DISTRICT BRIEFING

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

THEFT OF SCHOOL FUNDS

Plea Deal Hearing Set

The former business manager of a District school for emotionally disturbed elementary students is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court today for a hearing on a plea agreement in the theft of at least $30,000 in donations from the Moten Center chess club in 2003.

Sandy D. Jones was charged in a criminal information with two counts of fraud. The filing of such a document cannot be done without a defendant's consent and often signals a guilty plea. The court's schedule for today shows Jones is to appear for a "plea agreement hearing."

Jones wrote herself unauthorized checks from the chess club's student activity fund and made repeated withdrawals from bank branches and ATMs, according to court documents filed by federal prosecutors last month. The money had been donated by readers of The Washington Post after the newspaper publicized the chess club's efforts to raise money to attend a chess tournament in Nashville in 2003.

-- April Witt

HIV-AIDS

Needle Funding Urged

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) is calling on city leaders to allocate public funds to needle exchange programs to help combat the District's high HIV-AIDS rate.

Norton said yesterday that a report released Monday that identified 3,269 new HIV cases in the District from 2001 to 2006 focused too heavily on transmission of the disease through sex and not enough on transmission through infected needles for drug use. The administration of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) pledged to combat the disease on several fronts, including tripling the number of free condoms distributed by the government.

Norton has been a leader in fighting a congressional ban on a locally funded needle exchange program, which she predicted will be overturned soon. In a statement, she said: "The report does a disservice in creating headlines that the District has the highest AIDS rate without, at the very least, mentioning the possible effect of many years without fully operating and life saving needle exchange programs."

-- David Nakamura

GOP PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Questions Are Offered

At least 11 D.C. residents or families have submitted videotaped questions for today's Republican presidential debate, asking whether candidates support congressional voting rights for the District.

The volunteers submitted their questions through YouTube, the online video-sharing site. They included two members of the D.C. Council, the chairman of the D.C. Republican Committee, a Vietnam veteran, a schoolteacher and an Abraham Lincoln look-alike. The advocacy group DC Vote helped produce the videos in collaboration with DCTV, the city's public access channel, officials said.

It is not known which of the nearly 5,000 questions offered will be chosen for the CNN/YouTube debate. The videos can be viewed at http://www.dcvote.org.

-- Mary Beth Sheridan

cRIME

Man Is Fatally Shot

A man was found with a fatal gunshot wound yesterday morning in Southeast Washington, police said.

He was discovered at 8:35 a.m. in the 1200 block of Sumner Road and was pronounced dead shortly afterward by the D.C. medical examiner. Police said they will release the victim's name once they have notified his family.

In a separate case, officials have identified the man who was killed Monday morning on Wheeler Road SE as Melvin Lucas, 46, of Lorton.

-- Allison Klein