Results tagged “washingtontimes”

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.

Meet Walter Carl Abbott, Jr. He's the kind of Lou Dobbs-loving, manly-man Maryland construction worker who blames everything that's wrong in this country on illegal immigrants. In fact, he feels so strongly about illegal immigration that last year, he decided to send an email to Gov. Martin O'Malley about it. Unfortunately for Abbott, the email included this phrase: "If I ever get close enough to you I will [w]rap my hands around your throat and strangle the life from you." Whoops!

Looks like there's been a major change in leadership over the weekend at the Washington Times. This morning, the paper put out a news release announcing that President and publisher Thomas McDevitt, CFO Keith Cooperrider and Chairman Dong Moon Joo have all been fired, while former VP Jonathan Slevin has been named Acting President and Publisher. The news comes less than a month after the Rev. Sun Myung Moon handed over day-to-day control of the Unification Church, which owns the Times, to his three sons.

You gotta love the Washington Times for splashing this story across the top of their local coverage today: "EXCLUSIVE: Capitol Police probe officers' Facebook pages" reads the headline, with the subhead, "Complaint cites degradation of women, hedonism." Apparently a couple of officers are "members" of a public group on Facebook called the "Make-it-Rain Foundation for Underprivileged Hoes," which we gather means these guys want it to be known that they are fans of going to strip clubs. Talk about a snoozefest. But wait, there's more!

One of the three men also listed himself as a member of the "He-Man Woman Hater's Club" and founded a Facebook group called "Passed Out in Trashcans" - a three-member group geared toward "anyone else that has woken up from a long night of drinking to find themselves in the trashcan."

At the beginning of June, the Washington Times launched a fancy redesign of their web site to incorporate a lot of overdue Web 2.0 features, like 400,000 specialized news feeds by topic (neat) and a bunch of new video and audio features (sure, OK). They also moved their nearly nonexistent local coverage into the A section, which we hoped might mean a new emphasis on local news, but so far that hasn't been the case.

Earlier this year, newly minted Washington Times EIC John Solomon began making changes at his new place of employ. His first move was to bring an end to some of the Times' most sacred traditions: like deploying scare-quotes around the word "marriage" when preceded by the word "gay," and belittling a major national political figure and presidential nominee by referring to her constantly with her first name. Also, they resolved to be slightly less douchey to immigrants and stuff. And, as we learned earlier this week, Solomon is poised to undertake a staff realignment -- old talent trimmed, new talent brought in -- that he promises to be "expeditious and fair, even-handed and humane," especially to the people being hired.

City Desk apparently has a fantastic set of sources inside the newsrooms of the District's two main competing newspapers, and today they bring us updates on the layoffs that have been hitting the industry at almost every level.

The AP via Baltimore's WJZ-TV reports the issue of same-sex marriage rights in Maryland will pop up again next week. This time around, it's the state legislature and not the courts who get to rule on the matter.

Good morning, Washington. The week surrounding the holidays is almost always a certifiably slow news period, so you can bet good money every local media outlet in the country is shamefacedly relieved to be able to find their own angle on the terrifying fatal San Francisco Zoo tiger attack. Sister site SFist has the roundup of Bay Area coverage, and the Examiner steps up to the plate with the D.C. version of the story -- the National Zoo is "prepared to finetune safety protocols." Phew! More scintillating post-Christmas reporting below.

With point guard Antonio Daniels out for 2-4 weeks with a sprained knee, the Washington Wizards were more than shorthanded going into Saturday night's game against the visiting Sacramento Kings. Rookie Nick Young started in Daniels' spot in the back court and scored five of the team's first seven points, but it was the hot hand of DeShawn Stevenson that led the Wizards to a 92-79 win.

The Washington Times is reporting that the number of tickets issued by the MPD to drivers using cell phones without a hands free device has increased for the third straight year. In the first year after the law was enacted in mid-2004, the city dished out 7523 tickets. The following year the number rose to 8,358. This year, it's 9,484. The numbers raise a host of questions about the efficacy and enforcement of this law....

As we are still recovering from the gluttony that was Thanksgiving, and since it was pretty slow news week in, well, everything, we are light on the transit news, too. But first, which D.C. Council Member likes to ignore laws? You get one guess and the answer is after the jump. Photo by AlbinoFlea...

This weekend the Capitals decided not to add a great goalie to pull them up from the dregs of the standings. After losing seven of eight games, the Caps were in last place. This gave them the first chance to pick up Ilya Bryzgalov, a goalie placed on waivers because he didn't enjoy playing backup on the Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks. Two years ago, Bryzgalov posted one of the greatest playoff shutout streaks in...

Although Gist has been around with varying lineups for almost twenty years, the current lineup of singer/guitarist Nayan Bhula, bassist Finley Martin and drummer Fred Burton have only been together for the past five. In that short time they've released two albums, Art is Now Human and Diesel City, the latter of which established them as an act whose sound could be simultaneously tied to the district and reflect their diverse backgrounds and influences,...

Ahh, rise and shine, Washington! It's another beautiful fall day, so stretch and breathe in deep ... but not too deep, unless you enjoy inhaling some of the worst air in the nation. Scientists are putting numbers on information our lungs already knew: the D.C. area "produces more carbon dioxide than several medium-size European countries," the Post reports. This is due primarily to Maryland's coal-burning power plants and our stand-still traffic, we make more carbon...

