April 10, 2008
Morning Roundup: All Mixed Up Edition
Good morning, Washington. The local TV news outlets were beside themselves with anticipation yesterday that they might have their very own school shooting story to cover. Fortunately, no one was injured, but that doesn't mean we're not going to be treated to an extra-long news cycle devoted to a story where not much of anything actually happened. Here's what did happen: A group of five to six students at Albert Einstein High School in Montgomery County gathered in a boys' bathroom yesterday morning with the intent of carrying out a gun sale transaction. The students had more than one gun they hoped to sell, and while they were in the bathroom, one of the guns accidentally went off, leading police to be called and the campus to locked down. No one was injured, six students have been taken into custody, and the campus is open once again this morning. The Examiner soberly notes that the guns were not linked to a planned school shooting like the sort seen at Columbine or Virginia Tech, but to gang activity in the community.
Family of EMS Delay Victim Not Notified: Remember Jeremy Miller, the 35 year-old Spotsylvania, Va. man who died last week after an apparent seizure when an EMS crew went to the wrong address to respond to his medical emergency? Turns out the errors didn't stop there. Miller's parents say they still have not been contacted by the city about their son's death, and that they learned about it only when a reporter contacted them. Apparently there was a mixup between the medical examiner's office and police about who was supposed to notify Miller's next of kin. So, how many millions of dollars do you think the Millers are going to get from the District of Columbia? $20 million? $35 million?
Vienna Can't Be Trusted With Pyrotechnics: In sad news for the residents of Vienna, Va., the Examiner reports that the city will swap out its traditional July 4th fireworks display this year for a laser light show. An accident at the Vienna fireworks last year injured about a dozen spectators, so city officials voted to spend $22,000 on a non-flammable alternative. No word yet on whether Vienna will also provide marijuana and a Pink Floyd soundtrack.
Briefly Noted: First norovirus, now mice at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center ... American Airlines cancels 900 more flights today ... Fairfax County woman was picked to carry the Olympic torch in San Francisco ... Stolen SUV driver leads police on chase from P.G. County to D.C..
This Day in DCist: One year ago we were answering your questions about a mundane crime that happened near Dupont Circle and two years ago we tasted the delights of Hong Kong Palace at Seven Corners.
Photo by wndrlst
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Hmm...accident causes injuries at fireworks display, display is shut down completely.
It's good to see that the Jim Graham method of responding to isolated incidents is spreading. There are too few elected officials willing to step up to the plate and grossly overreact anytime the smallest thing goes wrong.
Whew! Thank god it was just gang activity!
Ok, where to begin. First, the Olympics Torch Relay is a disaster. The intent behind the thing is to promote the Olympics. But, because of the protests, they decided to run the relay on a non-disclosed route, avoiding all of SF's Chinatown and basically everyone. What's the point? Before 2000, the relay was primarily run in and around just the host country. Who knows what China was thinking. But, read the press releases on the official Beijing 2008 website. and you'd think everything is just fine.
As for the Spotsylvania man, I can't wait for tomorrow's morning round up. Just when you think the city can't screw this up royally any more than they already have, something else comes to light. Unbelieveable.
however much money the spotsylvania man's family gets, we're going to really be paying for it, because, in the coming year's budget, the mayor has removed the money that was intended to be used in case of lawsuits against the city. just another accounting trick that allowed the administration to say that they're only asking for a .7% increase in funds.
i'm not attacking the mayor, i'm a fenty supporter, but i think that might have been short-sighted. of course, the council could still add that money back in (and they better get on that), because the budget isn't finalized, right?
Not sure if there will be a post about it later today, but just want to say that I was pleasantly surprised by Metro last night leaving the Wizards game. We waited for only 4 minutes for a green line train, and it wasn't packed to the gills (of course, the Nats 7-run inning may have caused folks to leave early, making Metro less crowded after all 3 games). I saw lots of Metro employees on the platforms keeping an eye on crowds and radioing status updates to each other. And it was actually kind of fun to get on the Metro and compare game notes with the fans coming back from the Nats and United games. For all the times I criticize Metro, I have to compliment them when compliments are due.
And the Wizards, they------------------------->
See, kids, this is why you sell the guns without the bullets in them. Besides the fact that what you really want to do is make a little more money supplying the bullets after you supply the gun itself (See, e.g., every manufacturer of printers).
The mice infestation discussion thread over at WP is a real rip snorter. I had no idea there was such a large pro-mouse contingent out there. Apparently, this is part of an elaborate conspiracy to make PG County look worse, as if such a thing was possible.
@drew: I'm not sure what you are talking about. The olympic torch relay always circumnavigates several countries. To see the list from previous years check out wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Flame
I think things in SF went remarkably well. I was actually thinking it would get much, much worse. I'm not sure why SF was chosen, it being the most politically activist city in the U.S. With very strong battlelines on the issue of china and tibet. It's not like there aren't major chinatowns in other cities. But even with the protests, it still looked beautiful. As it always does. And it was a perfect day.
