Dorothy Brizill & Gary Imhoff

Position: proprietors, DC Watch

Address: 1327 Girard St. NW (Columbia Heights)

Observations: LL has criticized the First Couple of municipal kvetching for their home upkeep in the past, but Snowmageddon 2010 really brought out their neighborly spirit. A narrow but tidy path had been shoveled into the snow by late yesterday afternoon, including a handy trench out to the street. And Brizill and Imhoff deserve special kudos because few others on their block bothered to do the same.
Grade: A

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—No, you didn't miss it.

Morning all. Big news of this Dead Week Tuesday is that a tree fell. Indeed, early on Tuesday morning, three cars at Ontario Road and Euclid Streets NW were pummeled by a tree that had apparently fallen victim to last night's strong winds. LLD will stay on this story.

After the jump: What's up with vehicle inspections—do they improve highway safety? Good times for Zipcar. D.C. Wire still idle. Arenas in trouble. D.C. housing bubble? Plus other non-news stories.

NOT QUITE AS BAD AS PLAX: The Washington Post recycles a story broken by CBSSports.com that Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas has been bringing some firearms to work with him, storing them in his locker somehow. The practice has drawn an investigation not only by the NBA but also by the D.C. police department. What distances Arenas from the moronic former New York Giants star Plaxico Burress are the following considerations:

1) Arenas didn't carry around loaded guns, apparently; according to the team his were "stored...in a locked container in his locker, unloaded and without ammunition";

2) Arenas didn't load one up and then drive into New York City, one of the toughest gun-law jurisdictions in the country;

3) He didn't then stuff a loaded weapon under his sweatpants, however that might work;

4) He didn't then let the gun accidentally go off.

So there's the complete analysis of the Arenas v. Plax story line.

SO, DO MOTOR VEHICLE INSPECTIONS IMPROVE HIGHWAY SAFETY OR NOT?—That's the question at the bottom of this quite-good WaPo story by Christian Davenport. A little primer action before we get into the good stuff: The administration of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty ended full-on vehicle inspections to save a few bucks—$400,000, to be exact—in a tight municipal budget. And it's in the justification where the back-and-forth gets kinda comical. As outlined in the Davenport story:

*"Jack Pfeiffer, a spokesman for Fenty (D), said in an e-mail that safety inspections 'have no correlation to road safety.'"

But hold on!

*"A study by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation this year found that 'vehicle safety inspection programs appear to be a significant factor in lowering fatal crashes.'"

Not so fast!

*A study released by the North Carolina General Assembly last year that said "no evidence exists showing the safety inspection program is effective."

How to resolve all this conflicting information? Via common sense, of course. Like it or not, the D.C. inspection program was rigorous, spotting just about everything that could go wrong with your car, from front brakes to rear brakes to lighting to wipers and so on. There's no way the regime didn't make for safer highways. Just no way. Safety considerations aside, the Davenport piece does a nice job of explaining the real scam of the new system, and that is that even though they're not doing the 81-point inspection, they're still doing emissions checks, which means you still have to show up at Half Street SW. You still pay $35, for less services. And you still have to wait forever.

AP via Examiner on vehicle inspections. WTOP.

Keith Alexander and Megan Greenwell report that the suspect in that terrible Christmas morning killing will remain jailed. Mario Antonio Garcias will be held without bond. "At a news conference Monday evening, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier praised detectives' work in arresting Garcias on Sunday morning, less than 48 hours after the shooting. Standing a block from the house where [Miguel Angel]Romero was pronounced dead, Fenty said the area is known for its annual block party, not for killings. 'A triple shooting in this area is extremely rare,' Fenty said." The killing took place in the 5400 block of 4th Street NW.

Check out this link to see where D.C. ranks among cities in terms of boosting math-test scores for its public school students.

D.C. Wire remains idle. C'mon, Post local political crew, you gotta refresh that thing! Just to let people know you're not snoozing on the dead week. Here are some suggestions:

*Call Jim Graham and ask him how he likes his chances for re-election in 2010.
*Figure out Fenty's triathlon sked for 2010.
*Check with Ward 8 Councilmember Marion S. Barry Jr., to see if he's getting an early start on his taxes this year.
*Interview activist Dorothy Brizill and ask what D.C. Wire can do to reclaim the Post's magic touch with respect to D.C. news.
*Call Attorney General Peter Nickles and ask if he's ever approved a FOIA request.

