The following stories have been hand-selected by the Assignment Desk at News4:
SWINE FLU IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY?
Montgomery County Public School officials say they’re closing Rockville High School until further notice due to a probable swine flu case involving a student. Schools officials say the school will be closed today under the order of state and county health officials. (AP/Frederick News Post)
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY SWINE FLU PREPS
Responding to the spread of swine flu to the United States, university officials have temporarily evicted residents of one of Georgetown's two university-designated quarantine houses to make space for any students who may contract the virus. (THE HOYA)
MAYOR BARRED FROM OFFICE
Three weeks ago, the Colonial Beach Town Council evicted Mayor Frederick C. Rummage from his office at Town Hall. Last night, they barred him from other offices in the building. A resolution introduced by Councilman Ronald "Sparky" Ridgely said that Rummage twice entered town offices this week and "interfered with and interrupted the ability of the staff to perform their work." "This intrusion," the resolution said, "has caused some members of Town staff to feel uncomfortable, fearful and intimidated." (Free Lance Star)
CURRIE INVESTIGATION
A state senator who has been under federal investigation relating to previously undisclosed consultant work for a grocery store chain has acknowledged the work in a recent filing to the state Ethics Commission. Sen. Ulysses Currie's filing covers calendar year 2008. Mr. Currie, D-Prince George's County, was paid about $207,000 between 2003 and 2007 in consulting fees from SuperValu Inc., the parent company of Shoppers Food Warehouse, according to federal court documents unsealed last summer. Mr. Currie, who is the chairman of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, was required to report the work, but he didn't for several years while he took an active interest in helping the company. (Washington Times)
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR ACQUITTED
A former Gaywood Elementary School administrator was acquitted Monday of charges that he sexually abused a male student at the Seabrook school. After a week-long trial, Shadrick Woods, 41, of Mitchellville, was found not guilty of child abuse and sexual offenses against the boy, who is now 7 and a second-grader at the school. Woods was charged with four separate counts -- two counts of child abuse and two counts of third-degree sex abuse -- against the boy, who was 6 at the time, said Megan Green, an associate defense attorney with Marcus Bonsib, LLC, in Greenbelt. Woods was the school's vice principal from September 2006 until March 2008 and has been on unpaid leave since last May. He said he hopes to be reinstated in the Prince George's County Public Schools system for the 2009-10 school year. "I'm very pleased with the exoneration [and] I'm looking forward to getting back to the task at hand -- my job as an administrator," Woods said Wednesday. "To have your reputation tampered with in any capacity is never a pleasant experience. My life has been interrupted." (<a target="_blank" href="http:// ">Gazette)
4-YEAR-OLD SAVES DAD
She may have broken the rules, but 4-year-old Paige Glass probably saved her father's life. Paige helped save her father on April 5, after he had a stroke on the Baltimore & Annapolis Trail by alerting people that her father wasn’t feeling well. Paige and her father, James, were riding along the Baltimore & Annapolis Trail. He was towing her cart behind his bike near the park ranger station near Earleigh Heights Road when Glass started feeling tired. "At some point I just got real dizzy and had to stop and got a really bad headache so I pulled over," Glass said. "I actually thought I had some sort of heat stroke or something. I couldn't understand why I suddenly got the urge to close my eyes and go to sleep." (The Capital)
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EAT UP.. PASS THE BBQ SAUCE
Despite swine flu concerns, barbecue lovers and the pork-eating faithful are still enjoying the pig in Woodbridge. For years, Dixie Bones has been one of the busiest barbecue restaurants in the area, serving up pulled pork sandwiches and racks of spare ribs. And those sitting at the tables Thursday said no amount of swine flu talk could keep them away from eating the food they love. (INSIDENOVA.COM)
