Photo by codepinkhq
Good morning Washington. Were you at last night’s mayoral debate up on Foxhall Road? If so, did you get the sense that Mayor Adrian Fenty is getting a wee bit more aggressive?
Martin and I will have more to say on that later today but there were two key phrases that came out of the mayor’s mouth that suggest he may be getting ready to pounce: “Vincent Gray’s ‘early-90s days’” and “shenanigans about the streetcars.” Many people are sick and tired of the squabbling over the streetcar issue, but take a look-y here. Perfect fodder for Fenty, no? This is all getting interesting, for sure! Check out Martin’s fantastic live-tweeting from the chilly Field School gym last night. Speaking of tweeting, the National Spelling Bee finals are today and even D.C’s first responders are getting in on the act. Isn’t this just precious? “Spelling Bee Contestants in DC -Finals are TODAY – How do you spell help in DC – DC F&EMS – we R fast, we R well-trained & we R NICE” That’s the type of efficient spelling strategy that should please these protesters!
What else is making news? (Yes, we know about the stuck train in the Rosslyn-Foggy Bottom tunnel. That’s what you get for living on the Orange and Blue Lines.)
Police Action Rebuffed in Sursum Corda Case: In a “rare but important case before the D.C. Court of Appeals,” a judge ruled Thursday that a teenager in Sursum Corda had been searched improperly “after a police officer took his money and he began yelling for help.”
Lanier Wants to Share Fingerprint Info: Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier told WTOP on Thursday that she’d like her department to participate in program called Secure Communities where the fingerprints of everyone arrested are imported into a FBI database where immigration officials can then crosscheck and “identify level one criminals – those involved in homicides, sexual assaults and more serious felony offenses.”
Metro General Manager Search to Look at Broad Pool of Applicants: As The Post reports, Metro officials are gearing up for an intense general manager search that they hope will find someone who can get their agency back on track. And they aren’t necessarily looking for someone with transit experience.
Briefly Noted: Arlington installs four red-light cameras … Secret Service subdue two men along motorcade route … Jones Point Park in Alexandria again to be off limits to public … Region cleans up after powerful storms … Vincent Orange accuses Kwame Brown of political horsetrading with Marion Barry! … Dupont Circle, Rock Creek Parkway, Georgetown gridlocked during man-on-Q-Street-bridge incident …
This Day in DCist: In 2009, we looked at SmartTrip expansion in Baltimore … In 2008, we looked at how a D.C. voting rights bill was going to make a legislative comeback (some things never change!) …
