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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—-‘Pershing Park Case: Another Police Official Heard Ramsey Order Arrests‘; ‘The Friday Limerick Review‘; tweets galore!
Morning all. D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray ‘might be the only politician standing between Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and a second term,’ write Tim Craig and Nikita Stewart in an extensive WaPo piece this morning on Gray’s decision to run. In a 90-minute interview, Gray ‘said he is struggling with his decision,’ attributing the delay to the fact that a loss to Fenty would likely end his political career. And such an outcome is easy to envision, given the trio of accomplishments Fenty can claim: better schools, lower crime, and more residents. Terry Lynch puts it all into perspective: ‘What are you going to run against? The message Gray would have is, ‘I’m not Fenty.’…That’s not enough.’ Bill Lightfoot adds: ‘There is no reason to vote him out of office….He’s made visible improvements. Everyone in the city can see improvements in schools. For any politician, that’s gold.’ If you need further proof that this race might be over before it even begins, consider that Gray’s friend and old boss, ex-mayor Sharon Pratt, says that he ‘could run on his record as a longtime social service advocate.’ Oh boy.
AFTER THE JUMP—-$2.5M check sent to Banneker Ventures just in time; Fenty administration still struggling with Medicaid billings; DCPS graduation rates go up (before they go down); feds release AIDS housing money; new head of FBI field office named; anti-bag-taxer drives to Maryland to spend $1.81 more, but feels morally superior
MORE ON GRAY—-Gray said that at the heart of his concerns is his belief that Fenty is worsening racial tensions. Through his efforts to scale down government, Fenty has been battling numerous public-sector labor unions, which have a played a key role in building a black middle class in the District. “I think there is a perception that African Americans don’t have the same level of opportunity in this city as has been the case in the past, and like it or not, that rests on the CEO’s door,” Gray said….Despite his strong ties to old Washington, Gray said he’s been able to “change as change was needed.” Gray played a crucial role in pushing through the bill last year to legalize same-sex marriage in the District, and in recent weeks he has been reaching out to the city’s growing Hispanic population….”It’s a style question,” Gray said. “The controversy that has surrounded so much of this has resulted in us not really being able to take full advantage of the opportunity before us.” Also see photo gallery.
The parks contracting saga continues: The city cut a $2.5M check to Banneker Ventures on Christmas Eve, a week after the D.C. Council acted unanimously to cancel the connected firm’s contract to manage more than a dozen parks projects. That revelation was aired at a Friday council hearing, the sixth on the subject, where DMPED and D.C. Housing Authority officials defended the move as payments for services already rendered and to forestall litigation. But the timing of the move raises suspicions. Debra Toothman, DCHA’s CFO, testified that she was uncomfortable with the rushed process and described being essentially strong-armed into approving the payment by DCHA CEO Adrienne Todman, whose lawyers had quickly hammered out an agreement with Banneker lawyer A. Scott Bolden. Why were Toothman and her employees kept late on Christmas Eve to finish processing the payment? The check cleared on Thursday, the day before the hearing. If they’d waited till Dec. 26, the council would have raised hell and Omar Karim wouldn’t have gotten paid. Said Harry Thomas Jr.: ‘It’s running down the street. It’s gone. It’s out the barn and we’re not going to get that money back.’ See Nikita Stewart in WaPo, Karen Gray Houston at WTTG-TV, and Michael Neibauer in Examiner, DCist.
TOOTHMAN TESTIMONY—-‘I don’t just throw the money out the door. I don’t just do a frivolous job. This is my career, and I’m not going to put that career in jeopardy for the D.C. Housing Authority, for the mayor or for anyone.’
ALSO—-Sinclair Skinner was a no-show. Bolden tells Stewart that his client was never served and that the ‘ongoing investigation is unnecessary and irrelevant at this juncture in that the contracts under investigation have been disapproved by the DC Council—-what else is left for the Chairman to uncover and at what expense to the public fund?’
