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MD'S FIRST SLOTS PARLOR TO OPEN NEXT WEEK
Officials say Maryland’s first slots casino is on track to open by the end of the month in Cecil County.
A spokesman for Penn National Gaming says the company is working to open the 1,500-machine Hollywood Casino Perryville on Sept. 30. Last week the company said it might push back the opening while state regulators decide whether they had interfered with another effort to build a casino in Anne Arundel County. (Frederick News-Post)
GRAY WILL CONSIDER REHIRING FIRED DC TEACHERS
Just one day before he meets with D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee to discuss her future, the man who will most likely be the next mayor of the District says he's open to re-hiring some of the teachers Rhee has fired.
Rhee fired 266 teachers last October largely for budget reasons, according to her testimony before the D.C. Council. She later said some of the teachers were fired because they abused students. (WTOP)
DC CENTRAL KITCHEN VANS VANDALIZED
The D.C. Central Kitchen had several of its vans vandalized last night, and, understandably, many people were flabbergasted. Why would anyone want to vandalize vehicles belonging to a group whose wide-ranging missions include job training, feeding the less fortunate and supporting better nutrition among children?
The craziest part: the vandalism, which included broken windows and red spray paint along the sides of the vans, doesn't appear, at least initially, to have been random. TBD's Sommer Mathis reports that the damage to the vans appeared to be actually sending a message. (DCist)
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Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
JUDGE APPROVES PROTEST SETTLEMENT
A federal judge gave final approval Wednesday to a settlement in which the D.C. government will pay $8.25 million to almost 400 protesters and bystanders swept up in a mass arrest at Pershing Park during a September 2002 demonstration against the World Bank.
Together with a $13.7 million approved in April for another 700 people arrested by D.C. police using similar tactics in April 2000, the $22 million paid by the D.C. government is the largest protest settlement ever paid out by a municipal government in the United States, according to the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, which brought the cases. (Washington Post)
