Local Leads: Georgetown Students Busted, New Wegmans Opens

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The following stories have been hand-selected by the Assignment Desk at News4:

GLENDARDEN WEGMANS OPEN
(GAZETTE.NET)
"As employees continued to stock Wegmans' aisles with cans and boxes Oct. 14, store manager Ayana Douglas dreamed about stocking the store with customers.  Douglas is the face of the Rochester, N.Y.-based grocer, which will be the anchor of the 245-acre Woodmore Towne Centre at Glenarden, a mixed-use retail and residential project that will continue to open stores from now until summer 2011.  The Wegmans at 9001 McHugh Drive is scheduled to open at 7 a.m. Sunday. The store is open daily from 6 a.m. to midnight and only closes on Christmas Day, Douglas said. A Best Buy opened in the center earlier this month, Costco is scheduled to open next week and a JCPenney is slated for spring 2011, said Rachel Ross, a leasing associate with Annapolis-based developer Petrie-Ross Ventures."


RENTED DOGS TO SOLVE GOOSE PROBLEM
(BALTIMORE SUN)
"Visitors to Columbia's Lakefront promenade have increasingly been confronted by panhandling resident Canada geese, who had stayed away for years, chased by Glenn and Bud, the town's two border collies. But two years after the last dog died, the birds seem to have forgotten they're not wanted.  As a reminder, town leaders are preparing to spend up to $43,200 a year to bring in rented dogs from Frederick County. The nonprofit Columbia Association wants to rid its main waterfront at Lake Kittamaqundi of the geese — and their droppings.  "Geese not being the sharpest tools in the shed, it took them about 11/2 years to figure out" that the dogs were gone, Rob Goldman, CA's chief operating officer, told the elected 10-member CA board at a recent meeting. But now that the flocks of resident birds know there's nothing to fear, they've been doing some strolling before the outdoor restaurant tables, egging for table scraps and leaving their calling cards on the sidewalk."

MONTCO WANTS TO BAN GRASS PARKING
(WASHINGTON EXAMINER.COM)
"Montgomery County officials want to rid the suburb of lawns that look like parking lots and driveways overrun with massive vehicles used for businesses.  The County Council on Tuesday will vote on a bill from County Executive Ike Leggett that would keep homeowners from parking cars in their front yard and remove large commercial vehicles from their driveways. The suburb already bans parking such vehicles permanently on the street.  The crackdown sought by Leggett stems from a series of complaints in Aspen Hill -- a pocket that stretches between Rockville, Silver Spring and Wheaton -- where mobile eateries and tow trucks line the neighborhoods.  Some officials who asked not to be named said the measure was aimed at a heavily Hispanic population in the area."

PIZZA BIZ IS BOOMING IN ALEXANDRIA
(ALEXANDRIA TIMES)
"No matter which way you slice it, the pizza pie is the hottest dish in Alexandria and new parlors are opening up from Del Ray to Old Town. For true pizza fans, the old world mix of dough, tomato sauce and toppings has been hard to come by in Alexandria, according to resident and blogger Jay Roberts.   “Old Town just didn’t have a lot of good pizza before, but now King Street can say its got great restaurants and good pizza joints,” he said, stepping out of the newly-opened Pizza Paradiso on the 100 block of Alexandria’s main drag. “The only pizza was at Bugsy’s or Bertucci’s and that was it. Now pizza lovers have somewhere to go.”  Roberts stopped by to taste Paradiso’s pie and sample their craft beer menu, but it’s not the only new pizza joint he’s been in lately. Red Rocks, which opened earlier this year on King Street, also serves up a mean pizza, he said.Manager Myriam Souaya believes pizzerias are the newest up and coming restaurant style in an area already known for its swath of cultural cuisine. A lifelong resident of the D.C. metro region, Souaya witnessed the rise of the Neapolitan-style pizza, a lighter, healthier variation of pie."

GEORGETOWN DRUG LAB
(THE HOYA.COM)
"A drug lab was reportedly found in Room 926 of Harbin Hall this morning after officials were summoned to deal with hazardous material on the freshman residence's ninth floor after 5 a.m.  According to Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Hugh Carew, two students and a campus visitor were initially detained for questioning, leading to their arrest for possession of drug paraphernalia. "No drugs were found. Chemicals were found to create DMT," Carew said.  Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson stated in an email sent at 6:26pm to all Harbin residents that the DEA confirmed an illegal drug, Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), was being produced in a Harbin residence room. Olson assured students that the DEA informed him that there was never a health risk to students living in Harbin, including to the students on Harbin 9, besides those who lived in the room where DMT was being produced. He added that hazardous material experts have now removed all potential contaminants from the scene."

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