The following stories have been hand-selected by the Assignment Desk at News4:
METRO DEATH WAS AN ACCIDENT
Metro said Tuesday that a preliminary police investigation indicated the law student struck and killed by a train at Minnesota Avenue Station on July 4 fell onto the tracks and that no foul play was involved. "The man likely fell accidentally onto the tracks and was not there intentionally," Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said in a statement. She said the investigation was ongoing but that initial findings indicate "there was no foul play." Joseph Doyle, 28, a rising third-year student at William and Mary law school in Williamsburg, was hit by a train just before 3 a.m., apparently "as he was in the process of switching from one train line to another," according to a letter to the school community from Virginia M. Ambler, the college's vice president for student affairs. (Washington Post)
FORECLOSURE MAY HAVE BEEN REASON
Frederick investigators are considering whether the possibility of foreclosure may have influenced the actions of a Frederick County man who shot and killed himself at the scene of a fire Monday in the 14600 block of Black Ankle Road. "It's one aspect we're looking at but we don't have enough information at this point to make that determination," said Capt. Tim Clarke of the Frederick County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday. (Frederick News Post)
PARK FIGHT
Supervisors are scheduled to vote July 7 on plans for a park that has drawn the ire of nearby residents. It will be the second time White’s Ford Park, a project planned for land off Hibler Road north of Leesburg, will be up for a vote. Officials with the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority first submitted the blueprint to county leaders in February 2009. However, county leaders on May 3 sent plans for the park back to the transportation/land use committee for further discussion after dozens of residents, angry about the project’s traffic, environmental and archaeological impacts, spoke out at public meetings. Last month, under a proposal by Supervisor Sally Kurtz (D-Catoctin), the transportation/land use committee recommended approval for the park, but with significant changes. (Loudoun Times)
MD ATTORNEY GENERAL UNOPPOSED
Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, a Democrat, was all but assured of re-election Tuesday when no challenger from either party emerged to run against him by an evening filing deadline. More than one-fifth of the 47-member state Senate found itself in the same position in a year in which anti-incumbent sentiment appears to be a prevailing mood nationally among voters. When elections offices closed, the field of candidates for fall races was largely established. Some of the most prominent contenders, including Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley and Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., filed days earlier, but others, including some incumbents, waited until the final hours. (Baltimore Sun)
