THE REGION
Zoo Sponsors Holiday Event for Children
The National Zoo will hold its annual Children's Holiday Celebration tomorrow from noon to 4 p.m. at the zoo's Visitor Center.
Children will learn how animals adapt to winter. There will be animal encounters, refreshments, an interactive game and educational crafts, plus performances by the Blue Sky Puppet Theatre and a chance to pose for photos with a costumed giant panda character.
Admission to the holiday program is free, but guests are encouraged to bring a gift that will be donated to a needy child through local charities. Gifts can be wrapped or unwrapped but should be labeled with the age and gender of the child for whom the gift would be appropriate. Guests can also bring pet food or blankets to be distributed to an area animal shelter.
THE DISTRICT
Anti-Stadium Campaign Urges Action
A coalition that opposes Mayor Anthony A. Williams's plan to build a publicly funded baseball stadium has launched a final blitz to stop the legislation by calling 45,000 residents, distributing 40,000 fliers and producing a radio ad.
No D.C. Taxes for Baseball, a group of activists who promote such issues as improving schools and increasing affordable housing, is behind the eleventh-hour effort, said Ed Lazere, co-leader of the organization. The group has campaigned against the proposal to build a stadium, estimated by various city officials to cost $440 million to $584 million.
In recorded phone messages and in the fliers, the group urges residents to oppose the stadium by calling their D.C. Council representatives. The ad will play on WTOP's stations and WMAL-AM (630), Lazere said. The council, which voted 6 to 4 with three abstentions to give preliminary approval to the stadium plan, will hold a final vote Tuesday.
N.Y. Insurance Probe Reaches Into D.C.
D.C. Attorney General Robert J. Spagnoletti and Insurance Commissioner Lawrence H. Mirel announced a joint investigation yesterday into whether insurance companies and brokers operating in the District have engaged in bid-rigging and other deceptive practices.
The probe stems from a similar investigation in New York in which State Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer has alleged that Marsh & McLennan Cos., one of the nation's biggest insurance brokers, deceived customers and illegally drove up insurance premiums.
"There is no evidence so far of any wrongdoing by our domestic companies," Mirel said. "But we think the concerns raised by Attorney General Spitzer are serious, and we want to find out what's going on here."
The civil and criminal investigations will involve antitrust attorneys from the Office of the Attorney General and examiners and attorneys from the Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking.
2 in Hospital After Being Pulled From Fire
D.C. firefighters rescued an elderly woman and her son from a burning rowhouse in Southeast Washington yesterday morning, fire officials said.
The fire started about 9:30 in the living room of a rowhouse in the 500 block of Ninth Street SE, officials said. Firefighters pulled an 83-year-old woman and her 67-year-old son from the living room.
