Before we get to the bad news, we’ll butter you up with the weather — isn’t it beautiful outside! It’s going to be sunny and quite warm today, with highs reaching 85 degrees, so get some use out of those short-sleeves while you still can. There, you see, aren’t you excited to be starting your day now? Well never fear, DCist is here to ruin all that for you. Yes children, we’re afraid it might be true. The Examnier’s Yeas and Neas column this morning suggests that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may have purchased a house in Upperville, Va. after their recent visit to the D.C. area. Now, we love our city, so we can certainly understand how visitors from California could come here and fall in love with the area. But if TomKat makes this new house anything more than a sometimes-vacation home, we think it’s fair to say we can all hold Redskins owner Dan Snyder personally responsible for the downward trajectory of DCist coverage that will inevitably follow. How could we reasonably stop ourselves from putting posts up everytime these two pop their heads into a Starbucks? We’re really, really sorry in advance everyone. But these sorts of things are out of our control.
Fenty Proposes Crime Bill Compromise: You’ll recall that presumptive mayor Adrian Fentry was the only D.C. City Councilmember to vote against the emergency crime legislation enacted over the summer, and we applauded him for it. Today we read in the WaPo that Fenty is pushing for a substitute set of measures to be adopted now, which would include pushing back youth curfews and eliminating the especially controversial rule which currently allows police officers to have immediate access to confidential juvenile records. Fenty’s proposal would keep the neighborhood surveillance cameras, however, despite his previous statements that they were an intrusion on people’s civil rights. It makes sense that Fenty would attack the previous crime bill now, in an early display of the kind of weight he can carry after winning the Democratic primary by a near-landslide. But we would still like to hear more about what the future mayor plans to do about crime instead. “Aggressive policing” is all well and good, but can we expect to see any crime prevention policies out of a Fenty administration? Especially since, as NBC4 is reporting this morning, the rate of violent crime appears to be inching back up again.
Poll Workers Needed in Md. Counties: Election trouble in Maryland doesn’t look to be going away quickly, as the WaPo reports this morning. Both Montgomery and PG Counties say they need to hire hundreds more poll workers for the Nov. 7 general election if they hope to avoid many of the problems voters faced in last month’s primaries, which, if you’ll recall, included having to turn away voters because of missing authorization cards required to allow electronic voting to begin. Any Maryland resident in these two counties who’d like to avoid having their elections again be a national laughing stock is encouraged to apply for one of the 1,000 election judge positions currently open.
Briefly Noted: Steele, Cardin meet in first debate for Md. Senate seat … McLean High students protest and win … Capitol Hill police officer helps deliver baby … No progress on Md.-Va. Ferry … Apt. building in SE evacuated due to structural collapse … Exodus from top city jobs continues.
This Day in DCist: In 2005 we took a first look at Busboys and Poets and in 2004 we noted the record number of voters registered to vote in that year’s election.
Photo by Grundlepuck.
