“This is ridiculous,” said Price, a retired federal worker, as she unloaded a full cart into the trunk of her car outside the store on Randolph Road. “You shouldn’t have to pay for bags when you spend enough money in the store.”

Montgomery County officials expect to raise $1 million in tax revenue this year—but considering that the proponents of the D.C. law expected to raise $3.5 million and ended up about $1.5 million short in the first year, that seems unlikely. Turned out the tax was more useful at discouraging people from using bags than at raising revenue.

Meanwhile, folks who think that tax is stupid may want to take a tip from the D.C. GOP—they marked the D.C. law with their own line of "Bag The Bag Tax" reusable bags.

Mall Rats: Complaining about the state of the National Mall is part of the birthright of Washingtonians; the only reason we don't grumble about it more than we do is because there's not much reason to go there unless you're doing touristy things. Theoretically, that'll change, under a new plan announced with much fanfare today. The grass would be improved, the views cleaned up, better paths put in, and cafés and restaurants installed. Just in time, hopefully, for 200,000 Jon Stewart fans to mess it all up again! +3

Circulation Improving: The name may not be that thrilling, but for reliable, cheap bus service, it's tough to beat the D.C. Circulator. Which is why news that District Department of Transportation officials want to add new lines and expand existing ones is pretty welcome. A bus running from Tenleytown to Brookland by way of Petworth and Columbia Heights? Another running from Adams Morgan to H Street NE by way of U Street? Yes, please. Of course, there's no actual money put aside for these wild new bus routes, but so what? A commuter can dream. +4

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday: Buying liquor in Montgomery County isn't easy—as the presence of large, and busy, shops near Western Avenue in the District along both Connecticut Avenue NW and Georgia Avenue NW should tell you. It may soon get a little easier, though, as county officials want to allow sales on Sundays, for at least a six-month test period. Prediction: Sales improve as the Redskins' record worsens. (And D.C. residents no longer have to fight Marylanders for parking spaces when they want to stock their own bars up.) +2

You Ain't Got No Alibi: Congratulations—you live in a city where the residents are marginally better looking than in Anchorage, Ak., Baltimore, Philadelphia, or Memphis. Or at least so declares Travel + Leisure, in its annual ranking of "America's least and most attractive people." The District comes in 6th ugliest, which is better than last year. So look on the bright side—some good-looking folks must have moved in! Go find 'em! +1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 36 Today's score: +10 Today's Needle rating: 46

But it all seriousness, keep your pot plots on your own land, please. Apparently these growing operations often involve booby traps with fish hooks and explosives. Think of the children. We can already see little Jimmy skipping into the woods to grab his baseball only to be blown up in a cloud of marijuana leaves.

So what are the pot-cops looking for? Straight lines and fencing marks the spot. Growers often use snow fencing and branches for camouflage. When police find the sites, they are usually equipped with systems to tip off the growers on their discovery.

From NBC Washington:

“A lot of these grow sites are booby trapped because they want to tell if they’ve been discovered. They also want to give themselves warning and they want to keep other people away from them,” Smith said. "So this could be potentially dangerous to park patrons and their pets.”

Police said the fields are usually planted in groups of threes — one for the planters to keep for their personal use, another that they want police to find and a third for street sale.

What happens when they find the plants? These hard-working cops run stakeouts for days until the public planters are dumb enough to show up.

Photo by jasonawhite, Flickr.

If D.C. Council chairman and mayoral candidate Vincent Gray is in a bit of trouble for an outstanding Maryland ticket from 2002, Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. may be really in for it. According to Maryland court records, Thomas has earned himself five speeding tickets in the Old Line State—none of which have been paid. Online records indicate that in each case, Thomas failed to appear in court to resolve the ticket, and also failed to pay the fines.

The court records show Thomas, who is seeking re-election this year, had quite the lead foot in his younger days. He received speeding tickets in Prince George's County on April 1, 1985; on March 18, 1986; and on Oct. 15, 1992. He also received a ticket in Anne Arundel County in 1985, and one in Montgomery County in 1991.

The 1986 P.G. County instance was the most egregious: Thomas was accused of going 64 on the 7200 block of North H Avenue, where the speed limit was 35. The heftiest fine Thomas incurred as a result of his zooming was $50, but Angelita Plemmer, a court spokeswoman, says he likely owes more now, as the fines racked up late fees. She was not able to ascertain whether—like Gray—Thomas's license had been suspended in Maryland. The words "failure to appear suspension" do appear on four of the citation records. Officer Evan Baxter of the Price George's County Police says that means "the defendant has failed to appear and his driving privileges have been suspended."

