Over the summer, I met Supreme Court lawyer Tom Goldstein, and since then, I’ve been looking for some reason to write about him. Today, finally, I get my chance.

There are several reasons why Goldstein is pertinent to this blog:

1. He resides in Washington D.C. (usually reason enough for a post).
2. He wrote a big story on Slate.com about the Supreme Court’s upcoming term, which may include the famed DC handgun ban case, District of Columbia v. Heller.
3. As lawyers go, Goldstein has a pretty crazy story: Though he was a big-time debater in college (University of North Carolina), he was a mediocre student who got rejected from every law school he applied to. Luckily, he had a relative who worked at the law school at American University. So, he got in. He argued his first case before the Supreme Court when he was 28. Shortly thereafter, he left his firm and, with his wife, started a boutique practice, specializing in the Supreme Court. (The main office was the family laundry room.) To make a long story short: Goldstein is one of the top Supreme Court lawyers in the country, having argued 17 cases at the ripe age of 37. He currently heads up the Supreme Court practice at Akin Gump in the District. He also runs scotusblog.com.

But what clinches the deal (the deal in which I say to myself: OK, now this sounds blogworthy) is that Goldstein’s firm is representing the District in the handgun ban case, and his Slate piece includes interesting thoughts on the case’s future. Goldstein says that there’s no precedent for a case like this to hint at the justices’ ruling. “Still, the district has a cascade of arguments for reversal. And the decision is likely to break down along ideological lines, with the four members on the left of the court advocating against gun rights.” Goldstein goes on to say the case could have far-reaching political repercussions: “The success of the NRA shows that there is a significant portion of the population that favors and mobilizes around gun rights. The court’s decision could have a profound effect on whether those voters go to the polls. By contrast, those who favor greater gun regulation overwhelmingly are not ’single issue’ voters.”

So, glad I could share.

Praise the Lord! WGTS and its one dozen listeners are not going anywhere. The station at 91.9 FM, owned since ‘46 by Seventh Day Adventists over at Columbia Union College in Takoma Park, has been up for sale for some time. The only serious bidder was American Public Media Group, the other public radio conglomerate, which basically owns all the public radio programs that NPR doesn’t. And that’s a lot, people, despite what you’ve heard.

Anyway, APM wanted to turn the D.C. area’s little Christian station into something that was not, well, Christian. Thus SAVE GTS was born. Prayers were answered, the station was yanked off the market, and the college’s endowment will remain paltry. APM has instead offered to slap down $20 mill for a different Christian station down in Miami, which is set to die on Sunday, only to rise again as a classical station.

Well, we’ll always have WETA. But unfortunately commercial-free bluegrass is only for the privileged few.

D.C.’s hotshot personal injury lawyer Peter Grenier, retained by at least seven families of Tech victims, has to be a real threat to the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Grenier, partner at Bode & Grenier, 1150 Connecticut Ave., told the Washingtonian in ‘02, when the mag named him one of D.C.’s 75 best lawyers: “I try to take cases so obvious that even a baboon could win them.”

It’s hard to find so a modest lawyer around these parts. I mean, could a baboon get a jury to agree to an unheard-of $98 million against the D.C. police? That’s the dollar figure attached to the Grenier legend, the one awarded (later knocked down to $1.1 million) to the mother of a police informant on the Georgetown Starbucks triple homicide, killed while in police custody and making an undercover drug buy in ‘97.

So, hey, VA: You’ve been warned.

1. After reading the Washington Post story today about the 23 Virginia Tech students hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning, I’m beginning to wonder. Every university has its share of stupid and tragic. My alma mater—Penn State—had a school shooting, an incident where a student was killed by a falling tree branch, and a massive riot one summer. And we all know about the University of Maryland’s troubles. But, shit, Virginia Tech just can’t get a break. Is the campus cursed?
2. If you cat-sit, you are supposed to change the feline’s water and replenish its food bowl. A good sport will keep the litter box clean. I’ve done all those things for Blakey. But then the cat—which is huge, almost panther-huge—seems to want some sort of attention. So I sit on the couch and pat at the cat’s ears and head for a while. But petting a cat is kind of boring. So how long do you have to play with your friend’s cat as part of your cat-sitting duties? And do you even have to bother?
3. During halftime of the Redskins second exhibition game, Joe Theismann was featured “interviewing” a pre-injured Jason Campbell. The interview was stultifying in the usual Theismann way. The former Skins quarterback talked more than enough about himself. He also came to the interview dressed in gym shorts. And let’s just say the way the interview was shot, I kept thinking we were going to end up seeing Theismann’s balls. Thankfully, the viewers were spared such sights. Instead, we got a good look at his fucked-up leg. So my question: Why are TV producers still putting Theismann on the air?

