700 Block 7th Street, NW.  Jan. 26th.  © 2012 Matt Dunn

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

WUSA9 reports that three teenagers have apparently been shot in different locations near Congress Heights Elementary School in Ward 8.

According to MPD, "one shooting occurred in the 500 block of Alabama SE. The second shooting happened in the 3300 block of 4th St SE. The third happened in the 800 block of Wheeler Hill SE." Only one victim has life-threatening injuries. The shootings happened at the same time this morning—9:33—which suggests to police that they were connected.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Since 1990, the percentage of people living in poverty has remained relatively stable or slightly increased in the east of the Anacostia River communities, places which also experienced the biggest recent decreases in murders. The number of murders dropped by 55 percent in 2011 in the police’s 7th District, where more than one-third of people live below the poverty line, according to census estimates. In 1990, about 28 percent of residents there were impoverished.

In recent decades, many people moving out of east of the river communities settled in Prince George’s County. But those individuals who were moving weren’t the poorest people in their communities, and they didn’t leave because of gentrification, according to demographer Roderick J. Harrison. Many moved to the suburbs because they could afford to and they were getting more for their money further away from the city.

But despite Police Chief Cathy Lanier's natural desire to take credit ("We had to go out there and really build relationships with people in the neighborhood. They have to trust us."), it isn't all due to community policing either:

What does explain the drop in murders east of the river? For one, violent crime nationwide is on the decline, and the exact reasons aren’t fully known.

The correlation between U.S. murder rates and District murder rates is pretty clear. As of this year, for the first time in nearly 50 years, murder is no longer on the top 15 causes of death for Americans. Back in the early '90s—when D.C. was the "murder capital"—homicide was at its highest position on the list, at 10.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

The house, dressed up as a recording studio, was wired by the FBI, and Sutherland — and all his buyers — were undercover officers. When an officer listening in on a telephone conversation overheard plans to rob them, a year-long sting operation began to wind down.

Those encounters, described in court papers, were among the many that occurred during the sting, which was unveiled Monday. Authorities say officers posing as gangsters, crooked businessmen and bodyguards helped snag $7.2 million in cocaine, PCP and other drugs, buy and capture 161 weapons, and make 70 arrests.

Authorities said it was one of their most important weapons investigations in recent history.

“Had those drugs and guns made it to our streets, the consequences would be devastating,” D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said Monday at a news conference.

The face of the the sting operation was Sutherland, a veteran of undercover work. Posing as Manic Enterprises impresario Richie Valdez, head of an international string of recording studios, Sutherland convinced criminals that he was one of them, and that he wasn’t afraid to rob banks and drug dealers to boost his trade in guns and drugs. But Valdez’s associates were D.C. police narcotics investigators.

As the Post notes, MPD is patting itself on the back for another successful sting—and it's possible that the reduction in murders bears out this success. But there's still plenty of violent crime in the city; it would be good to hear more about the tactics being used to reduce the other forms of crime on the rise.

Photo by Charles Steck

"While we have a budget for protests, we don't have this kind of money," Gray told NewsChannel 8.

[Gray spokeswoman Doxie] McCoy said asking the federal government for reimbursement is routine, and that Congress or the Department of Homeland Security typically reimburses the city for costs related to major events, such as inaugurations. She said the city isn't sure which agency they'll request reimbursement funds from.

Abe Rakov, a spokesman for Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., said the federal government pays D.C. about $15 million a year to cover costs related to demonstrations and other federal events.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

TBD has also made the list available in a downloadable spreadsheet, and they're viewable in nearly every conceivable way.

The Metropolitan Police Department alone spent about $1.3 million on Occupy DC as of Nov. 29, including $74,000 for overtime pay. But that total doesn't include services provided by other city agencies, according to the D.C. Council's Judiciary Committee. It also doesn't incorporate the cost of the massive police presence required at two Occupy protests last week, including the arrest of 31 protesters who built a wooden structure in the McPherson Square park and 62 others who blocked K Street intersections during the evening rush hour.

