ABCDE METRO friday, december 17, 2010 27, 9 a.m. 35, noon 37, 5 p.m. 33, 9 p.m.
Obituaries: Blake Edwards, the director of the “Pink Panther” franchise, crossbred genres—with varied results. B7
Governor examines pension
system Proposal calls for
Va. workers to make annual contributions
BY ROSALIND S. HELDERMAN
richmond—
VirginiaGov.Rob- ert F. McDonnell (R) proposed Thursday that 87,000 state em- ployees begin making annual 5 percent contributions—the first in nearly three decades — to the state’s retirement fund as a way to shore up the commonwealth’s pension system. Virginia is one of only four
states where government work- ers make no annual contribu- tions to their retirement fund, the result of a 27-year-old deal in which the state agreed to pick up employee costs in lieu of a pay raise in 1983. Employee salaries have been
frozen for four years because of the economy. To help offset the pain of his pension proposal, McDonnell will request that the General Assembly approve a 3 percent pay raise this year. Em- ployees would see a net reduc- tion in their take-home pay of about 2 percent. McDonnell will incorporate
the policy proposal into a pack- age of budget spending and cuts he will unveil Friday tomembers of the money committees in the State Senate and House of Dele- gates. McDonnell presented the pro-
posal, which he will ask the General Assembly to consider when it convenes in January, as a shared sacrifice between em- ployees and the state to ensure the long-term solvency of the retirement system. Along with the new employee
contribution, McDonnell pro- poses raising the state’s annual contribution to the fund by 2 percent. “This is a start for fixing a
pension systemthat has been out of whack for years and years and years,”McDonnell told reporters. “I will not pass on a broken system to another governor. I willmake every effort this year to begin to fix this system.” The changes will affect ap-
proximately 130,000 teachers as well as state employees, giving localities the option to ask teach- ers to pay their 5 percent contri- bution as well, provided the request is accompanied by a 3 percent pay raise. Taken together, all of the
changes would result in an infu- sion of $311 million to the pen- sion fund, which has been pres- sured by shrinking investment returns during the economic downturn. A recent state audit
virginia continued on B6
The Post Now breaking-news blog has the latest on what’s happening across the Washington area and what some local bloggers are saying.
MARYLAND MARC investigated
A report cites “organizational failures at multiple levels” for the June breakdown of a commuter train that stranded 1,200. B5
VIRGINIA Sticker shock in Fairfax
Residents express reservations about the cost of improvements officials say are needed to transform Tysons Corner into an urban downtown. B6
Pr. George’s schools’ dismal
EMPLOYEES’ PAY
Middle school sports would be eliminated
BY MICHAEL BIRNBAUM Prince George’s County school
employees’ pay would be frozen and middle school sports would be eliminated under a budget proposal released Thursday by Schools Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. The budget request, which
came a day after Montgomery County’s, is for $1.69 billion for fiscal 2012, an increase of $49 million more than current levels and the latest indicator of how school systems hope to cope with straitened fiscal times and a decrease in federal stimulus money. Class sizes would stay con-
PHOTOS BY TRACY A. WOODWARD/THE WASHINGTON POST Carolin Callahan plays one of the angels in LangleyHigh School’s production of “The Laramie Project.’’
An education in hate hits the stage
McLean high school students dramatize Matthew Shepard murder BY DONNA ST. GEORGE B
rian Patterson audi- tioned for the latest theater production at Langley High School unsure of how he
would be cast. This was no musical or comedy but an explo- ration ofMatthewShepard’s bru- tal murder in Laramie, Wyo., an anti-gay hate crime that stunned the nation. The 17-year-old ended up play-
ing one of Shepard’s killers. “It was difficult, and still is,” Patter- son says of his part. “I’m not friends with anyone who is re- motely like this.” Still, Friday night Patterson
and 22 other students are to take the stage at the high school in McLean for the opening of “The Laramie Project,” a play that has been a nationwide phenomenon for a decade but that students say is particularly relevant now, in the aftermath of a spate of bully- ing incidents and suicides that have included gay teens. “I hope that this changes some
stant, after having grown by two students at every grade above kindergarten this year. Other cuts would be made to school administration and support staff. But the most direct impact on students and families would probably be the suggestion to eliminate intramural middle school athletics, which would save $800,000 and end after- school baseball, softball, basket- ball and soccer in the middle grades.
fiscal 2012 plan FREEZES
B EZ SU
Federal stimulus money has
softened the impact of local and state funding cuts for the past two years. But much of it will no longer be available next year, and Prince George’s is budgeting for $103million less. In its stead, the county is requesting a significant increase in state funding — $139 million more than was budgeted this year — and $22millionmore fromthe coun- ty.
