THE WASHINGTON POST

ACCOUNTABILITY

Innocent man spent months in jail for bringing honey back to United States
(B1, Aug. 25, 2019)
Leon Haughton likes honey in his tea. Which is why during his Christmas visit to relatives in Jamaica, he made his regular stop and bought three bottles from a favorite roadside stand before heading home to Maryland. It was a routine purchase for him until he landed in Baltimore’s airport. Customs officers detained Haughton and police arrested him, accusing him of smuggling in not honey but liquid meth.

Washington-area funeral operator has been shut down, sued and fined. Now he’s been convicted.
(B1, Apr. 27, 2019)
During the past five years, Shaun Reid has been reprimanded, fined, investigated and sued in connection with his funeral homes in the Washington region, government and court documents show. Now, several customers who contend they’ve been deceived by Reid hope that his Maryland conviction and the complaints he faces in the region will end dealings they say prey on grieving families.

Faulty wiring cited in early investigation of 6-year-old’s electrocution at MGM National Harbor
(B1, Sept. 25, 2018)
Investigators looking into the electrocution of a 6-year-old girl who was critically injured at MGM National Harbor say a device that controls the flow of electricity to lights on a handrail she touched was improperly installed, according to a preliminary assessment obtained by The Washington Post.

Inspector who oversaw area where girl was electrocuted at MGM felt pressure to approve work that didn’t meet code, court document says
(B1, Oct. 19, 2018)
A third-party electrical inspector at MGM National Harbor, where a 6-year-old girl was electrocuted, told county officials he reluctantly accepted work that didn’t comply with code because he felt pressure to do so from other construction entities, according to a court document reviewed by The Washington Post.

Lax management, ignored complaints created ‘unchecked breeding ground for abuse,’ lawsuit in Md. school sex case asserts
(A1, Nov. 14, 2017)
Less than two months after Deonte Carraway was hired as a teacher’s aide for an elementary school in Prince George’s County, a fourth-grade student complained about his behavior to an administrator. “You need to check Deonte’s phone,” the student told one of the school’s top officials, a new court filing shows. “There’s some things with kids on it, nasty things.” The administrator dismissed the student’s concerns and did not investigate, saying Carraway had a “clean record,” according to a lawsuit filed against school staff members and the county school board. Hundreds of pictures, dozens of videos and 23 victims later, the student turned out to be right.

Where is Relisha? A year later, many still long to find ‘everybody’s child.’
(B1, Feb. 26, 2015)
One year ago, 8-year-old Relisha Rudd vanished. The second-grader had been living with her mother and three brothers in a grimy shelter for homeless families at the former D.C. General Hospital. As D.C. police set off on a frantic search for the missing child last March, they discovered that Kahlil Tatum, the shelter janitor who took her, had killed his wife and then himself, leaving behind a mystery: Where is Relisha?

NARRATIVE

His F-16 lost its engine, then caught fire over Washington before crashing. And he lived to tell about it.
(B1, Nov. 29, 2018)
Capt. Jonathan “Holster” Morgan was on a routine training mission slicing through clear blue sky over Washington when the engine of his jet failed. Then it caught on fire. Then it crashed into a suburban Maryland neighborhood. The saga of how he managed to get home in one piece.

A second chance for a convicted killer
(C1, July 19, 2014)
Because of a 2012 Maryland Court of Appeals decision, David Belton and about 60 other convicted robbers, killers and rapists whose cases were tried before 1980 have been released from prison early. Now, a second chance at life has launched Belton and men like him into an ordinary world made extraordinary by their decades of confinement.

Before graduation, a moment with the mom he never knew
(A1, July 8, 2014)
The day Tyshon Williams was born was the same day that his mother died: She was shot outside her apartment building in Temple Hills, Md., in a still unsolved case. He visited her grave on the day of his high school graduation.

‘Please, God, let this child be alive’: Officer discovers girl alone in car on hot day
(May 3, 2018)
The car was running, a window was down and the little girl’s eyes were closed. It was a hot day, and the 10-year member of the police department feared the worst.

What ‘CSI’ and ‘NCIS’ don’t show you about the lives of crime-scene investigators
(B1, April 6, 2016)
Television crime shows often end neatly with investigators arriving at a heinous scene, collecting decisive evidence and identifying a suspect in the span of an hour (with commercial breaks). But clues left at actual crime scenes aren’t always conclusive or easy to find. In real life, recovering clues is physically, emotionally and mentally grueling work, as a night with a squad of crime-scene technicians in Prince George’s County showed.

A lost mother and daughter: In the case of missing 8-year-old Relisha Rudd, emotional scars transcend generations
(A1, Dec. 23, 2014)
Young never wanted her own children to end up in foster care as she did. But then her daughter disappeared in the company of Kahlil Tatum, a janitor at the D.C. homeless shelter where the family was living. The janitor killed his wife and then himself, while Relisha simply vanished.

Where is Relisha? A year later, many still long to find ‘everybody’s child.’
(B1, Feb. 28, 2015)
The second-grader had been living with her mother and three brothers in a grimy shelter for homeless families at the former D.C. General Hospital. As D.C. police set off on a frantic search for the missing child last March, they discovered that Kahlil Tatum, the shelter janitor who took her, had killed his wife and then himself, leaving behind a mystery: Where is Relisha Rudd?

CRIMINAL JUSTICE and PUBLIC SAFETY

The decadent, sometimes dangerous parties at the mansions next door.
(A1, Oct. 12, 2015)
The “Upscale Mansion Party” — as it was advertised on Instagram and Twitter — wasn’t a flashy Hollywood event or even the scene at an upscale D.C. nightclub. It was one of many unregulated house parties that people are hosting to help pay their bills and that law enforcement officials around the region have been more actively shutting down after complaints from neighbors and public officials, who say they present a multitude of hazards.

‘How much is too much to allow a 2-year-old to live?’ Murder trial over $600 child support payments ends in a conviction.
(B1, April 5, 2018)
In the months after Daron ­Boswell-Johnson learned he was the father of a 2-year-old girl, he took to the Internet for advice. “How can I stop child support?” he tapped into his phone in late 2015. “How does the court know if child support is not paid?” he typed shortly after. And in January 2016, he asked, “What if I am behind on my child support?” Weeks later, his daughter and her mother were dead.

Baltimore officer acquitted of murder, other charges in Freddie Gray case
(A1, June 24, 2016)
The sole officer charged with murder in the death of Freddie Gray not guilty of all counts, leaving prosecutors without a conviction for the third time in the high-profile case that spurred riots and unrest in the city last year.

Dirt-bike dealers battling brazen ‘wheelie boys’ in thefts
(A1, July 7, 2017)
Several recently burglarized motorbike dealers along the East Coast say thefts have ramped up in recent years as swarms of illegal dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles regularly flood public roads and pop wheelies in chaotic hordes, chasing social-media stardom.

Manafort convicted on 8 counts; mistrial declared on 10 others
(A1, Aug. 21, 2019)
A jury found former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort guilty Tuesday on tax- and bank-fraud charges — a major if not complete victory for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as he continues to investigate the president’s associates.

Video of victim blinking might be used as evidence in Prince George’s murder trial
(A1, Nov. 1, 2013)
Can a dying man’s blinks be used as evidence in a murder trial? Melvin Pate was left paralyzed during a drug robbery, but he blinked in response to being shown a photo of his alleged assailant out of a photo lineup.

 

BREAKING NEWS

In Las Vegas, going back to where they thought they would die
(A1, Oct. 5, 2017)
LAS VEGAS — It was different in the light of day.
There was no sound of blaring sirens, no ‘pop, pop, pop’ of gunfire, no screams.
Just a quiet, sprawling lot of cars abandoned by those, like Kassidy Owen, who escaped with their lives.
“It’s strange to hear the silence,” Owen said, “because all I remember was the noise.

Armed with a new approach, police and medics stormed through the Las Vegas gunfire, saving lives
(A1, Oct. 6, 2017)
Relationships between the nation’s police and fire departments can range from friendly rivalries to downright acrimony. In Las Vegas, officials are confident that an innovative effort requiring both agencies to train together to respond to active-shooter incidents saved countless lives in the massacre that left 58 dead.

When the bullets came down in Las Vegas, he told his wife to run. He needed to stay
(Inside A, Oct. 7, 2017)
LAS VEGAS — Like many enjoying the final concert of the Route 91 Harvest festival Sunday, Travis and Haley Haldeman thought they were hearing fireworks when the first pops sounded. But when the next volley started, the off-duty firefighter and his wife realized they had to take cover from gunfire.

‘I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on earth’: A self-proclaimed white nationalist planned a mass terrorist attack, the government says
(B1, Feb. 20, 2019)
A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant and self-identified white nationalist was arrested after federal investigators uncovered a cache of weapons and ammunition in his Maryland home that authorities say he stockpiled to launch a widespread domestic terrorist attack targeting politicians and journalists.

FEATURES

D.C., where’s my car? How the city lost — and found — a reporter’s Toyota RAV4
(B1, Aug. 18, 2013)
City officials must often relocate cars with little notice, such as when they have to make way for the presidential motorcade. The city, however, doesn’t keep track of how often cars are moved and lost.

Running for president is harder than it looks; Nats hold tryouts for racing mascots
(B1, March 3, 2013)
It’s not exactly the race to the White House, but it’s the closest that some baseball fans in the Washington region will ever get to being commander in chief.

Love waits in the refrigerator
(May 9, 2017)
I grew up in a Vietnamese household in Arizona, with a mother whose love language is food. Her creation of a pot of pho was a multiday affair. I remember going with her from butcher counter to butcher counter, searching for the meatiest oxtails, the butteriest marrow bones and shanks with just the right proportions of fat, tendon and meat.

Juuling: If you don’t know what it is, ask your kids
(B1, May 12, 2018)
Parents, principals and police struggle with underage Juul use, worried the novelty of the slim e-cigarettes that look like USB drives and their fruity nicotine pods will create a new generation of addicted smokers.

EDUCATION

Montgomery examines fairness of private funding for school projects
(A1, August 11, 2013)
Booster clubs and parent-teacher associations have long been important sources of funding for schools, paying for items such as playground equipment, field lighting and other amenities that public money might not otherwise buy. But in Montgomery, one of the most affluent counties in the United States, officials are concerned that private fundraising for such public improvements is widening economic disparities in the community.

Montgomery special education program under investigation
(B1, July 7, 2013)
Special-education students would take a bus about two miles to a now-defunct teachers’ credit union during the school day. They withdrew cash from personal accounts that school employees helped them open. And when they finished, students handed envelopes full of money to adults. Now, parents and special-education advocates are questioning the legality and ethics of a Montgomery County schools program designed to teach students life skills as district and state officials investigate allegations of financial mismanagement.

Teacher pay gaps among Washington area schools could deepen
(A1, May 11, 2013)
Discrepancies in teacher pay across the region are large, and the recession has sharpened the divide, sending some teachers looking for better deals. Parents and school officials worry that if such disparities in teacher pay deepen, districts that are already struggling to stay competitive will fall further behind as their best teaching talent moves elsewhere.

Parents, food service directors debate snacks sneaking into kids’ diets at school
(C1, April 14, 2013)
Across the country, lunch directors, nutritionists and parents are questioning what snacks should be allowed in school cafeterias as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) crafts new federal nutrition standards limiting sugar, fat and sodium for school snacks and drinks. The rules would be the first update to school snack guidelines in more than 30 years and would come as first lady Michelle Obama continues to take aim at childhood obesity.

Montgomery County superintendent Joshua Starr’s prominence injects him into national debate on standardized testing
(C1, Dec. 16, 2012)
Prominent superintendent’s  sharp critiques come at a time of intense and often rancorous debate over the role of standardized testing in President Obama’s plans for improving instruction, closing the achievement gap, and holding students and teachers accountable.

Montgomery County pupils have new report-card goal: Straight ES’s
(B1, Sept. 30, 2012)
Say goodbye to the “A for effort” and hello to the “DEM.” Your kid not doing so hot in math? Don’t count on seeing a C or D. Look for an N instead. The Montgomery County public school system is joining other districts across the country in abandoning traditional letter grades for some students and instead matching student evaluations with specific curriculum standards.