THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010
KLMNO Md. casino to open nextweek
Perryville site will debut with
1,500 slot machines BY JOHNWAGNER
After years of bitter debate and
numerous setbacks, Maryland could actually have an operating slots casino this time next week. Members of a state commis-
sion were greeted Wednesday by the sounds of whirring and ding- ing as they entered the nearly complete Hollywood Casino Per- ryville in the northeastern corner ofMaryland, a 1,500-machine fa- cility scheduled tomake its public debut next Thursday. Technicians scampered among
themachinesonthegamingfloor. Minor construction remained to be done inside the cavernous, art deco structure, where oversize movie posters were suspended from the ceiling. And some major landscaping still must be com- pleted. But representatives from the
casino, owned by Penn National Gaming, insisted they are on schedule for a grand opening with dignitaries including Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), who has championed the state’s slots pro- gram and is up for reelection in less than six weeks. “We’re glad to see a facility
opening,” said Donald C. Fry, chairman of the commission charged with picking the state’s slots sites. “We think this is what the voters ofMaryland asked for.” The Perryville site has been the
one bright spot in Maryland’s fledgling slots program, which was authorized by voters in a November 2008 referendum. The public vote was proposed by
O’Malley toenda legislative stale- mate over an issue that dominat- ed the term of his predecessor, former governor Robert L. Eh- rlich Jr. (R), who is trying to win his job back inNovember. The casino features various video-screen-style slot machines, some made to look like their old-fashioned predecessors. But most of the games look little like that; many incorporate modern- day culture as themes. Among them: “Sex & the City” and Jeff Foxworthy’s Redneck Rumble. The floor includes a handful of
“electronic table games” — ma- chines made to simulate three- card poker, blackjack and rou- lette—without the cards, chips or
“We’re glad to see a facility opening.”
Donald C. Fry, commission chairman.
wheel. The site has a buffet-style restaurant and gift shop. AsecondMaryland slots site, at
Ocean Downs Racetrack on the Eastern Shore, is scheduled to open Dec. 16 with 750 machines. Its owners had advertised a Me- morial Day opening, which was pushed back because of asbestos and construction problems. The site will eventually have 800 ma- chines, the owner said. Meanwhile, the fate of the
state’s two largest facilities, in Anne Arundel County and Balti- more, remains in limbo. Anne Arundel voters will de-
cide in November whether to allow a zoning bill to stand that is needed for construction of a planned 4,750-machine casino at
ArundelMills mall. Both sides in that fight are spending heavily on television commercials in the Bal- timore region. The developers of a planned
3,750-machine facility in down- town Baltimore have appealed the rejection of their application by Fry’s commission. A new round of bidding to build and operate that site could take place in coming months. The state has begun a second
solicitation of operators for a smaller facility inWesternMary- land that initially drew no inter- est from qualified bidders. Even next Thursday’s opening
of the Perryville facility is not a sure thing. Cordish Cos., the de- veloper of the planned Arundel Mills casino, has complained that Penn National has taken too ag- gressive a role in the referendum over zoning in Anne Arundel. Besides owning the Perryville
facility, Penn National is part owner of Laurel Park, a racetrack in Anne Arundel County that could become eligible for a slots license if the mall plan collapses. An opinion from the state at-
torney general’s office is expected soon on whether Maryland can restrict Penn National’s involve- ment in the referendum. As part of the maneuvering among the monied interests involved, state officials say it’s possible Penn National could delay the opening of its Perryville casino to gain leverage in the matter. Himbert Sinopoli, general
manager of the Perryville facility, would not comment on that pros- pectWednesday, saying only that he is working toward next week’s opening. A “soft launch” of the casino for invited guests is sched- uled Saturday, with proceeds to benefit local charities.