As you might have heard, the South has been much on the mind of City Paper staffers this week. Accordingly, I’ve decided to learn about all things Southern. For my source text, I’m using the copy of the new edition of Gone With the Wind that just arrived in my office. (I took a peek at some pages toward the back for a hint of life in the South. “If you intend to play nursemaid, you might try coming home at nights and sober too, for a change,” says the Scarlett character to the Rhett character. Southerners are complicated!)

I’ve also checked in with the new issue of one of my favorite magazines, Intelligence Report, an excellent journal published by the Montgomery, Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center. The magazine covers white-power groups, anti-immigration initiatives, and other manifestations of institutionalized racism. It’s always compelling reading, and among the features in the Summer 2007 issue is a Q&A with American University professor Robert A. Pastor, who’s been accused of leading a secret plot to merge the United States, Mexico, and Canada into an ungodly super-union. That’s made him the enemy of Lou Dobbs and at least one person who dubbed him a “globalization pimp.”

As Intelligence Report sees it, Pastor has simply performed research that’s been integrated into the Security and Prosperity Partnership, a bureaucrat-heavy effort to work on trade and terrorism issues. And since the leading organization arguing that Pastor’s efforts will destroy civilization as we know it is the John Birch Society, it’s hard to disagree. I haven’t studied the matter closely—heck, I’ve barely gotten to the front door of Tara—but Pastor successfully writes off the conspiracy mongering as so much nativist bunk. And in the Q&A he reveals a dry sense of humor in the process. “There has always been xenophobia in America,” he says. “A fear of the world, a fear of American engagements in the world, a desire to isolate the United States as a way to protect America’s precious bodily fluids.”

Until last fall, condom-buyers at many CVS locations were required to ask a grumbling attendant to leave the counter, trudge to the back aisle, and take out a selection from a locked case. Public health students at George Washington University didn’t think anyone should endure that, especially since D.C. has the highest AIDS rates in the country. Last October, they confronted CVS management with a survey showing that the 20 stores with locked displays were in the neighborhoods with the most cases of AIDS.

The drugstore chain promised a change and responded by installing displays called “power wings,” which let a customer take out one package at a time. CVS has also installed displays that dispense a package when you pull a lever.

But that hasn’t satisfied the students—they claim that the people and the rubbers are still being kept apart. “We’re saying that, having power wing or no power wing, it doesn’t work,” says Shumaya Ali, a health communications graduate student. “CVS has a mission that says it will be the easiest pharmacy retailer for people to use…and it just contradicts everything they are doing with locking condoms.”

Ali’s group, Save Lives: Free the Condoms, argues that the one-package dispensers—which hold a limited selection of brands—are inadequate. “People still want other brands, and they have to go and ask,” says Carolyn Watson, a public health graduate student. “They just have to grin and bear it, so to speak.” The group also found in April that 11 stores were still locking their inventory. CVS spokesperson Mike DeAngelis says that isn’t the case now. “There are no CVS stores where condoms are completely behind a locked display,” he says.

Last night’s Democratic debate on PBS was a first on several fronts: It was the first time the candidates focused on minority issues before a panel of minority journalists. It was a first for Howard U, which had never hosted a presidential debate. And it was the first time bloggers got official media cred.

They had to give up a little pride though, as in: “You’re with DancyPuppyDance@blogpost.com?” wasn’t going to cut it. Bloggers had to ban together under the Media Bloggers Association to get their seat at the table, located, incidentally, in a different building entirely. (The “media center” was set up in Blackburn Student Center instead of Cramton Auditorium, where seats were reserved for Cornel West, et al.) So what came out of their all-access pass? How about a video comparing Sharpton’s scowl to a chipmunk on YouTube? Good stuff!

What I want to know is how come none of them caught the giant hole in the ass of the pants worn by the handler for Mike “These Prices are InSANE!” Gravel? According to one eyewitness, the guy’s briefs were on display every time he got up to wipe the sweaty brow of his guy. And no one thought to take a photo? If you have one, send it over.

