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
You can almost hear it, can't you? Mayor Adrian Fenty, doing his best impression of Superintendent Chalmers from The Simpsons, yelling from his office, "Skinner!" Once again there's news -- and it's not good news -- involving Fenty's fraternity brother and longtime political associate Sinclair Skinner. The Examiner is reporting that four members of the D.C. Council, potentially egged on by an angry Vincent Gray, are probing construction management contracts worth tens of millions of dollars that were handed out by Fenty without the necessary legislative oversight. (The Post also has details.) The contracts, worth $82 million, were given to firms with links to Skinner, who has become an all-purpose scandal-in-a-box for the mayor, and other Fenty friends.
Let the Intra-Party Fighting Begin: It's not even election time and already Democrats are starting to lay blame for the Creigh Deeds' faltering campaign for Virginia's highest office. According to the Post, senior Obama officials are pointing the finger squarely at Deeds, arguing that he wasn't quick enough to embrace the popular president and that he focused his attentions on attacking opponent Robert McDonnell more than laying out his own vision for the commonwealth. The officials are trying to distance any potential loss from Obama, fearing that it could signal a loss of influence in local races.
Pastors Take Opposition to Same-Sex Marriage to Gray: The Examiner reports that 16 pastors, including Bishop Harry Jackson, met with D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray in order to express their opposition to same-sex marriage in the District. The pastors urged Gray to allow a referendum on the issue and promised to work with Congress to overturn any legislation that passes the council. Said Rev. Anthony Evans: "According to my faith, I am to use the full force of my being to oppose this legislation and those who run for higher office in support of it. We will do this, but we'll do it in love." Of course! They love gay District residents so much that they have to do whatever it takes to stop them -- lovingly, duh -- from entering into a legal contract based on, well, love. Obviously.
Dulles People Movers Will Never Die: We were so close to being rid of those horrible people movers at Dulles, but it looks like we might have to wait a little longer. The Post reports that the train meant to replace the aging people movers -- those awkward oversized vans -- to shuttle passengers from terminal to terminal has failed a reliability test for a second time. The trains were supposed to be put into use in December.
Briefly Noted: Metro's brakes catch on fire ... Schools want more money for healthy lunches ... City begins investigation of Adams Morgan bar after patron death ... Meet the man behind the District's Wikipedia entry.
This Day in DCist: On this day in 2008 we anxiously awaited the city's newest Metro buses and followed a hotly contested race for an At-Large seat on the D.C. Council. In 2007, we found one more reason to not go swimming in the Anacostia River -- raw sewage.
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Banneker Ventures, a firm owned by a Fenty fraternity brother, Omar Karim, is the construction manager on every project, according to a list of the projects compiled by the council. The general contractor on two of the projects is RBK Landscaping and Construction, which is owned by Keith Lomax, a friend of Fenty's who drew attention this year for illegally driving the mayor's city-owned sport-utility vehicle.
Game over, man. I am SO looking forward to seeing how Fenty's going to stonewall this Housing Authority scandal. Perhaps he can spin it that he's just so profoundly retarded, he was unaware of that his fratboy friends and chauffeurs were blowing $82 mil on baseball fields. Or maybe he can do some photo ops with Habitat For Humanity and build some stone walls.He should take his cue from Roman Polanski and just leave the country altogether. Maybe he can dress Peter Nickles as a 13-year-old model and take him along as well.
And it's nice to see Washington Post scoop the City Paper once every few decades. Not enough to make my parrot want to defecate on the Post, but it's enough to renew my faith in that pinko agitprop rag to do some decent local coverage.
Harry Thomas oversees Parks and Recs for the Council and, as everybody who is anybody knows, is in the pocket of organized labor.
My guess is that running the contracts through Housing was a way to ensure that Thomas and labor didn't interfere or screw up the budget/timeline. This makes good sense if you look at the history of school and parks (really any) municipal construction.
WTF? The churchies are against Sam-sex marriages now? I know Sam. I've worked with Sam. And Sam deserves every right to marry Dave and make beautiful music together, like "Wrap it Up" and "Soul Man."
Ha. Oops. Change made. Early morning Morning Roundup FAIL.
Martin, I will gladly take the occasional typo for a 8:06 roundup. Nice!
Naked morning coffee and roundup typo ... now that's what I live for!
9 f'ing months to start the investigation??? How the hell are Brisco and Curtis going to find anything?
Is anyone looking into the possibility that the owner of Adams Mill Bar being ex-MPD, and still tight with a lot of officers, may have had anything to do with the delay?
I am shocked! Shocked you would make such a suggestion. Next you will tell me is that a guy making coffee naked was railroaded because the wife of a Fairfax cop spied his junk while trespassing on his property.
That was hands down the best local news story I've ever seen.
I really hope that guy sues that pathetic bitch and anyone else involved.
Was getting my hair cut at the time. The guy next to me said he was a developer for new condos at 15th and P and he said the huge windows can be seen through even with blinds pulled. Apparently neighbors are lining up for the show on a regular basis.
When are DC's gays gonna urge Gray to allow a referendum to revoke the churches' tax exempt status? Because at some point, this stopped being about freedom of religion and started being about fake-ass carpetbagger "bishop" political advocacy for discriminatory legislation. And since every tax dollar a DC gay sends to the Treasury is a dollar that DC churchies DON'T send, the gays are pretty much subsidizing this form of deviant political practice. Now, I have no problem if your "invisible friend" says that sodomy is wicked or that you have to eat his flesh and drink his blood to be reborn into new worlds where his flesh is your key. But I don't think that sort of behavior should be encouraged, let alone subsidized at the taxpayers' expense. And speaking as a former ANC staff volunteer, I'm something of an authority on the political and financial repercussions of zombieism, cannibalism, vampirism, ritual necorphilia, and the tax code.
Not just the gays, all of us. I'm so sick of those hypocrites spreading so much hate in my town. Let 'em pay taxes and follow the same rules as other lobbyists.
Amen, my sweet simian brother. It irks me doubly bad since it's my limp-wristed gay-ass dollars subsidizing these suburban bigots every time they descend on my city and suck up city services for free. Plus, the double parking thing.
Assuming any of those pastors actually have congregations in the District, the time has come to enforce parking regulations outside their churches on Sunday.
Enforce them with love, of course.
fuck yeah, enforce them with love! i have a loving hammer and a loving blow-torch and the finest, lovingest tire-slashing blade you can imagine ready to do their shiny, happy best to these cars.
with love.
Now there's no need to get violent. You just need to insert a pebble between the air valve and the valve cap on their tires so that it gradually goes flat over a few hours, hopefully somewhere in the middle of PG County.
With love.
I hope they put the movers on eBay - I'm buying one. When traffic gets back I can elevate to see what the problem is; I can drop people off at the side of the highway near the Metro stops. I'll trick it out as a rolling lounge. I love those things.
and promised to work with Congress to overturn any legislation that passes the council
Smart move, because threatening to go to Congress is always the way to get the DC Council to just roll over and play dead on an issue. Not that the Council ever gets its back up when Congress meddles in, er, oversees local DC affairs. Keep up the good work, gents, it's so much easier when you shoot yourself in the foot without any help from anyone else.
Can we please send Fenty, Skinner, and the rest of his cronies on a permanent vacation to Siberia or someplace like that? Shit, I don't even mind if the city pays for it.
The problem with booting the disappointing Fenty is what do we get in return? There's a very good chance whoever runs against him will return DC to the race-baiting failed social policies and 'employment for life even if you don't show up' DC government of past administrations.