wagnerj@washpost.com
Grant aims to spruce up St. E’s area D.C. officials hope
federal effort will boost development in SE
BY OVETTAWIGGINS The Commerce Department is
providingmore than $500,000 in grants to benefit areas around the former St. Elizabeths Hospi- tal as the Department of Home- land Security consolidates its operations in Southeast Wash- ington. The grants are part of a federal
effort to help distressed commu- nities by working with local gov- ernments to “create higher-skill, living-wage jobs, advance region- al competitiveness and generate private sector investment,” said officials from the Commerce De- partment’s Economic Develop- ment Administration. The 4.5-million-square-foot Homeland Security headquar-
ters on the west side of the St. Elizabeths campus is the largest federal construction project since the Pentagon was built in the 1940s. Eventually, 14,000 workers and 2,000 visitors are expected every day on the cam- pus, which is divided by Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. City officials hope the project
will stimulate redevelopment in the Congress Heights neighbor- hood. They want 170 acres on the east campus to provide a mix of jobs, housing choices, shops and community facilities. Themoney is “a great opportu-
nity to [improve economic devel- opment] in our own back yard,” said John Fernandez, the U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for economic development. The grants will be used, in
large part, for studies to benefit the neighborhood and adjoining jurisdictions. TheObama admin- istration has been awarding such grants across the country, work- ing with local governments to
IRVINGRAVETCH,89
Academy Award-nominated co-writer of ‘Hud,’ ‘Norma Rae’
BY DENNISMCLELLAN Irving Ravetch, 89, a two-time
Academy Award-nominated screenwriter — for “Hud” and “Norma Rae,” written with his wife and collaborator, Harriet Frank Jr.—died Sept. 19 of pneu- moniaatahospital inLosAngeles. In a screenwriting collabora-
tion that beganwith the 1958 film “The Long, Hot Summer,” Mr. Ravetch and Frank wrote the scripts for more than a dozen other films, including “The Sound and the Fury,” “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs,” “Hombre,” “The Reivers,” “The Cowboys,” “Con- rack,” “Murphy’s Romance” and “Stanley&Iris.” They shared Oscar nomina-
tions in 1964 for their screenplay for “Hud,” a drama set inmodern Texas and starring Paul Newman as the ruthless son of an elderly rancher, and in 1980 for “Norma Rae,” a drama starring Sally Field in her Oscar-winning role as an impassioned Southern union or- ganizer. Eight of the Ravetch-Frank
screenplays, including “Hud” and “NormaRae,”weredirectedby the lateMartinRitt. Mr. Ravetch was born in New-
ark, N.J., on Nov. 14, 1920. His father, a pharmacist who became a rabbi, was an immigrant from Russia; and hismother, a teacher of Hebrew, was born in what is nowIsrael. Suffering from severe asthma
take a regional approach to stim- ulating the economy, Fernandez said.
A $300,000 grant will be
given to the District and Carne- gie Mellon University to study Wards 7 and 8. The university is being given an additional $232,000 to develop a strategy for the District, Maryland and Virginia. “The District is very excited
about the potential for an inno- vation hub that leverages the consolidation of DHS . . . and draws on District and regional assets,” Harriet Tregoning, direc- tor of the D.C. Office of Planning, said in a statement. “These connections could di-
rectly link residents to educa- tional, business and employment opportunities and stimulate eco- nomic and community revitaliza- tion east of the river.” Fernandez said he expects the
studies to be completed in a few years.
wigginsovetta@washpost.com Limelight lingers after themoment exhausted from B1
American,” Hart said from her office in Lanham, where she is chief financial officer of AmVets, a veterans service organization. “When this opportunity came along, I said, well, this must be divine intervention.” She was a vocal Obama sup-
porter during the campaign, put- ting up signs at her home and wearing every Obama button she could find. She stayed late nights at the office, trying to convince her co-workers that he was a different kind of leader. “I talked himup,” Hart said. “I
was thinking that the peoplewho were against him and didn’t be- lieve in his agenda were com- pletely insane. Iwas trying towin themover.” She went to her polling place
at 3 a.m. to wait in line, and she became emotional watching the votes roll in on the way to Obama’s victory. This year,Hart’s 70-something
mother is contemplating going back to work because her retire- ment savings have been hit so hard by the recession. Hart has delayed buying a newcar, despite problems with the old ones. Friends who have been laid off are still out of work. The older of her two teenage girls is headed to college next year. Those were the things she
wanted to put in her letter, the things she wanted to say to Obama. “What Iwas trying to dowas to
be direct and clear but not disre- spectful. That was the challenge because it is a hard job, and he’s having impossible barriers to success,” she said. “There’s just no denying that.”
