Fenty Goes Tea Party: Good thing for former Mayor Adrian Fenty no one watches Morning Joe—otherwise, most of the goodwill he still had among liberal D.C. voters who backed him last year would have evaporated, when he went on MSNBC to declare he agrees with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's drive to end collective bargaining for [...]
Mayor Who?: Challenging electoral petitions is always a nasty business, since the whole point of the exercise is to keep potential competitors off the ballot—lest they get more votes than you. But even by the usual standards, Sekou Biddle's challenges against various D.C. Council at-large candidates look like they could get ugly. Biddle is challenging [...]
Millions and Millions: A month ago, Mayor Vince Gray’s team released their new, terrifying estimate of the budget gap facing the District in fiscal 2012: $600 million. But today, chief financial officer Natwar Gandhi declared the actual shortfall will be $312 million. The difference, apparently, is due to higher than expected tax revenue from commercial properties; [...]
No Taxation Without Taxation Without Representation: Tired of watching the District get shoved around by the feds? Just this once, savor the usual order of things being reversed. The IRS announced today that federal income taxes will be due on Monday, April 18, instead of Friday, April 15, because April 15 is Emancipation Day, a [...]
Security Theater: The usual delays on the Metro this morning had an explanation—the transit system debuted its random bag searches. Authorities questioned one man for eight minutes at the Braddock Road station, apparently because his bag had some sort of household chemicals on it, but stopped a grand total of zero terrorists. Which is pretty [...]
Flapjake Fenty: Anyone wondering what Still Mayor Adrian Fenty will be doing for a living when his title changes to Former Mayor Adrian Fenty can wonder no more. Turns out the IHOP uniform suits him fine. The only problem will be when the obsessive triathlete has to take orders from customers eager to try the [...]
D.C. police union chief Kristopher Baumann has had a tough time getting through dinner of late. Just last Wednesday, members of a news outlet Baumann declines to name called him six times as he tried to scoop his vittles. If it's not reporters coming at him, it's residents: "I tried to [...]
No Snow Más: If you went out and bought a snowmobile (or as Todd and Sarah Palin call them, a snow machine) during last winter's endless blizzards in hopes of using it to get around this winter... there may soon be one more used snowmobile up for sale on eBay. The National Weather Service and [...]
At a D.C. Council committee hearing on Friday concerning D.C. retirement legislation some believe would lead to a golden parachute for police brass, police and fire union leaders asked why the bill was necessary in the first place.
"A: It's not good for morale," said Kris Baumann, head of D.C.'s Fraternal Order of Police. "B: It [...]
It's not unheard of for new mayors to fire the police chief that served the previous administration. So, though she's got an 80 percent approval rating, after this year's general election and transfer of administration, Metropolitan Police Department boss Cathy Lanier could be out. But don't feel sorry for her yet.
Following her unconventional rise [...]
Bikeshare Explosion!: Preliminary stats out of Capital Bikeshare's first 10 days show more than 4,000 trips have already been made—which means each D.C. Circulator-looking bike in the system, on average, is being used once a day. That puts usage at about the level SmartBike D.C. had reached before it was replaced with the new program. [...]
An ongoing zoning battle in Ward 8 between Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Sandra “S.S.” Seegars and the Peaceoholics continued raging this week.
The ANC Seegars chairs, 8E, filed a motion with the Board of Zoning Adjustments on behalf of three residents—Brian Townes, Tonette Sivells and Shayla Edgerton—trying to stop Peaceoholics from developing a building they own on [...]
The District's unemployment rate had steady at 9.9 percent in August. Let's call it 10 percent! The Department of Employment Services tries to blame the end of the summer jobs program:
"The unemployment rate in the District of Columbia for August was unchanged from the revised July rate of 9.9% reported the District of Columbia’s Department [...]
Progressions like this are quite rare
When dealing with voters or hair
From balding to Gray
Is never the way
Unless you are running for mayor
While Vincent declares that he's "humbled"
It's clear the incumbent just fumbled
His gaffes like not polling
Trumped door-to-door strolling
His campaign's response? well, it crumbled
The fact that Hizzoner did lose
Is certainly somewhat old news
What happens to Rhee?
Just [...]
Just before midnight, Washingtonians worked their “re-tweet” magic on Twitter and the “share” button on Facebook, expressing outrage over the latest Courtland Milloy op-ed in the Washington Post, in which Milloy animatedly breaks down what was wrong with the Fenty administration. Milloy’s non-spoon fed, non-sugar coated attitude is indeed not for the naïve or timid at heart when [...]
