Results tagged “wtop”

Martin kinda buried this at the bottom of his Morning Roundup, but do make sure to tune in to WTOP at 10 a.m. to catch him and reporter Mark Segraves battle it out on the issue of Mayor Fenty's police-escorted cycling shenanigans on Mark Plotkin's Politics Program. Considering the epic comment thread Martin's last story on this topic produced, it should make for some excellent radio.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty appeared on WRC/NBC4 this morning to take questions from Barbara Harrison on the whole cycling team police escort/WTOP brouhaha. The mayor actually did a pretty good job explaining himself to Harrison, noting (correctly) that his security detail has been greatly reduced since he first took office, but at the same time appearing contrite and promising to do away with the motorcycle escort during his training exercises from now on.

Law-breaking, wasting public funds and an elected official who's increasingly unpopular -- the story had everything you would want in an exposé. So when WTOP's Mark Segraves reported Monday that D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty used a police escort and clogged up area roads on his daily bike ride, everyone jumped on it. Including us.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty's obsession with physical fitness may be about to get him into trouble with his constituents. It seems that when he's out training with his cycling team, D.C. Velo, the mayor has been using a large motorcycle police escort that allow him to both flaunt traffic regulations and tie up traffic, WTOP's Mark Segraves is reporting. WTOP spotted Fenty and his team as they "rode on parkways where bikes aren't permitted, ran red lights and stop signs and created traffic backups wherever they went." These rides reportedly occur during weekday business hours, and there's evidence that they are responsible for a large amount of police overtime hours spent doing nothing but waiting for the mayor to show up for his ride. Plus, there's video!

We've highlighted the oddball tendencies of WTOP's weekend web reporting in the past. But if you aren't reading this stuff over the weekend, you're missing out on a veritable goldmine of obscure and odd "news" -- some culled from the AP wire, others reported on in house, most of it good for a laugh. For example: did you know that the Maryland State Fair in Timonium is debuting a free arm wrestling competition this weekend? (Or that arm wrestling competitions have weight classes and that there is actually a national ranking system?) Rather than trudging out another long-winded story about unemployment figures, WTOP's weekend crew proactively gets out the word on opportunities: here's a comprehensive roundup of all the theme parks in the area that are hiring folks to wear costumes scare patrons at Halloween! (Hey, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.) Lest we forget the McDonald's blood cone story that we mentioned in today's Saturday Morning Post. WTOP: a must-read for the person in your life who feels the need to spout quirky stories throughout the weekend's social gatherings.

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.