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February 25, 2001

Things in General

Dear Generalists:

On Friday, the City Council had a public briefing on the Administration's plan on how to provide continuing health care while closing DC General Hospital. You'll be pleased to know that, when Councilmember Phil Mendelson asked the city's chief health officer, Ivan Walks, if there were such a plan in writing, Dr. Walks assured him that there was. Only it hadn't been distributed to any Councilmembers or to the public; Walks didn't have any copies with him; and he couldn't be specific about what was in it, except that it didn't contain any budget figures or comparisons to other proposals. Walks was just as vague, unresponsive, and evasive in his other answers, and he frequently acted offended to be asked the questions at all.

The clearest cost estimate to emerge from the hearing is outlined by Ron Linton in his message below. The proposal is for the city to make an annual payment to Doctors Community Healthcare Corporation about equal to what it now pays for DC General, including budget overruns. But for that amount, DCHC will close the hospital and will provide many fewer services — no nurse training, no school nurses, no free health care for the MPD and prisoners, and so on. All of these current services will either be ended or will cost extra; Walks wouldn't say how much more because the city is negotiating the additional fees with DCHC. Yep, sure sounds like a moneysaving, health-conscious deal to me.

Mayor Williams is holding a health care townhall meeting on Wednesday evening; if you're interested in going, get the details at http://www.dcwatch.com/calendar.htm.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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DC General
Ron Linton, rmlch@erols.com

Thirty years ago or so I served as chairman of the first board of directors of DC General Hospital. It had lost its accreditation, was over budget and operating a facility that needed to be replaced. We made a number of recommendations, few of which were implemented by the city, but we did regain accreditation. Rather than continue a history review, let me comment on the current situation. From what I've been able to discern, and it hasn't been easy, the city proposes to give Southeast Hospital $85 million a year to provide what DC General now provides, except that apparently doesn't include trauma, school health, or prison care. All of that apparently is to come later at an additional cost.

It is in my judgment unlikely that Southeast can sustain its services, since again it appears that the Control Board has changed eligibility requirements that will induce a lot of people to seek services for free that are now paid for. When Southeast collapses it will put impossible burdens on Howard, Washington Hospital Center, and Providence. When that happens the strain will spread to Georgetown, George Washington, and Sibley. Quality of care will decline, and those with the money will go out of the city for hospital services. The City's hospital service will collapse unless the city commits as much as $400 million a year to hospital services.

What's the alternative? In the short run, say two to three years, DC General can be sustained as it is for about $40 million a year more than it is getting. That will give time to plan and erect a new state-of-the-art hospital to serve its population with the services that population needs. Old DC General would be renovated into a medical office and support center, earning revenue to pay for the bonds necessary to build the new hospital. Further, by collecting insurance payments from those patients who have insurance, and about a $50 to $60 million annual city appropriation to provide an insurance fund to cover the uninsured at DC General a better system can be provided than what is now proposed.

Obviously the matter is more detailed and complicated than the abbreviated comments I have made, but let me predict that if the present scheme is followed the Control Board will have left the city with a worse fiscal crises than it was created to fix.

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What Plan?
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aol.com

Gary Imhoff's treatise last Thursday, about the lack of a plan for health care for those without health insurance in the District, was symbolic of the current administration. They fly by the seat of their pants. There is no overall plan or detailed subplans. Our so-called leaders wake up each day and wait for the next load to hit the fan. Crisis management is the name of the game and the loudest noises get the most attention.

Any plan is better than no plan and Mayor Williams, if he really wants to make our city better, providing decent services to those who need them, would be well advised to take the time to put together a genuine mission statement for the District. This should be followed by a manageable set of viable, time-oriented goals. Then, each of the functional elements of the District Government should establish their own mission statement and goals in support of the top level mission. Each sub-element of the District's functional organizations should do the same. When you are finished, by God, you have a workable plan with everyone knowing just what their role is. And, don't tell me that there is too little time to perform this planning. That's like the writer who once said he did not have time to learn how to type because he was too busy writing.

