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
Morning Roundup: Rain Won't Go Away Edition
There's been plenty of back and forth this week on Baltimore native Michael Phelps' now infamous admission to smoking pot at a party in South Carolina. On the one hand, Phelps fans feel betrayed by the 23-year-old that they see as a role-model for kids across the U.S. On the other, some commentators have argued that we should just lighten up. He's still young, after all. Via WTOP, the AP reports that the national swimming federation has taken a side and opted to suspend Phelps from competition for three months and pull his monthly stipend. Additionally, cereal maker Kellogg has dumped Phelps as a sponsor. Interestingly, the swimming federation didn't take any similar actions after Phelps was caught driving under the influence before the 2004 Olympics, and it's odd to see them act against an infraction that has nothing to do with his performance in competition. As for Kellogg's, well, pot may well be healthier than eating Frosted Flakes every morning.
Metro Ponders Service Cuts: With a $154 million budget gap to contend with, it was bound to happen -- Metro is considering scrapping it's 3 a.m. late-night service on weekends. The Examiner reports that the move would be part of a package of service cuts, including stopping weeknight service at 10 p.m., shutting certain entrances and exits to Metro stations and stopping buses from operating across county lines. None of the cuts have been publicly discussed or finalized, and some Metro officials are hoping that administrative cuts will spare cuts on the service side. We certainly hope so.
Something's Amiss at PG County Jail: If you're a resident of Prince George's County and feel a sense of relief when a violent criminal is locked away, you should probably read the Post this morning. In a somewhat shocking article, the paper reports that a number of inmates broke out of their cells and attacked guards when they were prevented from watching the Super Bowl. The most surprising admission? That cell locks in the county jail have long been known to be faulty, so much so that deodorant can tops or plastic utensils can be used to break them open. Other problems at the jail include the killing of inmate Ronnie White last summer, the loss of four handguns from the jail's armory and a series of incidents involving jail guards.
Pimlico Bans BYOB Booze: If you're planning on heading out to Preakness this year, you might actually have to be interested in horse racing. Officials at the Baltimore race track have banned BYOB booze in the infield, putting a damper on the annual drunkfest that in 2007 saw 55 people sent to the hospital for a number of injuries. The Washington Times has all the details.
Briefly Noted: Raccoons invade White House grounds ... Noon vigil planned for Columbia Heights homeless man beaten last week ... McAuliffe campaign shakes up Virginia.
This Day in DCist: On this day in 2008, we found out that Sunday parking rules would be fully enforced in Logan Circle (take that, God!) and that a Thomas Circle hotel was losing its world-famous hospitality. In 2007, we debated what would happen if Congress removed height restrictions on buildings in the District.
Picture snapped by spiggycat
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Phelps should be ignored, not because he pulled a few tubes, but for the fact that he's an overall douchy lummox. He can eat, workout and swim. Big f-ing deal.
I agree that Phelps is a dim-wit. But I have to admire a man who can toke on a bong and be the world's fastest swimmer. Shouldn't there be a prize for that?
It's all about the lung capacity
i think being possibly the greatest olympic swimmer ever qualifies as a bfd, at least to me.
i'd say the douche here is the guy who took and sent in the pic and, hopefully, the kid driving the new porsche at USC is no longer welcome at parties...
to be fair however, at most parties i've ever been to, the potheads would slip away to smoke in private, so i admit, these guys weren't being too bright.
to be fair however, at most parties i've ever been to, the potheads would slip away to smoke in private, so i admit, these guys weren't being too bright.
Maybe he wanted to stay near the Cool Ranch Doritos and got caught up telling a story about how those gold medals look even cooler...on weed...
But think about all that bullying he overcame!
And damn, what about those ears?
No booze at Preakness? Yeah, they will sell about seven infield tickets this year.
"Infield spectators can still buy 16-ounce beers for $3.50. "
I think they're just stopping BYOB. You can still buy drinks in the infield.
Isn't Phelps taking a break anyway? Does he even have any competitions scheduled for the next 3 months?
Thanks for the clarification. I made a quick change to the bit on Pimlico to reflect that while you can still buy booze, no more kegs and 30-packs of Bud.
