ABCDE METRO sunday, october 17, 2010 LOCALOPINIONS 50, 9 a.m. 65, noon 70, 5 p.m. 59, 9 p.m.
Obituaries Barbara Billingsley, 94, played the model mom on “Leave It to Beaver” and a jive-talking passenger on “Airplane!” C6
Get ready for the Redskins Our online fan guide has everything you need to get the most out of Sunday night’s game against the Indianapolis Colts.
PostLocal.com
Leadership with a tight belt What can Maryland’s next governor accomplish beyond managing the state through a time of austerity? Martin O’Malley and Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. offer their answers. C5
Halloween haunts in frightful court fight Nonprofit in Olney
won’t cede name rights to ‘Field of Screams’
BY MARIA GLOD Each year about this time,
visitors to the Field of Screams in Olney encounter roaming zom- bies, homicidal maniacs, deep- fried Twinkies and “all of the creatures from your worst night- mares.” But for organizers of thewildly
popular Olney Boys and Girls Community Sports Association’s Halloween fundraiser, there is something much scarier going on. A Pennsylvania attraction by the same name has asked a
6
onwashingtonpost.com
To see more of the scary sights at Field of Screams in
Olney, visit
PostLocal.com.
federal judge to declare it the true Field of Screams and ban the nonprofit association from using the name. The battle is brewing in U.S.
District Court in Maryland and has brought a spooky world of ghosts and ghouls into the typi- cally staid judicial halls. Court papers say that actor Gunnar Hansen — Leatherface in the original “Texas Chainsaw Massa- cre” movie — has visited the Pennsylvania venue.Mention has been made of Scared Stiff maga-
screams continued on C4 JOHNKELLY’SWASHINGTON
Readers reminisce Working as a caddie at Prince George’s Country Club, and shopping without cash at the District Grocery Stores. C3
Five fromD.C. club chargedwith assault onmanwho died
DEFENDANTS RELEASED
Murder counts could be restored later
MICHAEL S. WILLIAMSON/THE WASHINGTON POST
Eric Poch and Evelyn Kinikin act in Field of Screams, the fundraiser in Olney that faces a trademark lawsuit by a Pennsylvania group.
Rich mix of academic backgrounds
emerges in D.C. area census data Complex economy sorts region’s highly educated population according to skills
BY DANIEL DE VISE T
he stereotype is true:Wash- ington is packed with law- yers, journalists and policy
nerds with degrees in soft scienc- esandthe humanities. But census data reveal remarkable new de- tail on the region’s other identity —as home to engineers, comput- er scientists and biologists who mostly live and work beyond the Capital Beltway. The picture that emerges from
the 2009 American Community Survey, released last month, is of a Washington area unified in academic achievement yet di- verse in the kinds of degrees residents have attained. Clusters of academic interest help define the character of each community. The driving force is a job mar-
ket that concentrates people with similar skills. Loudoun County, with its military contractors, has computer scientists and statisti- cians.Montgomery County,home to the National Institutes of Health and a bustling biotech industry, is heavy on the life sciences. Fairfax County’s high- tech industries have attracted many engineers. Prince George’s County, meanwhile, has become something of a bedroom commu- nity for the region’s teachers, with a surplus of education degrees. “TheWashington [area] econo-
my isn’t monolithic. It’s a real economy,” said Stephen Fuller, a public policy scholar at George MasonUniversity. The data, drawn from ques- tionnaires, underscore the aca- demic primacy of theWashington area: 47 percent of adults — or nearly 2 million—hold bachelor’s degrees, the highest rate among the nation’s large urban areas. Six of the 10 best-educatedU.S. coun- ties are within commuting dis- tance of the District. Half of all degrees in the region
are in natural and social sciences, well above the national average,
Nerdopolis? Census Bureau data reveal metro- politan Washington as acommunity of nerds. One-quarter of college- educated District residents hold social science degrees. Across the region, half of all degrees are in “hard” and “soſt” sciences.
