The following stories are brought to you by the fine folks at the News4 assignment desk.
LET THE PANDA DIE
If there's one thing naturalist Chris Packham should know, it's to never in a public forum wish ill will toward perhaps the cutest, cuddliest animals on the face of the planet.
But that's exactly what he did recently, drawing ire from nature lovers and panda enthusiasts, alike.
(NBC Washington)
DC WANTS TO REDEVELOP FORMER HOMELESS SHELTER
The Franklin School in McPherson Square is a historic site for its construction in the 1860s and a controversial one for its role as a former homeless shelter.
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty is seeking development partners for the site, one of the last properties D.C. owns downtown. Valerie Santos, Fenty’s deputy mayor for planning and economic development, has issued a solicitation for the property with responses due Jan. 19, 2009.
(Washington Business Journal)
AIN'T NO ALTITUDE HIGH ENOUGH
Police have arrested a pilot who they say stalked his ex-girlfriend by repeatedly flying his plane low over her house.
Police in Concord, in northern California, say Tom Huey made several low passes over a residential neighborhood Wednesday evening.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
Sgt. Tiffiny Leftwich told the Contra Costa Times that a dozen residents called police to complain. Huey was arrested shortly after landing the Beech single-engine aircraft.
(MSNBC)
NIGERIA CRIES FOWL ON FILM
A blockbuster sci-fi movie which caricatures Nigerians as gangsters and cannibals and a Sony PlayStation advert which implies they are fraudsters have infuriated a government battling to improve the country's image.
South African film "District 9," which has topped the UK box office for two straight weeks and ranked in the top 10 in North America, is an allegory on segregation and xenophobia, with alien life forms cooped up in a township set in Johannesburg.
(Yahoo News)
