Windows D.C.: Sure, Microsoft Office may be annoying, and yes, you prefer your iPod to a Zune. But free training in computer technology from Microsoft for D.C. residents, plus some special products and services for local small businesses and an effort to encourage Washingtonians to go into engineering-related careers still counts as good news. The Seattle-based software behemoth joined forces with Mayor Vince Gray today to announce a "strategic partnership," albeit one that doesn't include a long-ballyhooed innovation center on the St. Elizabeths campus. No word yet on whether city officials will seek to confiscate MacBooks at coffeeshops around town in exchange. +4

Home Is Where The Protest Is: There's no good time to be homeless, but the dead of winter is a particularly bad moment. Which is why the District typically conducts its count of the city's homeless population now, to know how many people need services at a time when you really don't want to be living outdoors. The count this year, though, has a new population of people living outdoors to deal with in the form of Occupy D.C. So a new policy has been determined: Officials won't count protesters as homeless, except for the small group of homeless people who have found temporary shelter within the encampments. +1

If You Can Read This, You Probably Live Here: And now for another installment of meaningless national rankings based on arbitrary stats. Today's episode: Literacy. A study by Central Connecticut State University has ranked the District the most literate city in the nation, ahead of Seattle, Minneapolis, Atlanta, and Boston. Among the categories that factored into the rankings was newspaper circulation. So if you want to keep the coveted title next year, be sure to pick up Washington City Paper tomorrow. +1

Snitches Get Stitches (And Cash): A wave of snatch and grab thefts of electronic devices has the Metropolitan Police Department planning to offer rewards between $1,000 and $10,000 to turn in the culprits, on the theory that that's far more money than could be made by selling a stolen gizmo online. Prediction: This won't stop anyone from stealing your iPhone (or Zune). -1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 38 Today's score: +5 Today's Needle rating: 43

No Taxation Without Starvation: Getting D.C. representation in Congress turns out to be physically hard work. The last remaining protester from the Occupy D.C. movement who's on a hunger strike to demand voting rights, Adrian Parsons, has lost 25 pounds in three weeks. He's consuming only vitamins and water, enhanced with electrolytes. Parsons' doctors have told him his kidneys are stressed, but he's otherwise doing fine. Which is good—since chances are Congress won't be meeting his demands any time soon. -2

Killing Is Out, School Is In: There are still a few days left in 2011, so maybe we shouldn't talk about the stats yet. But if current trends hold up through Sunday, the District will end 2011 with the lowest homicide total since 1963. Through today, the city had seen 108 murders this year (all chronicled at Homicide Watch). The murder rate is low, too, at about 5.6 per 100,000 residents. Overall, though, total crime was up 3 percent this year. +1

Occupied: Speaking of crime, the Fraternal Order of Police says more crime has occurred around the city since the Occupy D.C. camp set up in McPherson Square. That's because, the union argues, cops are being pulled there to keep an eye on protesters instead of doing their usual jobs. Seems like the number of variables involved in crime rate fluctuations is large enough that blaming any one factor in and of itself is a bit of a stretch. And besides, doesn't the FOP usually prefer to just blame Cathy Lanier? -1

Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Turns out overturning the District's gun control laws won't be quite as lucrative as it first appeared. A court ruled today that the city will have to pay lawyers for Dick Anthony Heller $1.3 million for more than 1,500 hours of work on the landmark Supreme Court case, District of Columbia v. Heller, that resulted in D.C. gun rules being thrown out. The lawyers, though, had initially asked for $3.1 million. Maybe they should just stick the District government up? -1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 50 Today's score: -3 Today's Needle rating: 47

Remain vigilant as you exit this building

The Metropolitan Police Department has sent a warning to early tech adopters (like, say, folks picking up the new iPhone 4S this week): Don't make yourself a target. Or, as they put it in a release, "be cautious when making electronic purchases, particularly on days of new releases, when popular devices and gadgets are being sold for the first time." They also include a list of tips:

1) If online tracking systems, like MobileMe, are available, get the extra assistance in the store for setup before exiting the store.

