Investigators for the D.C. Fire Department lack sufficient training and credentials, reports Scott McCabe in the Examiner. The firefighters are not certified fire investigators, and even the short fire investigation course they may have taken has been plagued by exam cheating. This is most crucial in the examination of the devastating fire at Washington’s 135-year-old Eastern Market, where conclusions of federal and DC investigators differ.
The Climate Change Steering Committee of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MCOG) recommends fines for vehicles that keep their engines running without moving for more than five minutes, according to the Examiner. The panel recommends exceptions for fire, police, ambulances, and vehicles stuck in traffic jams.
The MCOG panel recommends enforcement of such regulations, which is admirable, since the District of Columbia already has such regulations but doesn’t seem to enforce them.
Mary Surratt: “You want rice with that?”
Today’s Washington Examiner reminds us that history is all around us. Scott McCabe interviews Laurie Verge, Director of Clinton, Maryland’s Surratt House Museum, which tells the story of Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt, convicted and executed as a conspirator in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
The Surratts ran a tavern and boardinghouse near her parent’s land, now part of Andrews Air Force Base. When her husband died, the Widow Surratt rented out the Clinton property, moved to the District of Columbia, and ran a boardinghouse at the family-owned building at what is today 604 H Street, NW, home of the Wok and Roll Restaurant.
Who would borrow money to buy a house when the rate could skyrocket from 4.75% to 14%? The Government of the District of Columbia. Who would borrow money to build a new house for sports millionaires when the interest rate could skyrocket from 4.75% to 14%? The Government of the District of Columbia.
Mayor Fenty’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget contains $26.8 million in discretionary grants — “earmarks” — for nonprofit organizations, according to Michael Neibauer in today’s Examiner. The biggest slice: a $ $10 million grant to Ford’s Theatre, the touring venue in a National Park Service-owned facility.
The D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission owes the Metropolitan Police Department almost $2 million for security at Washington Nationals baseball games since 2005, according to Scott McCabe of the Examiner. The cost of 25 MPD officers for 82 home games at RFK each year is about $700,000. The team chipped in $175,000 a year and the Commission was supposed to pay the balance but has only paid $200,000 in the three year period.
Legislation introduced in the D.C. Council Tuesday would prevent the transfer of D.C. Special Education students to schools using “aversive education techniques” such as electrical shocks to the skin. The law is aimed at the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) in Massachusetts, a residential facility where Washington students have been sent at an annual cost of a quarter million dollars each.
In today’s Washington Examiner, local columnist and Oakton High School teacher Erica Jacobs describes attending the “Picturing America” preview and succumbing to the charm of First Lady and former Texas school librarian Laura Bush.
Harry Jaffe recently noted that one of the fifty “Amicus” briefs in a Supreme Court case (DC vs. Heller) that seeks to overturn local DC gun laws was filed by an Ohio PAC. The Buckeye Firearms Foundation brief states that DC residents should be allowed to arm themselves without restriction because the city’s Metropolitan Police Department “has failed to provide adequate police services to the District of Columbia citizens.” Mr. Jaffe believes the Ohio group should tend to things Ohio; I agree. Furthermore, the facts do not seem to support the Buckeye’s contentions about DC or MPD.
Complaints about broken D.C. parking meters increased 40 percent in the past year, notes Michael Neibauer in the Examiner.
Karyn LeBlanc of the Department of Transportation says the meters are fine and brags about the complaint increase; she says it proves the success of DDOT’s improved complaint system.
We’re talking about 94,000 broken meters here.
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