June 10, 2008
Morning Roundup: Relief in Sight Edition
Good morning, Washington. Metro says that delays due to yesterday's Orange line derailment have been mostly cleared, and that this morning's commute should have seen minor delays only in the affected area. What was your experience this morning? Did you even get home in the first place? Hopefully a reminder that this should be the last day of the heat wave will cheer up all you Orange liners this morning.
Walters Advised Tax Office Software Policy: The Post has a front page story this morning detailing how alleged tax office scam ringleader Harriette Walters helped play a role in designing the agency's computer system. Turns out she convinced officials to leave her unit out of the system, which likely aided her in keeping the millions of dollars she was stealing hidden for much longer. The tax office now wants to do away with the $135 million system rather than try to upgrade it. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi has budgeted $10 million for a search for a new program that can process the city's income, business and real estate taxes.
Trinidad Checkpoint Intensifies: D.C. police blocked off access to several streets in the Trinidad neighborhood last night in order to force drivers to pass through the new "Neighborhood Safety Zone" checkpoint, reports the Post. The paper described the scene last night as appearing to be a "work in progress," saying that the number of officers assigned to the checkpoint was insufficient to fully implement the plan. Meanwhile, the Examiner says that officers assigned to the checkpoint have not undergone constitutional training, despite the assurances of interim attorney general Peter Nickles.
Briefly Noted: D.C. not included in FBI crime report due to data issues ... Four Prince George’s County teens charged with beating a man to death over a pack of cigarettes and a shoe ... Montgomery County police are investigating a sexual assault in Takoma Park ... It's election day in Virginia.
Photo by justinramsdell
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killed for a shoe, not even two shoes?
what the hell is wrong with people?
I find the FBI exclusion of DC crime stats highly suspicious:
"Violence is down among whites of all ages and both genders; it's up among black males, not black females," Fox said. "When you blend all the national numbers together you fail to see this divergence. There are many more whites in the population, so their decline can dwarf the increase among young black males."
E-Rotica Software Solutions will upgrade the District's tax system for the rock-bottom price of $75 million dollars, a cup of hot fat, and the head of Alfredo Garcia. You can't beat that price with a stick, with or without dog doo!
In the Wall Street Journal this morning, they talked about the crime numbers, but instead of using the FBI's numbers to talk about DC, they just went to the MPD website and used their crime map. Actually, in the end it probably resulted in a more accurate discussion of the crime situation: i.e. it's up sharply in some neighborhoods.
For what it's worth, five pages later there was an article about how great the Thurgood Marshall Charter School in Ward 8 is.
So good with bad I guess.
$10 million just for the search for a new computer system?
What? Are we incapable of putting out a simple Request For Proposals?
This reeks of the bad old Barry days. I like Fenty,but he needs to start getting a handle on these outrageous costs. There's simply no excuse for it.
Yeah, so there are elections in Arlington today, huh? Who knew? Seriously, way to push this one under the radar
$10 million? I take it that these are former government contractors conducting the search.
Oh Ms. Walters, it's time to be fitted for your set of stocks...perfect weather for outdoor humiliation too...
Although now that I see his picture, I def. saw Famiglietti electioneering on the metro platform in Ballston last week.
"What? Are we incapable of putting out a simple Request For Proposals?"
A simple RFP? What, are we immigrants? What self-respecting city puts out an RFP that isn't written on gold-paper and encrusted with rubies and pearls?
I want that little girl's pink sunglasses. They are awesome.
The $10 mil is to cover the costs of the consultants who will determine the best software package and platform to run the District's tax system. You don't think District employees have the higher brain functions to actually pick something as complicated as a computer? Anyway, once they burn through that ten mil, it'll probably be a tossup between the KayPro, the Intellivision, and the Coleco.
Now...let's talk rust proofing! Because those Colecos will rust up on ya!
(Dammit, Gill! Close the deal! Close the deal!)
Accenture totally sucks. As do/did the CFO people that came up with the specs for the computer system. People need to be fired. Accenture needs to be banned from DC gov't work. Monkey needs a full body Brazillian wax. Which of these three is likely to occur first?
And the 4 teens that killed that man - astounding. Have their relatives come forward to say their babies never did nobody no harm and they were the sweetest little angels on God's green earth? I'm not a big fan of the death penalty. But some crimes are so purely evil and callous that the death penalty is the only response.
Finally, MPD's two sets of books have been open knowledge for years. There's no effective reconciling of the stats between the two. So when Lanier says X types of crime are up or down Y percent, she really can't substantiate that b/c it depends on which set of books she's using and whether those stats were checked against the other book's stats. What MPD will eventually have to do is completely revise all their crime stats for the past several years. Of course, that will be bad for the politicians b/c it will show that crime has not been as low as everyone hoped and took credit for.
cranky: i'm not a death penalty supporter, and i wouldn't advocate it for these teens, and i understand that i probably had a better life growing up, yadda, yadda, yadda, but i still can't fathom how in the hell these kids ever got to the point where kicking someone to death even became an option. what the hell is going on here?!?
"Constitutional Training"??? Don't they teach that at the Police Academy?
Hey Cranky, lay off Accenture! All those poor ex-Arthur Andersen guys need love too! By which I mean "prison love."
Barring that, "hot panda love" would work fine as well.
The panda love is also cursed.
re Trinidad and civil liberties: driving on the public roads is a privilege, not a right. That's why your "right" to freedom of movement is greatly curtailed while behind the wheel. MPD could have probably done a little better in the PR war by calling this a "Drunk Driver checkpoints" and doing every thing else exactly the same.
Of course, an ice-cream truck with out-of-state tags trolling a residential neighborhood at night is pretty much the *definition* of probable cause, so...well...y' know.
When pedestrians are routinely stopped with no cause, we can talk civil liberties. Though I would like to see a DC loitering law [back] on the books.
killed for a shoe, not even two shoes?
what the hell is wrong with people?
Maybe one of the killers only has one foot? That or he is gunning for a cool prison nickname, like Johnny One Shoe.
I don't know; it's terrible. All I can deal with today is the happiness of pink sunglass girl.
Can't DC just buy a couple of copies of QuickBooks Pro or something? I mean, how much worse could it be?
(Oooh, I'm a consultant now! I'll be expecting my $200,000 check soon.)
I didn't notice any delay on the Orange Line this morning. I was on it a lot earlier than usual, though.
They could probably skirt Constitutional issues by calling it an "Agressive Driver Checkpoint." Then again, anybody who drives with a cellphone and their head up their a** would have to be stopped.
"Inept Driver Checkpoint?" Same problem.
"Rotating Hubcap Checkpoint?" Those things are accidents waiting to happen. I've had to pull over numerous times from laughing hysterically at the riced-out Civics with the peeling windshield tinting and those stupid hubcaps and bumper stickers that say "Cuidado! Jesus es mas grande!"
"Tacky Vanity Plate Checkpoint?" You'd get a hail of complaints from the "GZUS4ME" crowd, rolling around on the church floor, having conniptions. "Help me, lawd! They gave me a $100 ticket! They got me like Jesus!"
"Driveby Porn Checkpoint?" I'm sure the cops would have no problem with this. But, I wouldn't want to end up on the wrong end of an aroused cop's "nightstick."
Can't the cops just ask suspect drivers their name, their quest, and the average wind velocity of an airborne swallow?
I'm just glad they actually caught the four teens who beat their victim to death for no reason. Hopefully, they will be locked away forever, as on the face of it, these are individuals with no hope of ever being rehabilitated, and who would pose a serious threat if they were ever released, or escaped. Death penalty aside, theirs is a good case for some sort of fituristic prison on an asteroid somewhere between Mars and Jupiter, with no hope of escape.
would that be a european, or african swallow?
and we all know prisoners sent off 'with no hope of escape' always come back to haunt us in a sequel... how about a good old fashioned public hanging?
@IMGoph: I agree. It's absolutely astounding that these kids did this, apparently for fun. I can understand simply bum-rushing the guy and taking his cigarettes (your basic, everyday robbery). But to force him down stairs and then kick him mercilessly while laughing about it. AND THEN hanging around while others came to the man's assistance?! WTF is wrong with these animals? Frankly, I don't care if their daddies left them and their mommas didn't sing them lullabies when they were young. This was premeditated, brutal and evil. There's no rehabilitation for these kids. There needs to be an extreme penalty for these kinds of extreme premeditated murders.
@Monkey: I am relieved that only one person was arrested by the checkpoints (for an open container of booze). Last week, I was concerned that anyone who was arrested at the checkpoint needed to seriously reconsider their career. Looks like we got ourselves some criminals that can read and walk into the neighborhood or drive up a side street.
I looked up the the names of the man they killed, Aboubacar Camara. Google returns only one such name and he's an impressive international musician. Altho this is mostly in Vancouver, it looks possible it is the same man:
http://www.doundounba.ca/ab.php
Can anyone confirm this is the guy? I didn't think it could become more tragic, but perhaps it can.
jesus. just when you think the tax story can't get any better. honestly, you couldn't make this stuff up.
i would love to hear what her justifications were for leaving her unit out of the new system. that must've been some grade-a top-choice all-american bullshit right there.
Minor delays in the affected area? How about the unaffected area? It took me 20 minutes to get a train Red Line to Glenmont this morning because Metro was sending trains 5 minutes apart during rush hour on one of the hottest days of the year. Thanks, Metro!
could the four kids have been involved in a gang initiation? i've heard of similar seemingly senseless acts of violence in columbia heights that may have been linked to that. different population, though, and assumedly if the kids had said anything along those lines it would be all over the news.
senseless nonetheless.
Another rampant gang initiation example is cars driving at night WITHOUT HEADLIGHTS.
If you flash your highbeams at them to let them know, they will turn around, follow you, and KILL YOU (unless you are a woman, in which case they will RAPE YOU and then KILL YOU).
Also, do not get into moving cars that don't have drivers BECAUSE THEY ARE HAUNTED. The ghosts will RAPE AND KILL YOU AS PART OF THEIR "GHOST" INITIATION.
Finally, NEVER allow members of Led Zeppelin to pleasure you with a MUD SHARK.
And kudos to girlfriend in the picture for getting her nail polish to match the feather boa. Mad props, chalk child.
where the fuck are we, baghdad?
as one Iraqi said to another...
"Where the fuck are we, DC???"
If those 4 kids had killed that man in DC worst they could have gotten was a stay in the juvee home until 21. Though given DC's tracking of juvenile criminals they would prob have been out in 6 months. DC needs to change the laws on juvenile crime, if you commit an adult crime, you do adult time.