We’ve been wondering why in the hell Matin Sedigh decided to break into the registrar’s office at American University and, three years after he graduated, try to change his grades.

Perhaps it has something to do with grad school applications. His Facebook page (I’m so dated—only checked MySpace!) claims he’s a University of Chicago grad-student-to-be in 2009.

There’s a new restaurant in Foggy Bottom: Tonic opened May 29 at 2036 G St. NW and occupies three floors of what was once Quigley’s Pharmacy, a drug store and soda fountain that opened in 1891. Co-owner Jeremy Pollok describes the place as “casual,” “homey,” and similar to the Mount Pleasant outpost. He adds that the restaurant’s shiny, wooden bar is absolutely “beautiful.”

Just don’t try to get any booze at that beautiful bar. The new Tonic is nestled within George Washington University’s campus, in a university-owned building, and the area is zoned as residential. That’s a problem for Tonic. On Feb. 21, the ABC Board denied Tonic’s liquor-license application, stating that D.C. Code prohibits liquor licenses in residential areas.

So why is there a bar at Tonic? “I’m hoping,” Pollok says. “I’m an optimistic person.” And he has reason to be. Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham has introduced a bill that would permit Tonic’s owners to acquire a liquor license for their GWU restaurant, even though code forbids it. By striking just two words, “type and,” from the code, Graham’s bill, the Retail Class Exemption Clarification Amendment Act of 2007, would make it possible for Tonic to acquire a license.

Why? As it’s currently written, D.C. Code prohibits retail licenses in residentially-zoned areas unless there’s a license of the same “type and class” within 400 feet. The Lisner Auditorium, which holds a CX multipurpose license, happens to be less than 400 feet away. The board considers Lisner the same class as Tonic, but not the same type.

Vince Micone, chair of the Foggy Bottom–West End advisory neighborhood commission, worries the Graham bill could pave the way for other liquor-licensed establishments to open in residential areas. The commission originally supported some university-sponsored food service establishment at the site, he says, but opposed Tonic’s liquor-license application. “Basically, what they want to do is change the entire law for this specific business,” he says. “I think it’s ridiculous.” Micone worries it “could impact on other parts of the city.”

Jeff Coudriet, who assisted then-Ward 6 Councilmember Sharon Ambrose in rewriting the liquor law in 2001, says the law is strict when it comes to residential areas for a reason. Ambrose didn’t want a proliferation of additional liquor licensees operating in residential zones, he says.

Graham declined to discuss details of the proposal, saying he has yet to officially endorse it. A hearing is scheduled for June 13.

Today’s Washington Post story on “the latest chapter in the troubled history of UDC” nailed the university for its past accreditation problems, its failure to modernize its campus, and its inability to raise funds. And this: “The school’s main plaza floods every time it rains, with water seeping into the underground parking garage, where whole sections are crumbling, school officials said.”

But there’s at least one thing going right at UDC, facilities-wise: Restrooms fit for the Queen.

That’s on the second floor of Building 39 on the Van Ness Campus, in case you’re curious.

Last week’s tragedies produced an inevitable mix of graceful and awkward moments. Nobody prepares for these kinds of things. There is no manual on how to behave, no rules of proper comportment. I left Saturday night with these last moments on my mind, some amazing, some not so.

• After NBC announced it had the Cho video and manifesto, reporters and cameramen left the press conference. Some walked into the bathroom and could be heard grumbling: “Fuck NBC.”
• At noon on Friday, a moment of silence on the Drillfield became more than a moment. By 12:07 p.m., university President Dr. Charles W. Steger looked at his watch. He then conferred with a man decked in a maroon suit. After whispering a bit, Steger took a rose from a student memorial and walked up to the memorial’s main hub of flowers, cards and candles and placed the rose among the rest.
• On Friday night, a mother sat beside her daughter’s memorial stone on the Drillfield. She sobbed. She talked to that stone as if it was her daughter. Her entourage had dwindled to one friend. There were no more grief counselors, Red Cross workers, or Salvation Army coffee cups. “I can’t bury her,” she said. A woman, who looked like a student, walked over to the mother and just sat down and listened.
• By Friday night, the Drillfield had filled up with memorials, candles, and boards covered with messages from Tech students and beyond. The candles made the field smell like a funeral home.
• On Saturday afternoon, most of the media had gone home. The media room in the alumni-center wing of the Inn at Virginia Tech was empty except for a half-dozen reporters filing stories. Finishing those stories was made only more difficult by the constant cell phone ring from, I believe, a Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter. His ringtone was a Spin Doctors song.
• On Saturday evening, I got to listen to the Richmond paper’s reporters discuss plans to go play beer pong. Old fat men should not be playing beer pong. Leave those Tech kids alone!

