Local Leads: 10/30/09

News you need to know

By CHARLIE BRAGALE

Updated 1:03 PM EST, Fri, Oct 30, 2009

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The following stories have been hand-selected by the Assignment Desk at News4:

$15 "B"ILLION FOR TYSONS IMPROVEMENTS
Fairfax County planners estimate it will take $15 billion in transportation improvements to revamp Tysons Corner into a dense, walkable urban hub. The preliminary estimate was released this week. It includes $2.6 billion that has already been allocated for the first leg of a Metro extension to Dulles International Airport. It also includes $7 billion for roads, bus service and two additional rail lines that would not be spent until after 2030. (Richmond Times Dispatch)

INSENSITIVE HALLOWEEN DISPLAY
Three dummies hang from a willow tree in Baker Park as part of the City of Frederick Parks and Recreation Department's Halloween program. Guy Djoken, president of the local NAACP, said from a distance the dummies look like dead bodies. He is trying to get the city to remove them. "A dead man hanging in a tree, that takes us back to a dark day we don't want to go back to," Djoken said Thursday. "Whoever did this needs some sensitivity training." (Frederick News Post)

WILLIAM DONALD SCHAEFER STATUE
He flew through the air like a modern-day Mary Poppins or a balloon in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Over Harborplace, over the Baltimore Visitor Center, a 7-foot-2-inch bronze statue of William Donald Schaefer was lifted by crane and touched down on the west shore of the Inner Harbor Thursday in preparation for its official unveiling on Monday, Schaefer's 88th birthday. (Baltimore Sun)

HYATTSVILLE STREET VENDORS
Juan Martinez of Mount Rainier has a familiar routine: He arrives at work at around 11 a.m., takes phone calls, chops vegetables and prepares an array of Latin American foods — pupusas, tacos and carne asada — all within a truck. Martinez and his wife, Teresa, are among six mobile food vendors who for the past few years have been preparing and selling Latin American food out of trucks parked in the 5600 block of Ager Road. But as of Sunday, the street has been clear of the trucks — permanently. (Gazette)