Contacted by City Desk Thursday, Thomas said he has no idea why the citations are still marked as active. He insisted he paid the tickets a long time ago. "It has to be an administrative error," he said. Besides, he said, "the statue of limitation has probably run out on them."

But Thomas does vaguely remember getting the long-ago reprimands: "Some of them I got when I was commuting to Bowie State University." In a 1985 citation, his vehicle tag is recorded as "SAVVY". Thomas says he remembers getting that vanity plate put on a 1972 Datsun he once drove. Back then, he was working for Marion Barry, and decided he liked the word when a journalist used it to describe his boss.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Good morning, people! Hope everyone had a wonderfully relaxing weekend, and you're not sitting somewhere in your office sunburned and wondering what happened exactly. Either way, it's almost the weekend again! The District's looking at a high of 101 degrees for today. Don't worry, it won't get there until about 3 p.m., and it'll only stay that way for, oh, the rest of the week. I ran out of town last Friday, when the weather sat at a gorgeous, breezy 80 degrees. What the hell happened?

In Vienna, Va., a community holds a fundraiser in honor of Vanessa Pham, the teen found murdered in her car over a week ago. There are still no leads in the case. In transportation news, traffic is not the headline today (I'm not sure what's worse). A 7-year-old boy, piloting a boat, fatally injured his mother on July 4th. Apparently there are no age restrictions in Virginia on operating motorboats. Perhaps this should be reconsidered? Seems the water's about as safe as the skies these days. With an influx of inexperienced controllers, "near-collisions" in Washington area skies are on the rise, reports WaPo.

"A 120-seat United Airlines plane bound for Reagan National Airport from Chicago narrowly avoided colliding with a business jet departing from Dulles last Monday, the latest of 22 recent potentially dangerous mistakes by air traffic controllers who command the skies above Washington...

...The number of times planes have come too close for comfort in the region in the past six months has surpassed the total of 18 the previous year. Nationwide, air traffic controllers committed 949 errors last year."

Over on this side of the river, Wal-Mart may be moving into the District for the first time, onto New York Avenue in Northeast. An early morning fire Monday, at a three-story rowhouse on Rhode Island Avenue in Northwest, left 18 people homeless. A hundred fire fighters responded to the scene, says WaPo; happily, no one was injured. On the brighter side, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission lifted water restrictions in Montgomery and Prince George's counties. (So, you won't die of thirst today. Just heat.)

Have a popsicle, use deodorant if you're prone to smellage and have a nice day!

Photo by kossy@FINEDAYS'. Creative Commons Attribution License.

According to a press release, an officer who lives in Brookville, Md., had his unmarked police car parked outside of his residence in the 2500 block of Sappling Ridge Drive between 9:00 p.m. on Monday and 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Sometime during the night, a thief showed up.

"During the night an unknown suspect broke into the vehicle and stole a Colt M-4 Rifle, two loaded M-4 magazines, two sets of handcuffs, two Montgomery County Police badges, an ASP baton, and two loaded .40 caliber Glock magazines," authorities said. "The officer discovered the gun and equipment missing the next morning."

An M-4 is a semi-automatic assault rifle that can fire 700 – 950 rounds per minute.The release doesn't identify the officer involved, but he or she is probably in big trouble.

"It is not a normal practice or policy of the Montgomery County Police Department officers and detectives to store their weapons and other serialized equipment overnight in a marked or unmarked police vehicle," the release notes.

Nick Nefedro

Nick Nefedro, the Gypsy psychic who challenged Montgomery County's fortune-telling ban and won, tells City Desk that he plans to come back to Bethesda and start looking for a place to re-open his psychic shop. 

Well, just as soon as the time for filing an appeal is up. The county has 90 days to dispute the June 10 Maryland Court of Appeals ruling, which found the county law an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.

The appellate court rejected the county's argument that fortune-telling is "inherently fraudulent," writing, "While we recognize that some fortunetellers may make fraudulent statements, just as some lawyers or journalists may, we see nothing in the record to suggest that fortunetelling always involves fraudulent statements. Indeed, fortunetellers, like magicians or horoscope writers, are able to provide entertainment to their customers or some other benefit that does not deceive those who receive their speech."