Good times for Zipcar, according to Housing Complex. WTOP. NC8.

Man who was hit by Metro train early Sunday morning is blind. He apparently lost his footing on the platform. Time for more robust rumble strips on Metro platforms? WUSA.

Fourth arrest made in robbery-connected killing that involves D.C. police officer Reginald Jones. NC8.

EYESORE WATCH! NC8 reports on the removal of unsightly billboards in residential areas. "Advertising things like cell phones and movies, these billboards aren't located along a highway. Amateur video of several billboards cluttered together in NW D.C. show that many are next door or leaning against homes. 'Just having the billboards in a residential community was a no no,' said ANC Commissioner Anita Bonds."

CAN THE FENTY ADMINISTRATION COUNT ON A NEW HOUSING BUBBLE? According to the WashBizJo, D.C. house prices have gone up for the seventh straight month. "Washington is among the few markets in the country to maintain steady improvement. San Francisco is the only other major city to post gains for seven months in a row. Minneapolis and San Diego have seen median home prices rise for six consecutive months, while Chicago broke its string of gains in October. 'The turnaround in home prices seen in the Spring and Summer has faded with only seven of the 20 cities seeing month-to-month gains, although all 20 continue to show improvements on a year-over-year basis,' said David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s."

WTOP breaks down New Year's Eve.

WAMU does its own take on the closing of Lambda Rising. Also, WAMU reports on the concerns of D.C. congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton vis-a-vis airline security. "Norton sits on the House Homeland Security Committee. While she praises the Northwest Airlines crew and passengers for preventing Umar Abdul- Mutallab from setting off an explosive, she says she wants to know how he got on in the first place. 'I have watched these watch lists for years. And I can't fathom why the report given to the embassy did not raise red flags. Because it came from a very credible source, a courageous and difficult source- this man's own father,' says Norton."

Fox5's Sherri Ly is TOTALLY ALL OVER the pothole scourge brought on by the pre-Christmas snoMG. Here's a little service journalism from Fox: "You can request pothole filling services by calling the Mayor's Citywide Call Center at 311 or completing a service request online using the District government's Service Request Center. Indicate the pothole location (i.e. address, intersection) and describe the severity of the pothole problem (i.e. depth, width, number of potholes in one location). A service request will be put into the tracking system, and the resident will receive a service request number."

Fenty Sked: 10:30 am: Remarks, Fenty Administration to Reopen Champlain Street

Location: Intersection of Kalorama Road and Champlain Street NW

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—Famous Channel 4 sportscaster George Michael dies at 70. Also, more on the snowball fight, as City Desk reports on an effort by D.C. police to make "conversation" on this troubling incident melt away like the snow that made it possible in the first place.

Morning all. Hope all you LLDers had a good holiday weekend. And if you're not checking out this week, have faith: LLD is on the case, though under a different by-line (see above).

LLD, even under a guest columnist, can never resist the opportunity to self-indulge, and this time it has plenty of pretext. In the Dec. 27 edition of themail, Dorothy Brizill and Gary Imhoff do a lot of grousing about local news coverage, with an emphasis on the alleged downgrading of the Washington Post's coverage of all things D.C. And in Imhoff's little riff on the matter, he tips his hat a bit to the toils of LLD:

Online news coverage has taken some halting steps. For the past several months The Washington City Paper’s Loose Lips, Mike DeBonis, has written an opinionated news aggregation column every weekday: Loose Lips Daily, at http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk. It’s useful — and could use competition.

So, Mr. Imhoff, with that whole "could use competition" thing, just what are you getting at? That LLD could possibly be any better than it now is? That you have enough time to read yet another 4,000-word news roundup each and every weekday?

After the jump: More Imhoff-Brizill; Barras on the end of the year; Mathews slams Gray and Cheh; more!

Well, we at LLD love competition. And that's where you come in, Mr. Imhoff. How 'bout providing that competition yourself!