2) Don't be distracted as you exit local cell phone stores and other electronic specialty stores that sell these items. Be deliberate as you exit these stores, concealing your purchase(s) and focusing on getting to your next destination. Cell phones and other music devices are major distractions when in use.

3) Report suspicious people (inside and outside stores). Inside, (these are people who are paying more attention to the purchases being made, rather than checking out new products), especially in smaller stores. Outside, suspicious people standing at or near the exit, for no real purpose should be reported.

4) Try to shop with a friend. Most victims who report crimes that involve snatching new products are people who have shopped alone. If you have an elderly or senior citizen parent, please make preparations to accompany him/her to make these kinds of purchases or suggest online ordering.

5) Never hesitate to point out suspicious activity or people to local officers or security guards. Remember the "See Something, Say Something" campaign and dial 9-1-1 if you need an officer dispatched to your location.

Photo by blakespot via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 License

District resident Darryl Willard, 20, pleaded guilty on Thursday in D.C. Superior Court to a charge of aggravated assault while armed in connection with the shooting. His plea came after prosecutors agreed to drop a more serious charge of assault with intent to kill while armed.

[...]

“I told them I was willing to go to a trial and testify” if prosecutors went with the more serious charge, said the victim, who spoke on condition that her name was withheld.

But the prosecutors told her that her "lifestyle" would be brought up if she went to trial. They were referring, presumably, to the fact that she'd allegedly had sex with the man for money in the past. Practically speaking, it's not a surprise that the prosecutors decided to go that route. But there's something troubling about the assumption that a person who has had sex for money can't be a victim who's worth fighting for.

Photo by Flickr user Kevitivity under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

By April, they'd intercepted 104 kilograms of khat supposedly headed to Shuremu from the U.K. in the mail. Cops got a search warrant and raided Shuremu's business, where they say they found 36 more kilograms of khat. Shuremu was arrested without incident. MPD referred to him as a "a major drug traffic dealer." They said his arrest had taken $95,000 worth of khat off the streets. But on July 19, after prosecutors requested the action, Shuremu's case was dismissed without prejudice. Prosecutors can refile, but a month later, there's no sign they will.
A bitter tasting leaf popular among East Africans, fresh khat delivers a buzz that makes people euphoric and talkative after chewing it. Though no one is quite sure if khat does anything more dangerous than stain teeth, it was outlawed in the United States in the 1990s. Reportedly, that hasn't stopped it from being popular among D.C. cab drivers.

So why, after all the hubbub MPD made, is Shuremu walking free? Shuremu's lawyer and the U.S. Attorney's Office declined comment on the matter, and an official inquiry to MPD has so far gone unanswered. But a police source close to the case, speaking on condition of anonymity because he didn't have permission to discuss the investigation, says it's simple: No one knows crap about khat.

"They couldn't find an expert to testify at the trial," he says. In drug trafficking cases, a law enforcement expert  usually testifies about the drug in question and how criminals distribute it. According to the source, MPD doesn't have a local khat expert. In such a situation, the Drug Enforcement Agency's Washington Field Office is sometimes tapped, but DEA spokesperson Melissa Bell says khat use isn't a "broad-based" problem ("It's more a cultural thing," she says) so the DEA doesn't have an expert on hand either.

That would seem to be good news for any burgeoning khat cartels. Quick, start selling—before the authorities figure out what's up.

Photo by cliff1066™ via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0 Generic

Eleven of the citations were given in predominantly black police districts east of the Anacostia River. Only one was issued in the Second Police District, which contains some of D.C.'s whitest neighborhoods. That snapshot of the District's criminal justice landscape would seem to reflect past statistics, which say black residents are eight times more likely to be arrested for sparking a blunt than their white counterparts.

That's despite the fact that the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use & Health says whites and blacks use marijuana at near equal rates: 9.6 percent of blacks 12 and older use pot, and 8.8 percent of whites.

