The following stories have been hand-selected by the Assignment Desk at News4:
STILL TALKING ABOUT SLOTS
In the competition for one of Maryland's five slot licenses, an entrepreneur who made a fortune on the dot-com boom has entered the fray with a new vision for the future of thoroughbred horse racing. Halsey Minor, the founder of media company CNET, wants a license to open a standalone casino in Anne Arundel County, a place for only slot machines. No horses, no simulcast or other corollaries often associated with gaming. (The Capital)
JAGUAR ATTACK
A female zookeeper was in critical condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma unit after she was attacked by a jaguar Sunday morning at the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo. "She was inside the jaguar enclosure and hadn't secured the area where she was working," said Harold Domer, executive director of Frederick County Animal Control. The woman suffered several bite wounds, he said, and her condition was critical Sunday evening. (Frederick News-Post)
METRO'S DRESS REHEARSAL
We are one -- jammed mass transit system. It was cold, but the crowd swelled at the National Mall to see and hear the performers, speakers and the president-elect and vice president-elect themselves...Metro seemed to pass its first inauguration test Sunday as thousands of people filled rail cars en route to and from the National Mall for the "We Are One" concert at the Lincoln Memorial. (NBCWashington.com)
PORTA-POT PROBLEMS?
Even if only 1 million people show up near the National Mall on Tuesday, sanitation experts say there simply won’t be enough toilets. “Basically, you’ll have sewage rolling down the streets,” said Roy Morris, a sales manager with Maryland’s United Site Services, providing about half of the Mall’s portable toilets. Morris, only half-joking about the sewage, said the 7,500 regular portable units and 1,200 handicapped units are far fewer than the 13,000 needed. “They’ve got a 60-gallon holding capacity,” he said. “Typically, that’ll be filled by 75 people in a six-hour period.” (DC Examiner)
