ABCDE METRO monday, october 11, 2010 EDUCATION 63, 9 a.m. 78, noon 84, 5 p.m. 71, 9 p.m.


Obituaries R&B singer Solomon Burke, 70, was known for his outsized personality, regal bearing and rich baritone. B6


Bullying and suicide Author Dan Savage discusses bullying, suicide and his “It Gets Better” project to reach out to teens. Noon. PostLocal.com


Ivy, schmivy Columnist Jay Mathews has said that it’s not where you go to school, it’s what you do when you’re there. It must be true, because Hollywood has just confirmed it with “The Social Network.” B2


JOHNKELLY’SWASHINGTON


Capitol critters The Insect Congress scores high on the creepy scale. Much like its human counterpart. B3


Pr. George’s not likely to see boon from Andrews


COUNTY FEARS WORKERS WILL COMMUTE FROM ELSEWHERE


Impact of 3,000 new jobs on local economy is ‘questionable,’ BRAC liaison says


BY OVETTAWIGGINS


The federal base realignment and closing plan will transfer


thousands of new employees to Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George’s County, but the jobs are unlikely to result in the kind of economic boom that will take


place near other military installa- tions across the Washington re- gion, including FortMeade. “This is one of the things that


no one is talking about,” said David Byrd, deputy chief admin- istrative officer for economic de- velopment for Prince George’s. Andrews, which is home to


more than 20,000 civilian and active-duty military personnel and families, will gain 400 new jobs from BRAC and an addition- al 2,600 jobs as a result of the Air Force and Air National Guard


moving part of their headquar- ters from Virginia.Thenumberof BRAC and non-BRAC employees at Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County will increase by 20,000. Andrews will become Prince


George’s largest employer over the next decade, but county offi- cials say they cannot speculate on whether the increase in jobs will have a significant impact on the county’s economy. Many of the new employees may not move to the county, and all of the jobs will be on the base, said Byrd, the


“Just as I was beginning to believe that the goodness in people . . . didn’t exist anymore, I was proven wrong.” —Nobashea House, single mother of two whose Waldorf home burned down on Mother’s Day.


county’s BRAC liaison. Currently, the University of


Maryland at College Park is the county’s largest employer. “The problem is, while we will


get an influx of jobs coming here, they are inside the gate,” Byrd said. “The impact that these folks will haveonPrinceGeorge’s econ- omy is questionable. If they are going to live andmovehere, that’s additional home-buying, but if they are just going to commute from Northern Virginia and go home to Northern Virginia, the


impact is questionable.” Eric Sharman, a spokesmanfor


Andrews, said he anticipates traf- fic to “increase significantly” as workers commute from Virginia. He said he is uncertain whether workers will move to the county. “That is up to the individual to decide,” he said. But Sharman said local busi-


nesses should benefit. “If you work in that building,


youhave to takeyourdry cleaning andrews continued on B6


Financial security’s cost keeps rising, group’s study says


Report breaks down basic needs for families across the region


BY CAROL MORELLO A family of four needs an


income of $108,000 to be finan- cially secure in Fairfax County, themost expensive area to live in the Washington region. An indi- vidual without kids or a car can get by on about $32,000 in the District, the cheapest jurisdic- tion for singles. And a single parent with one child has to pull in almost $62,000 to make it in Prince George’s County Those are the conclusions of a


detailed cost-of-living analysis by Wider Opportunities forWomen, a District-based group that advo- cates for more job training and financial literacy programs. In a report being released


Monday, the organization calcu- lates howmuchmoney is needed to attain what it calls “basic economic security,” generally an amount that is three or four


JUANA ARIAS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST


With the family dog also on the lookout, LailaMoore waits in her family’s temporary home for the arrival of great-grandmother Betty Stanley, who was present when a fire broke out in theirWaldorf home onMother’s Day, destroying the family’s house and possessions.


Family left with nothing feels ‘blessed’


A Mother’s Day fire ravages a Waldorf home, but from the ashes of destruction rises an outpouring of support, from neighbors across the street to strangers at the mall


BY NATHAN ROTT N


obashea House talks about her life in two parts: before the fire and after.


Before the fire, House consid-


ered most people too self-ab- sorbed to care about the struggles of those around them. They couldn’t be bothered to hold the door for her when she was push- ing the wheelchair of her 10-year- old daughter, Taylor, who has cerebral palsy. They wouldn’t be patient at restaurants or stores. It was everybody “crying ‘me,


me, me,’ and not worrying about anyone else,” said House, a single


mother of two. Then came the night five


months agowhenHouse stood on her neighbor’s front porch inWal- dorf and watched in disbelief as her home, car and possessions were consumed by flames. Yet, as the fire was being extinguished, friends, neighbors, teachers and strangers began to rally around her, offering clothes, toys, checks, gift cards and hugs. There were photographs of


