Results tagged “kathypatterson”

Chances are, if you live in or near the city and are not fantastically wealthy, you probably have roommates. Maybe you live with friends, maybe with some folks you randomly found on craigslist and barely talk to, but sharing your living space with other people is a fact of life for most people under 30 in D.C. And in this kind of heat, any sort of odd personal odors emanating from your roommates' bedrooms might...

Ramsey's Legacy Pondered: The Post has a front page story this morning mulling over exactly how outgoing Police Chief Ramsey will be remembered as he leaves his post. Often criticized for emphasizing public relations and merely reacting to crime issues instead of thinking ahead, but undeniably praised for bringing order to a corrupt department and out-of-control crime situation, council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3) probably assessed Ramsey's overall performance most accurately: "very mixed." Ford's...

Boy howdy, yesterday sure was quite the hootinany over at the D.C. Council, as members scrambled to push their pet bills through before this year's session finally, finally comes to a close. Here's a quick rundown of what went on, gleaned from the WaPo and Examiner: >> We told you this was in the works before, but the council finally did pass a nice pay raise for themselves and incoming Mayor Adrian Fenty. From the...

UPDATE: We've now gotten word from intrepid boy reporter Kriston Capps that the D.C. Council's Committee on Education, Libraries and Recreation voted to table Bill 16-734, in a motion brought by At-Large Councilmember Carol Schwartz, which carried 3 to 2 with Marion Barry, Schwartz and surprise vote Vincent Gray against Kathy Patterson and Phil Mendelson. What does this mean for the future of Williams' library plan? Hard to say. Tabling a bill is usually a...

You know, we have a lot of fun here at DCist, but we like to think that occasionally we serve to educate as well. It's a daunting task — there's a lot of material relevant to D.C. residents that we could cover, from how to get your car inspected to who's got the best burger to which bars have the heaviest intern infestations. But of all the lessons we could impart, perhaps the most important...

Call it good luck -- outgoing Ward 3 council-member Kathy Patterson might have a second shot after being defeated by colleague Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7) in the race for council chair. The Examiner is reporting today that among many of the personnel changes that are expected in the coming mayoral administration of Adrian Fenty, Patterson might be taking over as deputy mayor for public safety and justice. If we couldn't have her on the council,...

What a night, eh Washington? If you're like us, you were up late listening to Kojo and Jonetta break down the election results as they came in on WAMU. Our favorite moment of the evening came just before 10 p.m., when Mayor Williams told co-host Jonetta Rose Barras she was crazy to suggest that anyone believed he had waited too long to decide if he would seek a third term. For the record Jonetta —...

We've followed the candidates for the last 16 months, and today is the day everything will be decided. We opted not to endorse any candidates, but we are going to put our betting skills to work and pick the winners for the D.C. races. Mayor: Love him or hate him, Adrian Fenty is taking this contest. Not only has he led competitor Linda Cropp in the polls since late July, his recent endorsement by the...

Everyone else has taken their shot, so why not the City Paper? Today the weekly's local politics column, Loose Lips, threw its support behind a number of candidates for next week's D.C. primaries. But more surprising than the picks was the biting tone in which they were delivered -- this is no Post endorsement, they seemed to remind us. Columnist James Jones sided solidly with candidates that bucked the establishment and railed against those beholden...

Good morning, Washington. And what a good morning it is. It's the first day of meteorological autumn, the brutal D.C. summer finally behind us. And is it just us, or was it cool enough last night to very nearly feel "chilly"? So breathe deep the cool, non-swampy air, and maybe skip out of work a little early on this long Labor Day weekend to enjoy the...um...torrential rains. CapitalWeather reports that Tropical Storm Ernesto, which made...

Good morning, Washington. In case last week's single-tracking of the Blue Line wasn't enough, it looks like there will be more Metrorail delays this weekend. WMATA's website tells us that Red, Blue and Green Line riders should expect delays starting Friday night and going through Sunday at midnight. Though it's a pain for those of us still in town, better they do this when most folks are out of the District as opposed to, say,...

Brown Not Out: Well, we're a little red-faced today. Yesterday we guessed that mayoral longshot Michael Brown was bowing out of the race. He did, after all, send us an email in which he announced that a press conference held yesterday would include "major announcement regarding his plans for the future." Coupled with his fast-shrinking campaign finance account, we thought, "This guy is toast." How wrong we were. Brown didn't duck out of the race....

Maryland Lt. Governor and candidate for the U.S. Senate Michael Steele must be red in the face these days -- after calling an association with the Republican Party and President George W. Bush "a scarlet letter" in an anonymous interview with the Post's Dana Milbank, Steele is now trying to limit the damage of his surprisingly honest comments. "I'm not trying to dis the president," he was quoted as saying by the Washington Times....

The Washington region seems to be getting its fair share of odd-ball bank robbers these days. Just a few months ago we had the cell phone bandit, who would calmly chat away on her phone as she held up area banks. And now, according to WJLA, we have a woman that uses wigs and other accessories -- the "Wig Lady" -- to impersonate bank customers and liberate them from the funds. To really make this...

