Results tagged “vincentgray”

Yesterday the Washington Post asked a number of local political watchers, myself included, if we thought Mayor Adrian Fenty would be re-elected in 2010. Some said yes, others said no. I stressed that without a credible challenger – and none has yet stepped forward – Fenty would cruise to a second term. Well, if that capable challenger ends up being D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray, Fenty may have to start looking for a new job.

Tom already told you about Tim Craig's story in today's Washington Post, which outlines how D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray used council stationery to solicit a $20,000 contribution from Comcast to help pay for Democratic Party activities at last year's national convention. But potentially even worse news for Gray also came today in the form of this story by Washington Times reporter Jeffrey Anderson, which alleges that some questionable work was performed on Gray's Hillcrest home by developer William C. Smith & Co. – a huge company that has a long list of contracts with the District government, and doesn't usually offer basic home repair services.

Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham is relinquishing his lead role in oversight of the city's taxicab industry, despite an earlier determination from Council Chair Vincent Gray that Graham should keep taxis in his portfolio as chairman of the public works and transportation committee. Graham has asked Gray to transfer taxicab oversight powers to the Committee of the Whole.

This afternoon, DCPS released final details of the budget reductions that have caused an uproar in the schools community since probable staff cuts were first announced last month.

D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray just released his official statement regarding today's arrest of Jim Graham chief-of-staff Ted Loza on bribery charges: "Consistent with the standard practice in criminal investigations not to reveal in advance the issuance or execution of an arrest warrant or a search warrant, I was not made aware of the arrest of Mr. Loza nor the search of his office in the John A. Wilson Building before that happened. I will leave the criminal investigation in the hands of law enforcement authorities and let the justice process take its course. I plan to have a conversation with Councilmember Graham to determine if the investigation will have any bearing on the broad operations of the Council, and how this may affect the work of his office and the Committee on Public Works and Transportation, which Mr. Graham chairs."

Heads up, local George Washington University alumni: D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray now represents you in more ways than one. The university's Alumni Association announced that they have selected Chairman Gray to receive one of the University’s Distinguished Alumni Achievement Awards. According to Gray's office, he won't receive the award until an October 1, 2009 ceremony during GWU’s Alumni Weekend.

City Desk is reporting that Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray have settled their argument over the $27 million that the Council voted last month to strip from the DCPS budget because of differences in enrollment projections. The Council is voting (any minute now?) to restore $24 million to DCPS in the FY2010 budget, with the remainder being placed in escrow until enrollment counts are finalized in October. Rhee and Gray will also collaborate going forward to create a "uniform method" for projecting enrollment. The Council initially withdrew the money because it felt the projections on which the budget had been based were inflated. DCPS enrollment has been steadily declining for years, but Rhee's budget assumed a growth of about 3,000 students. Rhee countered by threatening that schools would be forced to eliminate teaching positions in order to make up the deficit. She defended the projected enrollment growth, but yesterday conceded in a letter to Gray that, "I cannot guarantee that this will occur.” Strangely, that slight admission seemed to be all Gray needed to release the majority of the money.

Tim Craig is reporting in the WaPo that D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray appears to be feeling rather wishy-washy about the possibility of bringing same-sex marriage legislation before the voters, in the form of a referendum. "I really haven't thought much about this," Gray said, noting that he intends to take the temperature of the other Council members before making up his mind. In the event you, DCist readers, have managed to find the time in your busy lives to think on this issue and would like to share your thoughts with the Chairman, you can contact his office at (202) 724-8032, or email vgray@dccouncil.us.

D.C. Wire reports that this morning, the D.C. Council voted to strip $27 million from the DCPS budget for next year, on the grounds that that the original funding projected that school enrollment would grow by 3,000 students, an estimate that's obviously unrealistic. The Council says it will not spend the money now, and voted to place it in escrow, to be released in the fall only if an enrollment audit confirms growth. "Given the enormous budget challenges facing the District in 2010," Chairman Vincent Gray argued, "there needs to be a justification why this increase is warranted."

The Nationals finally won a game last night (8-2 over the world champion Phillies!), but it looks like members of the D.C. Council weren't there to enjoy it. No, instead, the epically ridiculous, second-year-in-a-row Mayor/Council dispute over friggin' baseball tickets is still going on. This morning, Council chair Vince Gray showed up on FOX 5 to give the mayor a big fat spanking over the whole thing. The local news station does a nice job juxtaposing clips of Fenty from his appearance yesterday, looking sweaty, irritated and irrational, with cool as a cucumber Gray, who calmly explains that the mayor is crazy if he thinks he can describe his relationship with the Council as "fantastic." Take a look.

Official statements are starting to roll in from D.C. government officials on this morning's successful cloture vote on the D.C. Voting Rights Act in the U.S. Senate.

While we wait for who knows how long for debate on the D.C. Voting Rights act to begin, D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray has released a statement directed to the Senate while they consider S.160. Press release below:

If District pols know two things, it's that Mayor Adrian Fenty is an accomplished cyclist and an accomplished fundraiser. It's really not a good idea to challenge him at either.

