THE DISTRICT
DMV Spends Day Without Phone Service
The D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles, which has had more than its share of woes lately, had another foul-up yesterday. Nearly all 114 phone lines at the agency's headquarters on C Street NW were out of service for most of the day.
City officials said it wasn't their fault. The problem, they said, was that a telephone service upgrade was mishandled by Verizon.
"This should have been done overnight, but Verizon turned off our old phones over the weekend, so when we came in this morning, they weren't working," said DMV spokeswoman Regina Williams. It took most of the day for the new phones to be configured and put into service, she said.
Verizon spokeswoman Sandy Arnette said DMV officials knew that the service would be interrupted but preferred that the work be done yesterday, even though it was the first workday after a holiday weekend and could have been done at night or on a weekend.
"When you're switching from analog to digital lines, there is always going to be some downtime," she said.
D.C. School Bus Hits Parked Cars in SE
A D.C. public school bus carrying four special education students to summer school crashed yesterday into three parked cars, police said.
The crash, which occurred at 7:24 a.m. at Fourth and K streets SE, caused no serious injuries, school officials said. The four students, two age 7 and two age 11, were taken to Children's Hospital. A spokesman there said they were treated and released.
Alfred Winder, director of transportation for the school system, said driver Thomas Perkins blacked out while behind the wheel. Perkins was taken to Washington Hospital Center, where a spokesman said he was being kept for observation. Winder said that Perkins recently had his annual physical and that no problems were detected.
Police said that they are investigating and that no citations have been issued.
Marijuana Advocates Submit Signatures
Proponents of the Medical Marijuana Initiative yesterday submitted what they said were about 40,000 petition signatures to the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, the first step toward getting the issue on the ballot in the November election.
Approval of the ballot initiative would allow doctors to give patients permission to grow and use marijuana for medicinal purposes.
There will be a 10-day period during which opponents can challenge signatures on the petition.
D.C. voters approved a similar measure in 1998, but Rep. Robert L. Barr Jr. (R-Ga.) introduced an amendment in Congress to block its implementation. In March, a federal court struck down Barr's amendment, but the Bush administration plans to appeal the decision.
The Marijuana Policy Project, based in the District, estimates that more than 1,000 patients with HIV, glaucoma, cancer and other medical problems would benefit from legalized marijuana use. Nine states have legalized marijuana for medical purposes.
Uses for Empty School to Be Discussed
D.C. officials are holding a public forum tomorrow night to discuss possible uses for the historic Franklin School, a long-empty brick building at 13th and I streets NW.
The forum -- at school system headquarters at 801 North Capitol St. NE, ninth floor, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. -- will feature a presentation by consultants hired by the city to research options for the building. There will then be time for public comment.
Members of the public who want to see the building may attend an open house tomorrow morning from 10 a.m. to noon. The address is 925 13th St. NW. For more information, call the D.C. Office of Planning and Economic Development, 202-727-6365.
Woman Plunges 12 Stories to Her Death
A woman died early Sunday after falling 12 stories from her apartment building in Southeast Washington's Park Southern neighborhood, police said.
Dawn Rothwell, 33, who lived on the 12th floor at 800 Southern Ave. SE, fell out a window at 5:12 a.m., police said. She was pronounced dead at 8:10 a.m. Police said the circumstances of her death are under investigation.
VIRGINIA
Navy Pilots Pulled From Ocean After Crash
Two Navy pilots were rescued from the Atlantic Ocean yesterday after their F-14 fighter jet crashed on a training mission off the Virginia coast, the Navy said.
The instructor pilot and another pilot in the jet, based at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, successfully ejected from the crippled plane and were rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter, according to a statement from the Navy at Atlantic Fleet Headquarters in Norfolk.
Both crewmen were reported in good condition at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth. The cause of the crash, shortly after 1 p.m., was under investigation, the Navy said.
Sinking Stocks Hurt Va. Pension Fund
The market value of the holdings in Virginia's public employee pension fund declined from $36.8 billion at the end of March to about $34 billion because of plunging stock prices, Virginia Retirement System officials told legislators yesterday.
The decline in value takes in a broad range of about 3,000 publicly traded stocks and was aggravated by the loss of up to $108 million from the accounting scandal that has pushed WorldCom, the nation's second-largest long-distance company, to the brink of bankruptcy.
Lower stock yields could eventually force public employers -- 785 state agencies and local governments, boards and school districts -- to increase their contributions to the fund as the baby boom generation, the largest segment of the public workforce, approaches retirement.
"There is a risk that the funded status will be lower, and there is a risk that employers' contributions will be going up," Nancy Everett, the chief financial and investment officer of the retirement system, told the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.
The value of VRS assets has declined about $7.7 billion since its all-time high of about $42 billion in March 2000.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I think it's going to be a battle royal. You have a large field of good candidates, each with lots of resources, and no entrenched incumbent. That's a recipe for a great race."
-- John McDonough, counsel to Maryland's Democratic Central Committee, discussing the District 47 state Senate race. -- Page B1
Compiled from reports by staff writers Avram Goldstein, Justin Blum, Yolanda Woodlee, Debbi Wilgoren and Ylan Q. Mui, the Associated Press and Reuters.