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Teacher Quality
Maureen Milligan, minimomilligan@hotmail.com

When I opened my mailbox at the end of a long day of teaching 21 first-graders in Southeast D.C., a copy of the February 22 Washington Post article regarding poor teacher quality sat at the top of my mail. On a good day at school, my children arrive having received a nutritious meal the night before and plenty of rest. When that good day occurs, I look across my classroom and see children with combed hair and clean shirts. On a bad day -- on a day that has become the norm for many a D.C. public school teacher — my children come to school with unwashed faces, their socks in their pockets, and a strong scent of urine emanating from their skin. On those days — on most days — children with bruises, empty bellies, and dark circles under their eyes stare back at me as I greet them “Good Morning.” And still, confronted with such obstacles to learning, I attempt to teach. Even more importantly, most of my students manage to learn.

When administrators and elected officials such as Superintendent Vance and Ms. Cafritz attempt to compare the D.C. Public schools to other school districts, they should not use Montgomery County as a standard of measurement. Rather, they should look at school districts in such countries as Bolivia, Honduras, and Haiti. Teachers in these countries are also confronted with students who have poor nutrition and attendance. These teachers lack adequate textbooks and work in crumbling schools. Before we start complaining that D.C. public schools consistently fail to measure up to schools in suburban Maryland or Virginia, we should ask ourselves, why — in the nation’s capital — do we require teachers to teach in conditions that are comparable to those in a third-world country?

While some teachers in D.C. public schools may be “unqualified or incompetent,” all teachers are forced to struggle toward success in a system that neither treats them as professionals nor gives them adequate support to manage the numerous emotional, physical, and psychological issues that they encounter in their classrooms. Until we encourage teachers to adopt innovate methods of teaching, until we offer exceptional staff development opportunities, until we give teachers the incentives and support to improve their teaching methods, we will continue to be a failing school system. We will continue to be a system that “criminally deprive[s]” students of resources and unfairly leaves its teachers struggling on the edge of disaster.

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There’s an Odor in the Air
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aol.com

I checked my shoes to make sure that I had not stepped in something on my frequent walks. No, that odor seems to be coming from downtown, near the mayor's office. There are two things that I'm very skeptical about. The first is that Mark Jones, a very close associate of the Mayor, and his prolific fund raising were done without the knowledge and blessing of Mayor Williams. Fund raising of that magnitude takes lots of time and visibility. Unless Mark Jones was working day and night then his day job was either being done by someone else, or his day job was doing just what he was doing.

The second thing that smells is that Jones, very reluctantly, accepted his unpaid (?) administrative leave. Since he was so reluctant to leave, I contend that he was not a rogue, lone ranger, in his fund raising. If Mark Jones is really on unpaid leave, how is he getting along these days? One is led to ask — who has the checkbook for those accounts? Is Mark Jones living off those accounts now? Or is he being paid by the city from some other slush fund that we don't know about? Perhaps some sniffing around will locate the source of that very unpleasant odor.

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DPW Web Page
Bob Levine, rilevine@cpcug.org

Over a week ago I reported an abandoned car to DPW via their web page. Actually I tried to report it to the police first when I saw three young people stripping the vehicle of its license and battery, but as usual the police were too slow to catch some violators equipped with an immobile car. I then reported it to DPW using their web page on February 15th. It's a blue Chevy Corsica parked in front of 3210 Q Street, NW. The result was to be expected: nothing. No tickets no inspectors, no tow truck, no action at all. A car is sitting on a public street with no license plates and has been reported for over a week and our fair DPW is still eating doughnuts in their offices rather than doing their jobs

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Verizon On-Line
David Sobelsohn, dsobelso@capaccess.org

Does anyone know if Verizon will soon be changing its bellatlantic.net domain to a domain including the name “Verizon”? Bizarrely enough, Verizon itself refuses to reveal its plans. Boy, as soon as I can get a real alternative for local phone service I'm dropping Verizon faster than a force-fed chicken drops eggs.