Percentage of “hard” science degrees
Includes degrees in mathematics, biology and engineering
LOUD. 35
FRED. 36
HOW. 39
MONT. 35
FAIR. 34
FAUQ. 33
25% 30% 35%
Percentage of business majors
FRED. 18
HOW. 18
LOUD. 22
FAIR. 19
FAUQ. 12
P.W. 22
STAF. 20
15% 20%
SOURCE: American Community Survey from the U.S. Census
under a broad Census Bureau definition of “science” that in- cludes everything from nuclear physics to sociology. That’s a starting point for looking at vari- ations within the region: So- called hard sciences reign beyond
Desk:
ALOCALLIFE:GREGORYHART,59 Artist:
Run Date: Size:
local 10/10/10 35p4 x 6.8” Turbulent life on streets ends calmly in a place of his own thorpg @ 4x4552 CCI-SLUG filename.XTN BY MARC FISHER Just as he’d wished, Gregory
Hart stopped breathing the other night in his own bed in his own apartment. His quiet death was an achievement of sorts, because for the greatmajority of his adult life,Mr. Hart had lived in a place where life was a ceaseless as- sault. Until three years ago,Mr.Hart
lived in Washington’s alleys. He slept behind Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street NW, next to a garbage can. He raised rats in a box. His friends were a dog named Bam Bam and a cat called Little Bam Bam. Mr. Hart was a mainstay of
Washington’s homeless popula- tion, a heavy drinker and drug abuser who never attended regu- lar school and didn’t learn to read or write until he was an adult. For decades, he drifted in a haze on the city’s streets, in bad health, out of his mind. People called him “retard” and directed him to “get a job.” Then, just before Christ-
(dropped / / 08)
toward a new approach to the chronically homeless, gave Mr. Hart an apartment in the Dean- wood section of North- east. Unlike most public
programs for the home- less, this one did not require people coming off the street to showthat they had given up alcohol and drugs. The idea was
mas three years ago, Mr. Hart was given something he’d always dreamed about: a place of his own. Pathways to Housing, a nonprofit group that has pushed the D.C. government and others across the country
He died in a bed of his own.
to save the taxpayers a bundle—and give people a decent place to live — by getting the homeless in-
doors and getting themthemedi- cal care, drug treatment, Social Security payments and other as- sistance that would end up being vastly cheaper than letting them
fall into one crisis after another on the streets. Mr. Hart, one of about 300
homeless people in Washington whom Pathways has moved into apartments, mainly stayed in his home and watched TV, said Lin- da Kaufman, who runs the Path- ways operation in the District. “He kept his apartment really well — the place was beautiful,” she said.More than 87 percent of those Pathways has taken offD.C. streets remain in subsidized housing, Kaufman said. The Fenty administration ad-
opted Pathway’s “Housing First” philosophy and hasmoved about 1,000 of the city’s 6,000 homeless
life continued on C6
the Beltway, soft ones within. The District is indeed the cen-
degrees.ai MAP PROOF
ter of the universe for political scientists, and economists fill jobs at the Bureau ofLabor Statis- tics and the World Bank. Many lawyers and lobbyists have social
MONT. 15
D.C. 11
ARL. 16
P.G. 22
ALEX. 19
CHAS. 25
14CAL.
MARY’S 13
ST.
15% 20% 25%
STAF. 16
FAUQ. 15
P.W. 12
A.A. 19
Percentage of “soft” science degrees
Includes degrees in social sciences and psychology
LOUD. 15
FAIR. 18
P.W. 36
STAF. 34
D.C.
ARL. 23
22
ALEX. 23
CHAS. 35
MARY’S 35
ST. 33 CAL.
P.G. 31
A.A. 33
BY MICHAEL BIRNBAUM AND PAUL DUGGAN
Five men were charged with
aggravated assault Saturday in the beating of Ali Ahmed Mo- hammed in front of a club at Ninth and U streets NW where the men worked. Mohammed died early Friday
at a hospital. All five men were released
after a court proceeding Saturday and were placed in a high-inten- sity supervision program, which includes electronic monitoring. About 60 supporters of the
men went to the hearing at D.C. Superior Court, cramming the courtroom and filling the hallway outside. Attorneys for two of the men said they were innocent and criticized D.C. Police Chief Cathy L.Lanier for calling the incident a “savage” case of “vigilante justice” Friday. Mohammed, 27, tried to enter
DC9 early Friday but was turned away at the door. He became angry and threw at least one brick through the nightclub’s front window, witnesses told in- vestigators. According to a police affidavit
filed in court Saturday, witnesses told police that five men left the bar and chased Mohammed, of Silver Spring. The five suspects in the assault
FRED. 13
HOW. 15
MONT. 18
D.C. 30
ARL. 28
P.G. 14
ALEX. 21
CHAS. 16
13CAL.
