TUESDAY, AUGUST 20 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU B5
missing particular solutions,
even when legislators on the
commission tried to pin them
down.
When Norment asked what
might have helped prevent the
shooting in Virginia Beach,
Driscoll said he had not yet
analyzed that case.
Norment followed up by ask-
ing which state has the best “red
flag” law, a term typically refer-
ring to laws that allow authori-
ties to temporarily take guns
away from someone deemed a
risk to himself for others. Driscoll
demurred again.
ATF lawyer Michael Boyer in-
corporated some images in his
presentation on firearms laws,
including a discussion of who
cannot legally possess them. A
photo of Jack Nicholson, as a
psychiatric patient in the film
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Nest,” appeared on a slide about
people being involuntarily com-
mitted. A cartoon of a woman
chasing her husband with a roll-
ing pin illustrated domestic
abusers. And for “illegal aliens,”
he showed a cartoon of one-eyed
octopus-looking space creatures.
There was an uproar on Twit-
ter. “News Flash: Undocumented
immigrants are human beings,” a
critic wrote.
Boyer said he was “inserting a
little levity. There was no mean-
ing outside that.”
[email protected]Rob Bell (Albemarle).
“Having Mark Obenshain and
Rob Bell lead a hearing on gun
violence prevention is a sick joke.
Why not just have Wayne La-
Pierre and Phil Van Cleave han-
dle the proceedings?” said
Rubenstein, referring to the NRA
chief and the leader of the pro-
gun Virginia Citizens Defense
League, respectively.
Commission members heard
about federal firearms laws from
a representative of the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives; got an overview of
firearms transactions and gun
violence in the state; and learned
the latest figures on gun deaths
and nonfatal gun injuries.
A Secret Service official gave
an overview on mass attacks in
public spaces, a Boston Univer-
sity researcher presented a study
on the most effective ways to
reduce gun homicides, and an
official with the John Jay College
of Criminal Justice laid out a
gang-intervention project.
Steven Driscoll, a research spe-
cialist with the Secret Service’s
National Threat Assessment Cen-
ter, spoke highly of a system
implemented in Colorado after
the 1999 Columbine school
shooting that allows students to
anonymously contact law en-
forcement about peers whose
behavior concerns them.
But he and other speakers
mostly avoided endorsing or dis-proach to studying the root
causes of violent crime and how
to prevent it.” But she also dis-
missed Northam’s “gun-control
schemes” as an effort to divert
attention from a blackface scan-
dal that erupted this year over a
racist photo on his 1984 medical
school yearbook page.
Jake Rubenstein, spokesman
for the Democratic Party of Vir-
ginia, was critical of the staunch
gun rights Republicans who ran
the hearing, Obenshain and the
commission’s vice chairman, Del.eventually agree on legislation to
recommend to the General As-
sembly.
But when Del. Charniele L.
Herring (D-Alexandria), a com-
mission member, asked if they
might expect to vote at the end of
Tuesday’s hearing, Obenshain
their work was just beginning.
The day left both sides frus-
trated.
Catherine Mortensen, a
spokeswoman for the National
Rifle Association, said the group
“appreciates this thoughtful ap-Colonial Heights) and Senate Ma-
jority Leader Thomas K. Nor-
ment Jr. (R-James City) asked the
commission to come up with
recommendations before the
General Assembly reconvenes
Nov. 18 — after a pivotal state
election in which all 140 legisla-
tive seats are on the ballot.
Democrats have dismissed the
move as an effort to dodge the
issue until after Election Day.
Republicans have said they are
sincerely seeking a comprehen-
sive study. Whatever the motiva-
tion, the effort got underway
Monday with the unusually dry
forum, which drew none of the
raucous gun-control and gun
rights protesters who normally
flock to Capitol Square when
firearms are on the agenda.
They are expected to make up
for that Tuesday, when the com-
mission will allow activists, inter-
est groups, legislators and other
guests to testify.
Northam called July’s special
legislative session following a
mass shooting May 31 at a Vir-
ginia Beach municipal complex,
where 13 people died. Republican
House and Senate leaders ad-
journed after 90 minutes without
taking up a single bill. All 78
measures proposed were referred
to the commission.
Sen. Mark D. Obenshain (R-
Rockingham), the panel’s chair-
man, opened the meeting saying
that he hoped members couldBY LAURA VOZZELLArichmond — The State Crime
Commission, thrust into the cen-
ter of Virginia’s roiling gun-
control debate, spent Monday
poring over pie charts, bar
graphs and a few eyebrow-
raising cartoons.