Taylor shopping, cooking and reading at school, given toHouse by teachers who knewthat nearly all of her own photos were gone. There were text messages and phone calls from House’s neigh-


bor, Brenda Clinch, providing up- datesonthe reconstruction of her home. House had lost almost every-


thing she owned, but she knew that she’d gained something as well. “Just as I was beginning to


believe that the goodness in peo- ple and their ability to truly care about the needs of others didn’t exist anymore,” she said, “I was proven wrong.” It was a neighbor who spotted


the fire through a back window of his home at 11:15 p.m. onMay 9. Doug Alley knew that House


had been celebrating her 30th birthday and Mother’s Day that


evening with family and friends and that they had been grilling food over a fire. Now he dashed to the tall,


wooden fence that separated their yards. The back gate was locked. He tried kicking it in — not even a budge. Frantic, he sprinted for his daughter’s tram- poline. “When I was 30, I wouldn’t


need a trampoline to get over the fence,” Alley said. At 39, it was the only way over. The fire was burning most of


his neighbor’s back porch and intensifying.


fire continued on B4 Real-life aid for girls in foster care, from Real Housewife of D.C. BY HENRI E. CAUVIN There’s the “Real Housewives


of D.C.,” and then there’s real life. When it comes to real life,


“Housewives” star Stacie Turner knows that her good fortune be- gan long before she was picked to appear in the popular reality show’sD.C. incarnation. Put up for adoption as an in-


fant, Turner was taken in before she was a year old and never had to endure the hardship and un- certainty that confronts many young people who languish in foster care for years. So amid the life of a busy mom, intrepid businesswoman and TV


personality, Turner has been try- ing to help young women in the District’s foster-care system through an organization she cre- ated last year. Over the summer, after raising


tens of thousands of dollars, Turner’s Extra-Ordinary Life took eight teenagers on the trip of a lifetime, flying to South Africa for an 11-day excursion captured on film for a new BET documentary being shown on the channel’s international arm. For many of the teens, it was


their first trip abroad. For all of them, it was an eye-opening jour- ney into the joys and hardships of girls living halfway around the globe in a country of deep eco-


nomic inequality. “It mademegrateful for what I


have,” said Zefer Tesfamariyam, 18, “because there are people that don’t have what I have.” From a visit to the Apartheid


Museum in Johannesburg to a safari in KwaZulu-Natal to a fes- tive dinner with girls in South Africa’s child-welfare system, the D.C. teens sawa world open up to them. Sitting in BET’s studios in


NortheastWashington as thedoc- umentary’s final interviews and touches were being completed, KristinWoodland smiled easily as she explained the bond that she forged with “Ms. Stacie,” who had told the teens that she also had


been in the child-welfare system. “It made me feel good, because


shewantedto help usandtoshow us the world,” saidWoodland, 18. For all of the attention she has


drawn for “Real Housewives,” which wrapped up its regular season last week and has a re- union show to come, Turner seems almost embarrassed at her celebrity turn, which she calls “just a surreal experience.” Talking about Woodland and


the other teen travelers comes more easily. “This iswhat I love to do,” she said. Of course, when she’s trying to


serve as a role model for her girls girls continued on B3


JUANA ARIAS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST


Jasmine Spencer touches up Kiya Gregg at BET, which filmed a South Africa trip she and other teens took via Stacie Turner’s group.


Pr.George’s students tune in to the headlines


Middle school music video drew a visit from Justice Sotomayor


BY MICHAEL BIRNBAUM


Middle school is an unlikely launching pad to musical super- stardom, but agroupof politically aware students at Charles Carroll Middle School might have rocket- ed ahead of the competition. A music video they wrote and recorded about the life of Su- preme Court Justice Sonia Soto- mayor so impressed her that she visited the Prince George’s Coun- ty school in April. They recently released another video about the passage of the health-care bill,


and they’re working on one about Oprah Winfrey. In the health-care video, stu-


dents in green polo shirts and khakis dance through the school’s hallways — one wears medical scrubs and has a stethoscope around her neck—and sing lines that include, “Politicians in con- flict, there are too many people who are sick” and “I’ve seen peo- ple ill, patients overbilled, people uninsured in poverty, that’s for real.” In one scene, a girl playing a doctor refuses to attend to a sick person until she is paid a stack of dollar bills. At a school where almost four


out of five students qualify for free or reduced-price meals and the student body is about evenly


video continued on B2


times greater than the federal poverty level. The study, the first of several


the group is conducting around the country, grew out of research inwhich peoplewere askedwhat wouldmake themfeel financially safe. Most of the people polled de-


scribed security as having enough to eat, keep a roof over their heads, go to the doctor when they’re sick and build up a rainy-day fund, said JoanKurian- sky,WOW’s executive director. The report tries to calculate


how much money is needed for the Washington area’s residents to reach that goal. It includes tables configured for individuals and families,with separate tables for those who have employer- provided health insurance and those who do not. The tables include the costs of


everything from child care to transportation to work-related expenses like professional cloth- ing. They also include modest monthly savings for emergencies and retirement. But they do not


security continued on B4 B EZ SU


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