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TALENT ON TAP
Veteran hoofer Glover salutes dance masters on Montgomery College stage. B-5
The Gazette GAITHERSBURG | MONTGOMERY VILLAGE
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
25 cents
School board nixes some project delays Proposes five middle, high schools stay on schedule n
BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Montgomery County students and staff in five middle and high schools may not face delays to construction projects after all. The Montgomery County Board of Education decided Monday not to delay revitalization and expansion projects at two high schools and three middle schools. The board voted Monday to approve a $1.74 billion Capital Improvements Program budget for fiscal years 2015 through 2020 — compared to Superinten-
See DELAYS, Page A-12
Girls gotta run
RAPHAEL TALISMAN/FOR THE GAZETTE
Francis Mockey puts a running bib on his daughter Chelsea Mockey, 9, both of Gaithersburg, before the Girls on the Run 5K at the Montgomery mall in Bethesda on Sunday morning. Mockey was running with a group from Summit Hall Elementary School in Gaithersburg.
Ballistics expert Larry Sturdivan holds a bullet believed to have struck President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas.
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BY
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
n the early-morning hours of Nov. 23, 1963, Dr. James J. Humes washed his hands after overseeing what is arguably the most controversial autopsy in modern U.S. history at Bethesda Naval Hospital, now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The director of laboratories of the National Medical School in Bethesda took his notes of the proceedings to his Bethesda home and burned them after meticulously copying the records because, Humes later testified, they were stained with John F. Kennedy’s blood
SPORTS
HORNETS TAKE TOP HONORS Group of seniors help lead Damascus to first state volleyball championship. B-1
and “inappropriate to be turned over to anyone.” “Having transcribed those notes … I destroyed those pieces of paper,” Humes, who died in 1999, testified in 1977 before a medical panel convened by the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, one of several political bodies that investigated the killing. “I felt they would fall into the hands of some sensation seeker.” That admission is one of many facets of the case that have fueled speculation of a cover-up and conspiracy over Kennedy’s death for the past 50 years. As the half-century anniversary approaches Friday, the autopsy in Bethesda continues to be one of the more controversial elements. “Dr. Humes may have had his reasons for
JAMES K.W. ATHERTON/THE WASHINGTON POST
burning the original autopsy notes,” Philip Shenon, a former New York Times journalist and author of a new book, “A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination,” said in an interview. “But it was still jaw-dropping to discover what he did.” Jim Lesar, president of the Assassination Archives and Research Center, a private organization in Silver Spring that preserves documents and other records on political assassinations, added, “It was an extraordinarily controversial autopsy that has been denounced by many authorities in the field.” Of the roughly 30 agents, military officers, medical personnel and others that the House
See KENNEDY, Page A-17
Officials seek answers on new city property n
Environmental report contained holes because of limited information BY JENN DAVIS STAFF WRITER
Gaithersburg officials have continued to collect more information about potential environmental issues at the former Consumer Product Safety Commission laboratory testing facility, which the city acquired from the federal government on Oct. 1. An environmental report by URS Corp. in September had gaps because of missing information from prior U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Maryland Department of the Environment investigations of the land. Before the city acquired the property for free, it ordered a Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment at the beginning of September to identify potential con-
See PROPERTY, Page A-12
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