November 20, 2007
Morning Roundup: Wheels on Fire Edition
Good morning, Washington. Yesterday afternoon Roll Call had the story of a potential suspect finally being identified in all those strange Senate bathroom fires from the last few months. Capitol Police Officer Karen Emory recently has been suspended in connection with the fires, although it still hasn't been confirmed whether she is definitely a suspect in the case. No charges have been filed, but color us a little disappointed if it turns out a police officer was behind the fires and not some unhinged chief-of-staff to an important senator who could then provide weeks of entertaining headlines.
Only the 27th?: The annual FBI Uniform Crime Reports book put out by Congressional Quarterly is out this week, and it ranks the District of Columbia as the 27th-most-dangerous city in the United States. D.C. was ranked less dangerous than Detroit; St. Louis; Flint, MI; Oakland; Camden, N.J.; Birmingham, Ala.; North Charleston, S.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; Richmond, Calif.; and Cleveland, among others. In response to yesterday's news about the District's increasing murder rate, Mayor Fenty said, "What, you'd rather live in Cleveland?"
More Suspicious Checks Under Gandhi: The Post follows up on the The Examiner's revelations that some phony checks from the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue scheme were cashed when current D.C. CFO Natwar Gandhi was in charge of the office -- now the total amount of money stolen under Gandhi's direct watch stands as high as $2.46 million, with 15 suspicious checks discovered from the last year of his tenure there. Gandhi declined to comment on the story.
Briefly Noted: Woman injured when MARC train hit her car ... Greater Southeast Community Hospital still plagued by money problems ... Progress made on Rock Creek Parkway.
This Day in DCist: In 2006 we profiled local clothing store Nana, and in 2005 we told you about the stinky "corpse flower" at the U.S. Botanic Gardens.
Photo by Eye Captain
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I accuse Colonel Mustard, in The Bathroom, with Larry Craig. Clearly, they are both flaming.
Sommer, what's going on with the RSS feed? There's a huge lag between when something is posted and when it shows up in the feed. For example, the Morning Roundup isn't in the feed.
What an obscure yet fantastic reference to the "Absolutely Fabulous" theme. Well executed!
If the whole world moved to their favorite vacation spots, then the whole world would live in Hawaii, Italy, and Cleveland.
We'd all like to Flee to the Cleve, but we stay and we fight because we have responsibilities.
Man, great photo.
And I love the Fent, but don't diss Cleveland.
It's about goddamn time with the Parkway. Maybe they're doing more than it looks like, but it took them a month to rebuild the median? Not to mention, who knows how many months to rebuild the curbs before that.
And now re-paving, that's bound to take another few months.
When they did the TR bridge, that sucked, but it didn't take that long for what a big project that was.
On a sort-of-related note.. The Klingle Bridge on Connecticut? It's been well over a year now, get it done, guys.
"What, you'd rather live in Cleveland?"
Seriously?! Perhaps I’m suffering from a chronic case of gullible, but he didn’t actually say that... did he? If he did, I had no idea he was such a dick. That would be like the kid in class who earned a C- making fun of the kid who earned a D+.
And I say the with the utmost respect for the Cleve.
Cleveland is a shitstain on the asshole of humanity. For a city to look bad in OHIO takes some serious effort. Where else can you find a river that is capable of catching on fire?
Fuck You. I WOULD rather live in Cleveland.
Of course he didn't actually say that. It was a joke.
I sortof wish Fenty had said that. It'd have been pretty funny.
I do wonder how they weigh the crime stats. For instance, murder sucks for thos that are murdered but let's be honest - the vast majority of us that aren't involved in the drug trade (the illegal one, that is) aren't going to get murdered.
So how much do they weigh the fairly meaningless (for most people) murder rate vs the 'whacked over the head and all your shit stolen' rate....?
"Woman Injured When MARC Train Hit Her Car"
Should read "Dumbass injured trying to beat the train". It's highly unlikely that the signal system failed.
"A police spokesman said there is a gate at the crossing, and it's not clear how the car got on the tracks."
They better assign four more detectives to the case and start working in shifts. It's gonna take a lot of brainpower to solve this one.
I can't believe the Virgina to P Street repaving on Rock Creek is going to last until Spring. What is that, two miles?!?! FHWA must have contracted with the slowest repaving company around.
DC recently managed to have a contractor repave Connecticut Ave from Florida all the way to the Taft Bridge, and did all it at night and within 3 weeks.
It's a cold day in hell when the DDOT starts looking like a model of efficiency.......
Where else can you find a river that is capable of catching on fire?
Seeing as that was in 1969, you've opened up the option of looking into the past as a barometer of a city's current worth. That said, I ask of you:
Where else can you find a city whose mayor is a fucking crackhead?
Totally unfair comparison. Cleveland's got Harvey Pekar. All DC has is Margaret Truman, whose latest thriller "Murder at the Textile Museum" is a ripping good yarn.
The Cleve has beaches. If we're making a list of pros, that's gotta be up there. Being on a huge body of water, rather than on two rivers, is nice.
And besides, when it comes to rivers, what's better: one that burned almost 40 years ago and has since been cleaned, or one that has given us the miracle of mutant intersex fish in the past few years?
I love DC, but I also love Cleveland. Unfortunately one of those cities has historically been the national whipping boy, so I tend to be defensive...
As Fenty spent a good number of years in Ohio, a mere 40 miles from Cleveland, he knows of what he speaks. If he'd actually said it, which I secretly believe he did. Because if you've been to Cleveland, you mock it. You just do. And Cleveland deserves it.