ABCDE METRO monday, november 1, 2010 42, 9 a.m. 50, noon 52, 5 p.m. 45, 9 p.m.


Obituaries Ted Sorensen, longtime assistant to President John F. Kennedy, was regarded as a man of ideas and ideals. A1


Suspect’s cellmates to testify this week Prosecution in Levy


murder casemay hinge on credibility of convicts


BY KEITH L. ALEXANDER Security in Courtroom 320 of


D.C. Superior Court will be heightened this week when gang members and former prison in- mates are scheduled to testify that Ingmar Guandique admitted to them that he raped and killed federal intern Chandra Levy. As the trial enters its second


week of testimony, prosecutors are scheduled to present themost critical pieces of evidence in their case against Guandique. Whether the jury believes the


convictswhenthey take the stand and say that Guandique, 29, told them he killed Levy could make or break the prosecution’s case. Guandique was serving time in


a California prison for attacking two women in Rock Creek Park about the same time Levy went missing inMay 2001.The jury has heard testimony from those two women and now will hear from cellmatesandothers at the prison who say Guandique confessed to killing Levy. Levy, 24, was having an affair


with her then-congressman, Gary A. Condit. Condit also was listed by the prosecution as a possible witness; he could take the stand this week.


Guandique was charged last


year with six counts, including first-degree murder, attempted robbery and attempted sexual as- sault, in connection with Levy’s slaying. Levy’s remains were dis- covered in Rock Creek Park in 2002, a year after herMay 1, 2001 disappearance. It’s a circumstantial case. Pros-


ecutors have no DNA, no eyewit- nesses,nomurderweaponandno definitive ruling on the cause of Levy’s death. Last week, the government


opened its case by telling the jury that Levy’s death was part of a pattern of attacks in the park by Guandique. Jurors — 12 women and four


men, including alternates — lis- tened asHalle Shilling and Chris- ty Wiegand emotionally detailed how Guandique jumped on them from behind and knocked them to the ground as they were jog- ging in an isolated area of the park. The women testified that Guandique had a knife but that they were able to fight him off. Prosecutors used a map to show the jury that the attacks on Shil- ling on May 14, 2001, and on Wiegand on July 1, 2001, were


levy continued on B6 BY MICHAEL LARIS Charlie Moyer has been run-


ning ambulance calls for48years. “Back in ’62, you’d wonder


what the next one would be,” he said. “Not anymore.” He arrives at the Bethesda-


Chevy Chase Rescue Squad at 10 a.m. and leaves at 7 p.m. He has run about 900 calls—this year— in Montgomery County and the District, saving lives and taxpayer


JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST Above, Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad volunteers move a patient.Montgomery County voters will decide the newfee’s fate Tuesday. Ambulance fee dispute heats up


Proposal has stoked tensions in Montgomery


dollars.He’s a volunteer, even if it doesn’t always appear that way. “I get something to do, and


they get a service free,” saidMoy- er, a former pressman forNation- al Geographic and other maga- zines until his printing company went out of business. ButMoyer’s idea of how things


should work could be upended Tuesday when Montgomery vot- ers decide whether to endorse an ambulance fee passed in the spring but not yet implemented. County officials say that without the new charge, there could be service reductions and dozens of layoffs of career fire-rescue work- ers. The station house on Bethes- da’s Battery Lane has become a


center of activism. “No To Ambu- lance Fees” signs are stacked near oxygen tanks and scuffed fire helmets, and a scrolling message board out front crystallizes the two-fisted appeal for autonomy and tradition: “Keep our service free.”


County officials are quick to


point out that there’s nothing free aboutambulanceservice.Moyer’s squad is farmoreself-reliant than others in the county, which iswhy it has led the fight against the fee. But in the rest ofMontgomery,


the government spends more than $14 million a year for gas, fire engines, utilities and other expenses related to the volunteer system, a senior fire official said. “Times have changed.We don’t


have the money anymore,” said county executive Isiah Leggett (D). “I just think there’s a funda- mental difference here.” The fight over the fee has been


heartfelt and ugly. Each side has accused the other of demagogu- ery and endangering the public. Both use polarizing shorthand: Either the fee will discourage the ill from calling 911 and undercut volunteers, or its absence will starve all firefighters and para- medics of the money they need to swiftly aid those in need. The dispute has turned long-


standing tensions in Montgom- ery’s mixed fire-rescue service into an angry family feud. Mont-


bethesda continued on B4 Republicans face an uphill race in Maryland


Shades of red are hard to spot in the reliably blue state


BY FREDRICK KUNKLE Holly Ellison Henderson ex-


tended her hand with a bright smile, passed out fliers and made quick-hit chitchat with passersby — those cute twins traipsing be- side their mom, a coach’s soccer jacket and the upcoming election — all in the well-worn trade of


retail campaigning. But Saturday morning, outside


a Giant grocery store in Fort Washington, it’s mostly an uphill slog to get people’s attention, par- ticularly for a young black female Republican in one of the bluest jurisdictions of reliably blue Maryland. Then she meets Wayne Ed- mondson,53,anaerospace corpo- ration employee who lives in Fort Washington. Edmondson stops. He listens to her pitch.He engag- es in a discussion about the coun-


ty’s schools, local politics. AfterHendersonmoveson, Ed- mondson says that she made a good impression on him and that hemightvote for her in herHouse of Delegates race, because he thinks of himself as an indepen- dent. Yet right down to his white


sneakers, Edmondson is dressed in a jean jacket, jeans and button- down jean shirt. All blue. Despite a volatile electorate


that has targeted incumbents na- tionwide, particularly Demo-


l Four congressional races to watch in Virginia. B3 Underground potential


Developers hope to convert Dupont Circle tunnels into entertainment hot spots BY DEREK KRAVITZ


