Told You So, Told You So
Dear Health Care Consumers:
Make no mistake: the health care plan for the District’s uninsured
residents put in place by DC Mayor Anthony Williams with approval from
the now-defunct control board is an abject failure. I know that you've
read that before many times in themail, but this time I'm not the one
saying it. That first sentence actually should have been put in
quotation marks; it's the opening sentence of a letter by Daniel P.
McLean, the CEO of George Washington University Hospital, writing as a
spokesman for the five major hospitals in this city (“As the Health
Care Safety net Unravels, DC Hospital Need Help — Stat!” The
Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3524-2003Sep12.html).
McLean says the mayor's health plan “failed to account for the
needs of those the new system was intended to serve or of the health
care providers who served them. Numerous mistakes followed the initial
faulty decision.” After enumerating a few of those mistakes, McLean
writes, “The effect on the District's hospitals has been devastating,
both operationally and financially,” and that “the mayor and his
team . . . ignore the problems and talk about the few 'successes' of the
DC Healthcare Alliance.” His prescription is that, “The mayor and
his team must acknowledge what many members of the DC Council have been
saying for two years: the District needs a public hospital to serve
residents in the eastern part of the city.”
Closing DC General Hospital allowed the mayor to capture a vast tract
of valuable public land to divvy up among his favored developers and to
redirect public health care dollars to his two largest campaign
contributors. But it was a devastating blow to public health care in the
District. The mistake must be corrected, but it cannot be corrected as
long as the mayor and his allies adamantly refuse to admit that it was a
mistake. How can that logjam be broken? Perhaps some of the members of
the control board who advocated this disaster could admit that they made
a mistake, call upon the mayor to alter his policy, and give him
political cover to change his course. Does Alice Rivlin or Eugene Kinlow
or Constance Newman or Robert Watkins care enough about this city and
its residents to bear the embarrassment of publicly admitting their
mistake, which is now apparent to everyone else anyway? If not, then it
falls to the City Council to take charge, to steamroll the mayor, and to
devise and push through its own health care plan over his objections and
his obstructionism.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Hometown and Hollywood
Mark David Richards, Dupont East, mark@bisconti.com
Gov. Dean stopped briefly in DC this week on the campaign trail to
DC's January 13 primary season kickoff. He received a considerable
amount of media attention. Howard Fineman of Newsweek reported
that “HBO premiered its new Washington-based show, K Street.” Dean
apparently plays the role of a Presidential candidate in a debate-prep
session. Visit the DC First Primary BLOG (weblog) for more detail on
Dean's DC visit, http://blog.letsfreedc.org,
as well as other primary news, such as the candidates' positions on DC
and who will and won't be campaigning here.
Speaking of Hollywood, as part of the mayor's initiative to bring
film business to DC, the DC Office of Film and TV told Dupont Circle ANC
meeting attendees this week that the film “National Treasure” will
be filmed in the center of Dupont Circle during the week of September 29
for three to four nights, http://www.film.dc.gov/news/2003/september/09_10_03.shtm.
Businesses and homes in the area have been and are being contacted to
reduce disruptions. The park will be closed from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m.
during filming. “National Treasure” is a Touchstone film starring
Nicolas Cage. Representatives from WASA were present at the ANC meeting
to discuss problems with certain sewers that are backing up during rain
storms in the 17th, Corcoran, T and R Streets area and efforts to solve
the problems. They told the audience that Nicolas Cage will at some
point in the movie “go down into the DC sewers.” Touchstone will
soon be holding a casting session and will be hiring DC residents for
production work. They are going to make a contribution to the Main
Street Project. If interested in becoming a star or in doing production
work, contact the DC Office of Film and TV, http://www.film.dc.gov/main.shtm.
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The Dr. Gridlock article in today's Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6835-2003Sep13.html)
talks about how you can help prevent your car from being stolen. Once
again they mention that the steering wheel locking device (commonly
known as the “Club”) will deter thieves since it takes time to
disable it. Wrong! If any thief over the age of six wants to steal any
car with the “Club” installed it will take no more than thirty
seconds to disable it.