One theory as to why black residents are apprehended on pot charges more often involves how the two populations both smoke and acquire their weed. Whites tend to light up and deal inside their homes, and blacks on the street, goes the thinking.

Court records for some of those arrested east of the river back that belief up. They describe vice officers spotting suspects engaging in open-air blazing or buying from street corner dealers. One subject "was walking down the street smoking a brown cigar" when cops spotted him. The recklessness involved would seem to disqualify disparate rates of marijuana arrests in the city as a civil rights issue: Black smokers are choosing to be flagrant about their pot use and so attracting the attention of cops who have no choice but to grab them.

But even if assumptions about smoking and dealing habits are solid, that doesn't mean there's no problem with the way marijuana laws are currently being enforced in black and white neighborhoods. Taking my own experience as an African American who grew up poor into account, I remember some family and friends who puffed outside—whether that involved a pack of Kools or a joint meticulously sculpted from Top rolling papers—out of respect for others in their household, particularly where there was more than one generation (and therefore more than one set of moral values) under one roof. Dealing inside the house would have been all the more inappropriate. Although that's certainly not the situation for every black person who tokes up or does a hand-off in Ward 7 or Ward 8, the idea is that you can't just assume they're being belligerent, and therefore asking for repercussions.

Police do seem to be obligated to arrest you once they catch a sight of a spliff, as a matter of policy in the District. Police Chief Cathy Lanier says her department isn't pushing marijuana arrests at this time, but if ”we encounter someone in possession of marijuana, we are obligated to make an arrest."

Still, there are plenty of crimes, like jaywalking (which gets sporadic enforcement) that cops regularly ignore, despite the law. When the crime is so minor and ubiquitous that making a big deal about it would do more harm than good, officers typically walk on.

The federal survey on drug stats says that marijuana use—which has been approved for medical purposes in the District—may be a misdemeanor, but it's certainly become ubiquitous. An "estimated 104 million Americans aged 12 or older have tried marijuana at least once in their lifetimes." I doubt law enforcement is interested in arresting all those people, so why swoop into black D.C.?

When black people bear the brunt of marijuana arrests, the prime suspect ends up being the country's teetering but still functional mechanism of racial oppression. The fix is obvious: Legalize marijuana, and the problem disappears. Or at least this manifestation of it does.

Photo by futureatlas.com via Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0

Don't Get Mad, Get Even: YouTube is already good for bringing fame and fortune to people, whether they deserve it or not. Now an Arlington man is hoping it's good for bringing justice, too. After someone took a TV he'd ordered online off his porch, Rob Richards posted surveillance video of the delivery and the heist on the Internet. Police say they're not sure how helpful it'll be, but at least the score—"The Blue Danube"—makes for relaxing viewing. +1

Rush Hour Baby: Study after study brings dismal news about D.C. traffic. It's bad; we get it. Just how bad, though, is really only fully realized when some unfortunate woman can't even get through the logjams to deliver a baby. It happened again this morning, around 6:30 a.m., near the intersection of Florida and New York avenues. A 911 dispatcher coached the new mother through birth. No word on whether the baby is to be named Dave Thomas, in honor of the Wendy's that dominates the intersection. +2

Oh Chompie, Why Have You Forsaken Us?: When Discovery executives announced there would not, in fact, be an inflatable shark gracing downtown Silver Spring this year for Shark Week, there was much gnashing of teeth in the area. (Happily, those teeth were mostly of the human, not giant shark, variety.) But only now is there an explanation for the absence of Chompie: The weather got to him. Which means there's really not much difference between giant inflatable sharks and the rest of us in the D.C. area, is there? -1

Don't Throw That Out!: Don't be surprised if retail employees start watching to see what you bring into a store, not just to make sure you haven't taken anything out. Several stores are complaining that they've been hit with fines of up to $200 for stuff customers threw out—from recycling in a trash can, to a couch by the dumpster, to other violations of the trash rules. Remember: You throw it out, you bought it. -1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 51 Today's score: +1 Today's Needle rating: 52

A bad day in Mt. Pleasant left Jean E. Louis dead. Louis was fatally shot Tuesday after a Metropolitan Police Department "Emergency Response Team" broke an hours-long standoff, and Louis lunged at an officer with a sharpened object, according to reports.

