MARYLAND BRIEFING
MARYLAND BRIEFING
Tuesday, August 21, 2007; Page B06
MONTGOMERY COUNTY
No Charges Planned Over Trashed Army Files
Montgomery County police said yesterday that no criminal charges will be filed in connection with the discovery last week of improperly discarded documents containing personal information from an Army medical research facility -- records that were supposed to have been shredded but that instead turned up in a trash bin in Wheaton.
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A resident of a neighborhood near the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research found "numerous boxes" in the trash receptacle Friday and alerted Montgomery police. Officers returned the boxes to the research center.
The files were research study records, said Cynthia Vaughn, a public affairs officer for the U.S. Army Medical Command. An investigation is underway to determine precisely what information they held and why they were found off the base. Police said most were documents from the late 1990s and probably were placed in the bin Friday.
No foul play is suspected. Police do not think anyone other than the person who found the records and called authorities had access to the information.
The institute, based in Silver Spring, is the Pentagon's largest biomedical research laboratory and is not directly affiliated with the nearby Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Researchers at the facility work on such issues as tropical diseases and post-traumatic stress disorder.
EASTERN SHORE
Loans Are Eased in Drought-Stricken Counties
A state agency has relaxed income requirements to help people whose wells have run dry in Somerset and Wicomico counties.
The Department of Housing and Community Development raised income caps for people applying for state loans to drill wells. More than 100 wells on the lower Eastern Shore have gone dry this summer because of the drought and overuse of the Manokin aquifer.
Eileen Hagan, senior manager for a loans program at the department, said 14 applications for state assistance have been received. The new standard approved by Secretary Raymond A. Skinner allows state aid for people making 100 percent of median incomes in their area. The previous standard was 80 percent.
State environmental officials are investigating the cause of the well failures. This month, the state Department of the Environment ordered a Princess Anne prison to stop drawing more water than permitted from the aquifer.
-- Associated Press
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