Archive for the ‘Bureaucracy’ Category
Health Department Closed Pools at UDC, Apartment Buildings
Officials at the city’s Department of Health finally released the list of the pools its inspectors shut down this year. As a followup to our summer pool coverage, here’s the lowdown:
The indoor pool at the University of the District of Columbia was closed Mar. 4 “for leaks,” according to DOH spokesperson Dena Iverson. Apparently, water has been seeping out of the pool and into the ground for years prior to the shutdown, says UDC spokesperson Alan Etter, who says school officials have hired a contractor and hope to reopen the pool next spring.
“For years, they’d patch it,” he says. Now, “they just want to fix it right.”
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Our Morning Roundup: Boycott City
Good morning, City Desk readers, and welcome to the last Creative-Loafing-in-bankruptcy Freedom Friday! This time next week, we very well might be under “new management,” as health-code-violating restaurants like to say.
Today: Lefties will picket the Whole Foods at P Street. Tomorrow: Righties will respond by handing out Whole Food CEO John Mackey’s Wall Street Journal editorial. In the near future: At least one person plans to boycott Wal-Mart to punish the mega retailer for pulling its ads from Glenn Beck’s show.
To all of the above, a newsflash: Boycotting is a) wrong and b) doesn’t work.
There’s a Ferret in My Doctor’s Office, What Should I Do?
Say you show up for your annual physical and there’s a poodle wandering around the waiting room. Or a ferret in the hallway outside the bathroom where you’ve just peed into a little plastic cup.
Is that allowed? Can your doctor really bring his pets to the office?
The D.C. Board of Medicine says yes.
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Red Line Trains Collide Near Fort Totten: Deadliest Crash In Metro History
Comes this dispatch, via Dr. Gridlock:
A Red Line Metrorail train derailed at 5:10 p.m. approaching Fort Totten in the Shady Grove-bound side. Trains are turning back at Brookland and Takoma….Metro says that shuttle bus service has been requested to bridge the gap between Takoma and Brookland.
There are reports of injuries. Developing.
UPDATE, 5:35 P.M.: This seems quite a bit worse than a minor derailment. WJLA-TV reports:
Metro confirms two trains have collided on the Red Line between the Takoma and Fort Totten stations. It happened close to the Fort Totten station, a Metro spokesperson said.
D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Alan Etter said one train was on top of the other train.
This is “developing into a mass casualty event,” Etter said. “We’re expecting a number of injuries. We’re not aware of any fatalities at this point.”
Update, 5:46 p.m.: ABC News/News Channel 8 is reporting one fatality. Reporter Brad Bell saw the fatality being taken from the accident scene. At least nine people injured. The fatality appears to be a male. Many passengers still stuck inside metro cars. Fire Department spokesman Alan Etter confirms one dead on WTOP.
Here is the official Metro alert:
“Metro reports that 2 train collided and one train is on top of the other train. Metro reports massive injuries at this time. The green line and the red line are affected. Further information to follow.”
It looks like the accident ocurred just beyond the Fort Totten stop.
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“Beer Garden is Not Our Term.”
More on the beer garden proposed near National’s Stadium in D.C.
Andrew J. Kline, representing Robert “Bo” Blair, said at a March 25 meeting of the Alcohol Beverage Control Board that his client wants to create a “festival site with amenities” near National’s Stadium, but that “beer garden is not our term, I don’t know where that came from.”
Cardinal’s Nest Show Showdown Today at D.C. ABRA
The D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration has ordered Cardinal’s Nest owner Darrell Green, a former D.C. police officer, to appear before the board today to answer multiple charges: that he allowed underage drinking; allowed beverages to be sold that were not for consumption inside of the establishment; permitted the sale of back drinks (translation: double-fisting); played music too loud; and violated multiple specifications of a voluntary agreement he entered with Brookland residents. He was also charged with not making that agreement available for inspection.
Green is scheduled to appear before the board today at 1 p.m. At last check, he was being represented by Andrew J. Kline, who Loose Lips reported in December violated nearly a dozen rules of professional conduct, including committing criminal forgery and engaging in behavior “involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation,” according to a report [PDF] issued by the D.C. Court of Appeals’ Board of Professional Responsibility.
Read the full report and other details after the jump.
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Remember the Mustard-Yellow Condoms? A Look at the District’s Tortured Response to the AIDS Crisis
A little more than a week ago, news broke that at least three percent of District residents have AIDS or HIV. This provoked Shannon L. Hader, director of the city’s HIV/AIDS Administration to now-famously compare D.C. to West Africa. When pressed by Loose Lips at a press conference, Hader stated that our rates of infection were twice as high as New York City and five times that of Detroit.
As LL pointed out, the bigwigs at the press conference—Mayor Adrian Fenty, Councilmember David Catania, et al.—defensively argued that the part of the reason for the high infection rates is that the city is just testing more people. Case in point: testing is now routine at the D.C. Jail.
But this epidemic is not a new epidemic. In fact, it’s been called an epidemic too many times to count. Perhaps the reason this story didn’t provoke serious outrage and more press conferences and men in white coats discussing infection trend patterns is that this is an old story.
“This is the number one [public health] priority of this government,” Fenty told the Washington Post. That quote was from an April 5, 2007, story headlined: “Fenty Renews Fight Against HIV-AIDS; Mayor Promises Strong Effort, Plans To Pick New Agency Chief.” In the story’s first graph, the mayor “pledged” to “put an end to this crisis.”