The U.S. Park Police insist they won't be evicting occupiers—who lack a permit for using McPherson Square—from the space. While other cities across the country have done so, obviously, none of those cities are also the nation's capital. Could the continued support be another battle in the D.C. statehood war? While District services are being used to help support the protesters, the people who decide whether they stay are in the federal government. And it's possible the federal government is worried that refusing to give quarter to protesters in the capital would simply look bad.

More than 250 cameras in the District and its suburbs scan license plates in real time, helping police pinpoint stolen cars and fleeing killers. But the program quietly has expanded beyond what anyone had imagined even a few years ago.

With virtually no public debate, police agencies have begun storing the information from the cameras, building databases that document the travels of millions of vehicles.

Nowhere is that more prevalent than in the District, which has more than one plate-reader per square mile, the highest concentration in the nation. Police in the Washington suburbs have dozens of them as well, and local agencies plan to add many more in coming months, creating a comprehensive dragnet that will include all the approaches into the District.

In D.C., there are 73 readers (at $20,000 a piece), 38 of which are stationary, while the rest are attached to vehicles. MPD Officer Tisha Ganett says the location of the cameras is confidential: "We do not disseminate operations and tactical information."

But! If you care to look, you can probably spot them; they seem to look very similar to red light cameras, and are likely mounted in the same kinds of locations. Has anyone seen a license plate reader in the wild? Let us know where it was and we'll start keeping track.

Photo by Jay Goodman Tamboli

11th and New York Ave, NW.  Nov. 8th.  © 2011 Matt Dunn

One of the protesters, Heidi Sippel, told a crowd at a press conference at 7th and K streets NW that she had suffered a concussion and bruising in the second of two collisions Friday night. Another, who said he was a witness, said the driver of a silver Lexus—one of the cars involved in the collisions—turned on to 7th Street, stopped and "menaced [Occupy DC] for a split-second," and accelerated to between 20 and 30 miles per hour.

Occupy D.C.'s beef with MPD began after the driver of the Lexus was briefly stopped but then allowed to pass without any citation. Things escalated over the weekend when Assistant Police Chief Lamar Greene appeared to suggest at a press conference that Sippel might have "drunk dove" to the pavement. Sippel, standing beside her wife and 13-year-old son, told the crowd today that she "took great offense" at the insinuation. Members of the group also complained that since Friday, the police had not taken any statements from any of the people involved in the collisions or any witnesses.

From the convention center, Occupy D.C. walked down to MPD headquarters escorted by a buffer of perhaps a dozen police vehicles. The march was mostly peaceful, with the typical chants of "Show us what democracy looks like/This is what democracy looks like" and "No justice/no peace," turning momentarily testy at the intersection of 7th and F streets where an MPD officer blocking the corner with his motorcycle was greeted by one angry marcher with, "Fuck you! What are you doing?"

At the MPD building, which was ready with a battery of officers barricading the doors, several members of the group repeated their demands to be interviewed as witnesses in the collisions. Like many statements made at Occupy rallies, messages were delivered via the call-and-response system known as the "people's mic." Sippel stood at the top of the stairs outside the building and issued most of the requests.

But elsewhere on the pavement, other protesters were less polite than Sippel and turned their ire toward the officers standing guard.

"They're just following orders," said one middle-aged woman, who repeatedly attempted to include police officers among the "99 percent" the Occupy movement rallies around.

"This building will be shut down for ever," shouted Michael Patterson, 21, who aside from the occasional burst of anger kept his mouth hidden by a black bandana. "Fuck them."

Later on, Arsenio Rodriguez, 24, stood up and claimed he had videotape of an MPD officer putting his hands around the neck of one of the victims of Friday's crashes.

"You take orders for money and sometimes that hinders humanity," he said. Rodriguez said he would be uploading the video to YouTube or UStream, but has not yet done so.

