The following stories have been hand-selected by the Assignment Desk at News4:
VIRGINIA LIQUOR TAXES
Restaurants and bars that buy liquor from state stores now would have to pay for the privilege of buying directly from private wholesalers under a privatization plan being prepared for unveiling by Gov. Bob McDonnell next week. McDonnell is counting on restaurants and bars for as much as $38 million a year as part of a complex package of taxes and fees designed to make up the revenue now generated by Virginia's state liquor monopoly.
(Richmond Times Dispatch)
ADAMS MORGAN CONSTRUCTION WOES
Business owners along Adams Morgan’s busiest corridor are bracing for a $9 million streetscape project that, like similar work on H Street NE in Columbia Heights and on P Street near Dupont Circle, threatens to disrupt commerce there for years. The D.C. Department of Transportation is soliciting a contractor to perform the streetscape work along a nearly half-mile stretch of 18th Street, between Florida Avenue and Columbia Road. It is the heart of Adams Morgan, where some 150 businesses — mostly bars and restaurants — operate daily (Washington Business Journal)
SCANNER LISTENERS SILENCED?
For many people, listening to the actions of the Alexandria Police Department on a scanner radio is a way to know what’s happening in their city — everything from crime and fires to calls from people who are having trouble breathing. But police officials are concerned that the subculture of people who make a habit of listening to the police scanner has become too diverse, and that advances in technology have made it too easy for burglars to have a minute-by-minute account of what public-safety officials are up to through their iPhone. "When we made an apprehension on one of these guys, we scrolled through the telephone and the last thing they had been monitoring was our police frequency," said Deputy Chief Eddie Reyes. "They are literally monitoring the police response as they are committing the act."
(Alexandria Gazette)
BIEBER-MANIA
Bieber-mania hits Timonium this weekend. And the Maryland State Fair may never be the same. "We've never had anything like this before, not for the state fair," says Andrew Cashman, the fair's assistant general manager. "It's unbelievable."
(Baltimore Sun)