I


from the heavily trafficked Con- necticut Avenue NWcorridor. “It’s dicey,” said Robin Diener,


t’s a tough sell: Showcase art, or open a restaurant 20 feet belowground in tunnels once


used for trolley service and a fallout shelter. It was tried once before, in the


mid-1990s with a food court called Dupont Down Under. Within a year, that experiment failed. District officials and develop-


ers are moving ahead with plans to convert tunnels beneath Du- pont Circle into art galleries and possibly a restaurant and a win- ery, akin to subterranean public parks and retail spaces in Man- hattan and France. But officials and artists are skeptical about whether tenants will flock to a space so hidden and removed


president of the Dupont Circle Citizens Association. “The busi- nesses at Dupont have been pro- moting the outdoors and events at the circle for years, and this is really unproven stuff.” The Arts Coalition for Dupont


Underground, a nonprofit group of artists, businesses and devel- opers, recently released some of its initial plans for nearly 100,000 square feet of space beneath Dupont Circle and are awaiting the go-ahead from the city to begin lease negotiations, officials said. The two parallel tunnels run


beneath Connecticut Avenue NW and wrap around each side of the circular park. Financing for the development would come


from private donations and res- taurant leases. No public money would be used. Officials with the deputy may-


or’s office for planning and eco- nomic development said they were reviewing the underground plan and will issue a decision about how to proceed by Decem- ber. Other ideas that have been tossed around — a gym, strip clubs, a mausoleum — have failed to gather steam. The trick, community leaders


say, is billing the project as a hype-worthy public attraction. “The business owners want


something that will attract peo- ple to the neighborhood and not compete with them,” said Paul K. Williams, a historian and author who serves as executive director


LINDA DAVIDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST dupont continued on B6 DupontUnderground would transform an old trolley station beneath ConnecticutAvenueNW.


crats, Maryland seems likely to remain as solidly Democratic as ever this year, thanks to a large number of federal employees, a sizable African American popula- tion and unions. Only one of its congressional seats seems up for grabs: the close race between Rep. Frank M.Kratovil Jr. (D) and Republican challenger AndyHar- ris in the 1st District. While Republicans hold a big-


ger chunk ofMaryland’s turf geo- graphically, owing to the western reaches of the state and the East-


maryland continued on B4 Fashion failings


Robin Givhan discusses whether Washington’s dowdy reputation is more stereotype than reality at 11 a.m. Monday.


THEREGION Like ‘a roller coaster’


Metro riders said a crowded escalator at the L’Enfant Plaza Station accelerated to dangerous levels before it was halted Saturday afternoon. B3


ELECTION2010 B K EZ SU


JOHNKELLY’SWASHINGTON Paws on autumn


A dog’s favorite season comes with long walks, crisp breezes and countless piles of fallen leaves, but sometimes he just likes to look at the scenery. B3


Delays spike on MARC route


Brunswick Line trains late 285 times since Sept. 7, MTA says


BY KATHERINE SHAVER It’s been a rough fall for com-


muters on MARC’s Brunswick Line: Malfunctioning signals, cancellations, track work and congestion caused by lumbering freight trains have led to hours of frustration, late arrivals at work and missed dinners at home. Since Sept. 7, Maryland’s 18 Brunswick Line trains have been delayed 285 times—anaverage of about eight delays every weekday, according to the Maryland Tran- sit Administration. On two recent evenings, train


traffic stopped for several hours while police investigated people who had been struck on the tracks in Rockville. Those delays rippled into the next morning, when some trains were canceled to give crews their federally re- quired eight hours off between shifts. Nick Palso, who rides the


Brunswick Line between Ger- mantown and his government analyst job near Union Station, said delays used to be halfanhour or less. But recently, he said, a growing number of major delays have left him wondering, “Are we going to get home tonight?” As of Wednesday, Brunswick


Line trains’ monthly on-time per- formance had dropped to 58 per- cent, compared with 79 percent for the Camden Line and 92 per- cent for the Penn Line. One Brunswick train — the first to leave Union Station in the after- noon — has been on schedule 33 percent in October, giving it the worst monthly performance of any train in Maryland’s com- muter rail system. The Brunswick Line carries an


average 7,600 passengers daily between Washington and points north and west, including Freder- ick and Martinsburg, W.Va. The Camden Line connects Washing- ton and Baltimore, and the Penn Line runs from Washington into northeasternMaryland via Balti- more. Penny Frye, a legal assistant


who lives in Brunswick, said her fellow passengers are so late to work most mornings that they literally run from the train after it pulls into Union Station. Frye said shewakesupanhour early to catch a 5:30 a.m. train to ensure she gets to the office by 8.


marc continued on B6


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