MARYLAND BRIEFING

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

STATE LEGISLATURE

Kensington's Al Carr to Fill Lawton's House Seat

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) yesterday announced the appointment of Kensington Town Council member Al Carr to serve out the term of the late Democratic delegate Jane E. Lawton in District 18.

Carr, who was first elected in Kensington in 2002, is scheduled to be sworn in by Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) in the House chamber Thursday. He was nominated by the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee from a field of five candidates to succeed Lawton, who died of an apparent heart attack late last month.

Carr had the support of influential Democrats, including O'Malley's labor secretary, Tom Perez, a former County Council member.

Carr, a telecommunications businessman, ran unsuccessfully last year for the seat that includes parts of Chevy Chase and Silver Spring. He is a board member of the District 18 Caucus and the African American Democratic Club of Montgomery County.

Carr is the fourth Montgomery legislator appointed to the General Assembly in the past year.

-- Ann E. Marimow

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Moonlighting Police Officer Pleads Guilty to Misconduct

A Montgomery County police officer charged with felony theft on suspicion of accepting payment from a part-time employer during hours that overlapped with his police duties entered a guilty plea yesterday to the lesser charge of misconduct in office, a misdemeanor.

Scotty Arnold, 42, was one of two officers indicted in what became known as the "double-dipping" investigation. His plea means that only one of the 10 officers charged criminally might go to trial. The remaining eight have pleaded guilty, two to felony theft and six to misconduct in office.

Arnold agreed to resign from the department and pay restitution to Grady Management, a Silver Spring real estate company, according to the terms of the plea, which he made before Circuit Court Judge Eric M. Johnson.

Assistant State's Attorney Bryan Roslund said Arnold was paid by two employers for the 981 hours, resulting in a loss to Grady Management of $24,286. Arnold also worked at Shepherd's Table, a community center in Silver Spring. Roslund said Arnold billed his three employers for some hours.

-- Ernesto Londo¿o

Plan Would Use Housing Fund To Help Homeless Find Shelter

Montgomery County Council President Mike Knapp (D-Upcounty) and council member George Leventhal (D-At Large) proposed a new approach yesterday to helping the county's homeless find permanent shelter.

Under their plan, $4 million from the county's Housing Initiative Fund, a pool of money that uses property tax revenue to preserve or pay for affordable housing, would be allocated to develop affordable housing or to provide rental subsidies for homeless people. The money could also pay for programs to ensure people don't fall back into homelessness.

The idea, Knapp said, is to place people in permanent shelter rather than continue to shuttle them from temporary home to temporary home.

Because funding for the program would come from an existing pool of money, no additional funds would have to be allocated in the fiscal 2009 budget, they said. At a time when the county faces a $400 million budget shortfall, that could be important to winning council support for the proposal.

In future years, Leventhal and Knapp propose that no less than 10 percent of the total Housing Initiative Fund be devoted to housing for the very lowest income residents of the county. The $4 million proposal they propose for 2009 is about 10 percent of the Housing Initiative Fund.

-- Lori Aratani

Bethesda Doctor Wins Grant To Study Migraine Headaches

A Bethesda doctor was awarded one of the first annual grants to study migraine headaches yesterday by a new private foundation.

The Migraine Research Foundation, which was recently launched as one of the nation's largest private funding groups for migraine research, awarded four annual grants yesterday totaling $200,000. Ann I. Scher, a professor at the Bethesda-based Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, received one of the grants and will study migraines that strike in middle age and late life.

-- Philip Rucker