The Anti-Real World DC blog is gonna have to do better than this post:

"Deja vu? More like deja poo. See, I've already lived in a city that had a Real World house. I've already had to deal with reengineering my social life around 7 douchebags who fail to represent anything more than the sad part of America that can't figure out how to have a life that isn't documented for other peole who can't figure out how to have a life. Was it frustrating? Absolutely. Annoying? Oh yeah. Did it improve or destroy my life and/or city? Nawwww. The last time I lived in a city with a RW house (I can't believe I have a "last time," it's so sad), the house was on the otherside of the city from me and the most imposition I had was having to go to a different Starbucks a few time..."

Your indifference will not sustain your blog. Good luck.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Real World D.C. Edition" »

A day after local poo-bahs at DYRS opened its New Beginnings Youth Center, a New Beginnings inmate escaped.

With much fanfare, the facility replaced the infamous Oak Hill juvenile detention facility. Officials had trumpeted its very un-jail like citing; local media had repeatedly compared it to a college campus. "This is the anti-prison," Vincent N. Schiraldi, director of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, told the Post in a story that made it seem like New Beginnings was a St. Albans branch campus only better . "What we had before was a training school for them to become adult inmates. We want them to aspire to college, to be in a place that looks like you care about them."

The press had noted that New Beginnings was not surrounded by razor wire. Instead, officials stated that the facility's security was pure state-of-the-art Gattaca shit---"climb-free fencing" and "detention-grade windows." New Beginnings central campus-like feature was a sweet courtyard; it also had a cafeteria, library, gym, and automated bathroom time (!). Apparently, none of the new features nor the intimidating climb-free fencing could prevent a kid from bolting the $46 million Laurel campus.

The kid is still out there. An internal investigation is underway to determine how the kid escaped. Meanwhile, the Post provides some hilarious details on the city's security tests:

"On Thursday, Schiraldi and David Muhammad, chief of Committed Services, said they had brought in young men to try to scale the New Beginnings fences and made modifications to prevent escapes. Schiraldi even said he planned to put prickly shrubbery, possibly rose bushes, near the fence so the young men would not be tempted to flee."

One councilmember is already feeling prickly over the escape---Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells.

Read More "Inmate Escapes From New Beginnings Youth Facility" »

There's been a lot of grandstanding over the pending crime bill. Mendo has been particularly targeted in silly ways--at a press conference and at recent hearing. Now comes Muriel Bowser on Kojo with her own bit of fear mongering. (She's BSing right now! on gangs). Bowser argues that the police need better tools in dealing with gangs. Her argument is completely uninformed, straight-up Palin-esque politics.

Yes. Gangs are scary. But D.C. has plenty of tools already on the books. The District does not need to go into civil court with these new crime-bill tools. The Feds have long used RICO to take gangs off street corners. They've been quite successful. RICO is scary, too. Gang leaders like Kevin Gray and Tommy Edelin have found that out. Death penalty cases are now part of D.C.

There are also already civil tools the city has used like nuisance property laws that can target crack houses and shut them down. The results have been mixed. Innocent families have been targeted based on flimsy evidence.

Read More "Crime Bill Angst" »

As mentioned by LL in an exhaustive budget rundown, At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson kept funding in the city budget for a program that helps the poor pay for attorneys. Today, Bread for the City cheered the news on its blog ("Beyond Bread"):

"Yesterday, the DC Council Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to maintain funding for civil legal services for low income DC residents.

Under the approved budget, more than $3.5 million will be allocated for civil legal services (including loan repayment for eligible lawyers). This is essentially the same amount of funding that was allocated to legal services for the poor in the FY 2009 budget. Considering the fact that this funding stream is just barely older than the economic downturn, and given the scale of DC's current budget crisis, it is no small beans to see the funding maintained."

Beyond Bread shares some stunning statistics on just how deep the need is for representation.

Read More "More Should Be Done For Legal Aid Funding" »

Yesterday, the Washington Post printed some very obvious news to anyone who's been on South Cap. Street in the past year: Nationals Park hasn't sparked much revitalizing in Southwest. The city spent $1 billion in infrastructure upgrades and developers have made huge holes in the ground and left a lot of buildings still vacant.