The episode raises, not for the first time, some questions about whether MPD is properly prepared to deal with the mentally ill when or if they become violent. In this particular instance, according to the department, they were—a cop on the scene was part of a special team trained to deal with such deadly situations.

In two separate altercations in 2009, police fatally shot and killed mentally ill District residents. David Kerstetter and Osman Abdullahi were both shot dead after each man allegedly rushed at officers with weapons. The tragedies prompted the department to succumb to a suggestion the Office of Police Complaints had been making since 2006: MPD needed a Crisis Intervention Team like the one in Memphis, Tenn.

CIT units are trained to bring a "humane and calm approach" to a crisis involving a mentally ill suspect. That's important, as confrontations between police officers and someone who's had a psychological break can easily turn bloody.

MPD says it's not releasing details about this week's shooting due to an ongoing investigation, so we don't know what methods the CIT member might have employed to try to subdue and save Louis. In a statement, MPD does say "responders" attempted to negotiate with Louis.

Though cops are justified in using lethal force when their lives are in danger, the mission of the CIT would seem to be to prevent that kind of life-or-death scenario from emerging. One question left unanswered for now: How much influence did the CIT member have over the developing crisis? And a second: Why did a distressed man with a screwdriver require a SWAT team to lock down Mt. Pleasant?

Photo by Stefanie Gans

Addressing McCormick's woes after Graham reached out to D.C. police, Captain Aubrey P. Mongal wrote back that there were certainly some bad elements seeping into the neighborhood.

"The predators appear to be identifying individuals or couples that have left the main 18th street area and [are] walking in areas not known as high traffic areas." McCormick tells City Desk the crime spike is changing the character of Adams Morgan. "It's losing its friendliness," he says.

There's evidence he's right. Police Chief Cathy Lanier recently said the 3rd police district, where Adams Morgan is located, "has the highest volume of crime in the city, and the third highest volume of calls for service." That's one of the reasons why, as part of citywide police district realignments, the Metropolitan Police Department will be changing its boundaries so that a neighboring police district takes on Mt. Pleasant, helping shoulder the problem.

In Adams Morgan itself, so far this year when compared to statistics from last year, total crime is up 13 percent, according to the MPD crime map. That increase might or might not qualify as a spike. We're dealing with small numbers here, so even a slight change amounts to a dramatic difference in the percentage.

There's been an 8 percent increase in violent crime, but that just means there were 64 instances of violent crime in 2010 as compared to 69 in 2011. Cars in the neighborhood have definitely seen better days. 97 cars were broken into in 2010, and 127 in 2011, a 31 percent increase. There's been no change in the number of armed robberies. But in the same period in 2009, total  crime was down 9 percent.

It's well known that Adams Morgan goes through a crime wave every once in awhile. It usually passes with increased police patrols. In that case, trimming down the police district that responds to the area is a good idea, as it should free up some manpower and just might bring back the the neighborhood McCormick remembers.

Photo by Matt Dunn

Heavily armed Metropolitan Police Department officers surrounded a building near Mt. Pleasant and Irving streets NW Tuesday afternoon, responding to what officials said was a "possible barricade situation." A man was reportedly barricaded in his apartment with a screwdriver or screwdrivers.

Washington City Paper contributor Stefanie Gans was nearby and took pictures of the standoff. View a slideshow of the scene here.

UPDATE: The man is reportedly dead, after witnesses heard two gunshots.

It's been griped about on District neighborhood message boards for years now: Packages left out front by delivery drivers will sometimes vanish. Since moving to D.C. in April, that's been Stevenson's experience. She has yet to find even one package addressed to her safely waiting on her doorstep.

Hailing from Charlottesville, Va., Stevenson moved to a two-bedroom apartment off Logan Circle for a new job. After she settled into the ground floor apartment with big windows, she decided to upgrade her wardrobe.