It seems that the Fenty administration has yet to master the art of the Medicaid reimbursement. On Friday came news from WaPo’s Henri Cauvin that the Child and Family Services Agency is running a $10M budget deficit because it has been unable to start billing Medicaid for its services. CFSA Director Roque Gerald explained that ‘new guidelines from the federal government had delayed the agency’s timetable for resuming claims to Medicaid.’ And today, Cauvin takes a wider look at the city’s Medicaid billing issues. CFSA, he notes, ‘stopped claiming money from Medicaid in January 2009’ after the feds rejected millions in claims ‘and set out to remake the agency’s reimbursement process with the help of experts’ from the new Department of Health Care Finance. ‘By many accounts, the agency has brought expertise and focus to the Medicaid program. But the news from CFSA last week underscored the depth of the challenges….Last week, [David Catania] and [Tommy Wells] summoned Gerald and other officials for a meeting on CFSA’s problems. The council members said they made it clear that the agency should not count on the council to cover the shortfall. “That’s an issue for the director,” Catania said.’ Bottom line: It could be ‘several months’ before CFSA starts billing Medicaid.
Another piece of news that you can expect to see on all sorts of green-colored campaign literature in coming months: DCPS high school graduation rates are up, from 69.7 percent to 72.3 percent. ‘Officials attribute the rise to improved programs for struggling students and more careful tracking of transcripts to make sure students have the credits and courses needed to graduate,’ Bill Turque writes in WaPo. But he notes that ‘the numbers could look less encouraging when a more stringent method of calculation is adopted next year….Officials said Friday that the District will be moving toward a “cohort” method recommended by a task force of the National Governors Association….Rhee said that graduation rates dipped at many school districts that changed methodologies and that it was possible the District would follow the pattern.’ Also WAMU-FM, WTOP, and Examiner, whose Leah Fabel notes: ‘In a slight jab at the City Council, Fenty and Rhee stressed the importance of summer school to help students recover lost credits and thereby increase the graduation numbers.’
In Sunday WaPo column, Robert McCartney claims that recent changes to the taxi system provide ‘a useful way to evaluate [Fenty’s] impact on the District—-both good and bad.’ First off, there’s the meter switch—-‘one of the mayor’s most clear-cut accomplishments as he campaigns for a second term.’ But! ‘[T]he progress has come at considerable cost for many longtime taxi drivers, who say they’ve suffered sharp drops in their income under the new system.’ Here’s the nut: ‘As in his education reform, he has pushed aggressively for change against resistance from well-established interest groups, especially in the African American working-class community….Fenty’s taxi policies are seen as working on behalf of the affluent—-in this case, the tourism industry and business people, especially downtown, who use cabs most regularly. That fuels the view in less prosperous parts of the city that his administration has neglected them.’ And Michael Brown is unafraid of sharpening that point: ‘The older African American drivers are kind of looked at as dinosaurs and not as part of the new generation….That’s more of a pattern in the whole government, same as how they’ve treated teachers. Their definition of a modern city doesn’t include certain types of people.’
WaPo’s Paul Duggan does his usual estimable job today retracing the Dec. 1 botched robbery that left Arvel Alston dead and MPD cop Reginald Jones in handcuffs, charged with murder for abetting the crime. ‘In the absurdly inept robbery…[Tyrone Herring], 45, would suffer a minor bullet wound. Alston would be killed by friendly fire. And the others would high-tail it out of there empty-handed—-all of them, gunmen and lookouts, culpable, prosecutors say, for first-degree murder in Alston’s death….This was some crew Jones had hooked up with, authorities say—-a gang that couldn’t shoot straight.’
New parking fees front WaPo’s Sunday Metro section: ‘Municipalities increase parking rates and enforcement hours to raise revenue, improve access to local businesses, entertainment areas and institutions; and ease traffic congestion….John B. Townsend II of AAA Mid-Atlantic doesn’t buy it. “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau,” he quoted from Genesis, recalling how Jacob tricked his father, Isaac, by disguising his body to resemble his brother. To Townsend’s ear, the District is trying to finesse a revenue increase by claiming the policy will ease parking and reduce congestion.’ Also WRC-TV.
WaPo’s Dion Haynes covers the interjurisdictional fight for the Northrup Grumman headquarters, noting that ‘[e]conomic development officials in the District are pitching the city’s urban hipness and proximity to Capitol Hill power brokers.’ (Because nothing appeals to ex-military defense contractors like ‘urban hipness.’) Jack Evans ‘is almost certain the city will pitch general property tax abatements and other incentives. “We’ll tell them, ‘We want you even more than the other jurisdictions want you.'”‘
ALSO—-Did you know that the Greater Washington Initiative and regional development officials ‘are finalizing guidelines…how the communities can compete fairly, keeping the process from getting ugly’? For one: ‘The officials are encouraged to play up their assets—-but never trash their neighbors.’