City Desk reports that reporter Mark Segraves was unceremoniously booted from one of the council's administrative meetings yesterday, and by council Chair Vincent Gray no less. Gray claimed that the meeting was closed to press because it dealt with matters of the council's operations, including personnel matters. Segraves countered that several issues from the council's January 6 breakfast meeting—which was open to the press%mdash;were put off and were to be dealt with at yesterday's administrative gathering.

One of the drawbacks to having a high-profile figure like Michelle Rhee running the city schools is that so much of the education coverage tends to be about Rhee herself, rather than the work her office is (or isn't) doing. In a column last weekend, Colbert I. King argued that "the issue is not whether the chancellor is a polarizing figure with her take-no-prisoners approach, or is a fearless crusader against defenders of the status quo. At issue is whether public education in the District is being improved."

         

Voting rights activists and members of the D.C. delegation to the Democratic National Convention held a small rally in front of the U.S. Mint in Denver this morning, but the Mint's location on the edge of downtown made for a not particularly visible event among the throng of other convention-related activities going on here.

DC Vote just sent around an email to all their supporters to remind them of their planned event outside the U.S. Mint in downtown Denver. The rally (protest? gathering?) is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. From the announcement:

We will host a peaceful rally outside the Denver Mint and pass out wooden coins to the public because the mint rejected the DC government's request to imprint the words "taxation without representation" on DC's quarters and because…

Continue reading "Rally at U.S. Mint to Go Ahead Without Permit"

The good news: You still have almost an hour to catch the D.C. Council Chairman bagging groceries at the Safeway in Southeast. The bad news: you won't be able to get the image of him performing prostate exams out of your mind all weekend.

Mayor Adrian Fenty rattled off Ovechkin's stats—65 goals, 47 assists, 112 points— saying, "We are honored to present a key to the city to Alex, not only for the numbers he put up, but also for his hard-working attitude and style of play." Council Chairman Vincent Gray, flanked by Council members Marion Barry, Kwame Brown, and Jack Evans, led the crowd in a fist pumping MVP cheer.

Call them merely symbolic acts, but the D.C. Council and Mayor Adrian Fenty have made a number of gestures this year to express their collective anger at the continued disenfranchisement of District residents. Today there's one more.

With a little over a month remaining in the school year, things aren’t slowing down for Michelle Rhee. Never mind that the D.C. Schools Chancellor is being named in what looks to be a time-consuming vanity lawsuit by Washington Teachers’ Union vice-president Nathan Saunders, or that City Council Chair Vincent Gray is messing with her budget. The woman has work to do.

Good morning, Washington. We hope not too many of you were making your way into the city from Montgomery County this morning, as two separate water main breaks forced road closures in Takoma Park and kids to get the day off from school in Germantown. We'll admit it -- we're pretty envious of the students at Fox Chapel Elementary School, who get to spend the day doing whatever they please while we had to show up and actually do work. Isn't it supposed to be Christmas break already?

It's Friday, Washington, and reactions are still rolling in to Metro's approval of its largest fare hikes ever. We all knew this was coming, but we're curious to hear if any of our readers actually plan to make changes to their commuting habits come January 6, when the increases will go into effect. Do you think you'll ride Metro any less, or finally make the leap to using SmarTrip? Let us know in the comments.

Good morning, Washington. Are ya ready for some embezzlement scandal news? Of course you are! This morning's update comes not from the embattled Office of Tax and Revenue, but rather from the D.C. Public Schools front office, as the Examiner reports that Eugene Smith, the former director of internal audits for DCPS, entered a guilty plea yesterday to charges of stealing nearly $50,000 from a charter school account. Smith was fired by the school system...

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...

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...

Happy Day-After-Thanksgiving, D.C. Normally we like to get you your headlines in the a.m., so we hope you'll forgive us for rounding up the news later in the day today -- we needed to spend the morning rolling our much fatter selves out of bed and calling our doctors for a new Lipitor prescription. What do you mean, it isn't necessarily a good idea to put gravy on pumpkin pie? Breaking News: People are Shopping!:...

D.C. officials are apparently stunned to find that the money they've spent on the new Nationals stadium isn't translating into the sort of unconditional loyalty they might like. Turns out the team's 2008 Dream Foundation Dream Gala (it's dream-related, see) will be held at National Harbor in Prince George's County, Md., and the Examiner reports that Mayor Adrian Fenty, D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray and just about every other D.C. leader is throwing a temper...

Welcome back to work, you godless heathens who had yesterday off. While you were off frolicking in the sunshine with flowers in your hair and puppies at your feet, the rest of us were here, slaving away. OK fine, maybe we spent a little time playing with our new avatar feature (read more here). But we only did it in a totally serious manner, devoid of any fun or whimsy. Speaking of fun, this ridiculous...

>> Mayor Adrian Fenty and Schools chancellor Michelle Rhee will reportedly ask city officials for an extra $81 million to fix D.C. Schools' totally screwed up special education system. Expect D.C. Council chair Vincent Gray to totally lose his shit tomorrow. [Examiner] >> Amazon begins offering same-day local delivery to D.C. [DC Metblogs] >> 6 reasons the Maryland Renaissance Festival did not suck. [Arjewtino] >> Police are investigating an apparent murder on the grounds...