MARYLAND BRIEFING

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY

Cars in Landover Hills Spray-Painted With Racist Graffiti

More than a dozen vehicles in Landover Hills were spray-painted with a swastika, Ku Klux Klan initials and racial epithets early yesterday, prompting a Prince George's County police investigation into the third such incident in suburban Maryland in the past two weeks.

The incidents -- in Prince George's, Howard and Charles counties -- bear similarities, but police said it is unlikely that they are connected.

A Prince George's police spokeswoman said a homeowner in the 7400 block of Taylor Street called police at 3:15 a.m. yesterday when he saw that two of his cars had been spray-painted with racial epithets. Police said 15 cars and a vacant house had been vandalized in that neighborhood.

Maj. Kevin Davis, commander of the local police district, said the vandalism included slurs against the African American and Hispanic communities. He suggested that the crime could be an imitation of the previous two.

Howard County police are offering a $5,000 reward for information about an incident Aug. 15 in which vandals targeted the River Hill neighborhood of Clarksville, spray-painting obscenities and anti-Semitic messages on signs, mailboxes, cars and houses and also breaking car windows and slashing tires.

Charles County deputies are investigating a case in the Townes of South Hampton. Between Friday and Saturday, eight vehicles and five residences were spray-painted with racial slurs.

-- Nelson Hernandez

Spread of Invasive Beetle Prompts Tree Quarantine

An invasive species of beetle that can be fatal to ash trees has been discovered in the Brandywine area, prompting state Agriculture Department officials to announce a tree quarantine for Prince George's County.

The emerald ash borer, originally from Asia, arrived in Prince George's in 2003 in a shipment of infected trees from Michigan. Since then, state officials had been checking nearby woods to see whether the bug had spread. They had found nothing until this year, when two infected trees were discovered near the site of the original infestation.