ON A HOT, STICKY afternoon, one of the most miserable places in the District to be is in your car inching ever so slowly toward the city's only automobile inspection stations.
Some drivers head in early or take time off work to avoid the brain-scrambling wait. But a new automated appointment system on the DMV's Web site could let you skip to the front of the line.
Reports WTOP's Mark Seagraves:
A link on the District's DMV Web site lets you make a reservation, print a confirmation and present the confirmation on the day of the appointment.I can only imagine how popular the folks who zip to the front of the line would be with the frustrated hordes waiting in the exhaust-filled haze."We will bring that customer and bring him in front of all the other waiting customers," says Gregory Simpson, the inspection station manager.
» "Skip the line at the D.C. DMV" [WTOP]
Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post
NO QUARTERS WERE TAKEN or given during this vote, but the result means that many will likely be emblazoned with the image of Duke Ellington.
A total of 6,089 residents voted in a contest that thrust three historical figures — jazz great Ellington, Benjamin Banneker and Frederick Douglass — into a rumble for a coveted spot on the back of a U.S. quarter honoring the District. According to The Post's Mary Beth Sheridan, Ellington received 36 percent of the vote, versus 33 percent for abolitionist Douglass and 31 percent for scientist Banneker. None of the candidates has asked for a recount.
Continue Reading "Voters Back Ellington for Quarter Honoring D.C." »
I'M BEGINNING TO WONDER if there's anyone who hasn't ripped off the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue.
In the shadow of the case of Harriette Walters, the former tax office manager who's accused in a tax fraud case that drained the District of as much as $50 million, comes the tale of Jacqueline C. Wright and her boyfriend, Michael Clark, who were charged yesterday with swiping $180,000 in a separate tax scam, The Post's Del Quentin Wilber and David Nakamura report.
The thefts allegedly began in late 2006 when Wright, a tax office employee, began issuing phony refunds to Clark, prosecutors say. The two were caught, The Post reports, because of "new controls" District officials say were put in place after Walters was arrested in November.
In the end, D.C. taxpayers' money apparently helped to build Wright and Clark's home equity. Charging documents say that just over $100,000 of the money went into home improvement projects, according to The Post.
» "Employee and Boyfriend Charged in Another Refund Scam" [WaPo]
THERE WAS A SPARK or two of debate, but, in the end, an emergency measure that would have banned consumer fireworks in the District flamed out during a D.C. Council meeting yesterday.
Although the effort, which would have prohibited all fireworks displays not put on by professionals, was announced with fanfare by Mayor Adrian Fenty and council member Jim Graham last week, it was trounced in the council by an 11-2 vote.
Reports The Post's Nikita Stewart:
[C]ouncil members were wary of approving legislation just a few weeks before vendors are legally allowed to set up their makeshift stands along Georgia Avenue and other thoroughfares.A few council members said they opposed the outright ban because the city already prohibits the private use of fireworks that shoot into the sky. According to the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Web site, the city permits 10 types of fireworks.
Which fireworks are D.C.-approved? Here's the list from D.C. FEMS:
Continue Reading "D.C. Council Vote Extinguishes Fireworks Ban" »
NOW HEAR THIS: The D.C. Council this afternoon passed a new noise bill, a move that came after a series of amendments and a bruising skirmish between labor unions and some council members.
Reports The Post's Nikita Stewart:
Under the amended legislation, noncommercial public speech during the day would be restricted to no greater than 80 decibels, or 10 decibels above the ambient noise level when measured from inside the nearest occupied dwelling in low-density residential zones.What does Penn Quarter think of the bill? Not much, says local blog Penn Quarter Living:In short, people can still get really loud with amplified noise, particularly downtown.
"Penn Quarter, I hope you're listening. You're being written off," Cheh said of the downtown neighborhood.
It was very easy to tell that Tommy Wells, Mary Cheh, David Catania, and Carol Schwartz were on the side of the DC citizens while the rest of the council members (including Jack Evans) folded to labor union pressure.The union members and others say they wanted to keep the new ordinances from hindering their ability to protest in the city. On the other side of the argument were citizens like David Klavitter, whose Quest for Quiet blog has long called for more restrictive noise regulations.
Continue Reading "Bloggers Sound Off About New D.C. Noise Rules" »
PLANNING TO make a fireworks show of your own in the District this Fourth of July? Mayor Adrian Fenty and some other D.C. officials might soon snuff out your sparks.