Conservative Web sites have
been quotingHart to support the argument that evenObama’s sup- porters are sick of him. Liberal Web sites spin her words in another direction, as evidence of the disillusionment among those who want the administration’s policies to be bigger and bolder. Obama’s efforts to relate to
Hart and the other businesspeo- ple chosen to question him were panned by op-ed pages and pun- dits, who called him the “not-so-
“What I was trying to do was to be direct and clear but not disrespectful.”
—Velma Hart, on her exchange with President Obama
great” communicator and found his responses flat. Hart became the standout. She
set the tone, sounding frustrated and anxious, even as she said she supported Obama’s policies and was honored to be standing be- fore him. She concluded: “Quite frankly,Mr. President, I need you to answer this honestly: Is this my new reality?” Obama said he understood her
frustration and spoke about things his administration has done to make college loans more affordable, to prevent insurance companies from denying health coverage to children with preex- isting conditions, to prevent credit card companies from rip-
ping off customers. “My goal here is not to try to
convince you that everything is where it needs to be,” Obama said. “It’s not. That’swhy I ran for president. But what I am saying is . . . that we’re moving in the right direction.” Hartnodded and took her seat.
She knew all of those things. What she was hoping for was an answer that would wow and in- spire her, just as Obama did in 2008. Some of her expectations during that campaignmighthave been a little unrealistic, she said. “There was no magic potion,”
she said Wednesday. “But we were so excited that someone thought they had a different plan about how to manage Washing- ton.” Hart’s question about her
“new reality” made its way into the president’s speech Monday night at a Democratic National Committee dinner in Philadel- phia. He tried to inspire the party’s
big-money supporters by spelling out the questions he is trying to answer: “Howarewe going to set a foundation for long-term, sus- tained economic growth? How can we make sure that the grow- ing middle class that is at the heart of a healthy economy, that thatwas a reality againfor people all across this country?” The irony,Hart said, is that she
still believes that Obama can do something about her reality. “It’s just all about execution, and he’s having a tough time doing that.”
thompsonk@washpost.com
Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.
as a child and prone to getting pneumonia every winter, Mr. Ravetch was sent to live with an aunt in Los Angeles in 1930. His family did not join him until sev- eral years later. He graduated from UCLA,
wherehemajoredinEnglishliter- ature. Because of his asthma, he served briefly in the Army during WorldWar II. Mr. Ravetch was writing short
subjects atMGMin 1945when he met Frank in the junior writing program at the studio, where her mother was a story editor. Imme- diately taken with Frank, Mr. Ravetchpaidthemaninthe office next to hers $50 to give Ravetch his office. Theyweremarried in 1946 and
maintained separate writing ca- reers during the early years of their marriage. During that time, Mr.Ravetchalsowrote plays inan attempt to launch a career on
Whitney E. Reed NSA OFFICIAL
Whitney E. Reed, 80, who
retired in 1993 as deputy director for education and training at the National Security Agency and commandant of its National Cryptologic School, died Sept. 4 at his home in Bowie. He had brain cancer. Mr. Reed started his NSA
career in 1952 as a linguist. He was a past vice president and board member of the National Museum of Language, a small College Parkmuseumthat teach- es the history of the world’s languages. Whitney Edward Reed was
born in Glens Falls, N.Y. He received a bachelor’s and a mas- ter’s degree in Germanic lan- guages from Boston University, in 1950 and 1952, respectively.He received a master’s degree in international affairs fromGeorge Washington University in 1956 and amaster’s in national securi- ty strategy fromtheNationalWar College at the National Defense University in 1970. His wife of 26 years, Lilymae
Wright Reed, died in 1979. Survivors include his wife of
30 years, Frances Clark Reed of Bowie; three children from his first marriage, Thomas Reed of Hanover, Pa., and Melinda For- mento and Jonathan Reed, both of Cape May Court House, N.J.; two brothers; and four grandchil- dren.
