Via DCist, blogger Nikolas Schiller says he stood up for himself and fought back when some kids pretending to have a gun told him to empty his pockets on his doorstep. They beat him up but he kept his stuff. So … Nikolas, what exactly was in your pockets to make you take such a stupid risk?

Joe and Valerie Wilson want to take Novak’s typewriter and his keys.

The Post offers more disturbing news about the PG County jail, where some guards have serious arrest records. Still no news on the strangulation death of inmate Ronnie White.

Wonkette links to a mysterious trailer for a reality TV show on young, debauched DC elites. No, not that one. This is probably just a Paultard goof.

The Prince of Petworth finds baffling graffiti, and apparently has a thing for glue.

And to the dweebs who tried to steal my scooter, dragging it a block away and forcing the steering mechanism until it broke, why did you leave a brick on my seat?

From the Woodley Park Metro:

I’ve long held affection for this ad campaign–it’s like an incredibly easy Where’s Waldo. But as I searched for the bars on my way out of the station this afternoon, something else caught my eye. AT&T, which has been doing swimmingly despite the economic downturn, appears to be cutting some corners with these “local” billboards. Cover D.C. they may; photograph it, they most certainly do not. Irrefutable evidence (beyond the yellow cab) after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, we blogged about the boundaries for the new “Shaw ShotSpotter” that actually covers parts of Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, Mt. Pleasant, U Street, Bloomingdale, Truxton Circle, and Park View. (Perhaps it graces the borders of lower Crestwood and lower Petworth, as well? D.C. has too many damn neighborhoods.)

Anyway, here’s the graphic version of the rough boundaries of the coverage area, as approved by Captain Michael Eldridge, who is overseeing the technology.

A while ago, I posted a blog item noting WTOP’s reporting that Capt. Melvin Gresham (at the time a supervisor in the 3rd District) had gotten himself into some hot water over a traffic accident.

WTOP wrote:

“WTOP has learned Capt. Melvin Gresham from the Third District Police station in Northwest was involved in an accident with a Metro bus while driving his department vehicle. Gresham told a subordinate officer, who responded to the accident, to change a police report to indicate the Metro bus driver was at fault.”

I went ahead and interviewed two police officials about the incident. One of them was Lt. Mike Smith who was interviewed by internal affairs about the incident. Smith had come on the accident scene and was well versed in the events on the scene. I also interviewed another police official who had previous dealings with Gresham and characterized the supervisor as “not a fair person.”

The blog item was fairly run of the mill: a graph or two taken from the WTOP piece and some quick phone calls piggybacking on the news. This did not stop the comment box from filling up with allegations that my reporting had been way off or to keep everyone updated on the latest in the case or personally slam Lt. Smith.

In late June, Gresham filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court. He listed as the defendants in the case: Chief Cathy Lanier, Assistant Chief Jose Acosta, the police department as well as other officers and officials including Lt. Smith. The complaint alleges the defendants retaliated against Gresham under the Whistleblower Protection Act, defamation, breach of contract, and “intentional infliction of Emotional Distress.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The city plans to spend over $2 million on a vacant lot in Shaw to move forward on rehabbing the historic Howard Theater.

The parcel, behind the theater at 1830 Wiltberger Place NW, is assessed at about $1.25 million. Under the contract submitted for council approval, the city proposes paying $2,012,500 for the lot. That’s a premium of 60 percent.

The land is needed, according to city documents, to construct “back-of-the-house facilities” and loading areas for the theater, to which the city has committed up to $15 million in grants and tax breaks. Now anyone with a modicum of real-estate knowledge knows that assessed valuations are always well underneath market values, but a 60 percent premium is noteworthy—especially in the current real-estate market.

The lot’s owner, Himat A. Gulajan of Centreville, was not available for comment; a person answering his phone said he’s out of town until Monday.

Sean Madigan, a spokesperson for Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Neil Albert, says the price is tied to an appraisal that puts the value of the land at $1.75 million. As for the 14 percent extra the city is paying, Madigan says it “isn’t uncommon to pay a premium in circumstances like this,” where a parcel is needed for a larger project.

The Great Passport Delay Crisis of 2007 appears to be over, or at least it was for me. Saturday, July 12, I brought my 10-month-old to the post office on South Eads Street in Arlington. We filled out the forms, paid $101.05, and even got his picture taken there (the preceding figure includes photo and money order fees). The clerk asked if we wanted expedited service, but we declined.

The passport arrived today. It was issued Tuesday. We may even have gotten it sooner had we not been on vacation; the envelope isn’t postmarked and was included with our held mail. Good work, State Department!

