Former Blade Staffers Launch 'DC Agenda'
D.C. Insurance Dept. Denies Birth Control Coverage Meddling
Controversy Over Rhee Now to Include Sex, Congress
Report: CCDC Split From UDC Is "Critical To Success"
Same-Sex Marriage Foes Have Few Options on Hill
Good morning, Washington. Yesterday First Lady Michelle Obama was joined by students from Bancroft and Kimball elementary schools to harvest the White House's organic garden. (We're guessing the folks at NBC4 didn't really choose their words carefully when they wrote this headline: "First Lady Enlists Child Labor to Harvest Her Garden.") The nation's nutritionist-in-chief, who also was on hand to launch the White House Farmers Market a few weeks back, helped the kids pick squash, broccoli and carrots, all of which were donated to Miriam's Kitchen for meals for the homeless.
Rhee Faces Council's Wrath: D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee faced lines of angry questioning yesterday in a hearing before the D.C. Council that stretched over the course of the entire day. The majority of the hearing centered around Rhee's decision in early October to fire 266 teachers in order to close an approximately $40 million hole in the 2010 school budget. Members of the council wanted to know why Rhee didn't instead cut summer school operations when the city was forced to cut the school budget by $20.7 million in July. While arguments flew over Rhee's legal authority to fire the teachers, what was clear was that relations between the council and the school's highest official are strained. City Desk live-blogged the whole thing; the Post and the Examiner have good summaries on the hearing.
D.C. Civil War Memorial to Get Federal Funds: The Examiner is reporting that the District's African American Civil War Memorial located on U Street is set to receive $220,000 in federal funds for needed repairs. The money, requested by D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton through a spending bill for the Department of the Interior, will be used to repair broken lights and install additional railing to stop skateboarders from using the memorial.
Adams Morgan Park Remains Dust Bowl: What with the Ximena Hartsock controversy and the recent and possibly illegal funneling of $82 million through the D.C. Housing Authority for park-related projects, the District's Department of Parks and Recreation has gotten nothing but negative press in recent weeks. Today the Post brings some more, reporting on Walter C. Pierce Community Park in Adams Morgan and its dust bowl for a field. Apparently repeated mismanagement by the city has left what was meant to be a $200,000 urban oasis as an unusable eyesore.
Briefly Noted: Piglet Flu strikes region ... Permit granted for construction of MLK Memorial on Mall ... Not all religious leaders oppose D.C. same-sex marriage ... Tysons Corner improvements to cost $15 billion.
This Day in DCist: On this day in 2008 we interviewed Henry Rollins, while in 2007 we ran some of the most depressing images in DCist history. Be warned -- NSFW.
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8:16!
Go Martin!!!!
This is Barry Sotero's first of many steps to enslave our CHILDREN, put them into FORCED LABOR CAMPS, with all proceeds going to feed HOBOS. I hope you enjoy your organic salad, Boxcar Willie. IT WAS MADE WITH FRESH, DELICIOUS COMMUNISM.
And I just LUUURRV that $40 million "hole" in the school budget. Like they just woke up and discovered, uh oh! Where did this hole come from? And look! I have an $80 million "run" in my "stocking." Well, better go begging for a $40 milllion "patch" to cover this gaping "hole" in my "budget" before my "junk" starts hanging "out" and frightening the "children" "in quotes."
That is a very astute point-1) coming from you; and 2) coming from you at 8:41.
And I ain't gonna work on Barry's farm no more.
No, I ain't gonna work on Barry's farm no more.
Well, I wake in the morning,
Fold my hands and pray for rain.
I got a head full of ideas that are drivin me insane.
It's a shame the way he makes me scrub the poop off the floor.
I ain't gonna work on Barry's farm no more.
+1 if you are channeling Rage Against the Machine. -1 if you are channeling Dylan.
+2 if you're channeling The Specials
"Noooo!" Don't let "your" "crotch" get "cold"!!!!
"I" "imagine" that a "Monkey's" "crotch" is "warm" and "fuzzy" "."
Does your "junk" need a "punch", "Nick Cho"-style"?"
I know this makes me a bad person, but I always laugh at the alley crack saga pictures. This pretty much makes me Hitler, I know.
I know, it's almost like are doing a Live Action Role Play of one of Monkey's posts.
The real tragedy is that Martin Luther King didn't live long enough to see that part of his dream become a reality. If DC had any guts, they'd put this whole magnificent piece of performance art on the back of their quarter. You want the rest of the country to learn about the plight of disenfranchisement, right? Well, there you have it. No vote equals diaper guy trading crack for buttsecks. This is the canary in the coalmine, except the coalmine is full of crack and the canary is incontinent.
The most cost-effective solution to discouraging skateboarders at the Civil War Memorial would be to cover it with gravel and have Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra blaring from the loudspeakers. Skate rats who continue to soil the memorial with their presence would then be encouraged to contribute their labor to Barry Sotereo's Glorious Arbeit Macht Frei Organic Vegetable Farm and Re-education Kamp. In the unlikely event that they decline this fantastic offer, they will be fed to the hobos.
Arbeit Macht Frei = comment o' the day. I love tossing that one out to staff.
Work productivity DOUBLED once we replaced the "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here" banner with that little gem. Although some wags claim it was because we secretly replaced the regular coffee with Folgers Crystal Meth. Let's see if they notice the difference...
which they won't, unless the weave comes undone.
Skate punks who scar public spaces can join people who pump gas and dont pay, and people who murder hitchhikers in the "ruining it for everyone" club.
For those who don't glean the pattern:
If the morning roundup is posted by someone with a day job, it will appear before 9 am. If the morning roundup is posted by someone in their underwear, it goes up after 10 am. Positive reinforcement is unnecessary.
Which is why we sometimes resort to negative reinforcement.
Negative reinforcement at 10:01 AM in your dirty underwear.
You should get that stamped onto a business card, and bring it around to some networking events.
Unless being in your underwear is part of your day job. Liz??
Actually, that would be "out" of underwear, New.
I wouldn't bet that the NBC headline was unintentional. You see, you linked to their snarky website, which operates under the NBC4 brand but has the journalistic integrity of TMZ. Right now their top story is about photos that make politicians look gay.
And who the hell ok'd that font for "WASHINGTON" in their masthead...jeezus jiminy cricket
wait, who the hell lives in tysons? i thought it was like montana: talked about but far enough away that no one ever really goes there. i wonder if aliens lives there...
No, no - you've got it confused. Montana is real. Wyoming is the state that doesn't exist, and was possibly stolen by aliens.
OH ty for clarifying, i always confuse the two as everyone looks the same up in dere parts dere
I live in the District and work in Tysons. You wouldn't catch me dead out here otherwise though. The renovations will be warmly welcomed but the intermediate construction phase will be pure hell.
You're right, no one currently lives here, unless you count the fact that you have to spend a majority of your day in your car on Route 7 when you're trying to GTFO as "living" here. But they're trying to market these new Tysons condos to people who would really want to live in a shopping mall.