Harry Jaffe: As the fallout from the shooting of 14-year-old DeOnté Rawlings continues, it’s now Mayor Adrian Fenty taking some of the heat. According to Jaffe, Fenty’s decision to pay for Rawlings’ funeral and invite his sisters to speak at a press conference has soured some police officers on the young mayor, who saw the moves as an indication of where Fenty’s allegiances were. “How can Fenty rebuild trust with the police?” asks Jaffe. “’Let…

Jonetta Rose Barras: In a powerfully introspective column, Rose Barras details a recent trip to her destroyed family home in New Orleans. In recounting her visit to the site, Rose Barras writes of the struggles endured by her mother and sister in trying to return and rebuild, drawing comparisons to the District’s own troubles. “Truth told, New Orleans looks and feels like Ward 8 circa 1985: few quality retail outlets, high crime, high unemployment, poor…

Jonetta Rose Barras: “The District government is spending millions to send children to a controversial special education residential facility in Massachusetts that uses electric shock to discipline students.” Wow. Talk about an opening sentence. Rose Barras dedicated her column this week to the 10 District students who have been sent to the facility — the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, Ma. — arguing that its unorthodox methods of treatment are reason enough to bring…

>> October 1, 2007. Remember that date, because after it H Street aficionados will no longer be allowed to buy a single can or bottle of their favorite low-quality and high-alcohol beer. [FreeRide] >> Michael Vick filed his guilty plea in the dog-fighting controversy today. On another note, the Big Mac turns 40 today. To Post columnist Courtland Milloy, fans of the Big Mac are no better than Vick. [WTOP] >> Whoever said D.C….

We read all the local columnists, so you don’t have to. This week we find meat-eaters being compared to Michael Vick, a lot of bum opinions on city schools and District residents being called “granola.” Courtland Milloy: According to Milloy’s Wednesday column in the Post, your choice to eat a hamburger isn’t all that different than Michael Vick’s decision to brutally fight, torture and kill dogs for money. “We’ll kill a duck, deer, turkey –…

>> Vandals armed only with a U-shaped bicycle lock and a sense of irony managed to trap about 40 commuters on the Virginia Railway Express Monday near Woodbridge, when they locked the metal gates from the pedestrian bridge at the Rippon station. The gates, which the VRE removed Tuesday, were originally put there to keep vandals out of the station. [AP via NBC4] >> Post columnist Courtland Milloy makes a compelling case for abolishing…

Ever since legislation was introduced in the D.C. Council that would mandate vaccinations for the HPV virus, the issue has moved to the forefront of the public health debate around the country. With an increasing number of states considering a mandatory vaccine — at least 20 to date — debate has raged between advocates that believe that a vaccine could prevent a serious public health crisis, opponents who claim that it infringes upon the rights…

Good morning, Washington. How was your State of the Union viewing experience? We hope that “enjoyable” is the answer — although not so enjoyable that you now have a State of the Union hangover experience (don’t you love living in a city where such a thing is a possibility?). Whatever your experience, this morning it seems like some of the week’s frantic political energy is draining out of the city, as the shot to the…

There is no doubt that the crimes which have taken place in the District over the past few days are distressing. They are upsetting in the details of their commission, for the circumstances of the assailants and their victims, and because the conditions of life in communities across the country make such crimes a probabilistic inevitability. We should all be shocked by homicide, no matter where or how it occurs. It is a sign of…

When on Wednesday Metro announced they had found themselves a new voice from the original 1,259 hopefuls and 10 finalists, we expected the story to be filed away and soon forgotten. Reporters at the Post, see something different, though, something much more black and white. Courtesy of our friends over at Fishbowl DC, who seem to have an in on the Post’s internal critique board, we find that a number of the newspaper’s staffers…