It is very important to note that it isn't booze that is being banned, it is all outside liquid, including soda and bottled water. This isn't about 55 hospitalizations, it's about profiting off 55 hospitalizaitons, or maybe even more from dehydration.
"Infield spectators can still buy 16-ounce beers for $3.50."
For a sporting event, that's actually cheap.
He had a competition in March and another in May that he won't be eligible for now.
What's going on with the contempt of court filing against Peter Nickles for violating the federal recievership? I mean, it kinda makes sense. This is, after all, the same guy who thinks a pistol that holds more than six bullets is "a machinegun." Still, having a hard time understanding his "logic." He wants to quickly implement changes to the school system, without court overview? Well, that makes sense. After all, it's taken 40 years to take the school system to the level where non-native English speakers in Guam are scoring higher in reading and writing tests than DC kids. I don't want to wait around for another 40 years for the schools to hit rock f**king bottom.
And who the hell wants to abide by a court order? I sure don't. I hate those suprise visits from my parole officer. I get tired of having to drive to Wasilla to hunt wolves from a helicopter with a machinegun because I'm on the Do Not Fly List. But those are the breaks. You stalk Florence Henderson and send threatening letters to Linda Lavin and you're paying for it FOR LIFE.
Really, if you think eliminating a court order will fix the schools, you probably think a trillion dollar corporate bailout will fix the economy. Which means you probably think a trillion dollar Defense budget has kept us "safe" from the killer rabbit. "Oh, but we haven't been attacked since 9/11!" Guess what? We haven't been crushed by a comet or been enslaved by the facef**king squid parasites from Andromeda either. But I don't see us giving NASA a trillion dollars to protect us from that. And you know that somewhere in NASA's budget request, there's a couple mil to study contingency plans in case the facef**king squid parasites from Andromeda invade and start enslaving us in tentacle porn re-education camps. I only hope I live long enough to see Nickles "used" as a fluffer.
Peter Nickles reminds me of that guy in "Annie Hall." There's a flashback where Alvie Singer is a kid and stuck at a party talking with his father's friend, Joey Nichols, who's always bugging him. He's sticking nickles on his forehead, pointing at his nickle cufflinks and saying, "See? Nichols! See? Nichols! Yuh see, nickels! You can always remember my name! Just think of Joey Five Cents!" So Alvy walks away, muttering, "What an a$$hole."
Woah....First of all the Grahamstander who is now head of the WMATA board will never let Metro cut the late night weekend hours, so I think that's safe. But stopping weeknight service at 10 p.m.?! That's INSANE! I can't believe that's even a suggestion!
BTW, hopefully part of these administrative cost-cutting issues is eliminate the pay for WMATA Board members. They all have well paying full-time jobs and if they want to save the agency money, they could agree not to take the pay.
cutting back service will only lead to less revenue. this is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
it's fun to watch the united states quickly sink to less than third-world status. enjoy the ride, kids!
Okay, then. WMATA needs to raise ticket prices. I'm sure that will endear them to all the passengers.
They need to start closing underutilized stations after hours. Why does Federal Center SW need to be open on Saturday. What about Federal Triangle? Would it kill people to just walk to Metro Center? And you could probably cut crime on the Metro by 50% if you closed Largo Town Center.
I kid! I kid! I loves me some Gladys Knight Chicken and Waffles.
It wouldn't kill us to walk to metro center, it would kill the fat asses that use those stops for their yearly walk while they bring their diabetic kids to see the pretty rock buildings and the garbage filled lawn just like theirs.
fact is, they've raised prices many, many, many times, and ridership continues to increase.
people will bitch, moan, grumble, whatever about needing to pay more, but they'll still pay it. it gives folks a feeling of release, but in the end, they'll still take it.
That assumes that they aren't losing money during the hours that they want to cut. If indeed they are making money and still make a cut, then we are likely dealing with stupidity of dangerous and far-reaching consequence.
This is a critical error in discussions of transit operations.
You can't just say "Ridership falls off 10pm - 12pm, so let's cut it" without consequence. How many riders using the system from, say, 3-10pm are on their origin trip? Cut off their ride home, and then they won't get on in the first place. That borderline guy who might come home between 9-11pm, now he won't take the metro cause there's no guarantee of a ride home.