The mayor yesterday announced his support for emergency legislation that would effectively ban the sale and use of all consumer fireworks in the District, The Post's Elissa Silverman reports.
D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin cited six "significant injuries" last year as part of the impetus to keep fireworks out of consumers' hands.
The bill is expected to be introduced at Tuesday's D.C. Council meeting; it would take effect immediately if passed.
» "Fenty Backs Ban on Consumer Fireworks" [WaPo]
Photo by Margaret Thomas/The Washington Post
THE FORMER JUDGE who sued a dry cleaners for $54 million over a pair of lost pants is hitting the courts again, but this time he's fighting to get his job back, according to NBC4.
Roy L. Pearson Jr. has filed a suit in federal court claiming that he was wrongfully dismissed for exposing corruption within the Office of Administrative Hearings.
Pearson, a former administrative law judge, lost his job when his term expired in May 2007. A D.C. commission voted against reappointing Pearson in October 2007.
The lawsuit is yet another twist in a story that began with Pearson suing Soo and Jin Chung, who owned Custom Cleaners in Northeast, for misplacing a pair of his pants. Pearson initially sued for $65 million, claiming the establishment did not live up to a "Satisfaction Guaranteed" sign posted in the shop.
Continue Reading "Pants Lawsuit Judge Sues To Get His Job Back" »
THEY MIGHT NOT SEE you when you're sleeping or know when you're awake, but the D.C. police will surely be privy to quite a few sights — they're being given access to more than 5,000 closed-circuit cameras throughout the city, the Washington Times reported today.
According to the Times' Gary Emerling, the cameras will create one of the largest surveillance networks in the nation:
The Video Interoperability for Public Safety (VIPS) program will consolidate the more than 5,200 cameras operated by D.C. agencies — including D.C. Public Schools and the D.C. Housing Authority — into one network managed by the city's Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.Naturally, the plan has run into opposition from civil liberties advocates. Emerling reports that among those concerned is D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson, D-At Large, who said, "If it is as big as they are suggesting, this is a major change."
» "D.C. Police Set to Monitor 5,000 Cameras" [WT]
PROMOTIONAL SLOGANS are funny. They're simple turns of phrase meant to engender positive feelings about something they rarely describe with any accuracy. They often signify nothing, but mean everything to those looking to sell a place, a thing or an idea.
All of the above is meant to prepare you for the District's new slogan aimed at tourists, which was just announced this morning. It's "Create Your Own Power Trip."
According to a press release from Destination DC, the group formerly known as the Washington, DC Convention & Tourism Corporation (the new moniker is "shorter, snappier" says the group's Web site. Uh, yeah.), the new slogan is "based on the city's first comprehensive brand strategy," which involves "launching a $2 million integrated marketing campaign, which includes television, online, print and outdoor advertising and guerilla marketing."
"Guerilla marketing" always makes me think of guys in masks and football-player face paint jumping out and shouting slogans at unsuspecting passers-by. But that's probably not what they have in mind.
"'Create Your Own Power Trip' is our new call to action," Mayor Adrian Fenty said of the slogan, according to the press statement. "It literally and figuratively takes the power of the city and puts it into the hands of the traveler."
Hold the phone. Does the new slogan mean regular ol' tourists can snag a seat in Congress? A cube at the Department of Labor? A just-outside-the-Oval perch at the White House?
Maybe a place on the Metro board? Anything? I'd totally stay in a hotel or buy a "Witness Protection Program" T-shirt from a dude on the street if I could get in on some of that action. Might the mayor be overpromising just a smidge there?
Continue Reading "New D.C. Slogan Offers 'Power Trip' to Tourists" »
IF YOU LIKE D.C.'s quirky zone-based cab fare system, it looks like you'll have another month to enjoy it.
A D.C. Superior Court judge on Tuesday moved the start date for the switchover from zones to time-and-distance meters in the District's 6,500-strong cab fleet from April 6 to May 1.
Reports The Post's Sue Anne Pressley Montes:
The new deadline ... came about after Judge Henry F. Greene ruled that the D.C. government had published different timetables for public comment on the final regulations for the new meter system. A city official blamed it on a typographical error.The taxi drivers are still pushing for a ruling against the changeover to meters. A hearing in that effort is scheduled for March 27, Montes reports.The ruling was considered a victory by D.C. cabdrivers who sued last week to stop the historic changeover from zones to meters in calculating fares.
» "Taxis' Switch to Meters Delayed to May" [WaPo]
Image courtesy D.C. Taxicab Commission
Addison Road