Local Leads: 11/17/2008

News you need to know

By CHARLIE BRAGALE

Updated 1:21 PM EST, Mon, Nov 17, 2008

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

CITIGROUP SLASHES WORKFORCE
Citigroup announced plans to reduce its workforce by approximately 50,000 people worldwide as the company tries to rebound from a year of steady losses and problems linked to the global financial crisis. (Washington Post)

SNOW
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for Garrett County. The warning is in effect from noon Monday until 6 p.m. Tuesday. Forecasters say an upper level low pressure system moving in from the Ohio Valley will produce significant snowfall. Snow is expected to accumulate between 6 and 12 inches through Tuesday afternoon, with higher snowfall totals at elevations above 2,500 feet.

I-66 FATAL ACCIDENT
A Fairfax County teenager driving the wrong way on Interstate 66 in Arlington early this morning crashed head-on into another car, killing two women inside, authorities said. Virginia State Police said in a news release that they are pursuing charges against the 17-year-old driver. The investigation is continuing, police said, and "alcohol is believed to be a factor in the crash." (Washington Post)

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY FORECLOSURES
Prince William County officials are preparing to use $4 million from the federal government to help ease the county's foreclosure crisis. County Executive Craig Gerhart says more than $2 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development will be used to buy foreclosed properties. Another $1 million will be used to fund projects for residents with household incomes at or below 50 percent of the area's median income, which is $99,000.

WOODBRIDGE FATAL FIRE
A woman was killed and a man seriously injured in an early morning townhouse fire in Woodbridge, police said. Firefighters were called to the 15200 block of Valley Stream Drive in Rippon Landing at 12:47 a.m. Inside the burning home, they found a woman dead and a man suffering burns. The man was flown to a nearby hospital. Police have not positively identified the victims. (Insidenova.com)

PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY BOIL WATER ADVISORY
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission says workers have repaired a leaking water main near Largo, but people who live in the area are being advised to continue boiling their water for the next several days.It will be Thursday before tests are completed to determine if the water is contaminated. (wtop.com)

FILLY WITH EQUINE VIRUS EUTHANIZED
A 2-year-old filly stabled at Laurel Park that had tested posited for equine herpesvirus last week was euthanized over the weekend, the Maryland Department of Agriculture announced. No other horses in Barn 1, where the filly was stabled, have tested positive for the condition so far and none are showing signs of equine herpesvirus (EHV-1), the department said. (Baltimore Sun)

PEDESTRIAN SAFETY CAMPAIGN
D.C. area police will be on the lookout this week for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists who disregard traffic safety laws by speeding, darting into traffic, jaywalking or demonstrating any number of other potentially deadly lapses of judgment. Police departments in the District, suburban Maryland and northern Virginia today will launch their fall "Street Smart" campaigns, a region-wide effort to enforce traffic and pedestrian safety laws, reduce traffic-related fatalities and change people's behaviors as they navigate area roadways. (WTOP.com / Examiner)

MONOPOLE
Rarely has a neighborhood rallied together so hard to exclude a new neighbor. Of course, on Wage Drive, the new neighbor is not a person, but rather, a 105-foot-high monopole in place of a home on the cul de sac. Residents have joined in a vocal campaign against Dominion Virginia Power, which purchased the home at 821 Wage Drive for more than $180,000 over its assessed value last summer and plans to use the lot as a site for a monopole tower needed for its transmission line that will stretch from Leesburg to the Hamilton substation. (Leesburg Today)