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Have Wheels, Will Travel
Liz Hoopes, wizzyliz@norloff.com

Ed Barron's posting about the shopping carts caught my eye in a recent issue. I believe I live next to one of the perpetrators. It was probably last Fall when some folks moved into the building next door, and soon after the notorious Safeway shopping cart began appearing regularly in front of their building on MacArthur Boulevard. What makes this all the more interesting, however, is that eventually the cart ends up at the nearby Metro bus! (I doubt the shopping cart has the bus fare to get it back to Safeway.) What becomes of the cart, I haven't a clue. I can only assume that somehow it gets transported back (see parenthetical) to the grocery store.

I haven't yet seen the individual(s) using the cart. But what if I do? Should I confront my neighbor(s)? Should I call Safeway? Should I call the police? Should I call Ed on his cell phone? What would be the responsible course of action in a case like this? Any advice would be welcome.

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In Response to Nailing Trees
Sharon Roach, roachsharon@hotmail.com

I'm moved by the concern of Peggy Robin in regards to posters on trees but the lives and health care of DC Citizens is far more important than a tree! I agree that perhaps more care can be used in the placement of posters through out the city and this is something my organization has become aware of and have made a commitment to do better. However, at this time the message must get to the people about the DC General crisis and the importance of keeping the hospital open and someone tell me if I'm wrong but I've yet to come across a tree that can provide emergency care and health clinics for our schools. There are people out fighting for this hospital and it is sad when we get individuals who can come up with nothing better than to complain about a tree!

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Novel Virus Derails themail Subscriber
Charlie Wellander, ah52j2e3@mailshell.com

Although it was first reported in a Russian version in 1877, AnnaKarenina.TXT is a novel virus which, especially in platform-translated versions, is affecting several themail subscribers even as you are reading this. The current report of infections was probably inspired by the AnnaKournikova.JPG virus that clogged E-mail systems at the beginning of the month. This novel virus E-mails victims a text file of well over ten megabytes, often overfilling the victim's mailbox quota, causing issues of themail to be bounced back to sender. A streaming video variant of AnnaKarenina.TXT has even infected transmissions of several hundred PBS television stations. Like "Riding the Bullet," Stephen King's E-book, AnnaKarenina.TXT has downloaded itself onto millions of computers, but has actually been read by fewer than one in twenty of its victims. This may be due to the fact that they both exist only in uncompressed formats. In a mode of operation very similar to the internal virus MonicaLewinsky.MP3 (“Devil with the Blue Dress On”), AnnaKarenina.TXT does not E-mail itself to every contact in a victim's Outlook Express address book, but only to the attention of desirable men. Once the hard disk is infected, significant adulteration can be expected. In another similarity to the MonicaLewinsky exploit, the AnnaKarenina.TXT virus usually makes multiple attempts to create additional attachments.

In the end, unlike the relatively benign AnnaKournikova.JPG, the AnnaKarenina.TXT virus is invariably fatal, causing total destruction of the victim's computer by throwing it under a steam locomotive.

[I hate to spoil the fun by being so explicit, but if you are literal-minded rather than literary minded, reread the above message before you send it to your friends to warn them against the virus. — Gary Imhoff]

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

Jazz Nights in Southwest
Bob Smith, virsam@erols.com

To all jazz lovers, local jazz giants are playing on Friday nights, from 6-9 p.m., at Westminster Church, 400 I Street, SW. Admission is only $5.00. Fish and chicken dinners are also sold.

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Great Books — Literature Worth Staying Downtown For!
Patricia Pasqual, changedc@yahoo.com

A downtown Great Books discussion group if forming at the Martin Luther King Memorial Library. On Thursday evening, March 15, at 6:30 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Memorial Library, 901 G Street NW, staff from the Language and Literature Division will meet with community members interested in participating in a Great Books discussion group at the Library. Library staff members will demonstrate how a Great Books group operates by actually discussing a short story, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” by Charles Johnson. For more information about Great Books and/or to register for this session, call the Language and Literature Division at 727-1281.