I honestly can’t believe it’s taken City Desk this long to write about Bob Novak’s accident yesterday. But, since no one has jumped at this opportunity, I suppose I will.

Let’s recap: yesterday Bob Novak, political columnist for more than 50 years, hit a pedestrian and continued driving. Afterward, a bicyclist, who witnessed the entire episode, caught up with Novak, and VERY, VERY BRAVELY, “came to a stop in front of [Novak's] corvette,” according to the Post’s account. The man, David Bono, 47, a lawyer, started yelling at Novak about what he’d done. Wuhhh? I didn’t know I hit anyone, said Novak, essentially. The Post later asked Bono about the veracity of Novak’s claim:

“No, I would not believe that,” Bono responded.

Bono, 47, a partner at Harkins Cunningham law firm, said: “I can tell you what I saw. I was on K Street on my bicycle, and what I saw was a guy get hit by a black Corvette convertible. I see the guy go up on the hood, up on the windshield.” As the Corvette turned right from 18th Street onto the service road beside K, Bono said, “the guy rolled off the hood and landed on the street.”

Well, this is just sad, and Novak’s response is even sadder. If you watch the footage of him being grilled by reporters about the incident, he just plays dumb.

He was cited for failing to yield. Later, a News 8 reporter caught up with him:

Can you tell us what happened this morning?

“I don’t really know. I didn’t know I hit anyone.”

And later: How do you feel about this?

“I feel terrible.” Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve gotten several reports of D.C. police issuing tickets to bicyclists going the wrong way down one-way portions of New Hampshire Avenue NW near the intersection of 16th and U Streets yesterday and this morning.

A bystander took a picture of about 10 cyclists being ticketed north of the intersection at about 9 a.m. this morning:

We’ve heard the tickets came with a $25 fine. A police spokesperson said he hadn’t heard of any enforcement effort, but is currently checking into it. The ticketing effort comes about two weeks after the tragic death of cyclist Alice Swanson in Dupont Circle; it can’t be said enough that Swanson appears to have broken no laws when she was struck by a private trash truck, but the incident focused attention on issues of bike safety and road-sharing.

If you saw the ticketing or, gasp, got a ticket, tell us in the comments.

Flickr photo by p373

UPDATE, 1:05 P.M.: Pete Welsch, who lives near the intersection, is the fellow who took the photo. He calls in to report that police were waving down cyclists as they approached the 16th-and-U intersection from the north. “People were whipping out camera phones and things like that,” he says.

It sucks to be a guy in D.C., according to Richard Peabody: It’s a place where “nine out of ten men have bite blocks because their jaws are clenched so tight,” he writes in the intro to Stress City, a new collection of short stories by local male writers. Peabody, the editor of the Arlington literary journal Gargoyle, has been working the gender angle for a while: Last year he published his third collection of D.C.-area women writers.

But Stress City isn’t strictly a collection of stories about neurotic guys, let alone neurotic D.C. guys: True, the guy in Alex MacLennan’s “Touching the Pole” has some issues with germs, but he’s doing all that worrying in San Francisco. And one of the collection’s best pieces, Dave Housley’s “Goliath,” imagines the grown-up boy from the how-to-be-a-good-Christian animated show Davey and Goliath getting lectured by the dog for shacking up with an attractive woman:

“Dear Jeeeeesus,” he says. “Daaaavey is lost again. Please help Daaaavey, Jeeeesus. Help him find the light. Like that time we were lost in the old silver mine and I said…”

“You gotta stop this,” I say. “I can’t have this shit going on much longer.”

Peabody and a few contributors to Stress City–Housely and MacLennan along with R. R. Angell, Juan H. Gaddis, Brian Gilmore, Charles R. Larson, Richard McCann, and David Nicholson—read tomorrow night at Politics and Prose.

This morning I pulled my Washington Post from its clear bag, opened it, and gazed at the front page. I noted that Chapter 11 in the Chandra series related to the discovery of her body in Rock Creek Park, and then I short-circuited. I couldn’t read another word. Just can’t do it.

Washington Mystics officials and coaches told the Washington Post how disappointed they were by Tuesday night’s Detroit/L.A. brawl.

“I don’t think it’s good for our league,” Mystics GM Linda Hargrove told the Post.

I used to try to follow the Mystics, but this was the first and only WNBA story I’ve read this year. Highlights of the melee are the only WNBA highlights I’ve watched this year.

There’s not even a “Mystics” category on our blog.

It’s good for the league.