As for superactivist Brizill, here's what she has to say about local news:

There was a time when the Washington Post hit the floor of our front porch early in the morning and I would arouse myself, stumble downstairs, and read the newspaper cover to cover before Gary even woke up. Now, there are many times when the paper stays around the house for days, unopened and unread, and finally opened only to retrieve the grocery ads. Too often, worthy news is edged out by fluff. For three successive days, beginning December 21, the front page of the Style section was dominated by long stories and large photographs of Michaele and Tariq Saladi, the White House gate crashers. On December 11, the front page of the first section had a long story and big photo about a vice president of the Washington Nationals, Gregory McCarthy, who was training to run the Antarctic Marathon to complete his quest to run a marathon on each continent, worth being a human interest story inside the Sports section.

A reply to Brizill on behalf of LLD:

1) It's Michaele and Tareq Salahi, not whatever butchered spelling you offered. If you want to criticize media outlets, best to get your facts straight first.

2) The Salahi story wasn't fluff; it was a huge news scoop, as evidenced by the thousands of outlets that picked it up.

3) The McCarthy story was a fine feature. If you don't think that good features are worth paying for, then move just about anywhere else in the country, save L.A., New York, and Chicago. Pick up the paper that's sold in your new hometown. All of a sudden, you'll appreciate that McCarthy feature.

4) Brizill asks this question in her rant against the Post: “What has happened to the high quality of investigative reporting the newspaper had been known for?”

Hmmm, did she miss this series on the fate of D.C. AIDS programs east of the river? Perhaps those stories ran when the paper sat around Brizill's house "unopened and unread."

Tis the season for roundups, and LLD today will feature that of Examiner columnist Jonetta Rose Barras. In this particular iteration, Barras takes the stream-of-consciousness approach to wrapping up the year. She just goes off, like so:

Sarah Palin may have gone rogue. District elected officials went insane. Their madness consumed the government and vexed residents, causing many to fret about the city's future.

Huh? Let's try some more:

Ward 3 D.C. Councilwoman Mary Cheh accused Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's administration of being lawless. The legislature wasn't exactly law-abiding. It's surprising no one called back former Metropolitan Police Department Chief Charles Ramsey to throw a dragnet around the John A. Wilson Building and hogtie its occupants. No one was innocent.

Officials violated the intent and spirit of local laws. The mayor circumvented procurement and privatization regulations. Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry abused loopholes in contracting rules; Chairman Vincent C. Gray claimed ignorance of campaign finance laws.

When the two branches weren't trashing rules, they were savaging each other. On multiple occasions the council accused Fenty of lying, contract steering, mismanagement, ageism and racism. In a take-one-to-know-one move, the executive asserted that the council's rejection of Department of Parks and Recreation nominee Ximena Hartsock was sexist and racist.

OK, now it's all starting to make sense. But then, Barras goes back to her roots. Remember, she formerly worked as a staffer at the Washington Times. And back in those days, the times used things called "scare quotes" and other copy-editing oddities to show their feelings on certain issues of the day. One of their tics was refusing to use the word "gay," opting instead for "homosexual." Now here's Barras in her roundup: "homosexuals were given the opportunity to marry each other."

Washington Post educolumnist Jay Mathews starts his latest bit of opinionmongering with a marvelous slam on a couple of D.C. councilmembers. Here goes: "Sometimes it is the smartest, most concerned policymakers who do the most harm to schools. My favorite recent example is the Healthy Schools Act, a bill introduced two weeks ago by D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh and Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray."

So just what is Mathews' gripe with the councilmembers? Well, they're mandating a huge boost in the number of hours that children spend each week in phys-ed classes. Though that may sound fine on the surface, says Mathews, there's only so much time in a day, and D.C. schools need all the time they can get to make their students competent in reading and writing and math.

WaPo's Paul Schwartzman profiles the declining fortunes of D.C. developers, complete with a lede about a high-flying developer hit hard by the housing and credit crises and who's soon off to Buenos Aires for some reflection. Maverick developer Jim Abdo sums up the status quo:

"Where we might have gone out to the Capital Grille to eat steaks, we now meet in a conference room and drink ice water. The mood is a mood of humility and contriteness and self-reflection. There were a lot of people who were intoxicated by the times and the easy access to capital. A lot of them are gone."

PASSED AWAY— Percy Sutton, prominent civil rights lawyer and media entrepreneur.

MIGHT AS WELL INCLUDE A NOTE ON THE WEATHER SINCE THERE'S NOTHING ELSE GOING ON—We're looking at a wet end of the year, with snow or rain or ice likely sometime from Wednesday through New Year's Day.

