From the Brookland neighborhood Listserv: Concerned citizen Andrea on Taussig isn’t getting any love from 311. After finding a discarded handbag in an alley, the poster called the non-emergency number to report the missing item. She writes:

I called 311 to report the found bag and got a very strange response. The lady who answered first told me to call the person, since I have their checkbook & license . . . When I told her I couldn’t find a phone number, she told me that I should “pull a CSI” and try to figure out how to get in touch with the owner. She then told me that if I turned in the handbag to the police, she didn’t know what might happen to it.

Note to Andrea: Please make it a CSI: Miami.

The news of a troubling jail death in Prince George’s County, in which a black man accused of killing a white officer was found strangled to death in his solitary cell, comes with another sad story of homicide behind behind bars. One morning this March, DC jail staff checked in on a 44-year-old inmate named Houston Quildon and “discovered that his blood pressure was low,” according to a release. Twenty-five minutes later, Quildon had lost consciousness. Emergency personnel took him to Greater Southeast Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.The Medical Examiner initially ruled Quildon’s death a result of natural causes. But yesterday, investigators said they now believe Quildon was killed. Back in September, he had been assaulted in his cell and suffered a fractured mandible. Despite surgery, his health continued to deteriorate. Police have a requested a warrant for the homicide, but have not released the name of their suspect.

This wasn’t the first episode in Quildon’s nightmarish experience with the D.C. jail. Back in 2006, in custody on drug charges, he had surgery for esophageal cancer and had to send his defense attorney to court to argue for the follow-up treatment he thought he deserved. Here’s part of the story, from the Washington Times.

For this week’s S&T, I spoke to Bill Duggan, owner of Adams Morgan anagram bar Madam’s Organ. Since 2000, Duggan’s been sparring with the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration over the issue of occupancy in his bar: ABRA said he was limited to 99 patrons, the number of seats on his restaurant license’s certificate of occupancy; Duggan contested that he could pack up to 393 patrons in, his fire marshall approved capacity. Earlier this month, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled in Duggan’s favor.

This isn’t the first time that Duggan has dealt with issues of occupancy. For the past decade, Duggan and Madam’s Organ have organized a beach trip for area kids to Dewey Beach, Delaware. Each year, Duggan takes 20 to 40 District kiddies, along with 10 to 15 adult volunteers, for a weekend of bonfiring, crab-hunting, and beach-housing.

Dewey Beach didn’t always like that. “The second year of the trip, I was arrested for disorderly conduct,” says Duggan. “I made sure to tell the local [authorities] that the kids were coming, and they said it would be fine. They said ‘Hey, this is 1999, not 1969.’”

But Duggan says the beach cops were ready and waiting to kill the party. “Sure enough, there they were, hiding in the bushes, waiting for us,” he says. “They didn’t like having a bunch of black kids on the beach … The beach cop, he was like the leader of the Aryan nation: starched shirt, blonde hair, white eyebrows. He kicked us off the beach.”

That’s where Duggan’s pint-sized occupancy issue comes in: “Technically, the permit said only 25 kids at the bonfire at one time. And we had 35. But they were coming and going! Some were playing on the beach, others were at the house; they weren’t all at the bonfire at one time.”

But unlike the D.C. Court of Appeals, the beach cops didn’t buy Duggan’s maneuvering. “They put me in the paddywaggon,” says Duggan. “I said, ‘Fine, but the kids are coming with me.’”

After a brief lock-up and some negotiation, Duggan was released to continue spearheading the kiddie beach adventure. According to Duggan, the experience didn’t put a damper on the kids’ summer trip. “Oh, they loved it,” he says. “They kept shouting, ‘Mr. Duggan! You got locked up!’”

Photo by Charles Steck

Last week, we reported that D.C.’s Best Dance Night would be moving on up to Club Five this Saturday. Now, it looks like the event will by moving across the street to MCCXXIII, at 1223 Connecticut Ave. NW. Club Five had its license suspended earlier this month after a stabbing occured in the club. Five was set to open again June 18th; according to ABRA, that suspension has now been extended indefinitely.