The new head of the FBI’s Washington Field Office is Shawn Henry, 47. ‘The surroundings will be familiar: Henry began his career as a special agent in the District in 1989, focusing on public corruption,’ Carrie Johnson reports in WaPo. ‘In recent years, Henry attracted international attention for heading up probes of computer intrusion and fraud cases, and he appeared as an FBI representative at security conferences across the United States and Europe. In September 2008, he was named assistant director of the bureau’s Cyber Division.’
The WaPo editorial board is none too pleased with the reinstatement of Selena Walker, the medic in the David Rosenbaum case. ‘Next time the District government moves quickly to fire a worker suspected of wrongdoing or incompetence, we don’t want to hear local labor officials complain about a rush to judgment. Any claim of premature disciplinary action gets turned on its head by the misguided court ruling to reinstate’ Walker, where ‘a thorough investigation…is being used as an excuse to force the reinstatement of someone who has no business being on the public payroll.’ LL is in receipt of a letter from Walker’s attorney claiming that WaPo (and LL) are wrong to criticize his client, saying she did nothing wrong and laying off the blame on other medics.
ALSO—-Brother Marcus Rosenbaum reacts to NC8: ‘[I]t makes you want to vomit.’
WaPo’s Keith Alexander spends time with Donald Gates, wrongly imprisoned for 28 years, as he struggles to reintegrate. ‘Don’t sleep for long, he tells himself, or you’ll wake up back in prison. “It’s like, man, that cage is still there,” he says. “Just waiting.”…He hasn’t really had the time to be too happy about his release or bitter about his incarceration. His energy is too focused on the struggle to get back on his feet with no money, no job and a family he doesn’t know very well anymore. The world has changed dramatically since 1982, when an FBI forensic analyst and a convicted felon-turned-informant both wrongly testified that Gates, then 30, raped and killed a Georgetown University student in Rock Creek Park on June 22, 1981.’ Plus photos.
NYT looks at how D.C.’s unique history with handguns is complicating the Gilbert Arenas affair. Here’s Jonathan Abrams‘s lede: ‘The office of Peter Nickles, the District of Columbia’s attorney general, is on Pennsylvania Avenue, not far from the White House or the Verizon Center. The proximity of the three locations underlines how law, government, sports and the continuing threat of violence stand shoulder to shoulder in the nation’s capital, creating a stark backdrop for Gilbert Arenas’s decision to store several guns in a Verizon Center locker room. In doing what he did, where he did, Arenas has potentially created more legal trouble for himself than had he done it elsewhere.’ Nickles won’t say what his involvement in the case is.
IN OTHER GIL NEWS—-Javaris Crittenton and other Wiz players could go before a grand jury this week, Bill Myers reports in Examiner, adding that ‘[t]wo different sports law experts told The Examiner that odds are Arenas will go to jail for the stunt.’ Jeff Jeffrey at Legal Times polls titans of the D.C. criminal defense bar on the case. And Colbert King weighs in: ‘Arenas’s hero status should be limited to his on-court performance. Even before the guns and locker-room incident, Arenas, off the court, was hardly an example to be emulated by children, notwithstanding reports of his charitable giving to Hurricane Katrina victims, schools, etc. Throwing himself a $1 million birthday party…and fathering three children with his on- and off-again girlfriend doesn’t qualify him, in my book, as a role model for young boys.’
Barry Harrison, the Peaceoholics worker convicted of sexually assaulting a teen last summer at Spingarn HS, is sentenced to six years in prison. Writes Alexander in WaPo: ‘Before D.C. Superior Court Judge Michael L. Rankin imposed sentence, [Harrison] repeatedly called the charges against him a “charade” and, as he did during his trial, said the teenager and her friends fabricated the story in retaliation for his having disciplined them for cutting classes….”I’m a victim. My family is a victim. The only thing I regret is not quitting that job when my wife told me to quit.”‘ Adds Ron Moten: ‘This is the gravest injustice I’ve ever seen in my life.’