The brawl might not be good for Rick Mahorn, however. In every story about the fracas, the former Bullets Bruise Brother and current Detroit assistant coach gets sort of accused of hitting a woman.

Maybe not all publicity is good publicity.

* Upset the Setup gets upset at the hip-hop scene over at Chief Ike’s.

* In Shaw gives D.C. a housing pop quiz: Can you tell what year this report on D.C.’s housing problems was written?

* All Our Noise marks the album birthday of The Ramones‘ Adios Amigos. The record is now 13. Is this really cause for celebration? Whatever … at least there are sombrero dinos.

* Listen up, John McCain: Mr. T in D.C. tells you how to know when you’re officially old. The incontrovertible evidence:

For decades, I’ve consistently disliked dried fruit: raisins, craisins, prunes, you name it … All of a sudden, I’ve discovered a newfound taste for dried fruit … I’m snacking on raisins as we speak! I keep a box in my desk for when I get hungry, and at home I’ve been experimenting with those more upscale, resealable packs of dried fruit. I’ve tried out a couple of different kinds of raisins, dried mango, pineapple, dates, and have a bag of dried blueberries I’m dying to open … I may even try the ultimate in geezer confirmation fruit: prunes.

* Slate’s Christopher Beam imagines alternate scenarios that would explain John Edwards‘ alleged late-night visit to his alleged lover and their alleged love-child. My favorite:

Edwards had come to return Hunter’s sari, which she had left the time he came to return her bomber jacket, which she had left the time he came to return her charm bracelet, which she had left the time he came to return her first edition of Pulp’s His and HersDifferent Classes, which she had left on the campaign bus in Reno.

Photo by NCinDC

The Redskins would pick a fight with Gandhi.

He’s not around, so they’re going after Dan Steinberg.

The team ordered the DC Sports Bogger to stop posting videos he’d taken from inside Redskins Park on washingtonpost.com. Steinberg tried to get around the ban by embedding videos from other local media websites, but the team contacted the paper’s lawyers and made him stop that, too, if the videos include training camp footage.

The prohibition recalls Snyder’s banning WJLA-TV from shooting inside the Park in 2000, while at the same time allowing news crews from other local network affiliates to shoot and air such footage on newscasts.

WJLA had refused to pay a fee demanded by Dan Snyder, who had only recently taken over the team, to become a “partner” of the Redskins.

Other local stations paid the fee, so, for example, George Michael of rival WRC-TV did his spots from the practice field.

But WJLA sportscaster Rene Knott would show up during each night’s telecast standing outside the gates in the Redskins Park parking lot.

Some of Steinberg’s best work comes in parking lots. But still…

This latest round of bizarre vindictiveness wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that Steinberg rejected the Skins’ effort to lure him away from the Washington Post and onto Snyder’s payroll several weeks ago, would it?

Full Disclosure: Steinberg is a neighbor and I owe him money for a bag of coffee beans from Costco.

This just in (via e-mail from the NewsHour PR dept.):

Friends,

When we decided to follow rookie superintendent Michelle Rhee one year ago, we had a feeling that we’d have a good story on our hands. After all, 37-year-old Rhee was new to Washington, a Korean-American in a predominantly African-American city who had never been a superintendent before (or even a school principal!).

She was also the 7th leader in 10 years to try and turn around Washington’s failing schools-and she was the first to do so under the charge of the city’s mayor, with no school board to answer to. But even we were surprised at what unfolded as Rhee fired more than 15% of her office staff, removed 36 principals and 22 assistant principals, and announced plans to close 23 underenrolled schools, all before the last day of school.

Now she’s promising to radically change 27 more schools before opening day at the end of August, and finish negotiations with the teachers’ union on a new contract that she says will be unlike anything the country’s seen before.

Tonight on The NewsHour, we’ll sit down with Rhee—and her critics—to reflect on the year.

Thoughts on the other five episodes? Missed ‘em? Find them here.

Whatever you may think of the Washington Post’s series on the murder of Chandra Levy, please know this: It is driving wonderful amounts of traffic for washingtonpost.com.

According to an informed source, the pageviews are in the same ballpark as those that flocked to the 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning Post series on the dark maneuvering of Vice President Dick Cheney, and they’re even surpassing the numbers for the paper’s first Walter Reed series, another Pulitzer winner from last year.

The paper doesn’t part with pageview numbers for specific stories or series.

Says outgoing Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr.: “Traffic’s very high, and everything that I hear from neighbors, friends of friends, and people who are not in the business—people who are not in politics—is that ordinary readers are following this very closely.”