At the beginning of May, she scoured the Web looking for bargains. Eventually, she scored a pair of Prada shoes, a dress and skirt by the Italian fashion company Missoni, and shirts by Banana Republic and Ralph Lauren. Anxious to receive her orders, she paid for priority shipping.

A month later, Stevenson hadn't received a thing. She pestered the sellers and asked her mail carrier if something was wrong. He said he'd left her items outside her door, and didn't know anything more. It wasn't just the clothes, though.

Stevenson says she later learned that two "care packages" were also missing. One of them was a welcome to the neighborhood snack made by a neighbor that hadn't even gone through the mail; the neighbor simply left the box of cashew nuts with rosemary on Stevenson's stoop. Stevenson has since figured out that she's dealing with a package absconder and gone to the police.

"The police were really responsive," says the upbeat Stevenson. But they told her that there wasn't much they could do. If she "set up some fake packages they would try to watch the house." They also encouraged her to set up a video camera to catch the mail thief like "that one guy," says Stevenson. She’ll likely do both, she says.

Stevenson says she isn't worried about revealing her future ruse on City Desk; it's unlikely the prowler will see it. She's hoping to get her stuff back once the thief is caught, but isn't counting on it. Stevenson says she understands police have more important things to do than track down mail thieves. Still, she wouldn't mind getting some justice. "I just think it's wrong," she says.

Photo by Perfecto Insecto via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0 (Stevenson not pictured)

Franklin's father, Rodney McIntyre, was charged with her murder at an arraignment in D.C. Superior Court Monday. He will be held without bail. The day she disappeared, McIntyre had plans to meet up with his daughter to give her a few Christmas gifts.

Prosecutors say they have evidence that McIntyre had sex with his daughter before she was slain. A call to McIntyre's lawyer wasn't returned.

Though the alleged crime is inexplicable, there might have been some foreshadowing, Court records indicate that McIntyre had thought about harming someone close to him at least once before.

McIntyre has been involved with the criminal justice system since the '90s, and in 2005, was sentenced to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a threatening to injure/kidnap a person charge.

According to charging documents, on March 15, 2005, McIntyre threatened to burn down a dwelling. He and his girlfriend had a fight the night before, and when McIntyre showed up at an apartment in the morning, looking for his girlfriend, her sister answered the door and told him she wasn't there. He flipped, say court papers: "You are lying, I'll set this place on fire." Police picked up McIntyre not too far from the scene. The incident could have been a clue that, at the very least, McIntyre was violently angry. He might have even been psychotic.

The research of forensic psychiatrist Sara G. West contends that when it comes to fathers committing the act of filicide, mental illness can play a pivotal role: "Psychosis seems to be common in men who commit filicide. Two studies from psychiatric populations found the rate of psychosis was 40 percent, while two studies from general populations found it to be about 30 percent."

When his DNA was allegedly found inside Franklin, cops say McIntyre first offered the bizarre explanation that he'd given his daughter a bottle of his sperm because she wanted to become pregnant. McIntyre later changed his story, but the fact that he thought it was plausible in the first place may point to a mental ailment.

West contends that mental health professionals should keep an eye out for patients who could be prone to filicide. "Much as asking about suicidal or homicidal thoughts has become second nature for psychiatrists over time, so too should inquiring about filicidal thoughts," West writes.

Maybe that should become standard for those involved in the criminal justice system, as well. Franklin had already been born when McIntyre was pegged as a would-be arsonist. That's not to place blame, but to wonder if a new approach that evaluated criminals' mental states might help keep things from getting worse down the line. Of course, improving mental health services would reduce the need for investigators to shoulder prevention.

In any event, it's a problem that deserves attention. The District's Child Fatality Review Committee announced last year that in 2008, the last year for which stats are available, nine District kids were victims of "fatal abuse."