As the article states, District residents weren't just sold a new stadium paid for with public dollars. No. As an old story noted, they were sold the "Stadium District"--a full-service community of new retail and new museums and new parks. The city hasn't come close to a Stadium District. Last week, Fisher wrote about the missing neighborhood as well.

What spilled forth in Sunday's A1 article was a lot of excuse making on the part of city officials and developers.

My favorite:

"It just so happens that implementation is occurring during the worst economic downturn in recent history. So things are going to struggle a little bit," said Neil O. Albert, the District's deputy mayor for economic development.

Really? This effort had been planned for years--long before the recession and banking collapse. The reasons Nationals Park hasn't revitalized the neighborhood are too numerous. But let me try.

Read More "Nationals Park: No Revival Yet. Here Are A Few Reasons Why" »

Fox 5 has a pretty good gig on Thursday mornings, when it gets to grill Mayor Adrian M. Fenty one on one. This morning's edition is fantastic and includes a little seg on Hizzoner's reaction to our Loose Lips story on the Department of Parks and Recreation employee who claims he was fired for busting out Fenty's kids for being in the wrong hoop league. But I'll leave the extended commentary on that matter to the surely imminent Loose Lips Daily.

What really got me about this morning's Fenty-Fox tilt was an exchange about transparency in the administration in the context of the firetruck controversy. Fenty was asked why councilmembers were complaining so loudly about an opaque executive branch, and the here's how things went from there:

Read More "Fenty on Transparency!" »

First CFSA lost its spokesperson powers to the Mayor's Office. Now, it's the Fire Department's turn to refer all calls to Fenty spokesperson Mafara Hobson. At this point, I feel sorry for Hobson. Her job is busy enough with the on-going budget debates, the travel issues, etc. Now, she gets to field inquiries about the D.C. Fire Department activities.

Today, I e-mailed Fire Chief Dennis Rubin seeking comment for a story I am working on concerning whistleblower/Fire Investigator Greg Bowyer. I then followed up with a phone call to Deputy Fire Chief Kenneth Crosswhite to ask for Rubin's phone number.

By then, Rubin had already complained about my e-mail to Crosswhite. And my e-mail had already been forwarded to Hobson. I asked: why had Hobson become the Fire Department's vetting machine.

“I’m waiting to hear back from the mayor’s office," Crosswhite told me of my interview-with-Rubin request. "All communications go to the mayor’s office prior to us making comments.”

Update 2:31 p.m.: Fire Department is now on Facebook and Twitter.

Today, Erika Peters and her young sons, Erik Harper and Dakota Peters, will be laid to rest. The wake and funeral services will be starting at 9:30 a.m. at Mount Calvary Holy Church at 610 Rhode Island Avenue NE. On March 21, they were stabbed to death in their apartment. Police have arrested Peters' live-in boyfriend Joseph Randolph Mays for the murders.

In this week's cover story, we chronicle the events of March 21, the police response, and Mays' mysterious life. We also ask three questions still unanswered about the murders. The only thing that is clear is that the residents of Carver Terrace had tried to offer support to the family, and knew them well.

Read More "Remembering Erika Peters And Her Sons" »

A little more than a week ago, news broke that at least three percent of District residents have AIDS or HIV. This provoked Shannon L. Hader, director of the city's HIV/AIDS Administration to now-famously compare D.C. to West Africa. When pressed by Loose Lips at a press conference, Hader stated that our rates of infection were twice as high as New York City and five times that of Detroit.

As LL pointed out, the bigwigs at the press conference---Mayor Adrian Fenty, Councilmember David Catania, et al.---defensively argued that the part of the reason for the high infection rates is that the city is just testing more people. Case in point: testing is now routine at the D.C. Jail.

But this epidemic is not a new epidemic. In fact, it's been called an epidemic too many times to count. Perhaps the reason this story didn't provoke serious outrage and more press conferences and men in white coats discussing infection trend patterns is that this is an old story.

"This is the number one [public health] priority of this government," Fenty told the Washington Post. That quote was from an April 5, 2007, story headlined: "Fenty Renews Fight Against HIV-AIDS; Mayor Promises Strong Effort, Plans To Pick New Agency Chief." In the story's first graph, the mayor "pledged" to "put an end to this crisis."

