The owner, General Growth Properties, is said to be asking $6 million for the facility, not including parking lots, which it plans to keep for its own proposed development next to Merriweather. Lack of parking is a sticking point for the panel, which says the issue must be resolved during negotiations over a sale.
Service Held for Slain Rockville Woman
The family of Emily Cagal, who was beaten to death in her Rockville high-rise condominium March 2, thanked the community and police for finding her body and said they held a private memorial service for her Wednesday, according to a statement released yesterday.
Cagal's parents, who live in Bethesda, said they were "saddened by the insinuation that Emily's lifestyle in any way contributed to her death." Cagal, 24, had been working for a Baltimore area company as an exotic dancer for private parties. Her parents said through a family spokesman that they did not know about her dancing until she disappeared. They have declined to be interviewed.
Montgomery County police have charged Antoine Levelle Gatewood, 33, of Bowie with Cagal's slaying and his roommate, Dion D. Desir, 24, with helping him clean up blood in her condominium and dispose of her body. A law enforcement source said investigators believe Cagal was killed in a robbery.
Cagal's body was missing some fingers, two sources close to the investigation said yesterday. However, investigators do not know whether they were removed before or after she was killed or why, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
THE DISTRICT
Group Protests U.S. Involvement in Iraq
About three dozen demonstrators gathered outside a downtown military recruiting station yesterday to encourage soldiers to refuse orders to fight in Iraq. The organizers said that their public declaration violated federal law, but the six police officers who guarded the entrance to the office on L Street near 14th Street NW made no arrests. The demonstrators also sought to deliver a statement to the White House, but a security guard at the gate refused the delivery, saying he was not authorized to accept mail or packages for President Bush.
GU Hunger Strike Supports Workers
Twenty-two students at Georgetown University begin their fourth day of a hunger strike today, demanding higher wages for contract workers at the school. Students and administrators have been talking for three years about the issue, and discussions on pay and benefits are ongoing. The students say workers cannot live on less than about $15 an hour; administrators say increasing pay to that amount immediately would cost the school nearly $2 million, and they would like to phase in increases over a few years. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney voiced support yesterday for the students and workers.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Man, I wouldn't wish this on nobody."
-- Johnnie Whichard, who wears an ankle bracelet as part of his electronically monitored probation. -- B1
Compiled from reports by staff writers Tom Jackman, Susan Kinzie, D'Vera Cohn, Katherine Shaver, Miranda S. Spivack and Paul Schwartzman and the Associated Press.
