On WTEM’s “Monday Morning Quarterback” show yesterday, host Andy Pollin led a discussion of Sunday’s ceremony at FedExField honoring former safety Sean Taylor, who was murdered a year ago last week.

Everybody on the air agreed the tribute didn’t work for reasons ranging from the weather to the selection of the wrong host for a memorial service (former NBC sportscaster George Michael, whose only gear when the microphone is hot is “Top 40 Dance Party!”).

There was also a consensus that Pedro Taylor, the surviving father, gave a bizarre response to Michael’s bizarre question: What’s Sean doing now?

Pedro said something along the lines of “He’s on his sailboat fishing.”

Pollin declared Pedro would have better answered that the ex-Redskin was “looking down” at the Skins/Giants game.

“Or up,” co-host John Riggins chimed in quickly. “If Joe Gibbs is wrong…”

Washington, D.C. is a complicated place. Journalists in D.C. bureaus are getting laid off in droves. Kids these days like Second Life and other avatar-driven games. Dave Johnson, a professor at American University, is clearly smarter than the rest of us, because he thinks he’s figured out a way to reconcile all this by creating a game-like platform that presents a virtual D.C. that dynamically presents information to users by employing an algorithm that—oh, damned if I know. All I know is that he’s asking the Knight News Challenge for about $1 million to create the thing. Here’s an excerpt from his proposal, linked from Fishbowl NY today:

This project will build a working “SimCityâ€� model of Washington, DC, visualizing the federal buildings and placing avatars of elected and appointed officials in and around them. Based in open source tools such as Blender and the Python language, the environment will be built from the ground up with hooks to work with other open source data-driven projects as well as social networking sites. (The interface and engine can be brokered to model any state’s capitol, or any city in any state or nation.) Beyond the platform interface, the goal is to attach vast databases of public information: The effects of federal policies/politics on local policies/politics; the structure of financial relationships and their effects on policies/politics. Strong journalism – print, broadcast and new media – that relates these communities to Washington will be easy to find and new audiences will appreciate the relevance to their communities.

This may be an improvement over hiring a smart reporter in a D.C. bureau. I can’t see how, though.

Medical Museum, 1993

Yesterday, Loose Lips Daily linked to San Francisco Bike Blog– which thinks the Washington Area Bicycle Association should bring its bike valet service to Inauguration 2009.

“Who wants to get hands-runneth-over by security guards just so you can stand on a packed [Metro] platform with dudes in blue, carrying big, automatic weapons? Not me. People need to be able to go by bike, and they need a place to put their bikes when they arrive. The local cycling organization knows how to do bike valet parking - they should offer it at the inauguration.”

Turns out WABA has a Thursday meeting with DDOT to discuss doing exactly that.

If all goes well at the meeting, says WABA staffer Henry Mesias, the organization will set up a bike valet station towards the south of the Capitol and just outside the inauguration’s hard-security-perimeter.

On the morning of November 6, two D.C. police officers responded to the home of David Kerstetter. The door to Mr. Kerstetter’s condo had been been busted open. It looked suspicious. So the police were called. The officers were eventually confronted with a very simple scene: Mr. Kerstetter in his bedroom, allegedly holding a knife.

This scene turned into the police-involved shooting death of Mr. Kerstetter.

The Kerstetter shooting remains under investigation. But decades ago, in Memphis, another mid-size city, a similar scenario sparked outrage, political turmoil, a task force, and ultimately some real change. That same man-with-knife scenario ended up spurring major reforms within the Memphis Police Department. Those reforms have since become models for the rest of the country’s police departments.

Read More “Will The Kerstetter Shooting Spark Reforms With D.C. Police?” »

In a “Special 40th Anniversary Issue” of its newsletter, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs noted that the District recently made some big news. The city offered the largest settlement in its history for a wrongful-death case involving a prisoner. The prisoner had been fatally stabbed at the D.C. Jail six years ago.

The murder occurred in December 2002. During a four-day period that month, three men were stabbed—only one survived. “No corrections officers witnessed the incidents,” the Committee reports.

