In a warning to those who owe the District, authorities seized a Chevy Chase man’s rights to his house because he allegedly owes more than $17 million in back city taxes.

The action, completed Friday, comes as city officials say Barry A. Morewitz failed to pay his share in income taxes from 2004 through 2009.

Morewitz owes more than $8 million in back taxes and $8.9 million in interest and penalties, according to liens issued against him. The Office of Tax Revenue has billed Morewitz as the city’s “top delinquent taxpayer,” noting that no other resident owes even $1 million in back taxes.

It should be noted that the house authorities seized—that is, they get money if the guy decides to sell—is worth less than $800,000.

Not the Bees! Not the…Oh, Wait, They Aren’t Bees: As previously noted, Chevy Chase parents have voiced concerns about a proliferation of bees terrorizing their toddlers at a sandbox in Lafayette Park. But one reader on the neighborhood email list says the situation could be even more dire than they thought: “the problem in the sandbox is wasps burrowing into the sand and then emerging to buzz around in a menacing manner and, as pointed out in a previous post, stinging nearby children/adults. IMHO they need to be removed by someone knowledgeable in such matters. Until that happens, the sandbox is unusable.” Indeed, another reader posits that the strategic ambushers aren’t bees at all but “cicada-eating wasps,” and that “the appropriate oversight agency had been notified & [is] planning to investigate.”

Can’t Argue with a Camera, Can You?: ANC 3C Commissioner Nancy MacWood warns unknowing Cleveland Park drivers about an unsympathetic traffic camera: “The sign prohibiting right-on-red from Connecticut Avenue southbound to Porter Street westbound is missing. Some drivers are unaware that right-on-red is not allowed and when they make the turn the red light camera is photographing them and tickets are being issued. DDOT is aware that sign must be replaced but in meantime please be aware that there is no right-on-red at this intersection.”

Burglars Don’t Keep the Girly Stuff, Right?: “Maggie” has a request for her neighbors on the Hill East email list: “My friend's apartment at 10th and South Carolina SE was broken into yesterday sometime during the day. The thief took some electronics (we're not expecting to see those again) along with a few other things that we're thinking won't be of any value to him and likely stuffed everything inside a tote bag. If anyone is in the area and happens to find a large tote bag with pink embroidered initials, a plastic garment bag with a dress inside, an empty jewelry box, or all of the above, please let me know.”

Well-Dressed Puppies in Trouble: Someone on the canine-centric Hill Hounds email list is despondent over a dog that went missing on June 14, but waited to reach out to neighbors until yesterday morning: “She was lost around the Capitol Hill Area in SE, DC. She was wearing a yellow juicy couture collar. She is a small black and grey Yorkie/Shih Tzu mix. Her hair was trimmed when she went missing, but it probably has grown out by now. She is also a very frendly [sic] dog. Please help me find her. There is a reward for her return and it would be GREATLY appreciated.”

Kill the Poor: The District's strict handgun control laws, thrown out by the Supreme Court two years ago, turned out to be yet another example of the rich in America being oppressed. Nearly half the weapons registered under the new regulations are owned by residents of Georgetown, Chevy Chase, and Palisades; more than 10 percent of D.C.'s handguns are registered in the wealthy 20016 Zip code, which has a total population of only 14,000 households (far less than 10 percent of the city). So ¡viva la revolución!—but remember, when you show up with your pitchforks and torches in Spring Valley, you might get shot. -2

Next Stop, Pollution: It seems like common sense that operating a large railyard near a river might lead to some problems down the line, but apparently that didn't occur to anyone back when CSX Transportation Inc. set up on 40 acres near Benning Yard. Turns out, large amounts of petroleum products leaked into the Anacostia River as a result of "unpermitted discharges," for which CSX has agreed to pay a $500,000 civil penalty and cover the $7.5 million tab for the D.C. Department of the Environment to clean up the mess. Which might get in the way of its ongoing marketing campaign, promoting rail as the "most environmentally friendly" mode of transporation—if cars, trucks, and airplanes weren't actually dirtier. -3

Fumblerooski: The NFL released figures yesterday that showed 111 million people watched Sunday's Super Bowl—the largest U.S. audience for a TV show ever. (Sorry, M.A.S.H.) The overwhelming popularity of pro football may help explain why police say Maurice Carter was able to scam $500 from a woman he met outside the Eden nightclub last month by posing as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals. Saying he was on the phone with Baltimore Ravens running back Willis McGahee, Carter told the woman he'd forgotten his wallet and needed cash from her to pay for his hotel room. He was arrested, and penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct. -2

