THE REGION
Immigration Office Opens in Fairfax
The Washington district office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has opened at its new location in Fairfax County after moving from Arlington.
The facility, at 2675 Prosperity Ave., opened to the public yesterday. It provides services only to those who have made appointments through an Internet-based system known as InfoPass.
The new offices are across from the Dunn Loring stop on Metro's Orange Line. The immigration service closed for several days for the move from its old offices, at 4420 N. Fairfax Dr.
The Washington district office serves immigrants in the District and Virginia.
THE DISTRICT
Informant Is Released From Hospital
The FBI terrorism informant who attempted suicide by setting himself on fire outside the White House two weeks ago has been discharged from Washington Hospital Center, where he was being treated for burns.
Hospital spokesman LeRoy Tillman said Mohamed Alanssi, 52, was released Sunday. He said the FBI is handling further inquiries about the Yemeni-born Alanssi, who ignited his gasoline-soaked clothing at a White House guard post Nov. 15.
A spokesman for the FBI office in New York declined to comment on Alanssi, saying that "there is nothing on the public record that would allow us to comment, so we won't." A law enforcement source said Alanssi remains under FBI protection at a location outside the Washington area.
MARYLAND
GOP Seeks Session on Malpractice Costs
Republicans in the Maryland House of Delegates called yesterday for an immediate special session on medical malpractice reform, with one leader suggesting that revenue from slot machines could be part of a solution.
"This caucus is ready and willing to come to work tomorrow," House Minority Whip Anthony J. O'Donnell (R-Calvert) said at a news conference.
O'Donnell said passage of a bill legalizing slots, another stalled priority of House Republicans, was one way the state could pay for a temporary fund to curb doctors' malpractice insurance costs. Doctors covered by Maryland's largest malpractice insurer are facing an average 33 percent increase in next year's premiums.
State leaders have been discussing the creation of a fund to provide temporary relief and a package of longer-term legal reforms.
