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Morning all. A happy LL birthday to Arrington Dixon, who turned 66 this week.
IN LL WEEKLY—-Committee Carousel: LL runs down the scuttlebutt on Vince Gray‘s hard choices for Council Term 18.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—-“Fenty Faces Another Heated Confirmation Battle“
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty is “likely” to sign the extended inauguration drinking hours legislation, Examiner’s Leah Fabel reports. [UPDATE, 11:40 A.M.: Tom Sherwood reported yesterday on Channel 4 that Fenty “will” sign the bill. Sorry Tom.] In his first public comments on the matter, Fenty says police department “is more than up to the task” of patrolling during extended inauguration drinking hours. “Obviously the Metropolitan Police Department steps up when they need to step up and handles their business,” says Chief Cathy Lanier. “We will do what we need to do and we will make sure that the city is safe.”
PARTY PEOPLE PLEASED—-As of 9:24 a.m., 62 percent of respondents to D.C. Wire poll favor extended booze hours. Take that AdMo residents!
Tuesday night, Deanwood resident Edward Givens called 911 complaining of chest pains and breathing problems. EMTs came, “told Givens…that he had acid reflux, instructed him to take Pepto-Bismol and left.” He was found dead yesterday morning by family members. “I don’t understand the paramedics, why, when he said he was in chest discomfort, he wasn’t taken to the hospital,” Givens’ mother told WaPo’s Elissa Silverman. A DCFEMS investigation is underway.
Airports board adopts travel policy—-sort of. The body “agreed yesterday to ‘make every effort’ to travel more economically…after a spirited discussion about whether the nonbinding guidelines would achieve anything,” writes Amy Gardner in WaPo. Says Va. board member David G. Speck, “I think these leave an open door for pretty much any decision.” He was the only one to vote against the “guidelines.” Also Examiner.
Jonetta Rose Barras previews the D.C. Council report on the OTR scandal by examining a letter sent to prosecutors by attorney Scott Bolden detailing client Diane Gustus‘s knowledge of the scam. Jonetta’s take: “I’m fine with firing the whole lot: senior-level officials who should have known and didn’t; and every OTR employee Walters supervised, or who sat near her desk or received those so-called gifts.”
Bill Gates speaks at GWU, talks about DCPS, Rhee. “It’s a very hard job, and whether it’s the facilities or the personnel issues, somebody had to come in and really point out that the students are not getting what they deserve,” he said of Rhee. “The irony [is] that it’s almost the highest spending per pupil in the country, and it’s almost the worst set of outcomes of students in the country—-and this is the nation’s capital. You’d think that in terms of effective spending of dollars and outcomes, that D.C. would be a model city, and, in fact, it has been the exact opposite.”
RHEE SPEAKS—-Some highlights from Bruce DePuyt‘s NC8 interview yesterday with Michelle Rhee: “We are very pleased with the outcome [of school closings]”…On contract proposal: “I thought I was going to be the hero of Washington, D.C., teachers….I was wrong on that front”…On a possible subtext to “red vs. green” terminology: “Actually no, not really….They just happened to choose the red and green colors. At first the charts had four different colors… There’s no hidden symbolism there.”…On contract negotiations: “We are definitely at a standstill. We have stalled in these negotiations.” Also interview this morning with WRC-TV.
ALSO—-More Time mag reax from WJLA/NC8.
Trinity College prez Patricia McGuire riffs on the broom: “The broom. No matter how hard I try to see the whole picture, I keep fixating on the broom. A symbol: clean sweep. A threat: don’t mess. A blunt force: deadwood, begone….Channeling: [Wicked Witch of the West actress] Margaret Hamilton?” What about Sharon Pratt Kelly?
Convention Center Authority to spend $10M to add meeting space, Michael Neibauer reports in Examiner. Says Greg O’Dell: “We’re not running out of space…We need the right amount of meeting space in proportion to the exhibition space.”
Police lieutenant is back on the job after administrative law judge ruled that AG Peter Nickles “had tried to ‘circumvent’ city law and [Tim] Haselden’s rights,” says Bill Myers in the Examiner. Haselden had been accused of domestic violence but charges were never proven.
Trinidad 13-year-old Alonzo Robinson was killed by a gang of armed thugs from Kenilworth-Parkside who roamed the Northeast neighborhood firing randomly in what cops call “an unusual incident even in a city where retaliatory street violence is common,” according to WaPo. Neither Robinson or four other shooting victims had anything to do with the underlying beef. Of five suspected, four are in custody. More from WaTimes.
