Results tagged “deleleanorholmesnorton”

In case it wasn't clear in Martin's earlier post, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton did in fact introduce the D.C. Voting Rights Bill in the House earlier today, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah introduced the same legislation in the Senate. The AP has a brief report about the action, and over at City Desk, editor Erik Wemple is doing the hero's work of live-blogging the Senate proceedings via C-SPAN 2. No senator has bothered to come forward to say anything about the voting rights bill so far (since it was introduced by Sen. Lieberman -- you can download his full remarks here), but Robert Byrd did read a lengthy, rambling statement about the history of the U.S. Senate. Opening day Senate proceedings are something of hoot, aren't they?

One of the things no one has really brought up yet in terms of the massive crowd estimates being bandied about for Barack Obama's inauguration is that the date of the presidential inauguration is more often than not one of the coldest days of the year in Washington. Well the Washington Business Journal reported today that Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton is asking the federal and local government as well as private and nonprofit organizations to open up more buildings to house crowds on Jan. 20, a step that would become vital if temperatures are extremely low that day. The article tiptoes around it, but Norton is also clearly largely concerned that there could be 4 million people walking through the District with no place to pee.

WTOP has a copy of a letter the D.C. Council sent to President-Elect Obama, urging him to place the District's "Taxation Without Representation" license plates on his presidential limousine. No big shock that the Council would push for the pro-D.C. voting rights symbol, but is it somewhat surprising that both Mayor Adrian Fenty and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton have said they will not press the issue with Obama?

“Any website or ticket broker claiming that they have inaugural tickets is simply not telling the truth,” said Howard Gantman, Staff Director for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. “Tickets for the swearing-in of President-elect are all provided through members of Congress, and the President-elect and Vice President-elect through the Presidential Inaugural Committee. We urge the public to view any offers of tickets for sale with great skepticism.”This morning D.C. Wire reported that D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton's office has already fielded 1,000 phone calls from constituents looking for inauguration tickets, but that Norton has no idea how many tickets she'll actually get. Given that we only have the one delegate and no senators, sounds like it's possible D.C. residents could end up getting the shaft as far as how many tickets are allotted to us versus the similarly-sized states - though we won't know that for sure until the tickets are sent out in January. In the meantime, you can try calling Norton's office and ask to be put on a waiting list, or else find someone who lives in a congressional district to put in a request to their representative for you and then arrange for them to be here to pick up the ticket in person, with ID.

To follow up with those of you who reacted strongly to our photo gallery yesterday of the abandoned St. Elizabeths West Campus and the plans that are in the works to relocate the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard there, Mayor Adrian Fenty and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton held an impromptu press conference this morning to unveil the city's plans for its share of the nearly 200 acres of land in Southeast Washington, D.C. Wire reports.

In the ongoing saga of Union Station's confusion over their own photography rules, we have an update for you: nothing has happened. Last month, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Managment of the U.S. House of Representatives, held a hearing regarding those rules, listening to both reps from Union Station and photographer Erin McCann. During the hearing, Del. Norton soundly admonished Union Station managers handling of the situation as "pathetic."