Law-enforcement officials, ep-
idemiologists and academics
spent seven hours presenting
information on the growing
threat of mass shootings, delving
into sometimes obscure data
points on a trend no one could
miss.
“These events are getting clos-
er together, and they’re getting
more devastating,” said Diana
Zuckerman, president of the Na-
tional Center for Health Re-
search.
The 13-member commission,
which is bipartisan but con-
trolled by Republicans, is made
up of lawmakers, three guberna-
torial appointees and one state
official. It has been directed to
study ways to address mass
shootings and other gun vio-
lence.
That daunting task landed in
the commission’s lap in July,
when GOP leaders of the state
House and Senate abruptly ad-
journed a special session that
Gov. Ralph Northam (D) called
after a mass shooting in Virginia
Beach.
House Speaker Kirk Cox (R-
ruary 2017, after Fernandez came
under police investigation a sec-
ond time and was charged with
abusing students, according to the
lawsuit filed in January 2018.
LAMB reached settlements
with both those students this year,
court records show. The amount of
money the school and two former
employees agreed to pay the stu-
dents is redacted from court rec-
ords.
[email protected]appropriately” and failed to “rec-
ognize the inappropriate behav-
iors as red flags and make appro-
priate decisions.”
The two other families who
sued the school made allegations
similar to those in the lawsuit filed
last week, accusing school em-
ployees of failing to protect stu-
dents from the teacher.
The two children involved in
the earlier legal action reported
the abuse to their parents in Feb-west. The school is one of the most
highly regarded in the District.
The school’s principal, execu-
tive director and a student psy-
chologist lost their jobs after the
school’s board of directors com-
missioned an outside investiga-
tion into administrators’ handling
of concerns about Fernandez.
In a five-page letter sent to par-
ents in November 2017, the LAMB
board told families that “adminis-
trators in charge failed to respondin 2015, and they cited the school’s
alleged failure to contact parents
and ask them to hand over their
children’s cellphones as evidence.
The 2015 police investigation
did not result in charges, and Fer-
nandez returned to his job on
March 30, 2015, remaining as the
child’s teacher until the end of that
school year.
Fernandez taught at the North-
east D.C. campus of LAMB, which
also has two campuses in North-One teacher reported that Fer-
nandez had students sit on his lap,
according to the lawsuit.
The school, according to the
court documents, created a cli-
mate “that tolerated sexual as-
sault, exploitation, abuse” and dis-
regarded reports of sexual mis-
conduct.
The student and the mother
said in the lawsuit that the school
did not notify parents when Fer-
nandez was investigated by policeration. Trillions of liquid cloud
droplets and ice crystals jostling in
a turbulent, intense updraft cause
enormous static electrical charges
to build. The lighter (and more
buoyant) ice particles transport
charge of one sign to the upper
cloud reaches, while the heavier
liquid drops settle near cloud base
and concentrate charge of the op-
posite sign there. The potential
difference between these two
strongly polarized regions creates
enormous voltage, internal dis-
charges and flow of current.
On Sunday, the Dulles weather
balloon showed buoyant energy
was concentrated in the critical
layer high up in the atmosphere,
where temperatures were be-
tween 14 and minus-22 degrees, to
support charge induction.
The result? Very frequent elec-
trical discharges within the cloud,
illuminating the night sky with a
measure of shock and awe.
[email protected]than 400 billion kilograms of air
over several hours.)
Careful review of the Doppler
radar at Dulles International Air-
port revealed that the storm com-
plex probably became organized
around a small, mid-level vortex
that was moving across the Blue
Ridge, from the northwest. This
type of circulation, visible at inter-
mediate levels in the Doppler data,
helped these storms ingest unsta-
ble and buoyant air from the south
and east, sustaining and intensify-
ing the storm’s cells. This is impor-
tant; there was insufficient verti-
cal wind shear (increase in winds
with altitude) in the evening to
organize storms, and the vortex
provided an organizing and focus-
ing mechanism.
Why all the talk about buoyant
energy? It’s important when it
comes to generation of lightning.
The formation of lightning in
clouds is based on a hypothesis
called charge induction and sepa-exceptionally deep and vigorous
cloud updrafts were present and
driving the electrical activity to
tremendous heights.