The subject line on a memo sent to CNN staffers today held all the subtlety of Cho Seung-Hui pointing a gun at the camera: “RE: Cho video and gun pictures–NO MORE USEAGE!!!”

CNN’s in the process of killing out of its system all images Cho sent to NBC, which slapped its logo on them to indicate the “exclusive.”

From the memo obtained by City Desk: “The John King package, ‘First Killing Why?’ and the Sean Callebs pkg: ‘Cho: The Early Years’ have been updated using appropriate video. All packages are being updated on a per request basis.” So don’t expect to find the shots in CNN’s Web archive.

Most news agencies agree they would have run at least some of the photos and videos if Cho sent his manifesto to them, but the backlash against NBC has gained steam since parents of victims canceled their scheduled appearances on Today the morning after NBC broke their piece of this story. CBS and Fox News have also scaled back their usage. The New York Times ran out front with the photo of Cho that puts the viewer square in the barrel of his gun. The Post went with Cho’s gunslinger stance in the print product Thursday and posted online a tamer version of it here.

What do you think? Should media outlets run Cho’s photos? Should they erase them from their archives?

About 24 hours following Monday’s shooting rampage, students started making the pilgrimage to the Inn at Virginia Tech—some to comfort families of lost loved ones, others to sit on the slope bordering the parking lot and watch Big Media do its thing. Rows and rows of satellite trucks—30 dishes tilted skyward—can be a wonderously absurd thing.

But today yesterday, Virginia Tech students started turning on the media. There is the sign in a first-floor classroom building urging the media to go home. There are the boxes of Gatorade, Powerade, and water placed on the Drillfield, in front of the student union and the performing arts building. Attached to the boxes is a sign: “Free for Hokies.” By 5 p.m., a student, a young cheery woman, passed out flyers to the media mass congregating at the hotel’s conference room. The flyers stated:

We are Hokie Nation, and we need to mourn and heal. We need each other.

The media has taken advantage of our situation and are exploiting us for their own sensationalism. We will not tolerate the abuse; we love our community far too much to stand for this any more.

We, the students of Virginia Tech, are asserting ourselves. We are taking back our campus.

All media, if they have any respect for Hokie Nation, will no longer attack our administration. They will no longer hound our students.

Leave us to heal. Leave us to ourselves. Hokie Nation needs to be UNITED.

Return our campus to us.

We are Strong. We are Virginia Tech.

They keep coming. Virginia Tech’s student population continues to slowly make its exodus home. But the Jesus People are still here, still preaching on the grounds of the Drillfield. This afternoon, it’s Christian folk rock augmented with a set of African drums. This paper’s managing editor may approve. But when I arrived they were still in full drum-circle mode unable to pick a song and stick to it. They sat cross-legged in a circle, sheet music blowing everywhere when it wasn’t tucked under their feet or an empty guitar case. And they strummed and strummed before the inevitable camera man from Sweden or Japan.

J.R. Duren, the lead strummer on a Taylor acoustic six-string, flew in from San Diego (”the good part”) on Tuesday morning. He said he was just moved to come here. “It’s not like I’m some superstar relief worker,” he says.

Duren, 29, admits that 9/11, Katrina and Columbine just didn’t hit him the way the Virginia Tech shootings have. But he’s not sure why. “That’s a mystery,” he says. “I’m a little bit on the outside….We’ve seen a lot of tired people.”

The award goes to Blacksburg’s Holiday Inn. At the hotel chain’s counter, they have a flyer listing events for the week. After the massacre on Monday, someone reprinted the flyer so that it now includes a special nod to the students. It goes like this: On Sunday, April 15, there’s a prime rib special. On Monday, April 16, the Holiday Inn’s Prayers are With You, Virginia Tech. And on Tuesday, April 17, there’s a battle of the bands happening somewhere.

The flyer either makes Holiday Inn look like it new about about the shootings beforehand or they think there’s nothing like a little battle of the bands after a shooting spree. You decide!