One wonders, incidentally, if fortune tellers should object to being lumped in with lawyers and journalists!

"I felt it was my civil rights," says Nefedro, who now lives in New York, "it was a question of freedom of speech, a question of freedom of religion, and my civil rights as a Romani Gypsy. I felt that ruling was, I guess, all of that."

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Closer to home, prosecutors continued their marathon screening of police interrogation video in the Robert Wone murder-conspiracy trial yesterday, including footage of interviews with suspects Joseph Price and Dylan Ward. The gay men asserted – decisively – that Wone was not their “cup of tea;” but he was “a very good friend.” The pair also maintain that an unknown intruder broke in and stabbed their pal to death. But the one-armed man has yet to be found. Cops testified yesterday to finding no latent fingerprints on a backyard fence that the supposed burglar would have used in order to gain entry into the house.

Could a European soccer team be less enthusiastic about playing in the U.S.? Fans attending tonight’s D.C. United game against Italian powerhouse AC Milan shouldn’t set their expectations too high. Quoted in WaPo, AC Milan star and Dutch soccer hero Clarence Seedorf set the mood of the match:

“Well, we’re not motivated. We’re just not motivated.”

Seriously, dude? You’ve got all summer to lounge around in your coffeeshops and drink Amstel, so at least act like you care about playing in the U.S. It looks like U.S. soccer still has a ways to go in earning world-class respect.

Montgomery County public schools are removing police officers from their hallways in an attempt to remedy the county’s budget shortfalls, reports The Examiner. Parents fear that the cutbacks could lead to increased crime.

In other news, the war over a citywide soda tax hasn’t died out, after all. Vince Gray’s proposed beverage tax would include all sodas and artificially sweetened beverages, and help kids lose weight – so they say.

Photo by Elena Rybakova/Wikimedia Commons

It turns out that when your uncle's a guru, he acts a little weird. He sits on a bed with the writer in silence, smirking. But I think the weirdest part in the piece comes before he joins the Hare Krishnas:

He thought about suicide, got kicked out of school and spoke of moving to Nepal. "Where did I go so wrong?" my grandmother, who still lives in Germany, wrote in her diary back then. One afternoon, terrified of losing her connection with her son, then 17 or 18, my grandmother, a good Lutheran, sat with him at the kitchen table and got high on LSD.

Emphasis added. Can you think of anything wilder than doing acid with your mom? No word on how her drawings skills were affected.

Speaking of drugs, police officers in Montgomery County discovered a drug operation Friday after being called to investigate a noise complaint. After the partiers refused to turn down the music, officers checked out the apartment, where they found $15,000 in weed, Ecstacy, and PCP. They also found a one-year-old child in a closet, which is much less fun.

(Darrow Montgomery)

Awhile ago, we brought you a story about recycling that routinely gets tossed out with the trash. Well, as you can imagine, we thought this was pretty surprising news: that loads of plastics, paper, bottles and cans dutifully dumped into recycling bins around the city were still ending up at the landfill. The culprits? Some private haulers, who apparently f0und it too expensive and too much of a hassle to take the goods to out-of-town recycling centers.

After the story ran last November, we asked Department of Public Works officials if they planned to do anything about the problem. This week DPW got back to us, which is convenient since DPW recycling chief Bill Easley and I are all going to be on the Kojo Nnamdi Show this afternoon talking about the city's recycling travails.

But, for starters, here's DPW's response to our follow up questions:

"In response to your follow-up question, DPW is working to step up its enforcement efforts by expanding the numbers of personnel who will be inspecting for commercial recycling violations. We plan to augment the number of inspectors by training some of the inspectors with our Solid Waste Education and Enforcement Program (SWEEP) on what to look for. I don't have an exact number of how many additional inspectors will be added but we currently have only three recycling inspectors compared to 35-40 SWEEP inspectors.

"We'll start looking at some of the smaller haulers to see what their ratio of trash to recycling vehicles are.

"Finally, DPW is seeking legislation to increase the amount of fines for violators. We feel like this will make businesses more likely to stay in compliance. We expect Council to hold a hearing on this sometime in the Spring."

Later, Nancee Lyons sent another email saying the following:

"I'd like to expand on what I sent earlier with regard to increasing our commercial recycling fines:

"The Department is working on revisions to the recycling regulations that include increased fines for many initial offenses and that establish graduated increased penalties for repeat offenses.  We expect to move forward with the regulations soon."