So the cut in service from 10-12pm results in a decline in ridership from 8-10pm, now that sector is "losing money" so let's cut that service, and so on, until all you're left with is semi-reliable rush-hour service and little else. (NB: transit never makes money)
Obviously this is all hypothetical to make a point, and the cut in service may very well be justified. The point is that you can't just treat any one block of time as being independent from the rest of the system.
Makes perfect sense. Let's encourage people who want to go out and get impaired to either a) pay exorbitant amounts to cabbies (who will undoubtedly charge a steep 'impaired passenger' surcharge, knowing that, in your current state impairment, you won't even question a $20 cab ride from Adams Morgan to Columbia Heights), or b) drive drunk, thereby generating more revenue for DC Gov't by way of DUI fines...never mind putting people's lives at risk. They're just collateral damage anyway...thinning the herd, right?
Yay progress!!!
10 pm is awfully early during the week. I don't go out a lot during the week but when I do i tend to head home at 10ish, not be home at 10. Also, what does closing entrances do to save money? Wouldn't just turning off the escalator do the same thing?
Closed entrances = One less station manager / station attendant in those booths to pay.
Metro WTF?
10PM is definitely too early on the weekdays. But I'm from Chicago, whose public transit organization pulls these kinds of threats all the time. They threaten to make massive cuts, all the while knowing that the real need is not nearly so severe, then negotiate for middle ground. So this WMATA threat doesn't scare me.
..the annual drunkfest that in 2007 saw 55 people sent to the hospital for a number of injuries..
I have no issue with booze at the Pimlico infield, but if you get injured watching a horse race you really should be 'put down' - just as the horses are. Fair is fair.
What I like about this article is that it makes me imagine that there are probably a bunch of prisoners at the PG County jail who are sitting in their cells being totally chill when they know all they need is a flat piece of plastic to make a break for it.
How many of those 55 injuries were related to Port-a-Potty races?
Was just thinking the same thing...I'd guess a majority of them were. And those people should be denied health care. Again, thinning the herd.
It's not "Port-a-Potty races," it's the running of the urinals and its as sacred a baltimore institution as the Ravens, blue crabs, or heroin. however, the thousands of drunken young men and women paying $3.50 a beer on the infield might just provide enough revenue to resurrect the horse racing industry in maryland.
Well, that and if they find a way to install temporary slot machines in the infield...
Maybe closing at 10 is good, since they're totally incompetent at running trains at that time anyway. e.g. I had a class that ended at 10, which meant a 15 minute wait for an orange line train, which meant when I finally got to L'Enfant, I had a 19 minute wait for the Green line, because apparently it would kill Metro to hold the Green line train a single minute to let people make a transfer. If Chicago and New York can schedule their trains so they hold long enough to make transfers, Metro, with their higher fares, can certainly do the same.
Point to mho. Missing a transfer in the late evening by 1 minute or less is one of the more asinine aspects of metrorail. Seems fixable to me.
THey've done a bang-up job on enforcing parking rules. CHeck out 15th between Q and T this Sunday.
Perhaps the 10pm closing is a scare tactic? I'd rather see it open an hour later in the morning weekdays... (or just close Capitol South and Smithsonian)
I know this won't add up to the full deficit, but how about turning off all the short escalators (so long as the elevator is working) or turning off 2 of the 4 Rosslyn escalators offpeak. Or, like others mentioned, closing some downtown stations (or at least some entrances) during offpeak.
maybe jack up the fare when using paper farecards too.
They'd save gas too and need fewer buses running if we actually had bus lanes on major corridors.
and, I know this won't pay off this year, but it will in the future.. get rid of the carpets. Rubber floors aren't that much more expensive and they last 5x longer and are probably a whole lot cheaper to clean.
How about they stop over-paying people to sit in a booth all day? Or at least that's what I tell myself when I see the booth attendants from the Rosslyn station come out to the street to wipe down their Cadillacs and Mercedes. Surely they can find people to be rude and indifferent to customers for half the cost.
This Phelps non-news, which is all too inescapable everywhere else in the media, is relevant to DCist . . . why? Because he grew up around here?
Attention WAMTA: Booze and Hookers! One car per train, dark windows, porn music, a bar, lots of 'lay down and get comfortable settees, big, big I tell 'ya money maker.
Think about it. Call me...