Results tagged “internationalmonetaryfund”

The annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund begin on Friday, and the city will see a number of changes in traffic patterns and road closures this weekend as a result. Here's what you should plan around: Streets closed to vehicles: Beginning at 8 p.m. on Friday, October 19, until 2 a.m. on Sunday, October 21 * Pennsylvania Avenue, NW between 17th Street and 20th Street, NW * 19th Street, NW...

>> A federal administrative appeals court has struck down the District's drug-pricing control law, saying it violates federal patent law. The ruling is considered a major win for the pharmaceutical industry. [WaPo] >> The city has agreed on a settlement of $1 million to about 120 protesters who were improperly detained by police during demonstrations in D.C. against the invasion of Iraq, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 2002. [AP via...

It was in April 2000 that tens of thousands of anti-globalization protestors marched the streets of the District, protesting the secretive meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and the policies that emerged from them. Police presence was heavy, given a nervous sense that Washington could go the route of Seattle, which just months prior had been the scene of an epic battle between protestors and police that had provoked an imposition of...

DCist is excited to welcome back our founding editor, Michael Grass, who comes to us this Sunday with a special Opinionist. One of the most frustrating things about living in Washington, D.C., for me is walking along Eye Street up and around the corner from the International Monetary Fund. Between 20th and 21st streets NW sits Kinkead’s, one of the city’s long-standing respected restaurants. Kinkead’s sits in the house where my late grandfather and my...

As you may be well aware, protesters are descending on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund campus near the White House this weekend to protest the meetings of the Group of Seven. According to Reuters, economic officials are focusing on two things: high oil prices (and how they may be here for the long-run) and China's stubbornness to revalue the yuan. And U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow is expected to be pressured "to cut the U.S. budget deficit and lift household savings."

Good Morning, Washington. Throughout the day, we'll have complete coverage of all the Nationals opening day action from inside and outside RFK. So stay tuned. In the meantime, the weather will be spring-like, says Capital Weather. With "[c]risp, clear nights and mild, sunny afternoons ... [t]hese are the qualities that give spring a wonderful reputation." So enjoy the slowly warming weather, which is pretty much perfect for some rowing on the Potomac, as pictured in...

In more protest news, seven of the 400+ protesters unlawfully arrested in Pershing Park during the September 2002 protests against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank reached a settlement with the District of Columbia today in federal court. The seven plantiffs, including Adam Eidinger, his wife Alexis Baden-Mayer and her father Joe Mayer, will receive $48,000 each and a letter of apology from Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Charles Ramsey. (The photo is...

Terror Threat Lowered: We aren’t in an orange mood any more. The Department of Homeland Security has lowered the terror threat to financial institutions in Washington, New York and northern New Jersey. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the terror threat has gone away, the Department of Homeland Security reminds us. That move has let the Capitol Police to dismantle security checkpoints on roadways leading to Capitol Hill. Also, the AP, via WTOP, reports that...

The annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have drawn once again protestors opposed to radical neoliberal economic globalization to D.C.

With a good number of Republicans in New York this week for the GOP convention and nothing of political consequence going on around D.C., there are eight days left of official Washington's summer season. After Labor Day, national politics will dominate town and the city will be abuzz with campaign chatter and election speculation. Minds will ponder how the social and professional landscape of the city could change with a Kerry presidency, a Bush second-term, a Democratic-controlled Congress, a GOP-controlled Congress. So many possibilities just waiting to be played out. In the meantime, this week, be sure to tune into Gothamist for all the latest on-the-street action in Manhattan.

Counterterrorism security efforts on Capitol Hill have been taken up a notch with Senate leaders along with the Capitol Police agreeing that closing First Street between the Russell and Dirksen Senate office buildings "indefinitely" is a smart move, Roll Call and the Post report. City leaders are livid, with the mayor's spokesman saying: "This is not Beirut." Mayor Anthony Williams told the Post the "nervous nellies in Congress" are overreacting.

The Metropolitan Police Department has announced they've activated a network of cameras installed around the World Bank and International Monetary Fund buildings in downtown D.C. The police explain:

"CCTV cameras are activated only during major events in the District or during periods of heightened alert for terrorism. CCTV camera feeds are displayed in the MPDC’s Synchronized Operations Command Complex, a secure facility located on the 5th Floor of police headquarters. The MPDC’s use of CCTV includes a number of safeguards designed to protect personal privacy rights.

The Washington Post is reporting that the District seems to have taken the increased security alert in stride, with the increased searches of vehicles and police presence not significantly changing normal routines.

The Post is reporting today that although officials are not planning to close any streets, security personnel will be "more aggressive" searching vehicles coming near the IMF and World Bank for explosives. 17th Street, between Farragut Square and Constitution Avenue (adjacent to the White House's Old and New Executive Office Buildings), is already shut down to all trucks. Although we understand their motivations, DCist is a little concerned by Mayor Anthony Williams and Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey's suggestion D.C. citizens notify the authorities if they spot "strangers photographing possible targets" and "people or vehicles making unusual movements." We wonder when the last time was they took a stroll around the monuments in August.