Miami Horror and Gameboy/Gamegirl are still set to play on the Nouveau Riche bill, but the move to MCCXXIII brings some changes in the event’s time, cover charges, and dress code, says DJ Gavin Holland. The details: The show starts at 10 p.m. Entry begins at $10 and jumps to $20 at midnight. The dress code, while relaxed to include sneakers, does stipulate some no-no’s. Writes Holland:

They have relaxed their normal dress code for us, sneakers are okay. However, no shorts, no sandals, and sadly no totally wacky shit. Basically, dress well by your own standards, but you don’t need to wear fancy shoes or any of that silly ‘club’ attire. You should be lookin’ snazzy for Nouveau Riche anyway, so this should be no different. My heart goes out to Life Preserver Dude from the 9:30 Club, you will not be able to wear your life preserver.

Yesterday, we reported that D.C. Superior Court has installed an urgent-care clinic for mentally-ill defendants. The new clinic is being spearheaded by both the court and the Department of Mental Health as well as the Psychiatric Institute of Washington.

According to Phyllis Jones, DMH’s spokesperson, the clinic has seen five people between Monday and Wednesday. One client was new to the system. The other four had been in the system but had lost contact. She says they were reconnected with services.

Sounds like the clinic–much needed in Superior Court and, of course, elsewhere–is working.

Local artist Adrian Parsons has revealed himself as one of the stars of ANC Commissioner Frank Winstead’s now-infamous clandestine ping pong youtube video, shot outside of Comet Ping Pong. Parsons says he recognized himself and opponent Karl Southgate immediately when he saw this video of the sidewalk match-up, posted last summer on DCist:

“At first i wasn’t really thinking it was all that harmful,” Parsons says of the video. “I thought it was sort of playful, that it was Winstead’s opinion and of no legal consequence. But when it started to look like the video might be a problem for Comet, I thought, ‘Well. That sucks.’”

Adds Parsons, “I was concerned that my face was on this advert that might serve to hurt James [Alefantis, Comet owner]. It was not something that Karl or I were interested in being involved in.”

Read the rest of this entry »

On Tuesday, downtown D.C. nightclub Platinum surrendererd its Alcoholic Beverage Control license in a hearing in front of the ABC Board. Platinum, located at 915 F Street NW, is owned by Abdul Khanu, who also owns Southwest Waterfront club H20 Restaurant & Lounge. The decision has also put a chill on Khanu’s proposed third nightclub, The Big Chill.

According to a memo from Sgt. Joseph Massey of MPD’s 1st District, which covers the neighborhoods of both Platinum and H20:

At the end of hearing, Platinum surrendered their ABC license and officially closed for good. The ABRA board decided that Mr. Abdul Khanu can hold only one ABC license in the District of Columbia (currently H20). This action places a hold on the new establishment which Mr. Kahnu was attempting to open in the 5th District (The Big Chill).

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival seeks volunteers: It announced today that it is still looking for a few brave souls to work the popular event:

It “needs capable and enthusiastic volunteers before, during and after its annual Folklife Festival, which will be held on the National Mall Wednesday, June 25 through Sunday, June 29 and Wednesday, July 2 through Sunday, July 6.”

The festival is known to be a great time. And it is also infamous for huge crowds and sweltering heat. Read the rest of the press release after the jump.

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In March, after the mayor submitted his fiscal 2009 budget, several city hall wags told LL to check out the cover of the budget books produced by the Office of Budget and Planning. The cover contains background art composed of what looks to be an image of one of those new Metro canopies superimposed over a picture of cute, smiling kids in parks-and-rec T-shirts on Freedom Plaza, with the Wilson Building in the background. Also in the background: Standing just behind the kids, oh-so-faintly, is a woman wearing, gasp!, a Playboy bunny T-shirt!

It’s not often that LL finds a piece of political controversy too minute for his attention, but this was one of those occasions.