WaPo edit board issues a plea to lawyers around the region to offer services to parts of the District hardest-hit by unemployment. "Washington has long been known as the pro bono capital of the country, a place where lawyers generously volunteer to help all manner of clients who cannot afford counsel. Area lawyers and law firms are hurting, too, but D.C. area firms and lawyers — among the wealthiest in the country — need to dig deeper to fulfill their professional obligation to provide legal help to those who cannot afford it."

ABSOLUTELY—nothing going at at D.C. Wire.

AP, via Examiner, reports on D.C. effort to crack down on buyer of tax liens. Also AP via Examiner, D.C. Councilmember Phil Mendelson is pushing a bill to change PCP possession from a misdemeanor to a felony.

AP, via WTOP, reports that free health clinic may hit D.C. in 2010. Story first appeared in WaPo.

WAMU's Rebecca Blatt reports on the beginning of an overhaul of Pennsylvania Avenue under the aegis of the Great Streets Project. Here's the money graphs:

The project is supposed to make Pennsylvania Avenue more accessible to pedestrians. One of the lanes will become a landscaped median.

Drivers should expect some temporary lane closures between 9:30 am and 3:00 pm in the first five months of construction. The second phase of the project will include some more long-term lane closures. That is expected to begin in May.

NC8 reports that a pedestrian was killed near 16th Street and Park Road NW early today. "Few details were immediately available." WUSA.

NBC4 reports on an incident in which D.C. police shot and killed a knife-wielding suspect. WUSA.

A heretofore mystery man in the fishy fire truck affair has spoken: Vladimir Céspedes, mayor of the Dominican Republic city of Sosúa, told reporters today about the caper that has generated a great deal of political heat in this town.

Turns out it's not just this town. Céspedes, through a translator, tells LL that he has his own political problems: His own city council wants to know what happened to the $11,000 in city money he paid expecting a fire truck and ambulance in return—not a small amount in a city of 50,000 that has a municipal budget totaling $100,000 per month. There was no written contract, he says, just a receipt from the shipper.

"Not only they, but I want the money back," Céspedes says.

That money, he says, was paid in cash to Sinclair Skinner, friend and political associate of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, in the expectation that the funds would finance transport of the rigs to Sosúa. Skinner, Céspedes explained, has presented himself as being very close to Fenty.

Skinner and David Jannarone, the mayoral director of development, Céspedes says, visited him in Sosúa "three or four times." He'd welcome them at city hall, he says.

The trucks made it as far as Miami before political pressure led the Fenty administration to halt the transfer. Céspedes said he felt "very bad" when he heard that the deal blew up. "We need that equipment to save lives in our poor country," he said.

What Céspedes explains jibes with testimony from Ronald Moten of Peaceoholics, the group serving as a middle man between D.C. and Sosúa. Moten testified in June that Skinner had handed him an $11,000 check drawn on Liberty Industries, a concern owned by Skinner, then had turned around and used those funds to pay for the trucks' transport. But it was not clear from Moten's testimony whether the funds were paid by the Dominicans or by the D.C. folks.

His account also aligns with that of William Walker, head of a local nonprofit who has presented himself as the mastermind of the donation. He appeared at the press conference today (on left in photo), saying that he remained hopeful that the transfer could be completed and that cultural exchange between the cities could continue.

Céspedes yesterday evening told his story to D.C. councilmembers investigating the equipment transfer. He is scheduled to speak to an investigator from the Office of the Inspector General this afternoon. Yesterday, Céspedes and Walker visited the city's property yard in Northeast to view the trucks.

The revelations came after a press conference in the lobby of the Westin hotel off Thomas Circle, which had been organized by good-government advocate Dorothy Brizill. Brizill says she arranged the trip for Céspedes and his translator and counsel, Jorge Espaillat, going so far as working with Eleanor Holmes Norton's office to secure visas and soliciting donations for hotel and airfare. Brizill says she paid for their lodging but hopes to be reimbursed from D.C. Council funds meant for witness expenses.

Céspedes wasn't the only player in this saga to be deposed by councilmembers yesterday. Jannarone sat for questioning, as did Walker.

Skinner has yet to be questioned. Council staff are still negotiating with his attorney, A. Scott Bolden, to set a date and terms.

Meanwhile, we're really digging the food fight over at New York Times Magazine.

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