November 15, 2006
Morning Roundup: New Manager in Town
Good morning, Washington. Excuse us if we're a little grumpy. It might just be this hard-hitting report from NBC 4 that increasing numbers of professionals are hiring personal assistants to get their "frazzled lives" under control. Why can't we get us a personal assistant to give us some Morning Roundup love, hmm? Then we could lounge around in our robe and sip our coffee at our leisure. Someday, someday. When bloggers rule the earth. But for now, news.
In With the Young, Out with the Old: Can't claim to know anything about baseball, and surely the crack DCist sports folks will take this on later today, but big news in the world of D.C. baseball - Manny Acta was chosen as the Nats new manager. At 37 years, he is the youngest manager in the majors. Acta spent the past as two years New York Mets' third-base coach. (UPDATE: Doh. I told you I knew nothing of this "baseball." The DCist crack team already did in fact cover this news as soon as it became unofficially known.)
Marion Barry Pleads Not Guilty: Claiming you were only a tiny bit drunk while driving instead of absolutely smashed may not be the smartest strategy, but Marion Barry is playing it for all it's worth. Charged with "driving under the influence, operating a vehicle while impaired, operating an unregistered vehicle and misuse of a temporary tag" back in September, the former mayor plead not guilty yesterday to those charges. He insists his blood level alcohol was only at .02%, which is like, totally legal.
Police Patrol NE After Shootings: Rashes of violence aren't restricted to the hot, hot
heat of the summer, it seems. Police are out in force in the area around the National
Arboretum after four people were found shot at 17th 19th and M Streets NE. According to one resident in this WTOP piece, "gunfire is so common, they
don't even duck anymore." Wowza.
OMG WHO KILLS KITTENS?!?!: Some dude in Hagerstown, that's who. And he didn't just kill them. HE BURNED THEM TO DEATH. The story: after a fight with his girlfriend, in which he hit her, this jackass threw four kittens in a fire. Priceless. What a catch! Abusive AND willing to burn animals. Isn't that, like, two out of three of the signs of a complete psychopath? But he was sentenced yestderay to 1.5 years in jail for aggravated animal cruelty. I'll say.
Briefly Noted: Fenty picks a deputy mayor, eliminating the three other positions ... Man pleads guilty to killing Hopkins student ... Two convicted in MS-13 trial ... IRS loses bunch of laptops ...
This Day in DCist: In 2005, we prepared for Butterstick's coming out party and searched for bovinity. In 2004, we saw Big Brother stop in Arlington and welcomed Torontoist to the -ist family.
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Personal assistant = secretary, or worse, butler. Sometimes PC goes too far, in my opinion.
Unfortunately, that sentence was suspended, so he's out on probation with just over 4 months of time served.
I wonder if kitten burners get treated similarly to child molesters in prison? One can only hope that a) they do, and b) his fellow inmates knew what he was in for.
It's too bad Oz is off the air...this is a "ripped from the headlines" story that's begging to be put on screen.
Uhhh. 0.02 percent is legal for operating a vehicle. If the physical evidence refutes the crime, the burden of proof is on the police to determine if he was impaired.
For comparison's sake, 0.02 would be like having a glass of wine with dinner and then driving home. I'm sure no one at DCist has done that before.
Everyone knows that kittens are best sauteed, not roasted. That guy DOES NOT know his way around a kitchen.
Not in D.C.:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/11/AR2005101101968.html
It's a stupid law, but it's the law all the same.
Ian, I'm not sure what article you linked to but the council voted to relax the "zero tolerance" dui laws.
link
Whoa, hold the phone, Mabel. There's a stupid law on the books in DC?
Interesting how the cops are nailing Barry to the floor on .02 BAC, yet gunfire is still so common in NE that "they don't even duck anymore."
I'm sure the streets of DC shall be much safer with this drunken geriatric menace behind bars.
Ugh. It looks like:
a) my link didn't work - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/18/AR2005101801002.html
b) I should've said that I couldn't see your link because it gets cut off due to page formatting, which will prob now happen to my link as well (you can google "no tolerance dui" and it's the first link), and
c) I just thought about it- I don't know if the council's change became law.
I don't think the focus of this should be on whether .2 bal is enough to impair Barry, or some average person. I think there's plenty to focus on in the red light running, the illegal registration, and the tag issue.
Whether or not his ability or judgement was impaired by alcohol, it's obviously impaired by something.
The zero tolerance law in dc is misunderstood, it is the same law anywhere else too, a higher level of blood alcohol makes a case easier to prosecute, but if one beer makes someone unable to drive safely, they are driving under the influence.
My fault, I'd missed that story completely.
Though I can't find any documentation as to whether it was enacted or not.
The MPD website is vague as to whether there is a lower limit for DUI (http://mpdc.dc.gov/mpdc/cwp/view,a,1240,q,547837,mpdcNav_GID,1552,mpdcNav,|.asp), though it seems the test is really more about whether your driving appears impaired combined with any alcohol in your system than about any specific amount. So if Barry was demonstrably driving dangerously, I guess his "It was only .02" argument ends up being beside the point.
The shooting occurred closer to 19th and M Streets, NE - just a small detail, I know.
hey jamie - thanks for the correction. i'll fix that right now.
Since when did Bill Frist move to Hagerstown?