental investigators sur- veyed the site in February 2008, they found that the defendants


 Map of 2,200-acre development along the I-95 corridor. B3


had not followed the require- ments of the original sediment and erosion-control plan. The de- fendants had performed mass grading of the site before com- pleting the construction of a re- quired sediment basin and other sediment-control measures, the complaint said. The state alleges that the defendants used alterna- tive measures, including sedi- ment bags to filter sediment pol- lution before it reached the wa- tershed, but that those efforts failed.


According to the complaint,


the defendants did “significant mining reclamation and earth disturbance” without receiving a storm-water discharge permit, and they failed to perform bi- weekly and post-storm inspec- tions and site condition correc- tions, which are required under


konterra continued on B3


Translation service hit by media’s expanding reach


Growth of Web, decline of news coverage cut into Japanese service


by Kevin Sieff For 35 years, Tadahiko Nakam-


ura has wandered outside his Northwest Washington apart- ment every day at 3:30 a.m. in search of the morning news- papers — the raw material that he and five other translators will turn into essential reading for the


official Japanese community in Washington and beyond. With the voices of late-night


revelers still echoing across the street, Nakamura and his staff will weed through a pile of U.S. newspapers to produce a daily news digest in Japanese, which will be distributed, via e-mail and bicycle, to some of the most prom- inent Japanese diplomats and businessmen in Washington. Nakamura’s company, Galaxy Systems, which shares space in Adams Morgan with a Japanese market and travel agency, em- ploys five translators who com-


Sanctuary of home


drowned by a flood Family of woman, 97, who was forced from house can’t get answers


by Ovetta Wiggins


In her 97 years, Bernice Evans has survived breast cancer, strokes and a broken pelvis. Now she’s fighting a battle that her friends and family say may be too much for her to bear: the loss of her home. Evans was forced to leave her


house two weeks ago because of flooding. A storm drain in her Forest Glen neighborhood filled during the violent storms Aug. 12 and sent water gushing into the Silver Spring house she has called home for 50 years.


Within 24 hours, Evans’s family and her caregiver had packed up some of her belongings and, with the help of the American Red Cross and Montgomery County Social Services, checked her into a hotel.


“One day you’re sitting in your home, and the next day it’s unin- habitable due to no negligence of your own,” said Susan Monaco, a spokeswoman for Evans and her family. “It’s been very frustrating.” Monaco spoke on Evans’s be- half because she has had difficulty speaking since her last stroke. The house, which had about 31


⁄2


feet of water in the basement, was declared uninhabitable by Mont- gomery County on Friday. Evans’s house is at the bottom of a hill and is the only one in the neighbor- hood that flooded, Monaco said.


flood continued on B6


pose a colorless, four-page packet crammed with Japanese charac- ters. The translators, all recent Japa- nese immigrants, are surrounded by stacks of newspapers, each lit- tered with bright orange sticky tabs identifying stories that men- tion Japan. They would all prefer to be somewhere else. Kenji Sakamoto hopes to be- come a playwright. Mike Yoshikaway wants to be a foreign policy adviser to the Japa- nese government. Kisato Takenaka would rather be designing computer software.


But for now, they share the same cramped office space, their fingers covered in newsprint, try- ing to convey the nuances of American politics and finance in their native tongue. “When I started here, I didn’t know what the words ‘House’ and ‘Senate’ meant,” said Takenaka. “I learned everything from these newspapers.” Nakamura launched the digest


as a graduate student in the 1970s, when Japan’s economy was boom- ing. He scanned 25 newspapers every day, summarizing and translating relevant stories for


companies looking to open offices and factories in the United States. He provided a similar service to the Japanese embassy, which was in the midst of free trade talks with the Nixon administration. The embassy, where Nakamura


worked briefly, has paid Galaxy Systems for more than 30 years to compile clips of every story that includes the words “Japan” or “Japanese” in a number of Wash- ington-based publications. “I kept telling them, ‘Power is not just in Washington,’ ” Nakam-


translate continued on B6


A Loudoun County man who rose from a teenage employee at a Sterling deli to own a string of area restaurants, and who by his own account fraudulently bor- rowed more than $71million from eight banks, was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison. Last year, when it all came


SUSAN BIDDLE FOR THE WASHINGTON POST


Bernice Evans, 97, was forced from her Montgomery County home two weeks ago because of flooding from an overflowing storm drain. The county is paying for her hotel costs as she awaits repairs.


crashing down for Osama M. El- Atari, 31, he fled the country, au- thorities said. The Ashburn resi- dent left behind a string of credi- tors, flashy sports cars and a $3.9million house bought with money he scammed from banks in Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee and Ohio, court records show. The scam was simple: Present a life insurance policy with a cash value of millions of dollars to use as collateral. The string of frauds began in 2007 when United Bank in Vienna loaned El-Atari $5 mil- lion based on an insurance policy that had zero cash value, accord- ing to a statement of facts signed by El-Atari in April when he pleaded guilty to bank fraud and money laundering. In 2008, El-Atari used the same approach with other banks, claiming that his insurance pol-


bank fraud continued on B3


Loudoun man gets 12 years for loan fraud Restaurateur used fake


documents at 8 banks to borrow $71 million


by Tom Jackman


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