Since it's been established here, here, and here that terminology matters, it seems worth pointing out the screaming language on the front page of the Washington Examiner yesterday: "Suburban dreams turn into ghettoes." The headline inside the paper said: "Foreclosure crisis creating suburban slums."

The story by Bill Myers and David Sherfinski began:

Two years of economic collapse have pockmarked the D.C. region's affluent suburbs with blight, and experts are worried that the foundering cul-de-sacs and towns are on the verge of becoming the region's next ghettoes.

Here's another term - "ghetto" - that gets thrown around far too much, and too casually, in talking about urban (and, in this case, suburban) problems.

Read More "More on Why Words Matter: The Examiner Says D.C. Suburbs Are Becoming “Ghettos”" »

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and his human services director need to get on the same page.

For the last month or so, the Fenty administration has been getting hammered on surprise cuts to homeless services. Dozens of providers cried foul after they were notified by the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness that, due to trying economic times, their budgets stood to be cut by 15 percent or more.

A week ago, Fenty made with some answers. In his weekly wee-hours appearance with WRC-TV's Barbara Harrison, he called the perception that homeless funding was being cut "either a miscommunication or a distortment of the facts" (forward to 3:30).

Read More "Fenty’s Explanation of Homeless Cuts Doesn’t Hold Water" »