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STABBINGS SUSPECT GETTING PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING
A man charged in one Flint-area knife attack and suspected in 13 others is getting a psychological and physical assessment.
Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell tells The Flint Journal Elias Abuelazam (A'-boo-LAH'-zuhm) was to undergo the tests Friday. The 33-year-old Abuelazam spent Thursday night in jail following his extradition from Atlanta.
Abuelazam also is a suspect in two stabbings and a hammer attack in Virginia, and another knife attack in Ohio. (WTOP)
SAFETY OF SYNTHETIC ATHLETIC FIELDS UP FOR DEBATE
Depending on who is talking, synthetic turf fields are either the environmentally sound wave of the future or a yet-to-be-fully known threat to humans and the Earth.
And there's more and more talk about the controversial man-made grass in Maryland lately.
With the arrival of a new school year in a state where the popularity of field hockey and lacrosse add demands on fields already used for football and soccer, athletic directors whose players and schedules are put on hold by rain find an all-weather surface appealing. Some environmental and parents groups, however, are less sold on the value of the fabricated playing surfaces. They say a field's roughly $1 million price tag is just part of its known costs. (Gazette.net)
DC CREDIT CARD DELINQUENCIES 3RD LOWEST IN US
Americans continue to pay down their credit card balances, with the average total balance owed falling below $5,000 for the first time in eight years, according to a quarterly report from TransUnion LLC.
Delinquency rates are also down, with credit card accounts 90 days or more past due falling to 0.92 percent nationally. The delinquency rate in the District fell to 0.61 percent, the third lowest in the nation. Maryland’s credit card delinquency rate was 0.88 percent, and in Virginia, it fell to 0.77 percent. (Washington Business Journal)
TEEN GETS 8 YEARS FOR PEPCO SHOOTING
A District teenager was sentenced to eight years in prison for the shooting of a utilities company worker in Northwest Washington.
On Dec. 3, 18-year-old Marlo Johnson was walking near Rhode Island Avenue and First Street NW, when he asked a Pepco worker, “What are you looking at?” The two got into a fight, and Johnson left and returned with a .22-caliber pistol, prosecutors said. Johnson fired the gun and the bullet struck another worker in the back of the head. (Washington Examiner)