Those who steal cars won't bother trying to hacksaw their way through
the heavy metal bar of the Club. That would take about a week of hack
sawing. Thieves will simply take a hacksaw blade from their Michael
Jordan basketball shoes (formerly known as sneakers) and cut through the
steering wheel in about thirty seconds. Then they will punch out the
ignition lock and drive away with your car. Total time: under one
minute. Other devices such as ignition or fuel disabling switches do
work, if well hidden. For the club to work, the auto manufacturers
should have an ignition cut off switch built into the steering wheel
that will shut off the ignition when the steering wheel is cut. It
should be designed such that only the complete removal and
reinstallation of a new steering wheel and professional reactivation of
the ignition will reenable the ignition. That still won't prevent a
thief from driving up with a wrecker and just hauling your car away.
Of course, if you have a really neat car and live/park on DC streets,
you need the tracking device, LoJack, which is activated by the police
when you report your car stolen. That enables rapid tracking of both the
car and the bad guys who took it. Recovery rates using this system are
quite high, often before the car can be dismantled for parts.
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Hi, Annie [Annie McCormick, “Noise Ordinance in DC,” themail,
September 10]. I'm writing as another urban DC resident who often
struggles with early morning noise. I always suggest that people call
the “Mayor's Line,” 727-1000, to get referred to the right office
for information on what the specific regulations are; alternatively,
your councilmember's office could help. I think you'll find that 7 a.m.
(though probably not earlier) is an acceptable hour at which to start
noisy construction, as far as the city is concerned.
I know it's aggravating if you don't keep the kind of hours that
require you to be up before 8 a.m. But on the other side, I thought
perhaps at least the following thoughts would be helpful: getting the
trucks and workers to the site prior to 7 a.m. (and, generally speaking,
off the site prior to 4 p.m.) means they are not tying up traffic with
their trucks during rush hour, which is a major savings to all of us in
the city. And getting started at 7 a.m. means that the construction
workers are putting in two more hours of work in each day, over what
might seem like a more reasonable 9 a.m. start time. Each week, that
means they're getting over one full day of work in than they might do if
they tried to keep later hours. Hopefully, that means a shorter duration
of the project overall, so you'll get your neighborhood, and your peace,
back sooner. Best of luck, I know it's rough.
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Defacement of Currency
Stephen Tinius, tinius at mindspring daught com
Hello Andy! While I sympathize with your cause, please be aware that
defacing U.S. currency is against the law. See the Web site of the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing at http://www.moneyfactory.com/document.cfm/18/104,
which states: “Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18,
Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency
defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts,
disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other
thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by
any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal
Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued,
shall be fined not more than $100 or imprisoned not more than six
months, or both.”
Defacement of currency in such a way that it is made unfit for
circulation comes under the jurisdiction of the United States Secret
Service. Their address is: United States Secret Service, 1800 G Street,
N. W., Washington, DC 20223.
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Crawling Anigbos
Dave Bosserman, orilla@erols.com
Got me, Ed [Ed Barron, “1300 Vouchers,” themail, September 10],
what is/are the Anigbos who might crawl out of the woodwork to establish
storefront scam schools in DC because of the new vouchers?
[Who wants to tell the Mary Anigbo story? — Gary Imhoff]
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High School Sports
Kathy Sinzinger, NewsDC1@aol.com
The Common Denominator has created two new programs this year
to recognize the achievements of DC Public Schools student athletes.
Each week during the football season, we will select “The Common
Denominator DCIAA Varsity Football Player of the Week.” During the
entire school year, The Common Denominator also will name DC
Interscholastic Athletic Association (DCIAA) players in any sport as
“Gold Stars” for outstanding individual performances in their teams'
winning or losing efforts. We also have added regular coverage of DC
Public Schools high school sports to our print and online editions.
(High schools that compete in DCIAA sports are Anacostia, Ballou,
Banneker, Bell, Cardozo, Coolidge, Dunbar, Eastern, M.M. Washington,
Roosevelt, School Without Walls, Spingarn, Wilson, and H.D. Woodson.)