Food Truck Fans: And now, time for another in an occasional series of arbitrary rankings by national magazines. Today: QSR, a trade publication about trends and features in fast casual restaurants, ranks the 20 best food truck concepts in America—and D.C.'s Fojol Bros. of Merlindia make the list. The turbans and fake mustaches the Merlindians wear apparently helped vault them into the t0p 10. Other news we learned from the list: In Phoenix, you can get french fries made in duck fat from a truck. +2

Yesterday's Needle rating: 56 Today's score: -5 Today's Needle rating: 51

Cappuccino photo by Jazzbobrown, Creative Commons Attribution License

It’s an early Saturday afternoon inside the cozy basement café at Politics & Prose bookstore on Connecticut Avenue NW. I’ve been here awhile – a good long while.

I arrive with my laptop and a yellow legal pad before 10 a.m. and install myself at one of the little tables along the wall that leads to the stacks. After ordering a cappuccino, I fire up my computer and get right to work. When the battery wanes, I fish around behind a pedestal holding a lamp and find an electrical outlet to plug into. There is even an extension cord handy – what convenience!

All the while, I nurse the same cappuccino. Eventually, what was lacey white foam has congealed into a dingy crust around the porcelain cup.

Every now and then, I catch the gaze of one of the baristas – a woman with long brown hair and tattoos, who keeps up an incessant banter with the other barista, while the patrons come and go with their coffee drinks, bagels, soup of the day.

There she goes again. She’s giving me the eye, the sign that the coffee shop staff has made you – that you are bagged, spotted, scoped, identified as a Wi-Fi loafer, one of those Internet-surfing freeloaders who arrives early, orders little, and stays all day.

Sometimes referred to as “digital nomads,” the café vagabonds have inspired countless features and were even toasted in the Washington Post as harbingers of a future business culture, in which we will all one day be untethered from bland cubicles and dreary office parks.

No sooner has digital nomad culture been feted as trendsetting, however, than it has become apparent that not everyone is so happy with the Wi-Fi wanderers who move between establishments such as the Big Bear in Bloomingdale, Tryst in Adams Morgan and Mid-City Caffé in Columbia Heights.

One could assume that coffee shops lose money on these one-cuppa customers who spread out across tabletops from breakfast through teatime. There are signs that this has been the case. Some popular establishments like Tryst have turned off the Wi-Fi on weekends, while others contract with Internet providers that allow them to dole out the online access an hour or two at a time and only to paying customers.

And the issue has sparked heated debate among customers as well. Just check out the eruption on Prince of Petworth earlier this month when one local nomad expressed “shock” upon hearing that Sticky Fingers Bakery had banished Internet service on Saturdays.

While people voice strong views online, where they remain comfortably anonymous, the same issues are rarely aired in real time and face-to-face.

Take my experience at Politics & Prose’s café. Despite my suspicions about the eye, I’m left to my online reverie as the morning coffee and pastry crowd comes and goes – many without even sitting down – followed by some gatherings of mommies with baby strollers in tow, the dads with young kids who are stopping in after Saturday morning sports practice, and a few other laptop luggers like myself. They eventually are joined by late-rising American University students, here to rehash the night before and plot the one ahead. The students are holding fast to their table too but sans computers.

My crusty coffee cup forgotten at the corner of my screen, I’m open season for the Upper Northwest matrons who just popped in. They’ve come for lunch but, by now, all the tables are taken. So one of the women sidles up to mine and asks: “Are you going to be staying long?”

Her companion looks slightly mortified by her friend’s nerve. My inquisitor rolls her eyes, as if to acknowledge the breaking of a social code. But her look says she is more displeased by my audacity at hogging a scarce patch of coffee shop real estate more than her own cheek at trying to nudge my computer and me toward the door.

This is the first real challenge I’ve had in several weeks of Internet loafing.  My first reaction: shame. I am taken aback by the woman’s righteous indignation. After all, it cannot be denied that I am hogging table space from customers who are willing to plunk down lots more money than the two bucks and change I spent on a cappuccino several hours ago.

I mumble faintly: “Yes, yes, I’m planning to stay.”

The barista looks over and gives me the eye again. Or is she?  At some point it becomes hard to distinguish whether you’re getting the eye or simply projecting – “They’re thinking I’m a Wi-Fi loafer! Right now, they are thinking, ‘what a deadbeat!’”

Then, I snap out of it, remembering I’m not just some Wi-Fi loafer, I am a Wi-Fi loafer on assignment. Confessions of a Wi-Fi Loafer—that's the title of this series.

