Mayor Wants Action on Banning Dangerous Trains: The District’s city council and Mayor Anthony Williams are considering pushing through emergency legislation that would ban trains carrying hazardous materials through the city via a rail line that passes dangerously close to the Capitol and the National Mall. The Post reports that although the city wants the White House to take immediate action on this matter, if the city chooses to be aggressive on this, Ward 3 Councilmember Kathy Patterson notes that the rail and chemical industry would probably seek an injunction.
In Related Emergency Response News: So what if a train carrying methanol derails in the District (it happened in Detroit yesterday), who would respond and how would they respond? All of that is very unclear. Mayor Williams noted at a D.C. Judiciary Committee meeting that there’s “always a question of federal pre-emption,” the AP, via WTOP, quotes him as saying. Additionally, D.C. lawyer Richard Ben-Veniste, who sat on the 9/11 commission, said that as things currently stand, it is unclear who is in charge in emergency response situations.
Crime Drops, But D.C. Is Still on Top: The W.Times cites new FBI stats that show that crime is bad. Despite the District’s falling homicide rate, D.C. still holds the top honor for the highest homicide rate of any city over 500,000 people. But New Orleans claims a higher homicide rate per 100,000 people (57.7 people) and a higher number of killings that the District.
Citizen Ire in Southwest. At a question and answer session, residents in Southwest expressed their displeasure with the District’s stadium plan when “[w]e need schools, jobs and homes. We don’t need a baseball stadium,” the Post reported one resident saying. The Southwest Neighborhood Advisory Commission approved a resolution opposing the mayor’s stadium plan.
Briefly Noted: Those two DMV employees operating a fake driver license ring out of the Georgetown office pleaded guilty. Maryland’s bear hunt ended after one day, with 20 bears snagged.