But things have changed! Yesterday, LL picked up a fresh set of budget books—the ones issued when the budget is through the council and ready for submission to Congress. The cover, at first glance, appeared to be the same: very same smiling kids and very same Metro canopy. But lo and behold, Playboy bunny lady was gone—Photoshopped out!

Check the closeup:

LL applauds the budget office’s attention to detail; you wouldn’t want some Neanderthal Republican congressman catching a glimpse of America’s foremost symbol of lasciviousness while sitting in judgment of the District’s financial plan, would you?

LL has inquired about the Bowdlerization with the Office of the Chief Financial Officer and will completely on top of this story as it develops.

Full covers after the jump.

UPDATE, 2:23 P.M.: OCFO spokesperson Karyn-Siobhan Robinson reports that he agency wasn’t aware of any complaints about the original budget books. Rather, the design changes can be attributed, she says, to a desire to make the two versions look different. Besides the Playboy editing, Robinson points out that all of the teenagers in the background were deleted, as well as the name tags on the kids. “It appears to me that they wanted to simplify the design,” she says.

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The greener pastures of utility lobbying hold only so many charms, apparently: According to elections-board records, former Ward 5 Councilmember Vincent B. Orange Sr. has picked up ballot petitions for the District’s male slot on the Democratic National Committee.

Orange, who did not immediately return calls for comment, took a job as vice president for government affairs for Pepco in early 2007 after his failed 2006 mayoral run. Since then, Orange has been seen often around the John A. Wilson Building. A national party committeeman spot would be a perfect perch for Orange to hone his already razor-sharp political skills while still drawing a nice private-sector paycheck.

He’ll be running against Arrington Dixon, the former councilmember and Ward 8 businessman who has held down the national committeeman spot since 2000.

Orange’s run also means the District’s Democratic voters might have no fewer than three Pepco executives to choose from on their primary ballots. Besides Orange, Deborah M. Royster, Pepco’s deputy general counsel and president of the Ward 4 Dems, is running for the national committeewoman spot and Linda Jo Smith, a public-affairs representative for the company, is running for an at-large spot on the D.C. Democratic State Committee.

Pepco spokesperson Clay Anderson says the company has no problem with its employees’ civic aspirations: “We’re fine with people’s personal lives,” he says.

One wag LL recently consulted called an Orange-Royster-Smith ticket the “Vote for Us or We’ll Turn Off Your Power” slate.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

You may remember ANC Commissioner Frank Winstead from his chillingly subtitled youtube video “Ping Pong in Public Space” or his chillingly subtitled youtube video “When UPS Delivers in D.C., Life Suffers.”

Last Tuesday, Winstead staged a live performance at the packed-full ANC meeting held to reassess Comet Ping Pong’s voluntary agreement with the commission. (Marc Fisher, hot on the Winstead beat, has his roundup here. DCist, too). During the course of the meeting, Winstead accused Comet owner James Alefantis of lying, cheating, stealing, spitting in a customers food, and encouraging both murderers and rapists.

“He said rape,” confirms fellow ANC3F commissioner Mital Gandhi. “R-A-P-E. Rape.”

Says Alefantis, “Frank Winstead was completely and totally unprofessional, incredibly rude, and a little wacky. He was yelling and screaming and wagging his finger at everyone.”

But don’t take their word for it: We’ve plucked the highlights of the recording, after the jump!*

* Not caught on tape: “At one point, he mouthed ‘fuck you’ to me,” says Alefantis.

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In a little-noticed defeat for District home rule, Congress passed a bill on Monday rejecting the District’s attempts to assert more control over the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority. Both houses approved the measure by unanimous consent. The bill awaits President George W. Bush’s signature.

“I’ve been on the council 10 years, and I know of no other example that is more blatant of both houses of Congress dismissing the people of the District of Columbia,” said Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, whose public works and environment committee has oversight of WASA.