I have not resorted to such guerrilla reporting tactics lightly. I tried the standard interviewing techniques. But café owners are understandably reluctant to publicly dis their customers – even the Wi-Fi moocher variety. And, who in their right mind – especially in this status-oriented city – is going to allow a reporter to identify them on the record as an Internet café idler, an exploiter of bandwidth and table space?

Ever the dedicated public service journalist, and with few other avenues open to me, I have taken it upon myself to become the ultimate Wi-Fi loafer. I’m your faithful correspondent on the frontlines of cafes in every corner of the city wherever Internet connections and electrical outlets beckon and coffee is sold. Please feel free to share your own Internet loafing experiences or your feelings – either for or against the loafers you have encountered.  You can post them here or email me at thegreendistrict@gmail.com.

Speed Up: ANC Commissioner David Engel says, "The humps are massive, and a huge traffic diversion. You can't go more than five miles an hour." He is also irked that an invited DDOT official shunned a recent ANC meeting at which the issue came up. He maintains that it's mainly the "rich and powerful on the block" that want the speed bumps, rather than the whole community. "Certain people want their own urban village," he says.

Slow Down: John Lisle, spokesman for DDOT, says that speed humps must be approved by 75 percent of the block—and that happened—but the process has been streamlined and no longer requires a traffic report. In terms of construction, he said, "ANC approval is not required." Also, it is unclear whether the ANC provided opposition early enough in the process.

Next Step: In that recent meeting, the ANC requested the speed humps be removed pending the collection of data; it also wants an oversight hearing on the entire process.

Smokey

Princess

Mike and Ginny Spevak, the well-known Friendship Heights couple murdered in their home last November, left behind a daughter and son, their spouses, a grandson, siblings—a loving family. They also left behind three cats they adored. Two of them now need homes.

The cats were taken in by a family friend just after the tragedy (three suspects have since been arrested by D.C. police). Now that family is having a rough time caring for all three as they try and manage construction projects and other disturbances, says Mary Rowse, who put out a message on the Chevy Chase and Cleveland Park Listservs.

Her plea: "They are very loving and friendly lap cats but do not need to go to a home together. Is anyone willing to foster to adopt one of these two beautiful, shorthaired cats? They are very lonely now because the family taking care of them is only with them during the day and then only for limited periods of time"

"I just feel so sorry for the cats because they really are just wonderful," says Rowse by telephone, explaining she did not know the civic-minded Spevaks well, but thought immediately about their pets when she heard about their murders.

People who can provide a stable home are welcome to call Rowse at (202) 362-9279.

"Princess is a lap cat. Probably Smokey is, too, but no one else can be on a lap when Princess is on it," she says. Smokey would probably do well with another cat in the house.

Both are four years old, vaccinated, and negative for feline AIDS and leukemia. They're indoor-only cats with their claws intact.

"There's no rhyme or reason to it," says Aimee Stern, who handles PR for the site and is based in D.C. "It struck us because people in Washington are talking about healthcare reform, but no one is talking about this enormous disparity."

Stern, however, is also not talking about certain topics that could be helpful to consumers. When I asked her which centers in Chevy Chase and Rockville her release referred to, she said, "I wouldn't feel comfortable" getting specific and that calling out over-chargers on Healthcarebluebook.com would take tracking them over time.

It's a fair point and, if you weren't pressed for time like I am, you could call around and figure it out. Also, this is a tad trifling when, after checking things out, this site is, indeed, providing a huge resource for people—and I'm not talking about the uninsured, solely. Most of us are forced into "consumer-directed" healthcare plans by our employers and face ever-growing deductibles. So get informed and don't take MRIs lying down.

Contribution to service journalism/regurgitation for today? Check.

Nora Greer, a 55-year-old woman who lives in Barnaby Woods, posted a message to the Cleveland Park Listserv in the hope of finding a kidney donor. It reads:

SOS. Next year I'll need a transplant as I slip closer to acute renal failure. I haven't been able to find a compatible match from family or friends. I'm seeking a healthy person with TYPE O blood willing to consider the donation of a kidney. I know it's a huge gift and can only come from a very special person. I'm desperately trying to avoid dialysis. The official waiting time for a cadaver kidney in DC is four to seven years. All donor expenses will be covered by the recipient.

She also posted to the Chevy Chase board and plans to put a message out on the Listserv for Tenley Circle. So far, she says, she's received well wishes, but no takers. She remains encouraged. Another woman who lives in Scarsdale, N.Y., Beth Abramowitz, received a kidney from a donor who read a plea on Facebook. The plea was posted by an old high school boyfriend and was read by a mother in Tallahassee, Fla., who agreed to give up an organ to a stranger. Abramowitz found out about Greer's appeal and got in touch to tell her to keep trying.