— Lauren Wiseman
Allen S.White AIR FORCE COLONEL
Allen S. White, 93, a retired
Air Force colonel withmore than 30 years of service who held various positions in budget and procurement, died Sept. 6 at his home in the Alexandria part of Fairfax County. He had multiple myeloma. Col. White joined the Army
Air Forces during World War II and piloted transport planes in the Pacific. He flew nearly 300 missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and
Broadway that, he later said, “bombed ferociously.” Mr. Ravetch and Frank began
their collaboration by co-writing the story for the 1955 Western “TenWantedMen,”which starred Randolph Scott. Ina 1979interviewwiththeLos
Angeles Times, Frank said that she and her husband had “a line- for-line collaboration,” one that beganwithweeksof talkingevery- thing out, takingnotes and speak- ing every line. “Iknowwriterswhoworksepa- rately and then get together later
three awards of the AirMedal. In total, Col. White accrued more than 4,600 hours of seat time. After the war, Col.White held
assignments in budget and pro- curement and retired in 1975 as the staff director of a defense procurement board at the Air Force headquarters at the Penta- gon. Allen Steven White was born
in Valparaiso, Ind., and earned a bachelor’s degree from the Uni- versity of Nebraska. His memberships included
the Veterans of ForeignWars and the Order of the Daedalians, a fraternal organization ofmilitary pilots. His marriage to Virginia Sanz
ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife of
62 years Joan Stinchfield White of Fairfax County; four children fromhis secondmarriage, retired Air Force Col. Terry L. White of Omaha, Cathy Trapnell of New Bern, N.C., Mark White of Fal- mouth, Va., and David White of Los Angeles; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. — T. Rees Shapiro
Ann Simpson-Mason D.C. GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL
Ann Simpson-Mason, 61, a
senior official of the Barry ad- ministration who retired in 2008 from the D.C. Department of Transportation, died Aug. 30 at Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park. She had cancer. Mrs. Simpson-Mason, a Dis-
trict resident, joined the city’s government in 1978 and spent many years as Mayor Marion Barry’s assistant for regional and national affairs. At the Transportation Depart-
ment, she was deputy associate director of the transportation policy and planning administra- tion. Ann Simpson was a native of
Birmingham, Ala., and a 1970 sociology graduate of Knoxville College in Tennessee. Early in her career, she did
social work in Knoxville, was a mayoral assistant in Paterson, N.J., and a lobbyist for the Na-
EZ SU
B7 OBITUARIES
20TH CENTURY FOX VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Irving Ravetch, above in 1967, collaborated with his wife,Harriet Frank Jr., on scripts for more than a dozen films.
on—infact, that’s theusualway— but that destroys the point of col- laboration,” Ravetch said. “When we come to a tangle, we can stop until it’sworked out.” Added Frank: “We have two
energies working. But you can’t collaborate unless the result is seamless. Of course, we have dis- agreements, but they become a professional, not a personal, thing.” In addition to his wife of 64
years,Mr.Ravetchis survivedby a sister and a brother. LosAngeles Times
tional Association of Counties in Washington. Shewas a past chairmanof the
nonprofit Development Corpora- tion of Columbia Heights and a past board member of the Na- tional Forum for Black Public Administrators and the National Conference of BlackMayors. She had recently played a
leading role in the transition of her apartment complex to co-op fromrental units. Her marriage to Charles F.
Mason ended in divorce. Survi- vors include five brothers and four sisters.
— Adam Bernstein
Thomas H. Price BUSINESS OWNER
Thomas H. Price, 83, who
owned and operated a roofing and sheet metal business in Lor- ton, died Sept. 10 at Inova Fairfax Hospital. He had Lewy body dementia. Mr. Price, a Springfield resi-
dent, ran his business for more than 25 years before retiring in the early 1990s. For much of his life, Mr. Price was a professional musician and played the trum- pet. He toured the East Coast performing with multiple acts, including the band of Washing- ton’s E. Howard Devron. Thomas Humphrey Price was
born in Chattanooga, Tenn., and grew up in Roanoke. He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from American University. He played trumpetwhile serv-
ing in the Army during World War II and performed for radio recruiting broadcasts. His memberships included
the First Baptist Church in Alex- andria, and he was a past presi- dent of the Virginia roofing asso- ciation. His marriages to Eleanor
Hurt,RamonaMcGuire andElea- nor Reese ended in divorce. A daughter fromhis firstmarriage, Nathalie Price, died in 1985. Survivors include a daughter
from his first marriage, Adriene Price-Molvin of Springfield. — T. Rees Shapiro
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