We've seen this coming for some time, but it seems that Dan Tangherlini is finally going to get serious about getting rid of Metro's cushions and carpet. The Post notes, this morning, that vinyl floors will be tested this summer, but only in one pair of cars. Lots of interesting asides in the piece; I was not aware that the cushion and carpet "luxuries" were added to draw suburbanites out of their cars (thank goodness...

Today's Opinionist comes to DCist from local art blogger Kriston Capps. For all this time, D.C. Mayor Williams has billed himself as a supporter of big boxes in the District. During yesterday’s town hall meeting to discuss the fate of the city’s public library system, the Mayor revealed himself to be no friend to our most notorious big box—the Mies Van der Rohe-designed Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. And he made no new friends...

There's no question that something needs to be done with the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, which, after 30 years of neglect and mismanagement, is in about as good a shape as a D.C. group house populated solely by young men in their first two years out of college. The carpet is threadbare, nothing works like it's supposed to, and it's really a pretty depressing place to read. Not exactly qualities you hope for...

When you're facing six opponents for a local political race, getting attention and the necessary funds can be a bit of an uphill battle. What better way to overcome such a climb than with political gimmickry?

When is a race for elected office too crowded? If you live in Ward 3, never.

The debate now seems to be settled -- Maryland has the worst drivers out there. According to the Washington Times, last month alone Marylanders were responsible for 64 percent of the traffic violations caught on the District's traffic cameras, while D.C. residents accounted for 20 percent, Virginia 9 percent and all other states 7 percent. Of course, we are just kidding that this number may say something about Maryland's drivers. Some of them seem...

It's official -- winter is over. Today is the Vernal Equinox, the day that daytime and nighttime are of equal length. But Mother Nature isn't one to make things easy on us. Our friends at Capital Weather are reporting that tomorrow might be particularly winter-like -- the temperature won't break 40, and we may even get some snow. So, enjoy today's mild weather as long as you can. Man Killed at Shaw Metro Station:...

DCist has learned from a reliable source that Council-member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) will seek re-election to his current seat, ending months of speculation as to whether he would challenge Council-member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3) for the council's top spot. Council-member Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7) will challenge Patterson, though, a decision he is set to announce on Friday during an appearance on WTOP. Gray's decision has long been expected, but will no doubt present itself...

Just a heads up, people -- over the next few days, you'll be hearing a lot about money. Today was the first of multiple deadlines for the many candidates running for public office in the District to publicize their fundraising totals and account for their campaign-related expenses. Essentially, it's the first chance they'll get to intimidate their opponents with the size of their war chests or, conversely, blithely claim that money isn't all that matter...

Six months on, and we're still not calling him Tai Shan. He's Butterstick, and he basked in even more attention than usual yesterday as he turned six months old. A hefty 27 pounds and boasting a newly-blackened nose, Butterstick has been all the rage in the District as of late -- those who haven't yet seen him in the flesh have opted instead for the voyeuristic Panda Cam, watching and awwing his every move. While...

Most of the District's political news in 2005 revolved around D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and his plans for the future. Credited with righting the city's financial state, Williams spent the better part of the year dodging the question as to whether or not he would run again -- a move that kept mayoral competitors in maddening suspense and incessantly fueled local rumor mills. In late September -- actually, on the very day a year after...

We are just getting word that D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams is now requesting that the long-awaited vote on the stadium lease -- originally scheduled for tomorrow -- be postponed so "small technical changes" can be made to the agreement. In a brief press release, Williams noted: We continue to work aggressively to get assistance from the federal government, from private developers and from Major League Baseball to put together the best deal possible for the...

The region's first snow hit yesterday, and, as expected, the morning news was chock full of weather analyses and human interest reports on snowmen and troubled commutes. We suppose it is big news, and we should expect that local newscasters will wax poetic about the "winter wonderland." Of course, the novelty of snow on the ground may soon fade, with residents realizing that we still have four months of this weather remaining. And as much...

You have to give it to the Washington Times -- at least their headlines are amusing. The much-loved newspaper today reports on six Montgomery County residents who were detained for transporting illegal immigrants into the area for work as prostitutes, titling the story, "Four in family among six held in alien sex ring." Alien sex ring? Well, yes, "alien" is the technical term for a non-American, but wouldn't "immigrant" have sufficed? Cropp Proposes New Funding...

Almost two weeks ago a federal appeals court ruled that a District attempt to impose a commuter tax on the legions of out-of-towners who make their living within the city's borders was unlawful, a violation of the powers of the U.S. Congress to oversee and regulate the District's affairs. While the decision wasn't unexpected -- after all, like it or not, the District is fundamentally a Congressional colony -- it dealt another blow to the...

Politics can be dirty. And with the advent of the internet and its power to spread messages far and wide at almost no cost and at surprising speed, politics in these times can be anonymously dirty. While in decades past candidates and political activists had to act under cover of darkness and under threat of being caught red-handed, today they benefit from the ability to post and publicize information, rumors, and accusations with no...