PGCo Update

I am just bouncing back from having Memorial Day off.  Honoring our military and chilling is a great way to spend a Monday but now it’s time to get back to work.  Here’s what’s happening and what happened.  County Executive Baker had his own forum yesterday evening on the new school board governance aka the school takeover by the County Executive.  In the meantime, Citizens for an Elected Board has their web site up and running providing a virtual safe place for you to sign their petition to bring the school takeover legislation to a referendum vote.  With the way the Board of Education has been behaving itself, creating 15 new administrative positions, misspending $167k of federal money, I don’t think the Citizens for an Elected Board will have much of a chance, but you never know.  The misspent money was uncovered in an audit by the Department of Education’s Inspector General.

The Examiner reported that the audit recommends that Prince George’s County return the money it wasn’t authorized to spend and any money for which it can’t provide proper documentation.  Maryland Department of Education spokesman Bill Reinhard said the state is providing more information and working with the federal government to resolve the findings of the audit and wouldn’t comment further until that process is complete.  Not a good look.
Another bad look is the large amount of guns seized in Prince George’s County and Washington, DC.  The bulk of them, as reported by the Washington Post, are seized in D.C. but it’s just a shame that our county is named among this.  “District police recovered about 2,000 guns last year, and Prince George’s collected about 1,200. That compares with 700 guns recovered in Montgomery County and about 600 guns taken in Fairfax County. Arlington County police confiscated 60.”

It was probably an illegal gun used in the robbery and shooting of 3 young men leaving a Capitol Heights dance studio over the Memorial Day weekend.   On May 26, 2013, at approximately 12:15 am, patrol officers were called to Hampton Park Boulevard and Hampton Overlook Drive for the report of a shooting. Upon arrival, patrol officers found three male victims, two adults and one juvenile, suffering from apparent gunshot wounds.

The preliminary investigation reveals the victims had just left a birthday party in the 9200 block of Hampton Overlook Drive at the Seize the Dance dance studio. The victims were walking down Hampton Park Boulevard when someone approached them, fired multiple times and fled. The victims suffered non-life threatening injuries.  

This is not a case of a club needing to be shut down.  From what has been reported, there were no problems with the birthday party that was held at the dance studio, although Seize the Dance tweeted that they were misled into allowing the function to take place at  their establishment, “NOT a nightclub. It’s my performing arts gym that was mislead into having a gogo and outside violence has now tainted my dream!”  Seize the Dance is actually an establishment that needs our support.  The dance studio is owned by LaTonya Swann of BET’s Born to Dance; she’s also a renowned choreographer who has worked with Lady Gaga, and Ne-Yo.  He studio has a staff of other dancers/choreographers who teach classes and provide dance programming.