Good morning, Washington. Yesterday afternoon Roll Call had the story of a potential suspect finally being identified in all those strange Senate bathroom fires from the last few months. Capitol Police Officer Karen Emory recently has been suspended in connection with the fires, although it still hasn’t been confirmed whether she is definitely a suspect in the case. No charges have been filed, but color us a little disappointed if it turns out a police officer was behind the fires and not some unhinged chief-of-staff to an important senator who could then provide weeks of entertaining headlines.
Only the 27th?: The annual FBI Uniform Crime Reports book put out by Congressional Quarterly is out this week, and it ranks the District of Columbia as the 27th-most-dangerous city in the United States. D.C. was ranked less dangerous than Detroit; St. Louis; Flint, MI; Oakland; Camden, N.J.; Birmingham, Ala.; North Charleston, S.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; Richmond, Calif.; and Cleveland, among others. In response to yesterday’s news about the District’s increasing murder rate, Mayor Fenty said, “What, you’d rather live in Cleveland?”
More Suspicious Checks Under Gandhi: The Post follows up on the The Examiner’s revelations that some phony checks from the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue scheme were cashed when current D.C. CFO Natwar Gandhi was in charge of the office — now the total amount of money stolen under Gandhi’s direct watch stands as high as $2.46 million, with 15 suspicious checks discovered from the last year of his tenure there. Gandhi declined to comment on the story.
Briefly Noted: Woman injured when MARC train hit her car … Greater Southeast Community Hospital still plagued by money problems … Progress made on Rock Creek Parkway.
This Day in DCist: In 2006 we profiled local clothing store Nana, and in 2005 we told you about the stinky “corpse flower” at the U.S. Botanic Gardens.
Photo by Eye Captain
