Photo by flipperman75
Good morning, Washington. Just four more days of this wacky year. The Post is running its annual List of what’s “In” and “Out” for the coming year. Oy.
The Grieving Process: Nearly a year after her son was killed, Karen DeSha is still looking for justice in a Prince George’s courtroom, the Post reports. Justin DeSha-Overcash, a 22-year-old student at the University of Maryland, was killed Jan. 22 in the College Park home he was renting. January was a particularly violent month in Prince George’s with 16 homicides. Since then, Prince George’s police have made arrests in six of the cases. Since her son was killed, today’s Post article writes, DeSha has fought the notion her son was involved in drug dealing, joined support groups and been unable to return to work. DeSha-Overcash’s father, Randy Overcash, “would go outside in the wee hours of the morning to stare at the stars.” In court for the trial of Deandre Williams, DeSha and Overcash “stared intently at the man police say killed their son.”
No Hospital Is Bad for Business: Since Walter Reed Army Medical Center shut its doors in August, businesses near the sprawling hospital have declined, WTOP finds. Pizza shops, liquor stores and grocers lining the upper stretch of Georgia Avenue say they’ve lost as much as 20 percent of their business—maybe more—but they’re trying to eke it out. “We are barely making ends meet because of [the shut down], but it’s not something that we are going to take as an excuse for closing,” the manager of Angelico’s Pizza tells WTOP’s Andrew Mollenbeck.
Color Schoolteacher: Helen Frankenthaler didn’t spend her life in D.C. area, but she made a lasting contribution here as the inspirational figure for the Washington Color School, writes City Paper art critic Kriston Capps in an appreciation of the artist, who died Tuesday at 83. After experimenting with unprimed canvas, Frankenthaler came up with 1952’s Mountain and Sea, which today hangs in the National Gallery of Art. Not long after, Capps notes, D.C. artists like Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland met Frankenthaler, adopted her process of staining the canvas and launched a movement of explosively, joyously colorful acrylic works.
Briefly Noted: Capitol taking control of its own front lawn … Housing prices still down elsewhere, but going up here and in Detroit … Virginia, of all places, is messing with the GOP … Occubarn: Part Deux … Love public transit, even if it doesn’t love you back.
This Day in DCist: In 2010, outdoor hockey looked pretty stupid, and a hero cop saved Christmas. In 2009, museums discovered Twitter (ancient days), and seriously, don’t bring a flare gun to an emergency room.
