Chances are, if you live in or near the city and are not fantastically wealthy, you probably have roommates. Maybe you live with friends, maybe with some folks you randomly found on craigslist and barely talk to, but sharing your living space with other people is a fact of life for most people under 30 in D.C. And in this kind of heat, any sort of odd personal odors emanating from your roommates’ bedrooms might be magnified that much more, causing you to utter the words, “man, what’s that smell?” maybe a few more times than you’d like lately. But hold your tongue, because nothing, and we mean nothing, could compare to the smell coming out of the Hillcrest Heights, Md. neighborhood currently, where 13,000 gallons of raw sewage was found leaking into a stream. Just think of the poor roommate who was being blamed for that smell. And now for your headlines.
Reinoso Dodges Plagiarism Questions: Acting Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso refused to tell the D.C. Council on Wednesday whether he was the person responsible for copying a section of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s formal school takeover proposal from a school district in North Carolina. Reinoso did say he took full responsibility for the plagiarism, calling it a “shortcut” taken “to meet a deadline.”
Audit Shows MPD Detectives Need Training, Equipment: The District of Columbia inspector general’s recent audit found the MPD’s homicide department needs more training, basic supplies and a computer system connected to evidence and records. The review was requested by former D.C. Council Member Kathy Patterson, who wanted to know whether murder victims in poor neighborhoods were receiving the same kind of police attention as those in wealthy ones. The report did find that homicides were more likely to be solved in the wealthier neighborhoods, but did not draw any conclusions about the disparity.
Developer Wants to Remove Trees Due to Allergies: Developer Aris Mardirossian wants to cut down a line of trees where he is building a home overlooking the C&O Canal in Potomac because his two children are allergic to nuts on the trees. Area residents are opposing the plan in through the county planning board, saying if nut allergies are a real concern, the area would be a dangerous one for the family to live in with or without these trees. Mardirossian is attempting to use that the Americans with Disabilities Act to argue his case.
Briefly Noted: 18 year-old lightning victim in Oxon Hill dies … Two Maryland fires critically injure six … Local Army captain dies in Afghanistan … Northern Virginia sports betting ring, ‘The Organization,’ unravels in court.
This Day in DCist: Last year we continued our coverage of Deluge ’06, and the year before that we got excited about the arrival of the Circulator buses.
Photo by zachstern