LL has pretty much been the only reporter in town following this District-suburban squabble, which has roots going back years, to when then-Mayor Marion Barry raided the WASA budget when it was part of District government to make ends meet citywide. In the aftermath, WASA because a quasi-independent authority, governed by a board that includes members from suburban jurisdictions. (WASA provides water service to the District only, but it does treat sewage from the suburbs.) In recent months, attempts by Graham, with the support of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, to bring the agency under closer District control have generated suburban ire and threats of congressional intervention. (For more background, check out LL’s column on the matter from earlier this year.)

The bill, sponsored by Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen and co-sponsored by Virginia Rep. Tom Davis, has two parts: One makes it perfectly clear that financial oversight of WASA lies with its interjurisdictional board, rather than with the District’s chief financial officer, as Graham and Fenty have asserted. The other part strips out a D.C.-resident hiring preference for the agency (which employs mostly Marylanders) set out in a bill pushed by At-Large Councilmember Carol Schwartz last fall.

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ABC Board-Packing Raises Eyebrows: So a round of Alcoholic Beverage Control Board nominations are up for first reading today. In March, LL wrote about how the ward makeup of the nominees (three of seven members are from Ward 1) seemed fishy, considering the board is overseen by Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, who has long taken a special interest in the board’s operations. The noms are all going to pass safely, but Ward 8’s Marion Barry, Ward 2’s Jack Evans, Ward 7’s Yvette Alexander, and Ward 5’s Harry Thomas Jr. are all taking issue with the lopsided geographic balance on the board. —Mike DeBonis

In recent weeks, softball games at Walter Pierce Park have been on the outs.

First, residents were concerned that errant fly balls would end up hitting passersby or kids playing basketball at the adjacent court. After the softball players altered the field, balls started flying into the parking lot behind right field.

On a recent Wednesday evening, Edan Lichtenstein, 30, got a phone call from a neighbor telling him that his Jetta’s hood had been struck by a ball. None of the players bothered to leave a note, he says. “It’s a pain in the ass more than anything,” he explains. “They should not be hitting [balls] toward buildings.”

ANC Commissioner Mindy Moretti says she’s received two other complaints from citizens whose cars have been dinged by softballs. “I know for sure three cars have been hit,” she says. “I’ve seen people back in the alley looking for softballs as well. I just think it’s a safety issue.”

This week, Moretti e-mailed the director of the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) writing that softball in the park should be reviewed. “It’s something that you wouldn’t normally expect,” she says. There’s no backstop there. It’s just not suitable for adult softball.”

DPR agreed. John Stokes, the department’s spokesperson, says that no permits are currently issued for softball there. “We’re putting up signs on the field that will say that baseball and softball are strictly prohibited and violators will be asked to leave. In addition, the DC Park Rangers will be monitoring the field to ensure that the baseball and the softball are not being played.” Stokes adds, however, that “playing catch is permitted.”

Right now, At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson is giving the business to fire chief Dennis Rubin over Fenty administration plans to seriously hike ambulance fees.

In his questioning, Mendelson is suggesting that Rubin’s department attempted to circumvent a law that recently came into effect requiring the D.C. Council to pass judgment on such fee hikes by enacting an emergency rulemaking with an abbreviated comment period. At one point, Mendelson seemed to imply that the law had in fact been broken.

Earlier, Mendelson was similarly critical of representatives of the Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi over revenue projections for the fee hikes. At one point, Mendelson said to Gandhi deputy Angelique Hayes, “I know you’re trying to be diplomatic about it, but the analysis that was used to create the budget has been rejected.”

Responded Hayes, “I wouldn’t say it’s been rejected; it’s been refined.”

CFO reps admitted in their testimony they had a less-than-complete idea of to what extent Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurers would pay the hiked fees.

It’s the culmination of yet another testy week between Mendo and the executive branch. Last week, Mendelson was pissed after the mayor’s office failed to send an representatives from the emergency medical services department on a hearing on a bill on EMS issues. He chose to recess the hearing rather than close it, meaning the legislation is effectively held up. Then earlier this week, Mendelson’s office put out a press release decrying a lack of transparency in the Fenty budget.