It didn't go quite as smoothly as Toronto, but I think SF was better prepared than Paris.
The Gaylord resort. I was going to make some biblical plagues allusion but got distracted by the name and am unable to get my mind out of the gutter, circa the fifth grade.
The Vienna fireworks thing was a bad scene last year though. It was almost as bad as if they had invited Great White to play the show. A bunch of little kids got mortered by fireworks. Serious trauma for people. I don't fault them for cancelling it.
The Examiner calls the handguns an "arsenal of weapons." Truly, the Examiner reporters are the B Team of journalism. The paper does a good job of covering local news (something the Post might want to consider doing one of these days). But their editorial pages are pathetically right-wing. But even then, it's the B Team of right wingers, since the A Team gets published in the Washington Moon Times. And even with the Examiner local news stories, there's always the desperate playing up of every story as if it's the next Watergate scandal.
Man, the torch conflicts me so much. I certainly support the protesters in spirit but it just seems rather petty to try and snuff out the flame.
All the protests have really just hurt the little guy here. The people being honored by bearing the torch and the people actually excited to watch the torch relay. The protests should really focus more on the the governments and businesses that ignore and perpetuate the human rights abuses in China, not the athletes and Joe Public who just happens to love the spirit of the Olympics.
I realize its more complex than that but as someone who's totally gay for the Olympics and still buys into its ideal, I wish things could work out better.
dc1974: i guess everyone's definition of "remarkably well" is different. if the intent of the torch relay was to bring it through a part of american soil with zero "incidents", then they should have landed on one of the aleutian islands and ran around on the beach. i thought the intent was to let large groups of people actually see the torch.
the police state sensibilities kicked in, though, so that didn't happen. sure, there were going to be protests along the announced route, but i guess we don't want to sully the torch relay with expressions of democratic vigor...
i have a friend from theatre who is a senior at Albert Einstein, and she said exactly the same thing - most of the kids on lockdown were just bored, hungry, and had to pee. however, she corroborates other aspects of the story - gang presence there is prevalent. many of the kids who see things going down on the streets and around the school are not speaking up in fear they'll be the next target.
"sure, there were going to be protests along the announced route, but i guess we don't want to sully the torch relay with expressions of democratic vigor..."
Given the actions in France and actions in SF prior to the torch's arrival, I think some people had more than 'expressions of democratic vigor' planned. There really is no right answer for SF. Either they don't change the route, and the run is disrupted and/or people get hurt, or they change the route and screw over the people who weren't out to protest/disrupt.
The wheelchair fencer who protected a torch is a national hero in China, and managed to make the French protesters look like jerks (they knocked over a blind guy?) but that goes without saying.
DC1974: I looked at that list before commenting. If you look, 1996 & 1984, it went from Greece to only American cities. 1992, it went from Greece to only Spainish cities. 1988, it went from Greece to only Korean cities. 1976, it went from Greece to only Canadian cities, etc. It didn't start going to multiple countries all over the world until 2000, when Sydney had it go through the entire South Pacific.
If you consider changing the relay route in the moment to 2 miles away from both supporters and protesters and then not telling the public the location and time of the Departure ceremony a success, then sure the relay in San Fran was a success.
And San Francisco was chosen because it has the largest Chinese-American population in the country.
I wonder what's going to happen when they take it through actual Tibet?
I think Brad Pitt and the Dalai Lama can handle it, west.
I will give Richard Gere $5 if he tries to snatch the torch while it's in Tibet.
Are they really planing on running the damn thing through Tibet? That will be a show. Although, will we get to see what actually goes down? Don't think so. My guess would be lots o' death, imprisonment, and beatdowns. But isn't that what the Olympics are really about? IOC really screwed up this year, and hopefully they've learned a lesson.
I like how the duck in the picture is like, "Yeah. I peed there. So what?"
I am sure they would've had protests regardless. Idiots have been trying to extinguish the torch for a couple of relays, usually as part of the anti-Capitalism protests that always spark up.
But, the IOC had to realize all of this was coming down when China killed 20+ people over protests in Lhasa earlier this year.
And yes, they are running it through Tibet. Because of the symbolic nature of it being the highest point on Earth, the Chinese want to run it up Mt. Everest, which is on the border between Tibet and Nepal.
Drew,
Do you know what kind of magic the Chinese are going to use to ensure the fire remains lit at the 30k ft summit of Everest?
i was thinking the same thing, RJ. i mean, they can't keep it outside (no oxygen, wind) and putting it in an oxygen tank=hand held bomb. is it only going to be symbolic in some way going up everest?