“We definitely understand the
state’s fiscal challenges, but we want to ask for what we need to operate the district,” said Mat- thew E. Stanski, the school sys- tem’s chief financial officer. Board of Education Chairman
Verjeana M. Jacobs (District 5) said the proposal was going to take some long study. “We’re going to need the funding to sustain us,” she said. “We’re go- ing to have to balance those things that clearly contribute to academics with the things that just have to be eliminated.” As formiddle school athletics,
she said that cut would be “sig- nificant for kids, and I definitely would need to hearmore before I could support that.” Some, but not all, local school
systems have comparablemiddle school athletics programs. Loud- oun County does not; Montgom- ery does. So does PrinceWilliam County, where Superintendent Steven L. Walts in February pro- posed requiring a fee for partici-
sports continued on B5 Gray keeps Lanier
as chief of police Mayor-elect makes controversial picks
for public safety team BY TIM CRAIG
Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray
announced his public safety team Thursday, reappointing Cathy L. Lanier as police chief, luring a well-respected lawyer fromCapi- tolHill to be attorney general and nominating a controversial for- mer fire commander to be the city’s next fire chief. In making his choices, Gray
JordanMoeller as Rev. Fred Phelps, protesting in the funeral scene.
people’s perspectives on gay rights and maybe opens their minds a little bit,” says Lauren Stewart, 17, the student-director. “I think the way to progress on
issues is to talk about them.” Stewart and other teens were
especially troubled by the Sep- laramie continued on B6
(D) presented a racially balanced team that includes several veter- ans of local government, as well as a surprise choice in the nam- ing of Irvin Nathan as attorney general. Nathan, former deputy attor-
ney general at the U.S. Justice Department, serves as general
counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives. He was tapped by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as general counsel in 2007 but has limited experience in local government. On Capitol Hill, however, Na-
than has developed a reputation as a tough and aggressive lawyer who has been able to juggle competing priorities in a politi- cally sensitive post. Several D.C. Council members
praisedGray’s selections,predict- ing an easy confirmation process. But police and fire union offi-
cials condemned the incoming mayor for reappointing Lanier as police chief and for his selection ofKennethEllerbe as chief ofFire and Emergency Services. Union officials, vital support-
ers of Gray during his campaign against Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, say they feel shut out because they were not consulted about
gray continued on B5 T
on your tongue. And when it starts snowing harder, you begin daydreaming about building a snowman, like when you were a kid . . . Oh snap! The kids! For the next hour at work, you
Snow day an avalanche for working parents 2 death sentences in Fairfax slayings Man imprisoned
he first fewspecks of white are kind of nice. You think of catching the snowflakes
“If today is any indication of
what the next two weeks will be
like...do they have winter school for kids??” “ ’Bout to hit the gymso i can
PETULA DVORAK
flit between the schoolWeb site and your job, dreading the moment when the whole carefully constructed papier mache world of child care, carpool and commuting comes crashing down like the roof of theMinneapolisMetrodome in a blizzard. Welcome to a season more frightening for working parents than the summer camp scramble, more daunting than the recital relay. It’s snow time! This is the time of year when the chasm between the chilled-
out childless and snot-stained parents looms largest. And in an area like ours, so
famous for winter wussiness that our own president made fun of us his first winter here, snowfall amplifies all the indignities of parenting. Let’s play a game.Whodo you
think has children and who doesn’t based on the following tweets about #snowday: “Early dismissal for school
because of what? 1 inch of snow?” “Peppermint schnapps and
hot chocolate = ... snowday funday”
make the most out of this snowday” “Watching the road conditions
and school closures like a hawk” “I’ve slept 16 hours and 45 min
I lovemy #snowday” Can you guess? Yeah. Easy. I’mnot going to rant about the decisions of school officials to close school early Thursday.We are an extremely cautious sort when flakes fall, and when the roads get icy, we put an end to any way that harmmay come upon our children. Okay, we get it. When bus
drivers working in shifts have to hustle at least three grade levels from school to home and traffic
dvorak continued on B7
in California killed couple in 1988
BY TOM JACKMAN
It was the holiday season of December 1988, and one of the last things Rachael Raver and Warren Fulton did on the last night of their lives was go to a Christmas party. Three days later, they were found in a vacant lot near Reston, shot to death. In the Christmas season 22
years later, Alfredo R. Prieto was given two death sentences Thurs- day by a Fairfax County judge for shooting Fulton, 22, in the back while he was on his knees and then shooting Raver, 22, and rap- ing her as she lay dying.
Prieto, 45, has now been con-
victed of three murders and is linked by DNA or ballistics to six more slayings, authorities say.He is already on death row in Califor- nia for the 1990 rape and shoot- ing of 15-year-old Yvette Wood- ruff. Prieto did not make a state-
ment when given the opportunity by Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows. Bellows then told Prieto: “What you did to those two young people was vile and horrible and beyond the pale. What I do today, in my view, is impose a just sentence.” As Prieto stood to be led out of
the courtroom, Raver’s mother, Veronica Raver, stood and said, “Hey, Prieto! Does your mother know you rape dying dead girls?” Her family moved to quiet her,
but Raver added disgustedly, “Twenty-two years of this crap.” Prieto did not respond.He also
didn’t blink when Bellows sen- tenced him. Raver said afterward that she
had rehearsed her brief comment and that it was not meant to be threatening, only an expression of her frustrationandrevulsion at the death of her daughter. “He doesn’t care. He’s a socio-
path,” she said. “Have a merry Christmas, Prieto.” Raver, undergoing chemother-
apy for cancer, traveled to Fairfax from her home in Yorktown, N.Y., multiple times for Prieto’s three trials, beginning in 2007. She said she did not expect to be alive to see Prieto executed, but “I’ll be there in spirit.” Prieto’s first trial ended in a
mistrial after the jury had con- victed him but before sentencing. His second trial resulted in the death penalty, but the Virginia
prieto continued on B6
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