Results tagged “leonswain”

Federal authorities have arrested 27 people so far in a massive bribery case tied to the D.C. taxicab industry. Two indictments released today accuse a total of 39 individuals of conspiring to bribe city officials in order to obtain fraudulent taxi licenses between 2007 and 2009.

Perhaps it was WTOP's reporting that did it — they seem to think so. Or maybe the D.C. Taxicab Commission spent some time reading your comments and noticed that they haven't got a lot of fans these days. Either way, the $1 fuel surcharge will disappear starting at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday.

WTOP's Adam Tuss managed to get D.C. Taxicab Commission Chairman Leon Swain on the record that he's now officially "trying to get rid of the [gas] surcharge." Trying? He's also apparently "trying" to contact members of the taxicab commission so that he can talk to them about repealing the surcharge. "I expect to take action this week," Swain told Tuss. Hmm. You may recall that FOX 5's Matt Ackland asked Swain the same question on Oct. 29, noting that gas prices had fallen and were expected to keep falling. Since then, there was a regular, full meeting of the D.C. Taxicab Commission on Nov. 12. What prevented this discussion from happening at that meeting? Average gas prices in the metro area now stand at $1.91. When the $1 gas surcharge we're paying right now was reinstated in late 2007, average gas prices were around $3.13 per gallon. The Commission approved the most recent surcharge renewal on Sept. 29, extending it through January 31, 2009.

FOX 5's Matt Ackland had the smart idea to ask D.C. Taxicab Commission Chairman Leon Swain whether falling gas prices will mean an end to the $1 gas surcharge we've all been paying for such a long time now.