D.C. Jail Inmates Still Being Over-Detained
Yesterday, Washington City Paper’s Mike DeBonis tracked the latest turn in the war between Councilmember Phil Mendelson and AG Peter Nickles over the D.C. Jail’s 10 p.m. inmate release deadline. Nickles doesn’t like the law and wants it repealed. Mendo is still probably “appalled” at the request.
Nickles argues that the law is too costly. Advocates say that the law is put in place to curb over-detentions at the D.C. Jail and prevent inmates from being dumped in the middle of the night. Yesterday, Nickles sent a letter to Mendo pressing his case.
I was charmed by this particular section:
“DOC reports that the frequency of over-detentions has been reduced in the last year by approximately 40%,” Nickles writes. “Since early 2007, DOC has reduced the number of over-detentions from as high as 45 per month to as low as eight per month in 2008. DOC has spent approximately five years working to improve its release proceedures…”
It’s interesting that for all of the DOC’s work, there are still inmates who are being over-detained. It’s still amazing to me that the District can’t seem to get this right.
The Most Expensive Room In The City
At last week’s hearing on the Department of Mental Health, Councilmember David Catania revealed the cost to house one person for one year at St. Elizabeths.
Guess how much?
About $280,000 per year.
“That is an enormous amount of money,” Catania said in what has to be the understatement of the day. There are so many reasons the money isn’t worth it. University Legal Services has found plenty of reasons.
Councilmembers Thomas And Alexander Make Fools Of Themselves
D.C. Councilmembers Harry Thomas Jr. and Yvette Alexander are elected officials. People must have seen something in them that they liked. Maybe in Thomas’ case, it was his famous name. Maybe in Alexander’s case, it was her sunny personality. But since joining the council, both have gained reputations as lightweights.
Last Wednesday, on February 18, Thomas and Alexander earned their reps.
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D.C. Jail Establishes New Procedures For Transgender Inmates
Today, the D.C. Department of Corrections issued a “program statement” establishing new procedures in how it classifies and houses transgendered inmates at the D.C. Jail. This is a huge step, and a surprisingly progressive step for the D.C. Jail. In a letter obtained by Washington City Paper, AG Peter Nickles wrote to to the D.C. Prisoners’ Project of the new regs:
“Pursuant to this policy, the District Will be one of only a few jurisdictions in the nation to permit transgender inmates to be housed according to their gender identity in appropriate cases, and to allow transgender inmates to initiate hormone therapy while in custody.
These provisions, along with other aspects of the policy, will help to ensure that the rights of transgender prisoners are respected and that their unique needs are accommodated, to the extent practicable, while they are incarcerated.”
New York State is the only jurisdiction that has these kinds of procedures. This is big.
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You Are Ordered To Stay Away
Arraignment court—in C10 of D.C. Superior Court—is starting to feel a little predictable. A man gets called. Sometimes he’s in shackles. Sometimes not. He steps forward. He places his hands behind his back. The man is read his charges (drugs, stolen auto, fugitive warrant). He is then told to stay away from somewhere in the District.
It’s almost 5 p.m. Arraignment court doesn’t end until every man gets their stay-away order.
At 4:45 p.m., a man steps up to the judge. He is told to stay away from Alberto’s Pizza on P Street NW in Dupont Circle.
100 yards.
Like a football field, the man says.
Black Jesus And Ice Cream Cones
Sitting behind the defense table are a pair of brothers, Gerald and Richard Arnold. Richard is in braids. Gerald is in a light blue shirt that’s too big for his frame. They look bored. Almost sleepy. They came into courtroom 320 clutching legal file folders. But the proceedings are slow and tedious. A juror is interviewed about her past drug charges. Another juror is quizzed. There is a bench conference in which someone flips the white noise switch.
The entire room is filled with white noise. It’s enough to make anyone–even defendants on trial for two murders and a raft of drug and drug conspiracy charges to feel a little lost.
Firefighter Greg Bowyer’s Average Day
Last night, two firefighters—Greg Bowyer and Gerald Pennington—announced their plans to file a lawsuit against the fire department. We detailed their case roughly an hour ago on City Desk.
Since announcing his imminent lawsuit against the fire department, Bowyer says his day has gone pretty normal.
Firefighters: ‘We Know The Dark Figure Of Rubin’
Last night, WJLA reported that a pair of D.C. Firefighters are readying a civil lawsuit aimed squarely at D.C. Fire Department Chief Dennis L. Rubin. This fight has been brewing for years. The firefighters are claiming that their own department has botched numerous fire investigations and that the upper brass retaliated against them when they complained within the department and to the media. The fight heated up soon after the Eastern Market fire which some investigators say was arson.
The fight over the Eastern Market fire did not sit well with Rubin apparently. I know first hand how Rubin handles tough inquiries into that case. But investigators persisted. They complained about how the Mount Pleasant fire was handled and so on. Meanwhile, Rubin was still Chief Rubin.
The inevitable happened. Two whistleblowers—D.C. Arson Investigators Greg Bowyer and Gerald Pennington—were transferred to something called the Community Services Unit and generally toyed with. Now Bowyer and Pennington are fighting back. They plan on filing a lawsuit this week. They have scheduled a press conference for tomorrow at noon at Eastern Market. Last night we reached Bowyer.
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