Read More "Remember the Mustard-Yellow Condoms? A Look at the District’s Tortured Response to the AIDS Crisis" »

Mafara Hobson, Mayor Adrian Fenty's spokesperson, confirms that the victims in yesterday's triple homicide in Northeast had contact with social services. A statement is being prepared which could take some more time. The victims--Erika Peters and two of her children--were stabbed and found by D.C. Police yesterday afternoon inside their Carver Terrace Apartments.

Last night, Joseph Randolph Mays--Peters' live-in boyfriend--was arrested for the murders.

City Desk will update when we get the statement from the Mayor's office.

Update 6:18 p.m. Attorney General Peter Nickles released this statement:

"After receiving a hotline tip [in] 2006, the Department of Child and Family Services took appropriate steps to resolve issues. In 2007, after the necessary measures were taken, the case was closed, with no subsequent reports."

This afternoon, At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson sent out a press release urging for a voting rights bill that does not include that pesky gun amendment. Fenty said in a Post interview that we should bite the bullet on this one.

Mendelson ain't backing down from the NRA lobby. The chair of the Judiciary Committee, which oversees police and crime issues, thinks Fenty is wrong to accept the gun amendment.

Read More "Mendo Wants ‘Clean’ Voting Rights Bill" »

This morning, LL was all over Fenty's announced District gov job cuts. Our aggressive political scribe reported: "Of the remaining 776 employees the mayor is proposing to lay off, 250 are in DCPS—mostly teachers aides and support staff, Tangherlini says." This may not seem like scary news, but it is.

I know what your thinking: teachers aides and support staff seem like easy cuts. What the hell do teacher aides do? What does support staff mean? Let me guess what they do: they help handle over-crowded classrooms, offer tutoring, lesson planning and generally help teachers get through the day. I'm not sure about support staff. But it could mean social workers, guidance counselors, secretaries, and librarians.

Do we really want to cut funding for these jobs? These cuts are coming on the heels of all those school closures last year. Catania made the argument today on the Politics Hour that enrollment is down at DCPS and that more and more kids are going into charter schools. But for every successful charter school, there are stories like City Lights Public Charter which recently had to close its doors before the school year even finished.

Read More "Fenty’s Proposed Layoffs Should Avoid DCPS" »

Mayor Fenty talked to WTOP about the controversy over his recent trip to Dubai. I'm sure LL will have a smart take on this. I'm just semi-shocked that Fenty claims to have no regrets over that trek in which the United Arab Emirates government shelled out $25,000 to the mayor. And he attended that tennis tournament in which an Israeli female player was barred. And when confronted about the trip, he claimed to have always wanted to go to Dubai.

Even more shocking, Fenty plans to keep his future trips secret:

"The mayor says while he does have more out-of-town trips planned, he will not release any details of those trips until after he returns -- and only if required by law to do so.

'I'm not going to tell you,' Fenty tells WTOP."

So much for transparency. Is this the kind of BS other big city mayor's get themselves into? This controversy has been going on for weeks. Shouldn't this tell us something about how Fenty handles his own screwups? How much longer will it take for Fenty to actually give a straight answer on this? LL asked Fenty about these issues some days ago and got some similiar stonewalling.

The New Teacher On The Block was really pissed off that Fenty kept the schools open yesterday. Apparently, the mayor didn't factor in the slippery streets and that kids will use any excuse to play hooky (see the drop-out rate):

"I mean, I was slipping and sliding on 395 this morning, for goodness sakes. Once I got to the neighborhood street next to my school, I slid all the way up the road. NONE of my students showed up today. 1 of Ms. P's kids came, and we dually hosted 5 kids in her classrom, because almost all the teachers were out as well (read: both pre-k teachers, the kindergarten teacher, both 1st grade teachers, both 2nd grade teachers, both 3rd grade teachers, 1 4th grade teacher, and 1 fifth grade teacher)."

Dee Does the District, another teacher/blogger, agrees that opening the schools yesterday was a stupid move.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Teachers Hate Snow Edition" »