The protesters got a response, but not the one they were hoping for, when MPD Chief Cathy Lanier said in a written statement that Occupy D.C. "is no longer a peaceful protest." The statement came not long after Wade Simmons, a 41-year-old Petworth resident, proclaimed, "Today, we declare war!"

But just before 2:30, things appeared to have changed inside MPD headquarters, as Sippel and others were told they would be allowed to enter and give statements. The crowd let out a cheer, then proceeded to their next destination.

"We are victorious, but not all the way," Simmons said. "Don't trust 'em. We're still going to the Wilson Building."

Photo by Benjamin R. Freed

Occupy This: Everything was going relatively well between the Occupy D.C. protesters and the various police agencies charged with patrolling downtown D.C.—until, that is, a car hit three protesters Friday night by the convention center, and police declined to charge the driver because he had a green light. In response, Occupiers criticized the Metropolitan Police Department's handling of the incident. Lo and behold, Chief Cathy Lanier suddenly declared the group was getting violent. Moral of the story: Decry corporate greed all you want, just don't say anything bad about MPD. -3

Million Dollar Maryland: The state to our north and east turns out to have more going for it than just Ikea, crabcakes, and The Wire. A new study says Maryland has the highest percentage of millionaire households in the nation, with 7.22 percent, just edging out Hawaii, at 7.21. +1

The Friendly Skies: Going to the airport is a hassle these days, what with the TSA trying to grope you and your flight likely to be overbooked. Apparently one man was driven to extremes by it all today at Dulles—he stripped down naked and wandered through the terminal. Worse: He kept his shoes on, meaning he couldn't have actually boarded a plane, anyway. -1

Going In The Right Direction: Last year, the San Francisco 49ers were 6-10, same as the Washington Redskins were. This year, the Niners are 7-1, and the Redskins—after losing yesterday, 19-11, to the visitors from California—are 3-5. Afterwards, coach Mike Shanahan said the team was "going in the right direction," even though they've now lost four games in a row. Which means besides whatever problems the team has, fans also have to worry that the coach doesn't actually understand basic English. -2

Friday's Needle rating: 37 Today's score: -5 Today's Needle rating: 32

The 1000 block of Euclid Street NW looked more like a scene out of Transformers Friday afternoon, with broken glass and debris from several cars lining the street. According to residents in the area, around 2:00 a.m., an unidentified man who they believe to be intoxicated came speeding down the street colliding with about eight cars.

Nick Santucci, who was awakened by the crash, says it sounded like a building collapsed. “When I came outside there was a Jeep sitting on top of another Jeep with a woman sitting on top yelling ‘I’m okay,'" he says.

The women who was a passenger in the SUV that collided with the vehicles was questioned by police, but wasn't taken into custody.

There was some speculation online Friday afternoon that the whole thing was a publicity stunt of some sort. But Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Tisha Gant told WUSA the police were after a suspect:

"Early Friday morning a suspect travelling in a vehicle on the 1000 block of Euclid Street NW, collided with several parked vehicles and fled the scene on foot without making his identity known. Police are in the process of determining the identity of the suspect and would be issuing a warrant for his arrest soon."

Photos by Odochi Ibe

Eidinger, who is known for his outspoken liberal views, is meeting with lawyers this afternoon to establish a plan of action against what he believes was an "unjust" and "political" raid. He wouldn't say for the record what the political reason for the arrests might be. Police seized $3,000 worth of inventory including tobacco paraphernalia and computers in the stores.

MPD spokesman Araz Alali says the arrests were part of an ongoing investigation, and wouldn't answer questions about why Capitol Hemp was raided and other hemp stores weren't. Police had warrants to search the locations, Alali says.

The blitz has caused both stores to be shut down today, but Eidinger claims both locations will be open tomorrow and resume regular store hours.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Turns out, though, that they're getting off without charges. The Post reported over the weekend that Department of Justice spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa said in a quietly released Saturday statement, "Accident, mistake, fear, negligence or bad judgment are not sufficient to establish such a criminal violation."

Oh, and in case you missed it, here's the video: