Man Stops Traffic at 17th and K to Demand $200 Million
Morning Roundup: Goodbye, Abe Edition
Judge Throws Out WTU Suit Over Teacher Layoffs
Vegetate to Close at the End of the Month
D.C. Police Seek Suspect in Series of Bank Robberies
Good morning, D.C. So... how 'bout that largest bank failure in U.S. history? It's hard even to wrap our heads around what that means, but you know things are really grim when The New York Times goes with "Day of Chaos" as the most accurate descriptor of what the government was up to yesterday. And just to add even more uncertainty to today, you guessed, it, we still don't know for sure whether there will be a debate tonight or not. Obama has said he's going to be there; McCain says he still hasn't decided if he's going to show up.
Primary Election Results Certified: The DCBOEE has finally certified the Sept. 9 primary election results, and as expected, none of the outcomes of any of the races have changed. But it's increasingly clear that the board actually has no idea what happened to cause the early returns to show some 1,500 over votes. The Post reports that they still have no explanation or report regarding a single defective cartridge at precinct #141. They were able to certify the election results after conducting an audit of four randomly chosen precincts and a manual recount of precinct #141.
Protest Against Franklin Shelter Closure: The word went out late yesterday that Mayor Fenty was planning on closing the Franklin Shelter for good today, despite a bill passed by the D.C. Council demanding that the mayor come before them to give details about his plan before it is closed. So about 150 people showed up at 13th and K Streets NW last night to protest (pictured), disrupting traffic in the process. But no one from Fenty's office has yet confirmed that the shelter is closing today.
Briefly Noted: Audit shows D.C. boiler inspections lacking, leaving public at risk ... Federally mandated sewage plan lacks federal funding ... Majority of Marylanders support slots ... Man shot in attack on police officer had a "spiked weapon," has been charged.
This Day in DCist: In 2007, we took a closer look at D.C.'s Marvin Gaye Park, and in 2006, we wished Metro offered monthly passes.
Photo by vassieux
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I walk by the Franklin Shelter on my way to work in the morning. Today they were moving beds and whatnot out of it, so it appeared that they were closing it down, confirmation or not.
Two problems with closing the Franklin School. (1) Scooping up homeless people with mental health problems and substance abuse issues and dropping them in neighborhoods across the river, where there are NO support services, fixes NOTHING. You're just marginalizing the problem and making it harder for them to panhandle. (2) Warehousing homeless people in nigh-rent neighborhoods makes even less sense. I have to wonder how many of the residents around Franklin School actually supported the protest. It's a lesser of multiple-evils choice.
I'm glad they're closing down that shelter. All it did was create havoc in the park across from it. Maybe now I can sit on a bench without smelling BO, urine, and human feces.
I had no idea that the Franklin School Shelter has been put in charge of the bail out.
Maybe now I can sit on a bench without smelling BO, urine, and human feces.
I got news for you, jack. That wasn't the homeless. It was the staff from the Cato Institute.
Those libertarians love themselves some red meat and asparagus. Whew!
The Council can demand all they want, but unless they stuck teeth in the bill (i.e., "none of the funds available for X may be obligated until...") then it's a meaningless gesture. What's the consequence if he doesn't comply, they get mad at him? Whoopee.
does it seem like there's no real news today? like these are all stories we've been hearing about for so long that they've become something of a constant background noise?
Federally mandated sewage plan lacks federal funding
Since when have the Feds ever paid for something they've mandated? It isn't their job to come up with funding. It's their job to tell you what to do. You're supposed to pay for it, dumbass. Besides, it's for your own good. Like sneeze guards and those "Employees Must Wash Hands" signs written in Spanish and braille.
To be fair, the Feds do guarantee that if you're not satisfied with the Federally mandated sewage plan, you get double your sewage back. Qualified residents of the Jewish/Muslim faith are eligible for a kosher/halal "sewage credit." (Allow 8-10 weeks for delivery.)
Man, I still wish the metro had monthly passes.
Monkey -
Making it harder for them to panhandle is part of the solution. The easy ability to make enough panhandling $$ to indefinitely put off actually getting substance abuse treatment, mental health care, job training (or an actual job) is one of the reasons we have the homelessness problems that we have.
4 weekly passes = a monthly pass
Hillman - The career panhandlers don't live in shelters anyway, so moving the shelter to Ward 8 won't really have much impact on panhandling on K Street.
Besides, with winter rolling in to DC, a lot of panhandlers will migrate to Florida and SoCal where they can ply their trade in relative comfort. It's like the decline in murders when summer ends. Once November rolls in, it just gets too cold and wet to panhandle or start turf wars in DC.
What if we get the homeless to inspect the boilers and build the sewers? Think out side the box, people!
I second Cranky's motion to use the homeless as CHUD bait. Can we put their boiler inspector licenses on the fast track?
Homeless get a job, boilers get fixed, sewers get built, Morlocks get fed. It's an all-around win-win situation!
i third Cranky's motion on the condition that we assign the Morlocks to fixing the metro escalators
Good luck finding licensed and bonded Morlock repairmen in DC. Thanks to your DC Public School system, they're all functionally illiterate. Not only that, but the Morlocks that actually want to work in DC have to jump through tons of red tape to even get their permits. Doesn't help that they can only come out at night because of that whole albinoism thing, and the permitting office closes at 4pm. Your tax dollars at work.
"Majority of Marylanders support slots"
For a split second I thought that said something else entirely different.
There's a "one-armed bandit" joke there somewhere.
So no kicking out people who bought mansions they can't afford?
Anyone who has more than a $200,000 mortgage is rich in my book. They can lose the house they can't afford and rent like I do.
forget the bail-out as planned, the gov't can save the taxpayers ~80% of the >7 billion$ their talking about wasting if they would just simply cover all of the bad mortgages (less than 300k) and walk away from Fannie-Freddie & Wall Street.
If they do go for their bailout plan then i do think they should include affordable housing for the poor ...lehman, aig, chrysler, fannie and fredie executives.
A hundred and fifty? Not even close. 40, tops.