this is a continuation of a multi-year phasedown, not phase out, but phase down of general transportation services. second slide? so one thing to set out day up front, students with iep's that require transportation will not be impacted. other things to mention upfront, the transportation changes are all consistent with the board policy guidelines that were established when the board passed a transportation policy in december, 2010, and i will talk about that in a moment. the point is to minimize the use of general fund contributions for transportation, again, necessitated by the state's underfunding of our school district. in december, 2010, the board passed a transportation policy, 108-24sp1, which is the first modification of the transportation policy since the 1970's. prior to that, there was an accumulation of an incremental changes to a policy that was first established in the 1970's, under what we called the horseshoe plan. as you can imagine, as you well know, commissioners, the transportation policy and how we deliver transportation services is intrinsically tied to, or should be

. >> one victim said she and her friends were ordered phasedown on the ground. -- face down in the ground. she quickly text dead her mom a message. -- texted her mom a message. >> he had an urge to rape them, he reported. he also did not like the police sketch of him convolute -- on billboards. >> if his biggest concern is he does not match the police sketch when there is some much other evidence against him he is a little bit delusional i think. >> the judge also received a report this morning during the hearing that thomas is competent to stand trial after a review by a psychologist. a court date is expected. >> thank you. meanwhile, metro is counting a drop in serious crime. the transit agency has revealed a five-year crime report. it is reporting a 16% drop between 2010 and 2011. aggravated assaults fell to 108. larcenies dipped below 800. metro officials say they experience they gain in thefts. they attribute that to nationwide it trends. >> same-sex marriages maryland. right now gov. martin o'malley is signing a bill he pitched into law. it makes maryland the eighth state that allow