I'd still like to know if DPW is investigating the five companies we caught trashing recyclables and whether the planned new legislation will go far enough to close loopholes in the law. I've already sent in my follow up to the department's follow up.  Maybe we'll get some answers this afternoon on the radio! (ADVERTISEMENT: tune in at 1:15 p.m.)

The Poolesville Indians became the Falcons after Montgomery County banned the use of Indian mascots in 2001, while the Wakefield High School Warriors in Arlington County kept their name but traded in a headdress-wearing Indian for what appears instead to be a generic head atop an accordion wearing an armor helmet with a torch-like thing – or maybe a feather – sticking out, next to a big, sharp sword (because an image of someone impaling someone else with a sword is not nearly as problematic as the Indian).

The graphic came with the news that the incoming class at the new Tuscarora High in Loudon County, opening next year, was itself set to vote this week on a mascot.

The school is named for an Indian tribe, and one of the top student picks, from among some 200, was the Tribe. But principal Pamela Paul Jacobs was unsure.

Paul-Jacobs was excited at the overwhelming response but paused at the suggestion of the Tribe. She had flashes of Chief Wahoo, the Cleveland Indians' mascot, and thought it might be too controversial. But then again, "maybe I am being too sensitive," she said. Her students had compelling reasons for choosing the name. A tribe signifies "a family and people coming together for a greater cause, the strength of the collective group," she said.

But she couldn't stop thinking about Chief Wahoo. And, after consulting a Native American activist from North Carolina who is descended from the Tuscarora, she ended up nixing the name. Without the Tribe in the running, the three finalists were the Huskies, the Timber Wolves, and the Tigers.

Update: Paul Jacobs has confirmed: Huskies it will be.

While this information is certainly cause for alarm, it does not accurately reflect the District's school system because the data specifically ignores the graduation rates of public charter schools, which, according to Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, is 24 percent higher than other public schools in D.C.  The data was also derived between 1996 and 2006, before Michelle Rhee came in to revamp the school system. Since then, graduation rates have risen but not drastically enough to signify a complete turnaround.  After all, the Obamas and other important figures in this city have rarely considered sending their children to public schools, favoring expensive private schools with plenty of resources or more stable public schools in the suburbs.

Speaking of suburbs, the discrepancy between the District's graduation rates and the graduation rates of neighboring school districts in Maryland and Virginia is truly astounding. A chart published on Education Week's Web site lists the graduation rates of the 50 largest school districts in the nation, and Montgomery County, Maryland, leads the country with a graduation rate of 80.7 percent.  Fairfax County Public Schools posts a graduation rate of 78.8 percent.  Location is by no means the only determinant in school success but access to resources and attention certainly make a difference.  D.C. is trying to keep up by developing more charter schools and closing underenrolled schools in order to save money, but something needs to be done in order to drag the city schools out of the depths.

Good morning City Desk readers, I hope you've all bundled up to fight the cold! Inauguration weekend starts in a few hours, so set aside some time today to read through City Paper's inaugural archive. And now, some news:

• The MPD is on the lookout for an armed robbery suspect (pictured above) who held up a store in the 2nd District on Jan. 11. The report describes him as a "Hispanic male in his mid-20s, 6’0” – 6’5” in height, and weighing 200-300 lbs." Call Detective Kimberly Metivier-Cowan with any information at (202) 730-1903 or (202) 413-0252 (cell).
• New Columbia Heights reports that the Metro will run until 2 a.m. on Tuesday, for all you revelers who plan on winding down by staying up late.
• The Media Center reports that "Montgomery County Planning Board voted [yesterday] for the public transportation project to take the form of light rail rather than bus rapid transit." The rail would run east-west from Bethesda to New Carrollton, with stops at all the Metro stations in between.
• The Politico offers a "peak" at Obama's speech-writing regimen: "A competitive man by nature, Obama seems acutely aware that he’s stepping into the ring with history itself Tuesday – squaring off against not only the public’s expectations for a voice-of-God moment, but also against the addresses that came before his, the formidable and the forgettable."
• Infosnack Headquarters reports that Giesecke and Devrient, WMATA's supplier for Smartrip cards, delivered over 200,000 special-edition inaugural cards, as opposed to the 30,000 they promised in November.