The Committee goes on to report that the D.C. Prisoner’s Legal Services Project (now the D.C. Prisoners’ Project of the Committee), along with the firm Sparks & Silber, and Covington & Burling filed the wrongful death case against the District on behalf of Pearl Beale. Beale is the mother of one of the deceased D.C. Jail inmates, Givon Pendleton. The case generated in excess of 50,000 pages of discovery documents. And thousands of pages of deposition transcripts. There were fights over a lot of the discovery right down to e-mail search terms.

Despite all the legal wrangling, depositions and discovery documents, the case landed big-time and in unexpected ways. Lawsuits involving inmates often disappear. This one did not. The lawyers in this case didn’t back down.

The Washington Lawyers’ Committee’s newsletter has a great summary of the case’s impact: “For more than four years, the case was inextricably linked with reform of the D.C. Jail, with plaintiffs’ attorneys advocating on a wide range of issues, from security, staffing, and population limits to the naming of a reform-minded Director of the Department of Corrections.”

Read More “Pearl Beale Gets Justice: City Gives Biggest Payout In Wrongful Death Of Inmate” »

In two days, the decorating committee of the National Parks Service will ruin yet another beautiful tree. This year’s recipient of the hairnet of lights—and maybe even the giant plastic bows from last year—has been trucked in from the Montana/Idaho border to the Ellipse. W. will flip the switch Thursday at 5. And to Montana, D.C. should say: I’m sorry. I’m sorry that you, Montana, have sacrificed a 100-foot sub-alpine fir to people here who think it’s OK to decorate it with fewer skills than a 5-year-old. We’re sorry that we’re going to slip a twinkling condom over your tree and plug it in. We’re sorry we’ve done this for at least the last 20 years. But it was not always thus. Back in 1923, we didn’t stick stupid shit on the National Christmas Tree. We allowed it to look like an actual tree:

Read More “The Lighting of the National Hairnet” »

(200 block of West Glebe Road, Alexandria, Dec. 1)

Now, we all know that the former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright is an accomplished individual. She skillfully handled the powder keg that was the parts of the former Yugoslavia and coined perhaps the boldest rationale ever for using the U.S. military, in a discussion with Colin Powell: “What’s the point of you saving this superb military for, Colin, if we can’t use it?”

All of which is fine and good. But now Albright has somehow stretched her skill set, for the purposes of pre-inauguration happy talk. Let the Washington Post take it away:

Former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright said that the body language of Obama and Clinton, as well as the public statements they have made since the primary season concluded, suggest that the partnership will work. “I think they are both highly professional and highly respectful of each other,” she said. “I am sure that in fact that they have worked out a way that she will have the kind of access she needs. She will give him her opinion unvarnished, but she will also be a very good team member.”

As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Good morning, and happy penultimate legislative meeting day. A special LL note to former campaign honchos: You have two days to remove all of your political signs from public space! WRC-TV reports you can recycle your used campaign placards by dropping them at the Reeves Center loading dock this week during business hours. Or do like Carol Schwartz: Clip off the date and save them for next time!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—”Final Lottery Contract Vote Set for Dec. 16“; “Mary Cheh Subpoenas Elections Board, Vendor“; “D.C. GOP Goes to Court Over Michael Brown’s Party Status”

If LL’s comprehensive coverage of the D.C. GOP’s lawsuit asking the D.C. Court of Appeals to keep Michael Brown off the D.C. Council isn’t good enough for you (harrumph), then check Hamil Harris‘ fine piece in WaPo or Michael Drost’s fine piece in WaTimes or Tierney Plumb’s fine piece in Biz Journal. (Don’t bother with the AP dispatch.)

If LL’s comprehensive coverage of Mary Cheh’s elections subpoenas isn’t good enough for you (harrumph), then check out Mike Neibauer’s fine piece in Examiner.

More Neibauer: Taxicab task force report is out; recommends “[h]igher fares [duh], revamped taxicab driver training programs and deputized hack inspectors.” Fare hikes might include higher per-mile rate, elimination of intra-District $19 cap.

THE BIGGER CAB NEWS—WTF are District riders still paying a gas surcharge when cabbies are paying well under $2 a gallon? WTOP’s Adam Tuss demands answers! DCTC chair Leon Swain says, “I am trying to get rid of the surcharge,” perhaps by next week.