The Great Books Foundation has conducted seminars for fifty years using a method called shared inquiry, which allows everyone to read and enjoy great works of literature. Discussion is based on the text at hand and only that text. There are approximately 450 Great Books currently meeting in libraries across the United States. Several Great Books groups already exist in this area and can be located either by calling the Great Books Foundation (1-800-222-5870), or by visiting their web site, http://www.greatbooks.org. To learn more about other programs offered by the District of Columbia Public Library visit our web site, http://www.dclibrary.org.

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Hyde Elementary School Auction
Bill Starrels, mortgagecorp@hotmail.com

The Hyde Elementary School annual auction will take place March 31st from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Fannie Mae, 3900 Wisconsin Avenue, NW. Please join us for fun, food, and a great silent and live auction! We are still accepting donations. Current items include vacation homes, frequent flier miles, and dinners at area restaurants. You can also advertise your business in our auction book. Proceeds benefit the Hyde E.S. (a DC public school) PTA, tax i.d. #521-84-4971. Contact Liz at 338-1547 or E-mail dcnurse@hotmail.com.

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Budget Briefing Session
Susie Cambria, scambria@dckids.org

The Advocacy Initiative to Meet Human Needs is sponsoring another session, Briefing and Interactive Session: What in the Mayor’s Proposed FY 2002 Budget Impacts Human Services? Tuesday, March 20, 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.; the training location is Beacon House, 601 Edgewood Street, NE. What’s included in the training: Experienced advocates and budget experts will present: 1) an overview of what is included in the Mayor’s proposed FY 2002 budget, 2) breakout sessions on specific issues, 3) examples of effective advocacy strategies and tips on advocating on the budget, and 4) a discussion of how to read the budget and an explanation of the budget process. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to network with others who are concerned about the human services budget. Who should attend the training: service providers (at all levels of the organization), advocates, residents, and budget advocacy newcomers and old-timers. Contact DC ACT (234-9404) for registration information.

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Ward 4 Ward Visit
Hilary Cherner, hilary@dcjcc.org 

Don't forget to sign up for the National Institute for Jewish Leadership's Visit to Ward 4, led by Councilman Adrian Fenty. This is an excellent opportunity to view the ward through the eyes of the Councilman as well as to reach out to other communities. Sunday, February 25, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.. Meet at the DC Jewish Community Center. Members, $8; nonmembers, $10. RSVP: Hilary Cherner 777-3238, or hilary@dcjcc.org.   In this city of national issues, the NIJL has been adding opportunities to focus on local DC issues. Each Ward Visit will be led by the Council Member for that ward, who will introduce us to the local programs and groups that make each ward unique. Learn firsthand what the problems and opportunities are — opportunities to make inroads and build bridges for Jewish engagement on the ground as well as on the Hill.

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Nisey’s Boutique Presents My Sista, My Friend, My Self
Vernard R. Gray, nsagi@interchange.org

Breathing Room by Patricia Elam, a book sale and signing, on Wednesday, February 28, 7:30 to 9:00 p.m., at Nisey's Boutique, 4007 34th Street, Mt. Rainier, Maryland, right off of Rhode Island Avenue, NE. For more information, call 301-277-7977. In her dazzling debut novel, award-winning author Patricia Elam takes us into the lives of two completely different women whose friendship has helped them weather just about everything. But now they're at a crossroads where understanding may not be enough — a place where they must risk it all to rediscover what they cherish most.

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CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS

Seeking Reliable Wireless Phone Service
Larry_Seftor@compuserve.com 

I have had Sprint PCS service for a number of years and have put up with appalling service because I've been too lazy to change. Although the problems have been manifest, the most persistent is the inability of people to get through to me during rush hour. So I am now ready to dump PCS and look elsewhere, but I don't want to sign up for another service with the same problems. For me, cost is secondary to reliability. Any suggestions?

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