The following stories have been hand-selected by the Assignment Desk at News4:
DULLES PLANE DIVERTED
A United Airlines flight from Washington to Las Vegas was diverted to Denver on Saturday night after a passenger became unruly and tried to open a cabin door, authorities said. Other passengers subdued the man and he was removed from the airplane at the Denver airport, authorities said. United Flight 223, an Airbus, was carrying 129 passengers and a crew of five when it left Dulles International Airport around 3:30 p.m., according to authorities. It landed safely at Denver about 6:45 p.m. Eastern time. Barry Eynon of Coopersburg, Pa., said in a phone interview that he was in the third row when another passenger "saw this person trying to open the airplane door and trying to get into the cockpit." The other passenger "jumped up and grabbed him from behind and yelled for help."
(WASHINGTON POST)
LOCAL MARINE KILLED AT HOUSE PARTY
Baltimore police say a 20-year-old Marine was stabbed to death before dawn Saturday during a party. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says Lance Cpl. Darius Ray was stabbed multiple times at about 4 a.m. during a fight at a house party in northeast Baltimore. Ray was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Guglielmi says police are interviewing "multiple people of interest" and expect to make arrests later in the day. Ray was stationed in Washington, D.C.
(WTOP)
A HEROES WELCOME PLANNED FOR RESCUE TEAM
The chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors says she expects members of the county's Urban Search and Rescue team to return from Haiti in the next few days. Team members have performed 16 successful rescues since arriving in Haiti Jan. 13. Board Chairman Sharon Bulova said the exact timetable for their return has not been determined. She plans to formally recognize the team for its heroism at a meeting next month.
(WASHINGTON TIMES)
POLICE NAB SERIAL BANK ROBBER
Police from several agencies around the state arrested a Maryland man on suspicion of robbing eight banks in the past three months, according to the Frederick County Bureau of Investigation. Earl Macvernon Pegram, 56, of Clinton, was arrested Thursday and is being held in the Charles County Detention Center, according to a bureau news release. Pegram is accused of robbing the Comstar Federal Credit Union on Buckeystown Pike on Dec. 4, and seven other banks -- six elsewhere in Maryland and one in Virginia.
(FREDERICK NEWS-POST)
FIRST FAMILY WEEKEND HOOPS GAME
President Barack Obama went out for a little weekend basketball -- as a spectator. The president and first lady Michelle Obama spent Saturday morning watching their 8-year-old daughter, Sasha, play in a basketball game at a community center in Chevy Chase, Md. Imagine the pressure on the coach! The president is a big basketball fan and sometimes plays hoops himself on the weekends. He also likes to get out of the White House when he can because his job "is a little confining," as he told an audience in Ohio on Friday.
(NBCWASHINGTON.COM)
BUTTERSTICK'S PANDA BYE BYE
The National Zoo has at last released more details on the planned "Tai Shan Farewell Celebration" it started hyping a couple weeks ago, and they're pretty fantastic. Chief among them: a planned "Land O'Lakes® Butterstick Tribute," surely the greatest promotional tie-in ever conceived. According to a zoo release, the Land O'Lakes tribute will "showcase photos of Tai Shan since his birth in 2005."
(DCIST)