Firehouse fight! WUSA-TV’s Dave Statter says cops responded to fight yesterday afternoon between company captain and driver. It all went down at E30/T13 in Ward 7.

Read More “Loose Lips Daily: Recycle Your Campaign Signs!” »

High noon will come after all.

Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans sent a letter today to Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray asking that the highly controversial lottery contract be added to the agenda at the council’s Dec. 16 legislative meeting—the last session scheduled for the term.

Evans’ request breaks a stalemate that’s lasted since spring, when council approval of the $120 million lottery contract became a political hot potato after reports that winner W2I had connections to controversial businessmen Warren Williams Sr. and Warren C. Williams Jr. Though the W2I contract is universally acknowledged to save millions over the rival bid from longtime vendor Lottery Technology Enterprises, run by well-connected businessman Leonard Manning, the Williamses’ connections with slum properties and a shuttered nightclub scuttled quick council approval.

Gray voted in May to table the contract approval resolution, the last council action on the matter, and since then, he has said that any member was welcome to revisit the issue while pointing out that no new circumstances or additional information have existed to warrant fresh action. But yesterday, Gray softened on the prospects for another vote: “There’s certainly that possibility,” he said in response to LL’s question at a council press conference. “We wouldn’t foreclose anything that’s possible.”

Read More “Final Lottery Contract Vote Set for Dec. 16″ »

Renew Shaw has the scoop on where to get a decent Christmas Tree.

D.C. Foodies writes an exhaustive (and awesome) first person account of smoking some BBQ in the winter time:

“I understand why some people say Labor Day is the official end of grilling season. I understood it acutely on a recent Saturday morning as my breath fogged the air in front of me. As much as I believe that grilling is a year-round activity, there are a few things that are better done during the warmer months. Smoking meat is on the top of that list. Rather, smoking meat was on the top of that list.”

Meanwhile, our own Young & Hungry tries out organic pancakes in a can.

And Now, Anacostia has a recap of last week’s meeting on Poplar Point: “Biggest complaint: the city still has not figured out how to publicize these meetings (no mention of it on the city website, no way to sign up to receive emails, etc). Regardless, Birney Elementary was filled with people eager to learn more about the awesome future we all want in Poplar Point.” We’ve debated Poplar Point some months ago.

Brightest Young Things reports on a band that’s getting more of a backlash than Vampire Weekend.

Intangible Arts spots an awesome Obama poster.

The Triangle is on flood watch detail.

And last night we talked to a high-ranking D.C. Police Department official about how they teach officers in dealing with mentally-ill residents in crisis. And got some confusing answers.

*photo by Young & Hungry.

The District-born, St. Albans-educated Jeffrey Wright may have chosen to be more character actor than leading man since his breakout performance as the titular artist in 1996’s Basquiat.

But he’s sure been a busy one: This fall alone, you can see Wright portray a reticent Colin Powell (W.), an even more reticent CIA agent (Quantum of Solace), and now blues legend Muddy Waters in the upcoming Cadillac Records, the story of ’50s-era R&B artists that’s predominantly gotten buzz for Beyonce’s turn as Etta James.

That’s OK, though — Ms. Knowles can bring ‘em, while Wright will simply knock their socks off like the less glitzy but equally talented workhorse that he is.

Listen to NPR’s interview with Wright, then catch Cadillac this Friday.

In the wake of the police shooting death of David Kerstetter, I was told by the D.C. police department that its point man on issues related to dealing with residents in crisis is Commander Brian Jordan. Kerstetter had long suffered with his bipolar diagnosis. When the police arrived at his Logan Circle condo on November 6, Kerstetter was in crisis.

While police administrators were pushing Jordan publicly as their go-to guy, I learned that he was actually no longer charged with dealing with this mental-health issue. In fact, at the time of Kersetter’s death, Jordan had already been transferred to head up the department’s school security division. He had made the move around a month or so ago.

Since Chief Cathy Lanier isn’t returning my requests for an interview, I went ahead and interviewed Jordan today. I thought he could offer some insight in how the D.C. police are trained in handling residents who are suicidal or are having a bad reaction to their meds or are just having a freak-out moment.

Read More “D.C. Police vs. Mentally Ill Residents, Part 2″ »