Results tagged “justicedepartment>”

Civil rights leaders like Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III and others are gathering with supporters on Freedom Plaza at 10 a.m. this morning to march to the Justice Department in a "March Against Hate Crimes." NBC4 says that organizers hope the march will bring attention to racism and recent hate crimes against African Americans that have been popping up around the country. The march was also designed to bring attention to the Jena...

Good morning, Washington. For the first time in almost 30 years, the Senate will take up a measure considering D.C. voting rights this afternoon, though as we explained yesterday, today's action is really just a vote to consider giving us the vote in the House, not the actual vote to give us the vote. Mayor Adrian Fenty, who will take public transportation all day today in honor of Car Free D.C. Day, announced he will...

The District has agreed to a detailed list of improvements for St. Elizabeths, the city's public psychiatric hospital, as part of a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department. Last year a Justice Department report found "widespread deficiencies" inside the Southeast facility, coming after a series of fatal incidents of patient-on-patient violence at the hospital. From the Post: Announced by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) yesterday morning at St. Elizabeths, the agreement calls for treatment to...

On Friday, Deborah Jeane Palfrey made her much-hyped prime time television debut on 20/20, chatting with Brian Ross about her D.C. escort business but saying her "gals" didn't engage in illegal activities. Ross was a bit incredulous that she actually believed no sex was taking place, but Palfrey quickly confirmed that said face was indeed straight, pointing to a contract her escorts signed saying they would be fired if any criminal activity took place. While...

Alleged john and original author of "shock and awe" Harlan Ullman recently stopped by Nathan's Q & A Cafe to chat about his new book, America's Promise Restored. Of course, Ullman's was the first "high-profile" client name released by 'D.C. Madam' Deborah Jeane Palfrey, former provider of, in her words, legal sexual and erotic services, or in prosecutors' words, prostitutes. In the clip, Ullman says he was distressed by the release of his name,...

If your fellow employees were able to reap the benefits of July 4th being on a Tuesday and took July 3rd off -- and even added today for good measure -- chances are your workplace will be a veritable ghost town. So much the better, right? There's World Cup soccer to be watched. Pharmacies Oppose D.C. Cold Medicine Law: Kids getting high off of Sudafed? Basement drug producers using cold medication to make meth? It's...

It was a great week to be outside, and one happy side effect of all that mixing and mingling was a great collection of quotes flowing into the Overheard inbox. In addition to the usual tourist confusion, we have a few locals who seem to lack the self-awareness gene as well. And that? Makes our cold hearts happy. Let us know what you've overheard at overheardindc (at) gmail (dot) com. Quote of the Week Exiting...

A third weekend of beautiful weather may be to much too ask this spring, so be prepared for rain and chillier weather in the days to come. This photo is of the Q Street escalators at the Dupont Circle metrorail station, taken by BrownPau and posted on DCist Photos.

We seem to be living in a city of hazardous threats. And in case you were distracted, the hazardous materials trains that has riled the District Council will most likely be getting a free pass to travel through the city. The Surface Transportation Board, a federal regulatory board under the authority of the Department of Transportation, decided yesterday that attempts by D.C. officials to limit the transport of hazardous materials within two miles of the...

(Review and interview by DCist special contributor Peter Denton) Image from carteldc.com Too many trips to 9:30 Club and Black Cat to catch the latest indie sensation really start to wear us down. It’s always refreshing to head to a smaller venue and see some hard-working local bands with their egos firmly in check. So this past Saturday we ventured into the cookie-cutter community of Clarendon to find much-buzzed-about locals Cartel headlining at Iota. With...

Good morning. We're waiting for snow, but looking out our window, nothing has accumulated. Apparently, the humidity isn't high enough for the snow to reach the ground, but that will probably change. So radars have said snow has been falling for hours, but it magically never materializes. Check out Capital Weather for more details. Please be aware that a snow emergency will go into effect in the District at 9:30 a.m., so if you're parked...

As DCSOB points out, the Justice Department has told Rep. Ernest Istook that it won't proceed further to defend the Oklahoma Republican's appropriations rider that punished WMATA or other transit agencies for accepting any advertisement that promotes the medical use of marijuana. (The ad that angered Istook is the one pictured at right from changetheclimate.org.) Justice says that since a federal court has ruled that Istook's measure was unconstitutional, its hands are essentially tied. While...

This week, the big story for political minded DCers is Inauguration. Now that the big event is days away, the complaints of those who think the massive party is in poor taste with regard to the recent tsunami tragedy and the gripes of local commentators that Washington's getting stuck with a massively unfair chunk of the bill have started to fade from the newspapers, soon to replaced by those who ask more immediate questions: Can...

We missed this tidbit, but boingboing, via selfaudit via Reuters, points us in the direction of news of a federal raid earlier this month on three Pandora's Cube stores in the suburbs where the stores were selling -- in plain view mind you -- Xbox videogame consoles that had been modified to use pirated software. DCist can safely say that this is a stupid move, not only to jerry-rig an Xbox to play unauthorized software,...

A little-reported story about the U.S. Government's actions coordinating torture in foreign countries in order to obtain intelligence has turned out to contain a local twist.

Martha Begins Prison Sentence: According to a Justice Department press release forwarded to DCist, Martha Stewart arrived at the federal prison at Alderson, W.Va., at 6:15 a.m. Stewart was sentenced in the Southern District of New York to a term of 5 months imprisonment for Obstruction of Justice, False Statements; and for Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice, make False Statements, and Commit Perjury. Additionally, she was sentenced to a two-year term of supervised release, five months...