Greer's kidneys are 21 percent functional. As that number dips lower, she'll be forced to go on dialysis. Her doctor told her last summer she'll need a new kidney in 2009 and that she should start asking people she knows. It's a prospect that doesn't thrill her.

"Some of us have trouble asking for rides," she says. "It's a huge thing....Some people I know have come forward, but they're the wrong blood type, or they have physical limitations, or they're the wrong age."

This is a huge problem nationally—and in D.C., where Greer says there are more than 1,000 people in need of kidneys. "There are not enough cadavers, not enough people want to donate their organs."

Greer, a freelance editor and writer, came to D.C. from her native Chicago in 1977. She's married and does not have kids, in part because of the damage to her body caused by lithium treatments administered before she moved here. (She is diagnosed with bipolar disorder; her family, she says, has a history with the disease.) The lithium, widely administered after gaining FDA approval in 1970, also scarred her kidneys, she says.  A study published by the National Institutes of Health states that renal damage is a known side effect and that "although this effect of lithium is probably functional and reversible early in treatment, it may become structural and irreversible over time."

Greer's ideal donor is between 20 and 60 years old, is Type O or Type-O compatible, and has no health problems. For her part, Greer plans to continue to pursue whatever legal means to find a kidney. "But it's scary to me. I'd probably be more of an expert on how to do this at this point, but I put it away some days. Sometimes I don't want to accept this is happening."

The Post has more details on the Spevak case, and NBC is reporting a connection between Hernandez and 622 Ingraham.

Police are calling it a targeted robbery.  Further bulletins as events warrant.

In conjunction with the investigation into the murder of Michael and Virginia Spevak, ABC 7 reports that D.C. Police discovered a safe and computer during yesterday's search of the backyard and alley behind 622 Ingraham St. NW.

A neighbor also found a charred ID belonging to Dr. Spevak in the alley.

Inspector Rodney Parks, addressing the press yesterday at the scene of the investigation, refused to confirm or deny the discovery of a computer. "Items were taken," he told us, "and burglary appears to be the motive. But we haven’t ruled out anything else."

NBC is also reporting the discovery of a safe.

Photograph above: D.C. Police package evidence in the Ingraham alley on 11/24/08

Police are mounting a full-scale investigation after the brutal murder last night of an elderly couple in Chevy Chase, D.C.

The victims, identified as Dr. Michael Spevak and Virginia Spevak, had been bound and brutalized after an apparent break-in. Their car—a 2005 blue Toyota Scion—was discovered this morning around 5 a.m. in the 500 block of Ingraham Street, NW, swathed in flames.

More below the jump, including photos, updates, and the official police statement.

From police spokesperson Traci Hughes:

For Immediate Release
November 23, 2008
Homicide in the 5000 block of Belt Road, NW

The Metropolitan Police Department is currently investigating a homicide which occurred in the 5000 block of Belt Road, NW .

At approximately 8:30 PM, members of the Second District responded to 5000 block of Belt Road, NW, for a radio assignment to check on the welfare of two residents.

Upon their arrival, authorities located Dr. Michael Spevak, age 68, and Virginia Spevak, age 67. Both victims were pronounced dead on the scene by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The victims’ remains were transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner pending autopsy to determine cause of death.

On Sunday, November 23, 2008, at approximately 5 AM, the victims’ 2005 Toyota Scion bearing DC Tag CB5335 was recovered in the 500 block of Ingraham St. NW. The vehicle had been set on fire.

This case remains under investigation by detectives from the department’s Homicide and Sexual Offenses Branch. Anyone with information about this case is asked to call police at (202) 727-9099 or 1-888-919-CRIM [E].

Additionally, anonymous information may be submitted to DC Crime Solvers at 1-800-673-2777 and to the department’s TEXT TIP LINE by text messaging 50411. If the information provided by the caller to the Crime Solvers Unit leads to an arrest and indictment, that caller will be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.

Brian Nelson, City Paper's Network Administrator, wrote the following to me in an email this morning:

An officer knocked on our door at 4:30am this morning looking for any witnesses. The fire dept had just put out a burning car in our alley (Between 7th and 5th/Hamilton and Ingraham NW) which had been involved in a double homicide in 2D.... They've since towed the car.

By the time I arrived to take photos this afternoon, all that remained was the rubble you're seeing: shards of class, springs and sprockets toasted to a crisp, melted wiring, tire vestiges seared into the cement. The blaze was hot enough to melt a nearby trash can.

Updates forthcoming.