Why would such powerful up-
drafts follow the setting sun? After
all, the sun heats up the ground
and thus destabilizes the atmos-
phere, most strongly in the late
afternoon. The evening appear-
ance of strong to severe thunder-
storms testifies to lots of stored,
buoyant energy in the atmos-
phere, which can linger for hours
after the sun has set. It’s like a
battery that’s been fully recharged
in the afternoon, then starts to
dwindle after dark.
The measure of available buoy-
ant energy, per the evening Dulles
weather balloon, was more than
1,800 Joules (J) per kilogram (kg)
of air. During the midafternoon,
the value was more than 3,000
J/kg. (Just to give you a sense of
how much energy is involved, a
thunderstorm processes moreBY JEFF HALVERSONIn the midst of a sweltering heat
wave, Sunday came and went for
most people with nary a raindrop
during the daylight hours. Around
sunset, several thunderstorm cells
erupted over the Blue Ridge
Mountains and coalesced into an
intense line of storms.
As that storm complex slid off
the high terrain, it generated a
spectacular light show as it ap-
proached Frederick, Montgomery,
Carroll and Howard counties.
With each strobe-like flicker,
heaped cloud formations in the
foreground of the storm complex
became starkly contrasted against
taller thunderstorm clouds to the
rear. At these distances and alti-
tudes, most of the light show was
produced by intracloud lightning
flashes.
Karen Yep, viewing the light-
ning near Olney, commented on
Facebook that it was “near con-
stant” for an entire hour.
It “seemed like a once in a life-
time experience,” Yep wrote. “Nev-
er seen anything like it in my 38
years.”
“Right up there among the most
intense lightning producers I have
seen in the East,” Kevin Folk add-
ed.
The highly electrified storm
complex was the only game in
town (within the greater Washing-
ton-Baltimore region).
Data from the D.C. LMA —
Lightning Mapping Array — indi-
cates more than 70,000 point
sources or discharges fired off in
the one hour between 8 and 9 p.m.
local time. This is the period dur-
ing which the storms reached ma-
turity, triggering several severe
thunderstorm warnings. Doppler
radar estimated wind speeds up to
80 mph just a few thousand feet off
the ground north of Poolesville,
where there was also a report of
utility poles and wires down.
The storm emitted most of its
lightning discharges in the upper
atmosphere, at and above 15 kilo-
meters (9 miles). This indicates
dent’s genitals over their pants.
The student, who graduated from
the school in 2015, is not identified
by name in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses the school
of failing to properly investigate
and fire Fernandez after other
teachers reported concerns about
his interactions with students and
“his failure to observe appropriate
boundaries.”
LAMB FROM B1
District charter school failed to protect student from abuse, lawsuit alleges
VIRGINIA
Crime Commission digs into data on mass shootings ahead of Nov. deadline
STEVE HELBER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lori Haas of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence works before a
Richmond meeting of the State Crime Commission on gun issues.CAPITAL WEATHER GANG
Flashes of brilliance in the Sunday night sky
MATTHEW CAPPUCCI/THE WASHINGTON POST
Sunday night’s storm, as seen from an Alexandria rooftop. Several meteorological conditions
converged to created an electrical spectacle above Maryland.BY MARTIN WEILIn Montgomery County, there
lives an aging and arthritic steer
who prompted concern Monday
after getting stuck for hours in
the mud.
The steer, named Bullwinkle,
weighs about a ton and apparent-
ly got stuck after heavy overnight
rain, according to Anne Shroeder,
who operates Star Gazing Farm,
an animal sanctuary in the upper
part of Montgomery.Probably a cross between the
Holstein and Brown Swiss
breeds, he is about 14^1 / 2 years old
and has spent almost all that time
at the Maryland farm in the
Boyds area, Shroeder said.
The county fire and rescueservice worked for three hours
with cables and straps to free
Bullwinkle, said Pete Piringer, the
service’s spokesman.
But apparently exhausted by
his earlier efforts to get free, he
could not stand, Piringer said.
Shroeder said Bullwinkle was lat-
er moved to drier land, and she
planned to camp out near him
Monday night to watch over him.
