September 6, 2007
Morning Roundup: Our Dumbest Criminals Edition
Good morning, Washington. Here at DCist, we pride ourselves on providing a forum for law-abiding citizens to discuss issues facing our city, like development and crime, in as open and honest a manner as possible. We may give you our opinions from time to time as a way to get the ball rolling (OK, all the time), but we're always open to hearing from those of you who disagree. Except for right now. Anyone who honestly believes that this story, about a man suspected of robbing a vendor during the Nationals game who shot himself in the leg on accident late last night as he was running from security guards, is anything other than completely hilarious will be banned from the comments section for the day. A robber shot himself in the leg! While running away from the crime! Fantastic.
Stupid and Crazy: The Examiner reports on an amazingly dumb trend among D.C.'s criminals: targeting police cruisers and officers' homes in search of pricey police equipment and weapons. Five police cruisers have been broken into in the last month, three that were parked at police stations and two at officers’ homes. The MPD is claiming they don't know why they're being targeted, which is like an all-you-can-eat Chinese food buffet claiming they don't know why fat people keep coming in all the time.
Condoms are 'Safe': So says the The D.C. Health Department in response to the WaPo story we told you about yesterday. The Department issued a statement yesterday saying that despite reports of faulty packaging, the condoms they've been giving away since early this year had met federal and industry standards for packaging and manufacturing. Officials also said they would "evaluate the program" as a result of the story, including how feedback is received by the department.
Briefly Noted: Volkswagen of America plans to move its headquarters to Herndon, bringing 400 jobs to the area ... Maryland schools may not have graduated as many students as initially reported ... Australian comedians foil Bush's security detail in Sydney ... 25,000 PG County Pepco customers are without power.
This Day in DCist: Last year we noted the opening of BeBar after a long battle over its liquor license, and the year before that we recognized late Chief Justice William Rehnquist's commitment to D.C. voting rights.
Photo by Samer Farha
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I've been to nearly every VW stealership in NoVA and I gotta say, they got some of the WORST mechanics on the planet. Finding a decent VW mechanic to do warrantee work is damn near impossible. Go to any VW lot and you will find dozens of cars just sitting there waiting to get worked on. Sometimes you have to wait a couple weeks to get an appointment. Hopefully the proximity of the HQ to an area that has a pretty high VW population will encourage them to get their act together, hire some mangagers who know customer service, and some mechanics who know WTF they're doing. VW is one of those companies that has a decent product and good customer loyalty in spite of piss-poor customer service.
Impatient waiting for politicized courts to let honest-but-dumb DC citizens buy handguns they can steal, burglars make do robbing the MPD.
And you wondered why cops don't like to live where they work?
I wonder if the Herndon residents will protest the presence of a foreign company too.
Please tell me you are going to mention the world's great and painful loss of Luciano Pavarotti. I know he isn't DC specific but so many of us are deeply saddened. Give him some recognition. Please.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyfb1Q9dzhM&playnext=1
#3 - Zing!
Opinions of VW aside, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. That's a ton of jobs that a booming area like NoVa gets, but it's a ton of jobs that Michigan loses, right when it can't afford to keep hemorrhaging jobs.
#7
Jobs go where the brains are. Brains don't want to live in Detroit, so VW goes to them. Also, Michigan losses are mostly blue collar,VWHQ will be mostly white collar.
Whether or not the condoms are safe is not the issue. If they are perceived as unsafe and defective, people are not going to use them, no matter what the government says, which defeats the whole purpose of the program. So suck it up DC, and get Trojan or Durex or someone to donate some new condoms until you can bid on a new replacement - this time with foil wrappers.
When my VW was still under warranty, I resorted to driving waaaaaaay out to Hagerstown to find decent factory service. These days, I just take it to a local mechanic. It's much cheaper that way, and you don't have to wait two weeks to get your car in for service.
Monkey: I'm hoping the same thing. Having HQ around the corner is bound to make them take a little notice.
I had a small issue with my GTI and took it in, and I also had them check the stereo because it was blasting the bass by itself. They claimed there was no problem because there was nothing in the logs. I raised a stink when VW called to ask me how the service went, and then got a call back from the service manager.
Going to be taking it back in a couple of weeks, and I'm not looking forward to being told there is nothing wrong. Again.
Going to be taking it back in a couple of weeks, and I'm not looking forward to being told there is nothing wrong. Again.
Get in line. I got the same song-and-dance when my BRAKES SPONTANEOUSLY ENGAGED AT HIGH SPEED. "We can't duplicate the problem. Sorry." Eff you clowns with a white hot poker. I had to do my own research to find the culprit was a bad brake booster, print it out, and hand it to the mental defectives in the shop before they'd pull their heads out of their asses and do the work.
You'd figure the people who built tanks for Hitler would know WTF they're doing by now. It's like I'm freaking talking to Sargeant Schultz from Hogan's Heroes. "NEIN! Ve zee no problems. I know nothink! NOTHINK! Vat are jew afraid of? It's only a SHOWER! Und gib me your gold fillings, ja?"
VW's does not make a quality product. Consumer Reports lists only one of their new cars as "Recommended" (the Passat sedan), and their used car ratings are almost as bad as Land Rover. For the most part, they are a company that does very well due to clever marketing and sleek designs.
I have been told there is a free MC Hammer show tonight in DC.
Is there any other kind?
It's true, Hammer is playing DC tonight.
I've never known someone to buy a VW without experiencing serious problems in the first year or two.
I think VW has lost a lot of the Apple-fetishist types recently. You know the ones I mean. The ones that still have "Re-Elect Gore" stickers on their bumpers. They seem to have moved on, I would guess primarily to hybrids (make that ostentatiously-hybrid hyrbid cars, not the ones that look like normal cars). I think VW is stuck with the Umbros*-wearing ex-frat/sorority types nowadays.
*Do people still wear Umbros? They used to have such cache.
VW diesels have a lot of brand loyalty. The gassers not so much. Particularly after the initial cachet and warrantee has worn off.
Rj,
The VW HQ in Detroit currently employs 1400 jobs, plus an office/plant in suburban Rochester Hills. They arent even in Detroit but the point is the people of Michigan need those jobs more than the Herndon area. I do suspect however that a majority of those people will be moving with the company. It is the tax revenue a struggling Michigan needs to keep. The governor of Michigan had them over to dinner last night in East Lansing so who knows maybe she pulled one off and persuaded them to stay.
The 400 VW jobs leaving Detroit are a drop in the bucket. VW is looking at bringing manufacturing jobs to the U.S.
I doubt those jobs will go to NoVA.
Umbros... ::shudder::
"It is the tax revenue a struggling Michigan needs to keep."
Except that to "persuade" VW or any other company to stay, I bet Michigan gives them huge tax breaks. Another one of my gripes with this whole "state" thing.. companies get to play one state against the other (witness Goldman Sachs [iirc] after 9/11 totally scamming NY and NYC by 'threatening' to move to NJ, or NJ getting AT&T to locate there instead of VA by giving them a boatload of breaks).