All Articles Tagged "prince george’s county"
Davis Wins Special Election
(Washington Post) — Early support from Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III and several other county leaders helped Derrick Leon Davis win the Democratic nomination for the vacant District 6 seat on the County Council. With all 26 of the district’s precincts reporting, Davis received 3,570 votes, or 55 percent of ballots cast. Arthur A. Turner Jr., with 1,254 votes, or 19 percent, was a distant second among the primary’s 14 candidates. In the predominantly Democratic county, Davis, a former school system official and the current chairman of the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund, becomes the strong favorite to succeed Leslie Johnson, who resigned in disgrace this year.
Rush Is on to Succeed Leslie Johnson
(Washington Post) — Curtis Smalls, a retired elementary school principal, is worried about the high rate of foreclosures in Prince George’s County. Bridgette Kendrick, an analyst with the Internal Revenue Service in New Carrollton, says that crime in her Kettering neighborhood is on the upswing and that she no longer takes long walks in her leafy community. Sandy Pruitt, a community activist from Lake Arbor, says Prince George’s needs to repair its “tarnished image” after Jack B. Johnson (D), the former county executive, and his wife, former County Council member Leslie Johnson (D), pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges. “We need to move ahead of where we are with Jack and Leslie,” Pruitt said.
For Prince George’s, Redistricting Prompts Questions of Identity
(Washington Post) — Black, white, Democrat and Republican, residents of Prince George’s County on Monday delivered a single unifying message to the redistricting commission of Gov. Martin O’Malley (D): Keep a proud county whole. Don’t slice and dice Prince George’s reliably Democratic population to help elect congressmen from less blue parts of the state, residents said. And to reelect incumbents to Annapolis, don’t carve up natural communities and neighborhoods, limiting residents’ ability to have a representative who fully understands their needs. The sentiment drew applause repeatedly from the nearly 200 people who attended Monday night’s hearing at Prince George’s Community College, the first in Washington’s Maryland suburbs intended to help shape the redistricting plan that O’Malley must release this fall.
Mediation Push Does Little to Stop Foreclosures
(MSNBC) — On a hot summer evening, two second-year law students are trudging through the leafy neighborhoods of suburban Prince George’s County, knocking on doors. Toting stacks of fliers, the young women are going house to house, making sure that delinquent homeowners know about the state’s mortgage mediation program. Tonight, only two people answer the door. One, like 11 others the students have contacted during previous outings, insists she already has gotten her loan modified and doesn’t need mediation, despite a foreclosure notice on record. Another homeowner, in default after taking off work to care for a sick relative, takes the mediation information and says she’ll consider it. The students leave fliers at a house with a “for sale” sign in Hyattsville and an empty condo in a nearby neighborhood. They will try again another day.
Pr. George’s Bill Cracks Down on Dance Halls
(Washington Post) — The Prince George’s County Council passed an emergency bill Tuesday that would impose stringent requirements on dance halls and give police and other officials broad authority to shutter them should they be deemed a threat to public safety. The bill, which must be signed by County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) to become law, is intended to help stem nightclub and dance hall violence that police and other officials say has been especially problematic this year. Six of the county’s 64 homicides in 2011 have had a link to nightclubs or dance halls, compared with three in 2010 and four in 2009, police officials said.
Prince George’s Businesses May Get an Edge in County Contracts
(Maryland Gazette) — Prince George’s council members are calling for county-based companies to receive preferential treatment when they seek government contracts. County Bill 17, known as the Jobs First Act, would require the county government to weigh in favor of county-based and minority-owned businesses when taking bids for new equipment, supplies, construction or services. The bill calls for the county to award 50 percent of all contracts to county-based businesses, which last fiscal year would have equated to $149 million. Since the 2008 fiscal year, about 12 percent of Prince George’s $1.3 billion in procurement spending has gone to county businesses. Any company that gets county funding for a new shopping center, office park or community must agree to a 51 percent hiring goal for residents as workers under the bill, which also sets hiring and contracting goals for minority-owned and small business firms.
Pr. George’s Bolstering Leadership
(Washington Post) — Eight months after former Prince George’s county executive Jack B. Johnson was arrested in a bribery scandal that rocked the development community, County Executive Rushern L. Baker III has asked the council to consider three key appointments that he hopes will help burnish the county’s tarnished reputation. Baker said the nominations of the chairman of the Planning Board, the director of Housing and Community Development and the director of Environmental Resources are some of the most critical appointments he will make because of the crucial role each plays in development projects. The County Council is scheduled to hold public hearings Tuesday on the three posts.
Where’s Leslie Johnson?
(Washington Post) — The lights in her office are out. She withdrew her last piece of pending legislation. And her colleagues say they haven’t spoken with her. But Prince George’s Council member Leslie E. Johnson (D-Mitchellville) remains on the county payroll and will continue to collect her $1,870 weekly paycheck until July 31, unlessshe steps down before then. A day after the council called for Johnson’s immediate resignation, reassigned her staff, and asked her to return her county car, computer, parking pass and cellphone, it was unclear Wednesday whether Johnson would comply or whether her colleagues would have to ask the authorities to pick up the county property. Council spokeswoman Karen Campbell said she did not know whether Johnson had consented to the request.
Baker Urges Leslie Johnson to Resign ‘Immediately’
(Washington Informer) — Prince George’s County Executive, Rushern L. Baker, III, released the following statement on the resignation announcement of Prince George’s County Council Member Leslie Johnson: ”Today [July 5], Council member Leslie Johnson submitted her resignation from the County Council effective July 31st. As I mentioned last week, my thoughts and prayers go out to Council member Johnson during this difficult time in her life.
Leslie Johnson Sets Off a Flurry of Questions
(Washington Post) — Prince George’s County Council member Leslie Johnson, who is expected to appear in federal court Thursday to face charges of witness tampering and destruction of evidence, set off a flurry of questions Wednesday night when her council office sent out an invitation to a “business card exchange” for residents to meet with county officials who handle small-business issues, and minority contracting.