Special-education lawyers deserve to get paid, federal appeals court rules. Legal Times reports: ‘The dispute, now in its 14th month, began as part of what D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles described as a pushback against the district’s aggressive special education bar. In its ruling today, the court delivered a sharp rebuke of the city’s legal argument in the case, saying it would discourage lawyers from taking on special education clients and “effectively block the one enforcement mechanism parents have when an educational agency drags its heels.”‘ But has Nickles won the war? He ‘said that during the last ten months, the number of administrative due process complaints within the school system has dropped by 50%.’
Jonetta Rose Barras looks at Mary Cheh‘s procurement reform bill, is not impressed. ‘Cheh’s bill would needlessly extend the bureaucracy, require unnecessary reports, duplicate existing structures, fail to address problems caused by decentralization, minimally deal with lax enforcement and increase the cost of government.’ A bit of news here: City procurement chief David Gragan says the Fenty administration may submit its own procurement reform package as soon as this week. Barras’ solution: ‘Empower the chief procurement officer and return all contracting authority to that individual, terminate any government employee who circumvents or violates local laws, and conduct rigorous council oversight using facts—-not shrill or reckless rhetoric.’
DCPS steps back from its focus on ‘board certification’ for teachers, Turque reports in WaPo today. ‘Under former superintendent Clifford Janey, the D.C. school system supplied technical and financial support to board candidates, including video cameras to record classroom lessons and financial support to defray the $2,500 application fee. Those who won certification received a $4,000 stipend. But Janey’s successor, Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, said that although she considers board certification a valuable form of professional development, it was difficult to justify the annual expenditure of about $600,000 because so few teachers were making it through the process. “It didn’t seem like the best investment,” Rhee said. “It seemed to us that there was a more foundational level of professional development we needed to do with our staff.”‘
HUD’s beef with city AIDS spending appears to be over, Darryl Fears reports in WaPo. ‘In a letter Thursday to [Fenty], Housing and Urban Development Assistant Secretary Mercedes Márquez wrote that “the findings and concerns identified in the monitoring report are closed.”…Márquez commended the city’s actions in her letter, which also notified Fenty that HUD was forwarding the $12,213,518 Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS grant agreement to the city, allowing it to withdraw money for programs.’
In addition to the initiative to ban gay marriage now being litigated, Lou Chibbaro Jr. notes at DC Agenda that there are two new ballot measures on the issue now under consideration by the BOEE. One is a referendum to block the gay-marriage bill. In the other, ‘Ward 8 resident Joyce Little filed papers with the Board of Elections & Ethics on Dec. 23 calling for a voter initiative that seeks to overturn the same-sex marriage bill by banning same-sex marriage in the city. “The purpose of this initiative is to allow the citizens of the District of Columbia to vote to preserve traditional marriage as between one man and one woman,” Little wrote in a summary statement submitted to the election board.’ A hearing on the latter measure is set for Feb. 16 at BOEE.
ALSO—-The D.C. Council ‘sent the same-sex marriage bill passed by the Council and signed by Fenty to Congress on Jan. 5 to arrange for a required congressional review of the law….The clock for the congressional review is expected to start ticking next week, when the House begins its 2010 legislative session. Capitol Hill observers initially thought the congressional review would be completed sometime in March, but some are now speculating the review could be concluded as early as February.’
WSJ op-ed takes issue with religious protections in gay marriage bill. ‘The City Council’s bill only reiterates religious protections already guaranteed under the First Amendment. It doesn’t extend other protections to religious organizations that take money from the government, as the religious exemption the archdiocese sought would have,’ Emily Esfahani Smith writes. ‘It would have been a small concession to grant such an exemption. But in the conflict between gay rights and religious rights, the city favors gay rights.’
Harry Jaffe looks at how Chocolate City is now ‘mocha town.’ As D.C.’s population inches up, the city ‘is becoming more integrated and better balanced—-for better or worse….For many longtime Washingtonians, the 2010 census is proof of “the plan,” by which whites would eventually drive out blacks. There’s evidence to support that theory. Market forces are driving up the cost of housing and forcing out poor and middle-income residents. Most are black. That’s bad. But the same market forces are replenishing the city’s coffers with tax dollars. If the mayor and the city council direct the city’s funds to boosting education, fighting crime and building affordable housing, Mocha Town could be a great place for everyone, regardless of race.’
