Local Leads: 7/12/2009

The following stories have been hand-selected by the Assignment Desk at News 4:

TRIAL BEGINS FOR MOTHER ACCUSED OF KILLING GIRLS

It was a case that horrified and baffled the Washington region and the rest of the nation: What could cause a mother to kill her children, then live with their decomposing bodies for nearly seven months? And how could government agencies have failed to realize that something in the home had gone seriously wrong?
D.C. prosecutors hope some answers will become clear starting tomorrow, when Banita Jacks is scheduled to go on trial in D.C. Superior Court on charges of killing her four daughters in their Southeast rowhouse. The deaths have changed how city agencies deal with social work cases, especially those involving children. D.C. officials say they also have highlighted the critical need for neighbors, relatives and school employees to have contact with families with young children.
(WASHINGTON POST)

VIRGINA MAN FACES EXECUTION TUESDAY
Six weeks ago, Lorraine Reed Whoberry received word that an execution date had been set for Paul Powell, the man who killed her 16-year-old daughter and almost killed her 14-year-old daughter 10 years ago.  Now that day is almost here.  "I'm amazed at how fast the time has gone by," she said.  Whoberry and her daughter, Kristie, who survived the attack, will attend Powell's execution Tues-day.  Whoberry has said that Tuesday's execution will be a "chapter closing" in her life, ending her family's nearly 10½-year involvement with the justice system that began on Jan. 29, 1999, the day Stacie died and Kristie was attacked.  In those 10½  years, Whoberry has often told her story, speaking to law enforcement agencies and other groups through the S.T.A.C.I.E. Foundation (Striving Towards Achieving Compassion, Intervention and Education), which she started in her daughter's memory.  She describes the long process of the justice system, which for her family included two trials and sentenc-ing hearings before Powell was eventually sentenced to die.  "We talk about the trials that we went through ... how often you get ready for a hearing and it doesn't happen. It was always like the carpet was yanked out from under our feet," Whoberry said.  But now that long road is coming to an end, she said.
(InsideNOVA.com)

WEST NILE VIRUS FOUND IN LOCAL POOLS
D.C. Department of Health officials say three mosquito pools have tested positive for the West Nile virus.  Officials said Saturday the mosquito pools were collected from a block on Washington Boulevard southwest, near Fort McNair.  No one in D.C. have been infected by West Nile virus this year. In 2008, six residents tested positive for the virus.  The health department recommends that residents eliminate mosquito breeding areas around their home by removing standing water.
(WTOP)

NE DC DMV CENTER TO CLOSE
The lack of interior space and the overcrowded parking lot at the District's Department of Motor Vehicles Brentwood service center won't be problems anymore: It's closing Aug. 14.  Many of the center's neighbors who have complained for years about the trash and excess traffic associated with it give that decision their stamp of approval. "It has been an affront to me and the dignity of every citizen who has had to wait outside of it," said Kathy Henderson, a former Advisory Neighborhood Commission member who lives in Carver Terrace.  But the closing comes with what some consider an unfortunate trade-off: Northeast will become the only quadrant of the city without a service center.  DMV officials made the decision in January because the building, which used to house a soul food restaurant, has always been inadequate, spokeswoman Janis Hazel said. The office mainly handles renewals for vehicle registrations, driver's licenses and identification cards. An adjacent building houses the commercial driver's license and road test center, which will remain open.
(WASHINGTON POST)

GOV KAINE TO BREAK RECORD IN BUDGET CUTS
RICHMOND | For the third time in a little over a year, Gov. Tim Kaine's chief of staff, Wayne Turnage, has sent the memo state employees dread, the one ordering them to cut spending.  That's a record.  In six years under two governors as Mr. Turnage's predecessor, Bill Leighty sent two memos telling the state's bureaucracies to draw up plans for pruning their budgets up to 15 percent.  So now, with the state facing at least a $300 million shortfall from the fiscal 2009 budget that expired June 30, Mr. Kaine prepares to lower the official revenue forecast on which budgeted state spending is based for the fourth time since September.  Another record nobody wanted.  "We're approaching a 9 or 10 percent loss in revenue," said Finance Secretary Richard D. Brown. "I mean, ... you don't have anything in history like that."  This go-around, the cuts will be harder than ever: Discretionary travel was jettisoned last year; office equipment upgrades and replacements were put on indefinite hold; vacant jobs remain so under a hiring freeze.
(WASHINGTON TIMES)

MORE PEOPLE BEING STUNG BY JELLYFISH
The beach patrols in Dewey Beach and Rehoboth Beach say an unusually high number of people are being stung by jellyfish.  Dewey Beach patrol Cpt. Todd Fritchman says more than 100 people have complained of being stung in the last week. In Rehoboth Beach, Cpt. Kent Buckson says 120 people have been stung compared to the normal amount of 30 each week.  Normally, beach officials see a spike in mid-to-late July. But Dewey lifeguard Chris Muscara says the warmer waters are bringing the jellyfish into swimming areas earlier this year. According to Fritchman, ocean currents have likely changed, too, which is moving jellyfish into swimming areas.  Delaware Sea Grant official Joe Farrell says the increase in stings isn't part of a wider pattern but is simply a seasonal change.
(DELMARVANOW.COM)
 

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