Photo by stosh_26Good morning, Washington. Most of the larger metro area’s local news obsessives spent the weekend gearing up for the Virginia gubernatorial race by watching the first debate on Saturday and then afterward attempting to frame this particular campaign’s main issues. Is it really all about guns in Virginia, or is it just about the economy, like it is everywhere else?
But tucked behind that big, meatier piece of political news was the smaller but nonetheless filling morsel consisting of a top cop behaving badly: Alexandria Police Chief David P. Baker’s DUI on Saturday night, to be specific, which has since led him to be placed on administrative leave. Baker got into an accident while trying to enter I-66, and ended up blowing a .19 blood alcohol level, twice the state of Virginia’s legal limit. Baker’s been with the Alexandria department for 19 years, but before that, he worked for the D.C. police department, where his last job, ironically, was as head of the traffic enforcement division. Guess neither McDonnell nor Deeds will bother working on that crucial Alexandria Police Department endorsement.
Fenty Proposes Raiding Ballpark Taxes: Part of Mayor Fenty’s plan to make up for a seemingly ever-increasing budget shortfall is to shift $50 million from the Ballpark Revenue Fund to the general fund over the next four years, the Examiner reported over the weekend. The move is big news to the local business community, where some see the change as basically converting the ballpark fund tax they are already paying into a general tax levied on businesses. Originally, the city was supposed to use any surpluses in the fund to pay off the stadium debt early.
Briefly Noted: Body found in burning van in Bethesda … Weekend storms cause major power outages … Yet another hearing set for the Holocaust Museum shooter … Man fatally struck on Beltway … Anthrax investigation almost over.
This Day in DCist: In 2007 the District was struggling with its top rated email addiction, and in 2005, we offered up DCist’s own salty oatmeal cookie recipe.
