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Good morning to you, D.C. It may be raining, but temperatures will hover somewhere between the upper 50s and the lower 60s today, if you can believe that, so no need for a heavy coat. The rain will be gone by tomorrow, in plenty of time for all of us to safely head over to Mayor Adrian Fenty's Inaugural Ball. DCist will be there, and not just for a chance to snap some hilarious photos -- frankly wild horses couldn't drag us away from any party the WaPo boldy describes as "funky" before it even happens.
Fenty Reveals Schools Plan: At last, the rumors can be put to rest and we can all scrutinize Mayor Fenty's school takeover plan with the facts in place. The Mayor announced the plan yesterday, the highlights of which include making the entire D.C. Schools system a cabinet level agency which reports directly to the mayor, amending the District's Home Rule charter to allow the mayor and D.C. Council to go around the Board of Education in regards to funding allocation, and creating a new Facilities Management and Construction Authority that would be responsible for maintenance, repair and construction of schools. We'll have more analysis on this later on, but on its face it appears Fenty's schools plan is just about exactly what he told us to expect, which means its doubtful it will be met with any serious opposition in the Council. Up next? The new Mayor will announce his community policing strategy today.
The Eye of the Tiger: Risin' up, back on the job, she did her time, took her chances. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton's gone the the distance, now she's back on her feet, just a woman and her will to survive ... Yes, there she was being sworn in yesterday with Mayor Adrian Fenty at her side. Sadly House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did not end up giving Norton the rules change she had proposed after November's elections, which would make it possible for the D.C. delegate to vote on amendments to legislation on the House floor. But Norton remains optimistic about our chances to win the vote. To you, Ms. Norton, we say: Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past. You must fight just to keep them alive!
Briefly Noted: Smoke but no fire caused some delays on the Red Line ... Woolworth's lunch counter coming to the Smithsonian ... Woman dies in fire at senior citizens apt. in Northwest ... Chesapeake Bay won't meet 2010 EPA goals.
This Day in DCist: Last year we noted Mayor Williams' troubling gambling problem, and the year before that looked at why nobody likes to use Dulles Airport.
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The school plan reads like what Congress did to Marion Barry: strip the Mayor's office of most of it's power until it was basically a figurehead. And anything that gets the school board out of the way is progress. They're not even rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. They're arguing over whether it's a "deckchair," a "divan," or having some postmodernist digression over the "deckchairness" of the deckchairs.
I'm interested in hearing what the teachers union has to say about this, although I'm sure they'll find something negative to say about it. If they were to propose increasing teachers salaries, the union would protest just on principle.
Really? The WaPo description isn't hard for any non-indie-rocker to understand, because a party that features the city's best go-go and Afro-funk bands (Chuck Brown and Chopteeth) is bound to be "funky."