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

When friends went looking for Selina Joanne Knight, 36,  in her home on Nelson Place SE at about 11:30 on March 4, because she'd stopped answering her phone, they found her in the living room. A blanket draped over her face, she was lying completely still. When they removed the blanket, they could see parts of her were smeared with dried blood. Clad "in a black T-shirt and orange shorts, lying supine on a black leather-like loveseat," Knight was gone.

The television was playing, and there was a strong odor of bleach, according to court papers. In the kitchen, there was an empty bleach bottle on its side. When cops arrived, they found a shirt in the kitchen that was doused with the caustic fluid and graffiti scrawled around Knight's apartment that said things like "YOU GAVE ME HIV" and "WHORE" and "BITCH."

Suspicion fell on Keith Littlepage, 48, an ex of Knight's. Knight had recently ended their relationship, say court papers. Littlepage was arraigned on murder charges Friday. Littlepage and Knight had known each other for 20 years, and once lived together. The story court records paint Littlepage as a jilted lover whose behavior became more and more erratic, as Knight struggled to break free. Knight reached out for help, but still ended up doomed.

In the days before her murder, there were two break-ins at Knight's place, one on March 1, and another the day she was found dead. Both came after Knight told Littlepage it was over, say documents. There were no signs of forced entry in either case. During the first burglary, a flat-screen TV was taken, along with some photographs of Knight. During the second burglary, nothing was taken, but the ashes of Knight's father were flushed down a toilet.

Knight reported the second burglary at about 11 p.m., about 30 minutes before she was found dead. That day, Littlepage had been making "numerous harassing and threatening phone calls," say court papers. A witness says that during those phone calls he accused Knight "of giving him HIV/AIDS, threatened to tell others she had HIV/AIDS, to include posting her picture around the neighborhood."

In the days before and after ending her relationship with Knight, Knight told some of those closest to her she was scared of Littlepage. She let one confidante listen to a message she said Littlepage had left, say court papers. In it, Littlepage says things like, "You are going to be gone. You are going to vanish. I am going  to erase you from the earth, or words to that effect."

Another witness, who let Littlepage stay over the night before Knight was disovered, tells of a spooky scene. Court papers say after watching Littlepage pace around during the night, during the early morning of March 4, the defendant asked if he could borrow a screwdriver. The witness lent the screwdriver to Littlepage, and Littlepage left. Littlepage didn't return to the apartment until "before sunrise on March 4."

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Some criminals apparently do their homework. Authorities have arrested six men believed to be part of a sophisticated D.C.-area armed robbery team responsible for over a dozen successful stick-up jobs. Before and during the alleged crimes, the patient and calculated crew used surveillance and counter-surveillance techniques to try to outwit police.

According to a police official speaking on condition of anonymity, the group—which included one man who said he'd fought in the El Salvadoran civil war—also talked of being willing to kill police officers.

The crew was caught because of an operation conducted by the Metropolitan Police Department, the FBI, and law enforcement forces in Virginia and Maryland. The suspects were arrested without incident in "Southeast" D.C. Wednesday night. (The source didn't say where in Southeast.)

The official says that there are video recordings of the crew bragging about eight armed robberies of stores in Northern Virginia and four bank robberies at locations outside the D.C. area. The men might have walked away from one job with about $100,000 in cash and jewelry.

The video was obtained after undercover police officers made contact with the group about two weeks ago. The officers posed as fixers who could get the men cars and guns. They also lured the crew in with some bait, the official says, making the outfit believe the officers could point them to a District drug-dealer whose residence was ripe for a home invasion.

The official says it's believed that the group has been knocking over businesses since at least August 2010. MPD is expected to announce the arrests later today.

Photo by gcfairch via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

Pictures of the letter show that a weight-loss advertisement appears on it. That's likely because the letter sender printed the text out from the Post website. But it makes a strange mailing seem even stranger. As Curmudgeon points out, Kearney is currently in jail, so there's no immediate reason to warn people that they live close to him.

The letter could be a part of a curious phenomenon you pick up on while reading D.C. police message boards: There's a contingent of pro-law-enforcement residents whose zeal for fighting crime veers toward shaming the families of suspects. At any rate, consider yourself warned.