Photo by Carly & Art

>> Incidents of violence and crime against members of D.C.’s LGBT community throughout 2012 have sparked concerns that a specialized police unit isn’t doing enough to prevent them, reported the New York Times yesterday. So far this year there have been 51 crimes against LGBT residents, and some groups are complaining that the trend is related to changes made by D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier to the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit after she took over the city’s police department. For her part, Lanier says that the changes took officers out of the unit’s Dupont Circle office and deployed them across the city, giving them the chance to respond to incidents more quickly, no matter where they happen.

>> With the potential closure of 20 D.C. public schools in the offing, there’s another difficult debate going on in local education: school boundaries and feeder patterns. The Post reports that a new D.C. Council bill would create a 10-person committee that would recommend changes to the city’s public school boundaries, possibly setting off a divisive fight over which kids get to go to what schools. Currently, parents from across the city fight for limited spots at certain schools in Northwest; some parents are concerned that the school boundaries could be redrawn to keep their kids out of schools like Wilson High School in Ward 3, making it less diverse and pushing them to less attractive alternatives.

>> It’s cyber Monday, which means great deals online. But as WTOP reports, Maryland residents are supposed to pay a little-known tax on every product they buy online. Maryland officials estimate that they lose some $200 million a year on non-payment of the tax, which residents are supposed to pay four times a year.

Briefly Noted: Trade between Cuba and Virginia increases … Four men stabbed outside downtown D.C. nightclub on Sunday morning … Loudoun County residents not happy with proposed baseball stadium … Richmond legislators to vote on plan for ‘Skins training facility … Maryland considers higher gas taxes.

This Day in DCist: On this day in 2011, Virginia officials said they had recorded 50 aftershocks in the wake of the August 23 earthquake and Walt Disney backed out of plans to build at the National Harbor.