Pr. Geo's County Exec: No relation between Johnson & Johnson

In case anyone was wondering -- and people were -- Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) is NOT related to one of his appointees, James E. Johnson, the county executive said Tuesday.

In one of several bizarre moments to come out of the County Council's protracted final session of 2009, the county executive felt the need to make the assurance to a packed hearing room after James Johnson's nomination for head of housing and community development reignited speculation that the two were cousins.

"James Johnson and I are not related by blood, at all," Johnson said, to laughter, during a public hearing on James Johnson's nomination. "I want to put that on the record. We don't want any confusion about that."

The two Johnsons are far from strangers, however. The county exec said they have known each other "for many years," and the pair attended the same undergraduate school, Benedict College in Columbia, S.C.