Results tagged “government”

Despite the weather, it's been quite the unpleasant weekend for local organizations in the wake of Mayor Fenty's newest 2010 budget revision, released late on Friday. Fenty cut approximately $12 million in earmarks for community nonprofits in this version, leaving the budget with a total of $8.3 million in grants for nonprofits -- a significant decrease from the $47 million that was handed out last year.

The Examiner went with a story this morning about how the FCC is worried that too many people in the D.C. metro area still haven't heard about the digital TV converter box program. Seems a little tough to swallow at first, considering the sheer amount of promotion it has already received compared to virtually any other government program. But the FCC is especially concerned about seniors, people with disabilities, minorities, the very poor and non-English speakers, which makes a bit more sense.

D.C. Wire reports that D.C. Department of Transportation Director Emeka Moneme is leaving for a job with Metro. Moneme will become chief administrative officer of human resources, information technology and planning and development for WMATA General Manager John Catoe. Mayor Adrian Fenty has named Frank Seales Jr., general counsel for the D.C. Department of Transportation, as interim director of the agency.

Spotted in One Judiciary Square: The Fenty administration's "final solution" for weeding out corrupt and inept city employees? At least only D.C. government employees who work on Saturdays are slated for "extermination" this time.

Mayor Adrian Fenty is going to make an official announcement next week that the Mayor's Citywide Call Center, currently 727-1000, will change its number to 311.

Did you know that D.C. has an Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs? I certainly didn't, and the Office's annual report indicated that it has more work to do to raise awareness of its existence. After surveys administered online, at DC Black Pride and Capital Pride, the office found that respondents rated the agency an average of 3.3 points on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being least aware of the office and 5 being most aware.

The District of Columbia Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) has launched a redesigned web site today in the hopes that it will help D.C. residents better prepare for emergencies. The site, called 72hours.dc.gov, lists emergency resource information by topic, much like the previous Emergency Information Center web site, and offers four relatively simple steps the city hopes each of us will take now, before an actual emergency happens. The steps are 1) Get informed (through the new web site), 2) Make a Plan, 3) Make an Emergency "Go" Kit and 4) Be aware (!).

As we mentioned at the end of the day yesterday, Acting D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles has fired Alan Morrison, the lawyer who had been preparing to defend the District's handgun ban before the Supreme Court in March. The timing of this move leads to all manner of questions about how seriously the Fenty administration actually takes this Supreme Court case, and whether the Mayor and the Acting AG are capable of putting important legal proceedings above personal disagreements.

Traditionally Christmas decorations stay up through New Year's Day, which means today is the official start of the "chucking your dried-up tree onto the sidewalk without regard for your neighbors or trash collection schedule" season. Allow DCist to help point you in the proper direction for Christmas tree disposal.

The 911 phone call placed by At-large Council member David Catania last week -- the one during which he claims he received "badgering treatment," but the 911 office said he was frantic and unintelligible -- has been released by WTOP.

WTOP's Mark Segraves got a hold of a partial list of the folks who've been receiving tickets to use the city's free luxury box in the Verizon Center -- the one that the D.C. Council is so miffed they're being boxed out of -- and there's some fun tidbits he discovered.

Most of those invited to D.C.'s Luxury Suite at the Verizon Center by Fenty either contributed the maximum $2,000 to Fenty's campaign or worked on the campaign. The rest of the tickets, with only a few exceptions, went to friends, family and the mayor's senior staffers of the mayor.

Hilda Mason, 91, who served more than 20 years on the D.C. Council, died yesterday at Washington Hospital Center.

Big news from the Washington Post: D.C. Attorney General Linda Singer has resigned after less than a year on the job.

If you think the Montgomery County 911 system has problems, D.C.'s 911 office isn't likely going to be having an easy time of it this week either. On Saturday the Examiner ran a small story about how D.C. Council member David Catania (I-At large) had to make a 911 call early Friday morning and says he received "textbook badgering treatment" from the operator.

The thinly veiled sexism oozing out of today's Examiner column by veteran local politics observer Harry Jaffe is hard enough to take, but to whomever thought up this gem of a headline, be they copy editor or author, DCist salutes your willingness to go boldly where no human beings in the 21st century were thought to be capable of going anymore. Yes, if the recent Office of Tax and Revenue scandal has taught us...

Good morning, Washington. Getting going on a Monday is normally difficult enough, but we were having a few technological difficulties this morning as well, so thanks for your patience and bear with this truncated Morning Roundup while we get up to speed. Tax Scandal Triggers Reviews in Counties: Neighboring jurisdictions are apparently taking D.C.'s tax office scandal to heart and initiating big reviews of their agencies. Property tax revenues are slated to be scrutinized in...

Christmas Eve falls on a Monday this year, so President Bush has ordered the federal government to close on Dec. 24., giving most federal employees an extra long weekend for the holiday. Many feds may be left out of the sweet deal, though: Bush's executive order states that department heads may order some employees to report to work on Dec. 24 "for reasons of national security or defense or other public need." Plus pretty much...

