Power to the People: Frustrated by the frequent power outages that have plagued Howard Kurtz's home (and possibly yours, too)? Pepco has finally found a solution—spend $256 million trimming tree limbs. And voilà: a reliable supply of electricity. After, uh, a five-year wait to implement the plan. Potentially faster solution—go solar. -2
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs: Labor [...]
Manly Deeds, Womanly Words, Pepco Oversight: The Maryland Public Service Commission announced it wants Pepco to appear at a hearing Tuesday morning to explain why the utility can't quite manage to actually provide electrical service to its customers. 60,000 people lost power in yesterday's storms, and nearly 40,000 of them were still in the dark [...]
Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz is once again the occupant of an electricity-powered home.
As devoted City Desk readers know, Kurtz's latest torment at the hands of Pepco began yesterday, after a powerful morning storm. The outage came on the heels of a previous five-day power cut last month. During that crisis, the reporter angrily denounced the [...]
For readers just joining us: In alarming news previously known only to the roughly 33,275 Twitter followers of media critic Howard Kurtz, the influential Washington Post/CNN figure apparently remained without power as night descended.
Kurtz, who endured a five-day storm-induced electricity cut prior to going on vacation, returned home just in time for a second stint [...]
The Gods Are Angry With Us: Torrential downpours and furious lightning aren't really so out of the ordinary for the D.C. region in August, but the two rounds of storms today seem to have knocked the city back to the Stone Age. The rain led to Metro station closures, a sinkhole and the shocking second [...]
So does Howard Kurtz have power?
As of 1:24 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time... We don't know! No update on the electricity situation at the Kurtz homestead in more than five hours. (Though there is a new link to some Playboy photos!) But surely, Pepco is on the case.
Remember, at City Desk, our motto is: "Your number [...]
A few weeks ago, Washington Post and CNN media reporter Howard Kurtz launched a Twitter crusade to get Pepco to restore power to his home after the massive thunderstorms that swept the region. At first, the Pepco folks didn't seem to realize who they were dealing with. "Of course we care," Pepco's Andre Francis replied. [...]
The start of this week was so dour
As many were left without power
Repairs are a farce
And Pepco's an arse
That "storm" was naught more than a shower
The primary has people stressed
So BOEE ran a test
Unless folks all lied
The party divide:
What ice cream, to you, tastes the best
Those City Desk guys I adore
Are giving each day its [...]
Longtime Washington City Paper readers may remember a feature called the Needle: every month, your friendly neighborhood alt-weekly would recap news and events in and around D.C., weigh how they affected quality of life in the region with pseudo-scientific numerical accuracy, and provide a score on a scale from 1 to 100. Starting today, we're [...]
Good morning, Washington! As far as heat waves go, D.C. has been putting in a pretty impressive performance this week. Yesterday temperatures peaked at a sweltering 102 degrees, a record for the day. While today will be a bit cooler—the balmy mid-90s!—a heat advisory will still be in effect from noon until 9 p.m.
The rising [...]
NC8 NewsTalk scores one of the least exciting scoops we've heard in ages: Vincent Orange is planning on announcing his run for D.C. Council Chair on Wednesday. The former Ward-5 Councilmember was last seen losing big time in the Dem. primary race for mayor in 2006. He came in third fourth**. Orange is perhaps best [...]
During the lunch hour today, protesters gathered outside the Pepco Building chanting for clean energy policies. Tensions between the protesters and D.C. Police intensified with individuals entered the building. Chants inevitably turned to the classic "fuck you pigs!"
*Video by Ryan J. Reilly.
The Issue: As summer began giving way to fall, idyllic life in the Palisades was shattered by a dose of cold, cruel reality from D.C. electricity provider Pepco. To improve electrical reliability, Pepco wanted to cut down about 400 trees in the neighborhood as well as (gasp!) 16 others along a few blocks of MacArthur [...]
The FY2010 budget proposal submitted by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty on Friday contained a number of fee hikes. Many of those are intended to fall on businesses, but there was one that will fall broadly on District residents: A "Street Light User Fee," intended to "cover the costs associated with the operation and maintenance of [...]
The 1800 block of Columbia Road NW is presently cordoned off due to a manhole explosion earlier this afternoon. Police and Pepco workers are on the scene. Details to come.
These events have highly inconvenienced luncheoning workers in the neighborhood, at least one of whom had to go to Subway instead of So's Your Mom for [...]
