Greenbelt

The Marylanders Junior Olympic girls traveling 16-and-under and 18-and-under fast-pitch softball teams are holding tryouts to fill rosters for the summer season.The tryouts, at the Eleanor Roosevelt High School gymnasium in Greenbelt, will be held tomorrow and Feb. 7. For details, call Dave or Jessica Krug at 301-345-5315.Pub Date: 1/30/99

What if a major institution was interested in relocating its headquarters to Maryland, bringing with it 11,000 good-paying jobs and the need for thousands of additional subcontractors? Would we do everything we could to seal the deal? That's exactly the situation playing out right now, as the Federal Bureau of Investigation seeks a new home to replace an outmoded behemoth that consumes a valuable block of downtown D.C. real estate. The clear best choice is in Greenbelt in Prince George's County, and everyone who lives in Maryland should be in favor of that move.

Employees of Chesapeake Directory Sales Co., a Greenbelt-based affiliate of Bell Atlantic, have sued the company, claiming it laid off minority employees while all whites were moved into "protected positions" and retained.The complaint, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt by 11 CDSC employees, claims the company used "false performance evaluations in weeding out African-American employees." And when the employees hired a lawyer to complain, the lawsuit charges, their jobs were eliminated in June and they were told they would have to sign a release form, waiving any rights to sue, to get severance pay and other benefits to which they should have been entitled.

Robert Shipley Auerbach, one of the founding members of the Maryland Green Party and the party's three-time nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives, died Dec. 12 from injuries suffered in a hit-and-run accident that evening in Greenbelt. He was 92. Born in New York City in 1919, Mr. Auerbach became involved in politics, particularly election reform, in the 1930s. He was active in such groups as the Congress of Racial Equality and the War Resisters League. Mr. Auerbach moved to Greenbelt, where he ran for City Council, more than 50 years ago. A founder of the Green Party's Maryland affiliate, he was nominated for the state's 5th District seat, for the third time, this year.

A Greenbelt man was injured yesterday after falling asleep at the wheel on Interstate 95, causing an accident and a seven-mile traffic jam during the morning commute, state police said.Partha Sengupta, 43, was northbound in the far left lane of I-95 between Route 175 and Route 100 at 9: 30 a.m. when "witnesses said he began driving erratically," said Trooper First Class Arthur Betts.Police said Sengupta's car weaved among lanes before he collided with a car two lanes over, causing minor vehicular damage.

During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized building in Greenbelt one of the first of three planned communities, hoping to create towns that were better connected both socially and economically. The towns were designed to provide housing for low- to middle-income families. In Greenbelt's case that meant families with earned incomes of $800 to $2,200. Government officials chose three areas for their green town plan: Greenbelt in Maryland, Greendale in Wisconsin and Greenhills in Ohio.

Service was interrupted yesterday on the MARC Camden Line between Baltimore's Oriole Park and Greenbelt after a person was struck by a freight train, transit officials said. Maryland Rail Commuter officials had no information about the victim, who was struck by a CSX Corp. train about 2:30 p.m. on the tracks between the Laurel and Muirkirk stations in Prince George's County, said MARC spokesman Richard Scher. Service resumed about 4:30 p.m. between Union Station and Greenbelt. Shuttle buses carried passengers from Greenbelt to stops farther north, he said.

DAVID EVANS died February 9, 2006. He is survived by his wife Angie, his children David, Chris, Kathy Canby, Susan Hennegan, their mom Patricia Evans (nee Sweeney) and their six grandchildren. He also leaves behind a step-son Jeff Morris. A memorial service will be held 10:00 A.M. on Saturday, February 18th at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 6905 Greenbelt Road in Greenbelt, MD. Donations may be made to Hospice of Howard County.

GREENBELT - A Prince George's County man was convicted in Greenbelt's federal court yesterday for the murder of a community college student whose body was found at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in May 2001 and could be sentenced to death, prosecutors announced. U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow found Cornell W. McClure, 25, of Glendale guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Tessa Mae Osborne, 18, of Greenbelt, as well as of kidnapping and possessing a firearm, prosecutors said.

Service was interrupted yesterday on the MARC Camden Line between Baltimore's Oriole Park and Greenbelt after a person was struck by a freight train, transit officials said. Maryland Rail Commuter officials had no information about the victim, who was struck by a CSX Corp. train about 2:30 p.m. on the tracks between the Laurel and Muirkirk stations in Prince George's County, said MARC spokesman Richard Scher. Service resumed about 4:30 p.m. between Union Station and Greenbelt. Shuttle buses carried passengers from Greenbelt to stops farther north, he said.

The Earth Observatory at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt has pulled together an animation of the outbreak of tornadoes that swarmed across the eastern half of the country Friday. Above, you can see a still image pulled from the animation. At least 45 tornadoes spanned across 11 states, killing 40 people, most of them in Kentucky. Click here to view the full animation .

Florence Tan says she'll have fingers and toes crossed when NASA's latest Mars mission blasts off as early as Saturday morning from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The 47-year-old electrical engineer from Montgomery County oversaw all the wiring of an instrument package on board that was designed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center here. In the years leading up to the launch, Tan has painstakingly checked and rechecked all 2,000 pieces of wire inside the microwave oven-sized box — enough to stretch more than a third of a mile if strung together.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. said Wednesday that it will lay off up to 95 employees in Greenbelt when a government contract expires in September. The employees affected are working on a multi-year contract with the National Archives and Records Administration to build a system for the agency's electronic records archive, a project now coming to an end. Lockheed said the layoffs, which could start in August and will finish by Sept. 30, will likely end up being less than the 95 total because it is working to place employees in other company jobs.

Prince George's County Police have arrested a 29-year-old woman charged with throwing acid on a mother and child outside an Oxon Hill parking lot last year. Tikia Shauntice Anderson of Greenbelt is charged with the March 29 attack. The victim told police she was walking through the parking lot that evening and holding her 3-year-old child when she was splashed in the face with a chemical, police said. The victim flagged down an officer on patrol in the area of the 1100 block of Kennebec St., and she and the child were taken to a local hospital for treatment.

The Washington transit system will expand its bus service between Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and that city's subway system for a six-day period around Inauguration Day. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority plans to increase service on its B30 bus line between BWI and the Greenbelt Metro station so that buses run every 20 minutes between Friday and Wednesday, the day after the Jan. 20 inaugural. The B30 typically runs at 40-minute intervals, connecting the airport with the Metro Green Line.

Officials of the Washington Metro subway system said yesterday that they will open the parking lot of the Greenbelt station to passenger cars on Inauguration Day, reversing an earlier decision to reserve it for charter buses. Greenbelt, the northern terminus of the Metro Green Line, is the most convenient station for many travelers from the Baltimore area. The decision opens almost 3,400 spaces there to drivers who might want to use mass transit to get into Washington on Jan. 20 for the swearing-in of Barack Obama.

GREENBELT - The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging a University of Maryland policy that limits public speaking and handing out leaflets to certain "free speech zones" on the College Park campus. In a lawsuit filed yesterday at U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, the ACLU argues that students who want to pass out literature or voice their views shouldn't be constrained to specific areas. Similar limitations have been lifted after challenges at the University of Texas and other schools.

NEWS IN BRIEF* Bozzuto Group is the new name for Bozzuto & Associates of Greenbelt. Company President Thomas S. Bozzuto said the change reflects the continued growth of its subsidiaries and its recent move into the single-family housing market through Bozzuto Custom Homes.Other subsidiaries include Bozzuto Development Co., Bozzuto Management Co., Bozzuto Construction Co. and Bozzuto Landscaping Co.

GREENBELT -- The public corruption trial of Andre J. Hornsby ended yesterday without a verdict after jurors remained deadlocked in the case against the former Prince George's County schools chief. Without a conviction or acquittal on any count, the mis- trial declared by the presiding judge in U.S. District Court marked a high-profile setback for federal prosecutors who charged Hornsby more than a year ago with accepting kickbacks from an educational software saleswoman. Questions about the financial arrangement between Hornsby, 54, and his then-girlfriend Sienna Owens first came to light in a series of 2004 articles in The Sun. The U.S. attorney's office for Maryland immediately pledged to retry the case, while Hornsby's defense lawyer vowed that his client would continue fighting every element of the 16-count criminal indictment against him. "I put it into God's hands," Hornsby, 54, said of the future of the case outside the courthouse late yesterday afternoon.

GREENBELT -- Andre J. Hornsby occasionally teased his girlfriend about getting a portion of her sales commissions, the woman testified yesterday in the federal corruption trial of the former Prince George's County school superintendent. "He made jokes about receiving half the money," said Sienna Owens, who worked as a sales representative for an educational materials provider before losing her job three years ago amid the emerging scandal. "He had made comments about, `Where's my cut?' " "Oh, come on!"