Good morning, Washington. It's only the end of September, but if drug store candy aisles are any indication, many of you are probably already thinking ahead just a little bit to the holiday season. What will you be for Halloween? Will you stay in town for Thanksgiving? What kind of Christmas bonus will you be getting this year? For some D.C. government employees, the answer to that last question is now up in the air....

Good morning, D.C. If by any chance you're a contractor with the city, you may be in for a rude awakening this morning, as City Manager Dan "The Man" Tangherlini and Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra have ordered your cell phone to be returned. Apparently some non-employee contractors have been getting a pretty sweet deal from the District for some time in the form of free cell phones, the end of which will save the...

After letting us all enjoy a good summer break, next week the U.S. Senate will start debating legislation that would grant the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives. And in preparing for what is sure to be a spirited battle, big-name voting rights activists have recently stepped up the pressure with two back-to-back op-eds in Washington papers. Yesterday Maryland's former Lt. Gov. Michael Steele and former Oklahoma Republican Rep. J.C. Watts penned...

Good morning, Washington. Does your commute include the Wilson Bridge? If so, enjoy this morning's trip — it's the last speedy one you're likely to have this week. As Fox 5 details, some of the traffic around the bridge will be redirected beginning at 10 a.m. this morning. But the worst will be saved for overnight on Friday, when traffic will be reduced to a single lane. Hateful Vandalism Galore: What the hell is going...

Welcome back to work, Washington. We don't know about you, but we spent an awfully long time in the sun this weekend consuming too much food at various street festivals, so forgive us if we're still groggily pondering Saturday's news in WaPo that the fare change about to be proposed by Metro General Manager John Catoe is an "average increase" of 45 cents. That kind of increase would theoretically raise the base fare of a...

The Washington Times brings us the most, ahem, alarming piece of news we've seen this morning: that D.C. fire officials are investigating whether some firefighters have been running a prostitution ring out of several of the city's firehouses. Around a dozen employees from at least four firehouses are being investigated for involvement in the prostitution ring, which fire officials first learned of after a criminal investigation last month into claims that a sergeant exposed himself...

Jonetta Rose Barras: "The District government is spending millions to send children to a controversial special education residential facility in Massachusetts that uses electric shock to discipline students." Wow. Talk about an opening sentence. Rose Barras dedicated her column this week to the 10 District students who have been sent to the facility -- the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, Ma. -- arguing that its unorthodox methods of treatment are reason enough to bring...

We read all the local columnists, so you don't have to. This week we find meat-eaters being compared to Michael Vick, a lot of bum opinions on city schools and District residents being called "granola." Courtland Milloy: According to Milloy's Wednesday column in the Post, your choice to eat a hamburger isn't all that different than Michael Vick's decision to brutally fight, torture and kill dogs for money. "We'll kill a duck, deer, turkey --...

A new statue is heading to the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol -- but it's not either of the long-requested two statues to represent the District of Columbia. Alabama has decided to replace one of its two statues, of Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, a former congressman, Confederate general and professor who advocated for free universal education, with one of Helen Keller, the famed Socialist Party activist and the first deaf and blind...

Good Friday to you, Washington. Are you getting psyched for the weekend already? No? Did we mention how nice the weather's going to be yet? Predictions are for mostly sunny skies and low humidity levels on Saturday with below-normal high temperatures in the low 80s and overnight lows sinking down to, get this, the low 60s. It's like Christmas in August! District Plagued By Lead Concerns: It's sure starting to feel like we're having...

In case you missed the news yesterday, the Washington Post has devoted an extraordinary amount of front page column inches to the record breaking temperatures D.C. saw yesterday. At 12:05 p.m. on Wednesday, the temperature hit 102 degrees at Reagan National Airport, according to the National Weather Service, breaking the previous all time high record for Aug. 8, of 101 degrees, set in 1930. The oppressive heat also had a number of other newsworthy...

It's Washington's own version of The Big Dig, but it's much more secluded and (hopefully) isn't filling up with water. It's a multi-million dollar boondoggle that provides plenty of fodder for Congresscritters who wish to howl about federal spending. It's the Capitol Visitor Center, which has been under construction since 2001, and has increased in cost from $265 million at that time to $573 million today—which isn't too bad for a Federal project, right? The...

Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) never ceases to amaze us. When he's not looking to shutdown bars and clubs (whether he has a reason or not), he's proposing schemes to put strip-clubs anywhere but in his own ward. He's newest plan? Putting them under Dupont Circle. Yes, you read that right. Under Dupont Circle. The Washington Times is reporting today that Graham has floated the idea of relocating some of the strip-clubs forced out...

Good morning, Washington. If you haven't already, make sure to take the time to read one of the stories that ran over the weekend about one of the important legacies Lady Bird Johnson left behind for our city: the work of her Committee for a More Beautiful Capital, which created more park space and added D.C.'s signature tulips, daffodils and cherry trees to existing triangles throughout the city. The Post has an excellent overview...

After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the District's restrictive handgun laws were unconstitutional in early March, Mayor Adrian Fenty was quick to promise a swift appeal. But when the full court declined to rehear the case two months later, thus forcing a potential showdown in the U.S. Supreme Court, Fenty was forced to slam on the brakes. Since then, he and his legal team have grappled with a vexing...