WaPo reviews the recession’s ongoing impact on local government budgets across the region; D.C. earns little mention. ‘The effects have been muted in the District, where officials have benefited from the change in White House administrations and jobs sparked by the stimulus. But the past two years haven’t been without painful decisions, and the coming year will probably bring more. In the fall, the schools chancellor made national headlines when she laid off more than 200 teachers in the middle of the academic year….The D.C. Council raised a raft of taxes and left dozens of nonprofit groups without the earmarks they expected. Still, the city’s outlook is better than those of jurisdictions in which real estate taxes are the primary source of revenue and home values took a substantial hit.’
The Examiner editorial board ‘would like to suggest a fourth, heretofore unexplored option’ for solving Metro’s budget woes: ‘Cut Metro’s staff pay and benefits. We have often criticized Metro for overpaying its unionized labor force while neglecting basic maintenance in its train and bus system. Metro has defended itself by arguing that its operating and capital funds are separate and cannot be commingled. We expect to never again hear Metro officials repeat this intellectually dishonest argument because they are now proposing to commingle those funds, but not in a way that addresses the system’s fundamental problem….Stop expanding your staff and forget about “future growth” until you can make the trains run safely and on time in the system you already have.’
On that note, Kytja Weir reports in the same newspaper that Metro is proposing to lay off 60 employees and cut 90 empty positions in order to close a $40M budget gap. ‘The layoffs and job cuts are slated to primarily hit administrative workers, but some who make the trains and buses run could also be canned, said Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel. The exact jobs to be cut are still being determined, he said, but the pink slips are due by the end of March. An additional 101 empty bus driver, train operator or mechanic slots could also be lost if the board of directors opts to cut service, as there would be fewer buses and trains to operate each day, he said.’
ALSO—-Train driver disciplined for nearly hitting track inspectors.
Samuel Staley of the Reason Foundation, in WaPo op-ed, presents the libertarian case for variable fare pricing for Metro: ‘The key is to charge the right fare, for the right trip, at the right time through demand-based pricing….How would this work? The Red Line, for example, is notoriously crowded during the morning rush, between 7:30 and 9 a.m. Prices could be set to rise by small increments of a nickel or dime every 10 minutes beginning at 7 a.m., peaking at 7:30 am, then falling back to off-peak levels once the stations are cleared….The underlying principle is that fares should be set based on willingness to pay for most travelers.’
Eleanor Holmes Norton stands up for Harry Reid in his time of need: ‘While Sen. Reid has been producing for African-Americans, many of his critics were opposing him on these same issues…Majority Leader Reid has a record. They do not. Words matter, but what matters most are the actions of a man whose committed career on our issues speaks for itself.’
Two shot and wounded on 3000 black of Stanton Road SE Sunday afternoon in domestic incident.
Cab driver shot and wounded at 17th and T Streets NW early Sunday.
District man charged with robbing Maryland Goodwill store.
Three women were trapped for 20 minutes in out-of-service Metro train Friday morning.
Man, 38, pleads guilty to misdemeanor sex abuse of 79-year-old man, reports DC Agenda. The man, John Burrows, ‘has denied sexually abusing the man, noting that her brother claims the sex was consensual and a dispute arose when the man refused to comply with a prior agreement to pay for the sex.’ Burrows has accused D.C. Jail guards of assaulting and seriously injuring him.
Penn Branch blogger to Hizzoner: ‘I am writing to thank you for the spectacular job you, our Department of Public Works and other government agencies did on preparing the streets of hard-working Penn Branch for the small snowstorm we faced on Friday morning.’
WaPo runs op-ed from man irate about bag tax: ‘We’ll go to Virginia to get our bags — and our groceries. I went tonight and was given 55 cents worth of grocery bags free of charge, and they even double-bagged my gallon of milk. I also paid $2.36 in sales tax revenue. I’m not sure that shifting sales tax revenue from the District to Virginia is what the law’s proponents had in mind, but that will be the effect in our household.’ Richard Layman points out ‘that DC doesn’t charge sales taxes on groceries, while Virginia charges 2.5% sales tax on groceries,’ meaning the author ‘paid $1.81 in sales taxes to Virginia to “save” 55 cents.’ Also, Slow Cook asks why farmers’ markets are still handing out bags willy-nilly.