MARY’S 12
ST. ROBERTMCCARTNEY
Campaigning against spending in area flush with federal funds
THE WASHINGTON POST
science training. And then there are the legions of political interns and pages, working their way up CapitolHill. In the inner suburbs of Arling-
degrees continued on C10 I
s the tea party-fueled backlash against government spending so
strong this year that it will oust a Democratic congressman even in a Northern Virginia district that depends heavily on federal dollars for its livelihood? That’s the question in
Virginia’s affluent 11th Congressional District, spanning parts of Fairfax and PrinceWilliamcounties. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D) faces the same challenger, businessman Keith Fimian (R), as he did when he won the seat in 2008. But the race ismuch closer this time because the GOP is so energized by anger over health reform, bailouts and other alleged signs of a government run amok. Although he stresses that he’s
“not the tea party candidate,” Fimian welcomes the group’s support and colorfully adopts itsmilitant opposition to spending, taxes and deficits. Addressing a lunchtime
debate sponsored by the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, Fimian warned that Connolly would tell “outright lies” to cast himself as a fiscal moderate. “What he wants to avoid,
folks, is . . . a big, black curtain with a terrible thing behind it that will devour your children,” Fimian said, referring to the
federal debt. “This terrible thing must be dealt with. Our economy is in severe trouble.” Connolly replied that some
federal spending was necessary to prevent the recession from becoming a depression. “You’re darn right I voted for
the stimulus. Every economist, including [some] Republican economists . . . said, for God’s sake, don’t let it go off the cliff,” Connolly said. “It saved this economy.” The Connolly-Fimian race is
prettymuch the only one with any suspense this year in Washington’s immediate vicinity, because incumbents seemset to win easily elsewhere in the region. The 11th is the swing “purple” district in Northern Virginia, tucked between the blue 8th of Rep. JimMoran (D) and the red 10th of Rep. FrankWolf (R). The contest is also potentially
of national interest, because the Democratsmust hang on to it to have any chance of retaining control of the House. Basically, if the Democrats can’t beat a candidate as conservative as Fimian in a district asmoderate as the 11th, they’re going to be looking at a large Republican majority after Election Day. So far,most prognosticators
expect Connolly to win, albeit by mccartney continued on C4
A.A. 16
are a co-owner of the DC9 club, William Spieler, 46, and four of his employees: Darryl Carter Jr., 20; Reginald Phillips, 22; and Evan Preller, 28, the club’s man-
ager, all D.C. residents; and Ar- thur Andrew Zaloga, 25, of Silver Spring. One witness told police that
the men chased Mohammed and that Preller caught him and threw him to the ground, accord- ing to the affidavit. The witness watched Carter, Zaloga, Spieler and Phillips “stomp the victim on the head and the body” as Preller held him down, the document states. Spieler kicked Moham- med several times, the witness told police, according to the affi- davit. A second witness gave police a
similar account. The witness saw Mohammed walking with what appeared to be two bricks. The witness asked Mohammed what he was going to do with the bricks, andMohammed respond- ed: “[Expletive] those people up.” The witness said that Preller caught and threw Mohammed down after the chase and that Mohammed was beaten. But this witness was less clear about the role each defendant played. The first officer on the scene,
about 2:30 a.m. Friday, found Mohammed “lying on the ground, unconscious and not breathing,” and he rendered CPR until medics arrived, according to the affidavit. Officers saw dried blood on Mohammed’s face and noticed that his head was swol- len. He was taken to Howard University Hospital and pro- nounced dead about 3:15 a.m. Some of the suspects’ support-
ers who were at court on Satur- day were relatives, others em- ployees and patrons of DC9. The crowd was far too large for the small courtroom, so most people waited in the hallway, chatting, hugging and worrying about what would happen. There was an audible sigh of
relief when someone walked out of the courtroom shortly after
u street continued on C10 C EZ SU
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