Littering through your car window will now be a moving violation in the District of Columbia, Neibauer writes. “The legislation adds $25 to the penalty ‘because tossing a bottle out of a moving car could be more dangerous, likely is more dangerous, than simply dropping a gum wrapper on the sidewalk,’ said at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson.”
TO BOLLARD OR NOT TO BOLLARD, THAT IS THE QUESTION—-“A dispute over security precautions is delaying the start of construction on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial,” Paul Schwartzman reports in WaPo. More on MLK memorial from AP.
D.C. debt limit bill moved forward Tuesday, Biz Journal’s Jonathan O’Connell reports. Bit of a slap there to Jack Evans, who had argued that stuff like revenue bonds and TIF districts shouldn’t apply to a debt cap. Gray said Tuesday that after meeting with Wall Street types that they considered all debt to be debt.
LITTLE BIRD TELLS LL—-that Harry Thomas Jr. yesterday told folks at D.C. Council roundtable that he plans to introduce legislation to block closure of at least two library kiosks.
Rail to Dulles back on track. (Har!)
Guy with seeing-eye dog can’t catch a cab in this town, John Kelly reports. Here’s what happened at the Mayflower Hotel cab stand: “when the cabdriver saw them, he started shouting. The cab rolled forward a few inches, the door still open. Then the driver got out and started swearing at the doorman. After the door was shut, he got back behind the wheel and drove off.”
Daniel R. Proctor, 21, sentenced to 23 years in the murder of Cequawn Brown, then 16, in September 2006. “This much is known: After the argument, as the younger of the two teens walked away from the dispute, the older teen pulled out a pistol and shot the youth in the back of the head. Then the assailant walked over to the youth lying in a pool of blood and shot him again. This time, in the back,” writes Keith Alexander in WaPo.
In DCWatch’s themail, Gary Imhoff responds to rumors that Jonathan Rees isn’t actually dead: “There is now an ongoing campaign by anonymous posters to listservs and commentators on blogs to claim that Jonathan Rees didn’t die and that reports of his death are a hoax. This claim is a malicious and false rumor. The church where his funeral service was held and the cemetery where he was buried have both been identified on these blogs, so there is no reason for anyone to continue to believe or spread this story.”
Marc Fisher takes a look at the accelerating death of the American car.
Eagle Bank Bowl lines up big name sponsors.
Controversy remains over Metro bag searches, WTTG-TV reports.
INAUGURATION WATCH—-Inaug planners HATE KIDS, WaPo’s Eric Weiss reports—-no backpacks, no strollers, no changing areas. “Parents should think long and hard about bringing a small kid to an event with 1 million people,” says spokesperson; WaPo letter writer is wary of the crowds; Fabel ponders the campaign scene: “Last-minute travelers hoping to roll into town for Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration in January may want to consider packing a sleeping bag and a fuel stove.”
WAPO DISTRICT EXTRA—-Notebook dump on Fenty re-election fundraiser, extended inaug drinking hours, and Taxation tags for prez limo; Theola Labbé-DeBose has more on recycling old campaign signs—-and a bunch more on recycling in general (D.C. residents recycle a lot of newspaper, it turns out); IN BRIEF: “Interim Library Opening For Georgetown Residents,” “Five Historic Homes On St. Albans School Tour,” “Grants Available For D.C. Folk Arts,” “Parks Department Offers Winter Activity Guide,” “Planting of Trees Underway Throughout the District”; preview of the All-City Bowl; and ANIMAL WATCH!
WAPO BRIEFS—-“Price of a Ride Drops Today With End of Fuel Surcharge”; “Woman and Man Rescued From Separate Blazes” [990 block of Mount Olivet Road NE; unit block of Gallatin Street NW]; “Worker Admits to Selling Dozens of [Federal] Government Laptops”; “Third Vacancy Opens For Federal Judgeship”; “Southeast Man Charged In June Shooting Death”; “Man Found Fatally Shot In NW Apartment Building” [1200 block of North Capitol Street]
TERRY LYNCH SPECIAL—-Too many broken parking meters!
Eleanor Holmes Norton has made an enemies list, along with Delaware.
D.C. COUNCIL TODAY—-2 p.m.: Committee on Public Services and Consumer Affairs roundtable on PR17-1177, “The Public Services Commission of the District Columbia Lori Lee Confirmation Resolution of 2008,” JAWB 120; Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation roundtable on Department of Parks and Recreation Early Childcare Programs Current and Projected Status FY 2009, JAWB 500.
ADRIAN FENTY TODAY—-10:30 a.m.: remarks, neighborhood retail tax increment financing program announcement, 4035 South Capitol St. SW.