Gary Imhoff in themail , apropos of the bag tax: ‘DC is becoming the headquarters for hair-shirt environmentalism, which treats humans as a cancer on the earth, and seeks to punish us for existing….Our councilmembers are the ideological prisoners of the most extreme activists, anxious to join whatever the latest faddish movement is to ban and prohibit and impose restrictions on human consumption, no matter how foolish or badly thought out the fad may be. The bag tax is the latest example. Councilmembers let the activists shape and write the bill, and councilmembers didn’t bother to read it or consider its consequences before they passed it.’
WTTG-TV picks up PETA criticism of D.C. animal shelter, run by Washington Humane Society. On Friday, LL ran into WHS board member Marie Drissel making the rounds at JAWB, assuring CMs that all is well at the shelter.
Phelps students enter national robotics competition.
Another teacher-blogger quits DCPS. ‘I decided to leave for a number of reasons, but the one that stands out over all the others is that the atmosphere at our school is toxic and soulless….Another big reason for leaving is, sadly, I don’t think the school as a whole really gives a damn about what the students really need. Our prime (and seemingly only) mission is to raise test scores.’
WBJ notes how Abe Pollin‘s sons have stepped in after their father’s death to run the Wizards and Verizon Center.
Did you know the D.C. government operates an icebreaker? WaPo’s Michael Ruane climbs aboard: ‘It is winter on the water. And as the weekend suffers through some of the most frigid weather of the season, the Potomac and Anacostia rivers have become layered with forbidding stretches of ice that the city’s sole ice-breaking fireboat battles daily. Despite the harsh season, fire officials said, there is still commerce that needs to have the rivers available for navigation. Bridge construction and maintenance crews, for example, need to get up and down the rivers, along with some barge traffic.’ Also WUSA-TV, which covers ice-rescue exercises.
Maryland insurance commissioner rules that CareFirst is holding appropriate budget reserves, which forebodes a similar result for the D.C. insurance authorities’ review, expected in the coming months. Background from WBJ: ‘Insurers typically keep large capital reserves to protect against catastrophic or unforeseen events, such as a pandemic. CareFirst critics have argued that the insurer is keeping too much in reserve and some of the money should be allocated for community outreach programs.’ Also Daily Record.
Library Journal: ‘In Washington, DC, the library has reduced hours and outreach programs and is likely to discontinue interlibrary loan service or charge for it. But the last three years have seen use double, and all 600 PACs are in operation. One not-so-small triumph: “I knew I was getting somewhere when the Washington Post did a story on elevators working in the libraries,” said Ginnie Cooper, District of Columbia Public Library chief librarian. And the buildings are clean. But getting even basics covered is intense. “It’s not a finger in the dike,” she said, “but bodies keeping the flow back.”‘
Glover Park woman gets sexually assaulted/’cuddled.’
Faux ‘fire inspector’ infiltrates offices, steals stuff.
DDOT’s done a very nice video on the 11th Street Bridge project.
More on Cap Hill carjackings.
The Floridian has a new owner.
Nominate D.C.’s Most Endangered Places [PDF].
The Hill Is Home explains who Maime ‘Peanut’ Johnson is.
Humane Society checks up on outdoor dogs when it’s cold, WAMU-FM reports.
Big Chair Coffee opens today in Anacostia.
Will this new city ad keep the kids away from violence? Don’t hold your breath.
Happy birthday, Bill Hall! (What is Segraves standing on?)
Dr. James E. Cheek, leader of Howard University for 20 years, is dead at 77. ‘He decided to redefine the school’s mission as a “second emancipation of blacks in America,” with a curriculum more reflective of the African American experience. While preaching black power to the students, Dr. Cheek also knew the importance of green power and proved to be an especially skillful fundraiser, cultivating major players at the highest levels of business and government.’ And he ran repeatedly into controversy.
D.C. COUNCIL TODAY—-11 a.m.: Committee on Government Operations hearing on B18-337 (‘Procurement Efficiency Act of 2009’), JAWB 500; 2 p.m.: Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation roundtable on ‘Library Capital Contracts and Community Engagement Activities,’ JAWB 123.
ADRIAN FENTY TODAY—-No public events scheduled.