>> A non-rolling tennis ball catches a lot of parking tickets on Cliffbourne Place. [Marc Fisher] >> D.C. police are trying to identify a body found in the Tidal Basin. [NBC4] >> "A DC Team is in the Super Bowl again. The Beacon House Falcons are in Pop Warner Football’s Pee Wee Division Super Bowl on Saturday, December 8th at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex." [Notions Capital] >> The District government expects to...

Remember those billboards that popped up in the 1980s that counted up the national debt, dollar by dollar? Pretty scary, huh? Well, District voting rights activists want something similar for their cause. Today the D.C. Council held a hearing on legislation that would allow the city to place two large LED billboards -- one outside the John A. Wilson Building and the other outside the new Washington Nationals stadium -- that would display the amount...

Everyone knows that JFK once described the District as a city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency, but the same could be said about our winter weather contrasted with the complete incompetence of those who try to drive in its result or clear it from the roads. Beet juice or not, there's ice on the roads and sidewalks. Walk and drive with caution. Torture Doesn't Work: Guess what? Punishing Virginians with large fees – between...

Now that the gloves have come off in the relationship between the D.C. Council and Mayor Adrian Fenty, it's apparently time for more of their amusingly petty disagreements to become public. The Post has a hilarious story in today's District Extra about a brewing battle over exactly how the city's allotment of free Wizards tickets will be distributed. Turns out last week the mayor's office slyly attempted to pick up all 24 tickets for the...

It is truly the most wonderful time of year — for caterers, that is. D.C. knows how to feast. Between all the holiday/non-denominational/winter solstice parties for every single nonprofit/government/lobby/press room in town and our own personal holiday events, the humble art of bringing a homemade dish to any event has fallen by the wayside. Personally, I’ll be bringing a dozen Krispy Kreme jelly doughnuts to a Hanukkah party this weekend. On the other hand, there...

Are you ready, D.C.?! That's right: it's the first snowfall of the season. We talked about it yesterday, and the outlook remains pretty much the same. Both Capital Weather and our local TV weatherpeople agree that we'll get about an inch of unusually fluffy snow, with most of it falling by early afternoon. City Starts Looking For More Theft: Watch out, D.C. government ne'er-do-wells: Dan Tangherlini is on your trail. NBC4 reports that the...

You may have heard by now of the scandal brewing in the Capitol Café (the small eatery in the basement of the Capitol building). If not, here's the skinny: Indiana Congressman Mark Souder (R) allegedly wanted a toasted turkey sandwich real bad; Café worker Kennison Battle (known as Mohammed) allegedly gets to work on sandwich but makes fatal error of grilling aforementioned sandwich; Souder allegedly tries to correct Battle, who allegedly attempts to set it...

"It pissed me off." That is how R.E.M.'s Mike Mills described his reaction to seeing firsthand the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina and the stagnated recovery effort since. Though his band has a history of political involvement, Mills himself has shied away from activism until now. Having seen the suffering of New Orleanians in the aftermath of Katrina, he declared, "No one can appreciate the destruction without seeing it and I was very aware that...

Fall leaves have lingered on trees much later than normal this year, leading to slippery conditions all over the city. Metro once again had to place speed restrictions on all trains passing through above-ground stations over the weekend, and we spotted more than a few people stepping carefully through wet and leaf-covered sidewalks this morning after last night's storm. Seems like a good time to remind everyone how fall leaf collection works in the District....

If you're down on the National Mall this weekend and see, oh, 12,000 flags stuck in the ground, don't be alarmed. The Federal Government hasn't started an experimental flag farm, nor is the display an effort of the area's squirrels to show their patriotism. The flags have been planted to represent the 12,000 members of the United States military who have been discharged under the practice of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The policy, which governs...

December 1 is World AIDS Day, and several vigils and protests are planned in D.C. today and through the weekend to mark the occasion. In the wake of the recent report by the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration calling the HIV infection rate in the city "a modern epidemic," over 40 protesters are planning to drape themselves in red tape and stage a sit-in on the White House sidewalk by Lafayette Square at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon....

A happy Friday to you, Washington. Hopefully you all made it in to work on time despite Metro having reduced the speed of their rail cars in several areas this morning. Speed restrictions were in place until 8:10 a.m. along portions of the Orange line in Maryland and Virginia, the Red line from Union Station to Silver Spring and from Shady Grove to Grosvenor, and the Green line from Branch Avenue to Congress Heights...

Good morning, Washington. The pernicious effects of this year's drought could continue to haunt the region during next year's holiday season, according to WTOP. Turns out that young Christmas trees and seedlings being grown in Maryland and Virginia were especially affected by the lack of rainfall, meaning that thousands of area children could suffer the indignity of having to make due with a sub-par decorative plant with which to entice entice Santa to leave them...