[email protected]MARYLAND
A stuck steer gets help from Montgomery Co. rescuers
(^851) Prince Georges County
http://www.hwestauctions.com
AUGUST 13, 20, 27, 2019 12267262
BROCK & SCOTT, PLLC
484 VIKING DRIVE, SUITE 203
VIRGINIA BEACH, VA 23452
SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEES' SALE OF
VALUABLE FEE SIMPLE PROPERTY
KNOWN AS
12603 King Arthur Court
Glenn Dale, MD 20769
Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain
Deed of Trust to LAWYERS TITLE INSURANCE CORP, Trustee(s),
dated July 19, 2006, and recorded among the Land Records
ofPRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND in Liber 25647,
folio 481, the holder of the indebtedness secured by this Deed
of Trust having appointed the undersigned Substitute Trustees,
by instrument duly recorded among the aforesaid Land Records,
default having occurred under the terms thereof, and at the
request of the party secured thereby, the undersigned Substitute
Trustee will offer for sale at public auction at THE PRINCE
GEORGE'S COUNTY COURTHOUSE LOCATED AT FRONT OF
THE DUVAL WING OF THE COURTHOUSE COMPLEX 14735
MAIN ST, UPPER MARLBORO, MD 20772 ON,
AUGUST 29, 2019 at 11:30 AM
ALL THAT FEE SIMPLE LOT OF GROUND and improvements
thereon situated in PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD and
describedasfollows:
PROPERTY BEING KNOWN AND DESIGNATED AS LOT 10,
IN BLOCK B, IN A SUBDIVISION KNOWN AS "SECTION 3,
CAMELOT," AS PER PLAT THEREOF RECORDED, IN PLAT
BOOK WWW 61, AT PLAT 78, AMONG THE LAND RECORDS OF
PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND.
The property will be sold in an "AS IS WHERE IS" condition
without either express or implied warranty or representation,
including but not limited to the description, fitness for a
particular purpose or use, structural integrity, physical condition,
construction, extent of construction, workmanship, materials,
liability, zoning, subdivision, environmental condition, mer-
chantability, compliance with building or housing codes or other
laws, ordinances or regulations, or other similar matters, and
subject to easements, agreements and restrictions of record
which affect the same, if any. The property will be sold
subject to all conditions, liens, restrictions and agreements of
record affecting same including any condominium and of HOA
assessments pursuant to Md Real Property Article 11-110.
TERMS OF SALE: A deposit of $35,500.00 payable in certified
check or by a cashier's check will be required from purchaser at
time of sale, balance in immediately available funds upon final
ratification of sale by the Circuit Court of PRINCE GEORGE'S
COUNTY, MARYLAND interest to be paid at the rate of 6.875%
on unpaid purchase money from date of sale to date of
settlement. The secured party herein, if a bidder, shall not be
required to post a deposit. Third party purchaser (excluding the
secured party) will be required to complete full settlement of
the purchase of the property within TEN (10) CALENDAR DAYS
of the ratification of the sale by the Circuit Court otherwise the
purchaser's deposit shall be forfeited and the property will be
resold at the risk and expense, of the defaulting purchaser.
All other public charges and private charges or assessments,
including water/sewer charges, ground rent, taxes if any, to be
adjusted to date of sale. Cost of all documentary stamps and
transfer taxes and all other costs incident to the settlement
shall be borne by the purchaser. If applicable, condominium
and/or homeowner association dues and assessments will be
adjusted to date of sale. If the sale is rescinded or not ratified for
any reason, including post sale lender audit, or the Substitute
Trustees are unable to convey insurable title or a resale is to
take place for any reason, the purchaser(s) sole remedy in law
or equity shall be limited to the refund of the aforementioned
deposit. The purchaser waives all rights and claims against
the Substitute Trustees whether known or unknown. These
provisions shall survive settlement Upon refund of the deposit,
this sale shall be void and of no effect, and the purchaser
shall have no further claim against the Substitute Trustees.
The sale is subject to post-sale review of the status of the
loan and that if any agreement to cancel the sale was entered
into by the lender and borrower prior to the sale then the sale
is void and the purchaser's deposit shall be refunded without
interest. Additional terms and conditions, if applicable, maybe
announced at the time and date of sale. File No. (18-22510)
Thomas W. Hodge, Robert M. Oliveri, Christine Johnson,
Melissa Alcocer, Jeana McMurray, Brennan Ferguson,
Substitute Trustees
(^851) Prince Georges County (^851) Prince Georges County
You, too,
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1-800-753-POST
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Trustee Sales & Legal Notices