In addition, we expect to provide marginal coverage of DC Catholic,
private, and charter schools' interscholastic sports while we seek
increased resources to expand our high school sports coverage. The
community's help in providing our staff with scores, schedules, rosters
and suggestions would be appreciated. Our web site at www.thecommondenominator.com
now contains “DCIAA Sports” pages to help students, parents, alumni
and other interested members of the community follow all DCIAA varsity
sports programs. Scores and standings will be updated online on a
regular basis as soon as they become available to our staff.
Ballou Senior High School quarterback Nico Scott has been named “The
Common Denominator's DCIAA Varsity Football Player of the Week”
for his performance in the Knights' Sept. 5 game against the Woodrow
Wilson Eagles in Beckley, W. Va. Scott, a sophomore at the Southeast
Washington school, completed 14 passes for 312 yards and two touchdowns
in the Knights' come-from-behind 46-42 fourth quarter victory. In
nominating Scott for the award, Ballou Head Football Coach/Athletic
Director Noel Cyrus called his performance “a career day.” An award
plaque and gold star lapel pin were presented to Scott by Kathryn M.
Sinzinger, editor and publisher of The Common Denominator, during
a pep assembly on Friday, Sept. 12, at Ballou Senior High School. The
Common Denominator created the DCIAA Varsity Football Player of the
Week award in cooperation with the DC Public Schools Department of
Athletics to provide recognition for the exemplary performance of
student athletes in the District of Columbia Public Schools. The award
is being cosponsored by numerous local businesses to show their support
for student athletes. The business cosponsors will be listed in each
issue of The Common Denominator during the football season and
will be featured on the “DCIAA Sports” pages on The Common
Denominator's web site at www.thecommondenominator.com.
We continue to seek more cosponsors to help expand The Common
Denominator's recognition of high school athletes. “The Common
Denominator DCIAA Varsity Football Player of the Week” is selected
from players nominated after each weekend's games by varsity football
coaches and athletic directors at the 10 DC public high schools that
compete in football in the DC Interscholastic Athletic Association.
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This is to advise that the September 2003 on-line edition has been
uploaded and may be accessed at http://www.intowner.com.
Included are the lead stories, community news items and crime reports,
editorials (including prior months' archived), restaurant reviews (prior
months' also archived), and the text from the ever-popular "Scenes
from the Past" feature. Also included are all current classified
ads. The complete issue (along with prior issues back to February 2002)
also is available in PDF file format by direct access from our home page
at no charge simply by clicking the link provided. Here you will be able
to view the entire issue as it appears in print, including the new ABC
Board actions report, all photos and advertisements.
The next issue will publish on October 10. The complete PDF version
will be posted by early that Friday morning, following which the text of
the lead stories, community news, and selected features will be uploaded
shortly thereafter. To read this month's lead stories, simply click the
link on the home page to the following headlines: 1) “Major Building
Underway Along U Street”; 2) “Liquor Board Rules for 'Voluntary'
Compliance Deals Come Under Fire”; 3) “Former Dupont Down Under
Space Finally OK for Re-Use, Appellate Court Rules;” 4) “Reflections
on the New City Museum of Washington.”
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Fair Budget Coalition Brown Bag Session,
September 25
Susie Cambria, scambria@dckids.org
The Fair Budget Coalition's brown bag lunch session on Budget
Execution and Federal Grants has been rescheduled for September 25! It
is for members of the Fair Budget Coalition — individual and
organizational memberships are a great value! (E-mail scambria@dckids.org
for membership materials.) The featured speaker is Jim Spaulding with
the DC Office of Budget and Planning. The event is being held on
Thursday, September 25, from 12-2 p.m. Reservations are required;
contact DC Action for Children, 234-9404, scambria@dckids.org,
and provide name, phone, or E-mail.
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CLASSIFIEDS — FOR SALE
My boss is selling a 2002 Mazda Protege 5, 12,000 miles, hatchback,
standard transmission, lots of extras, black. (Her daughter is moving to
NYC and can't deal with a car.) Asking $12,000. Originally paid $19,400.
Local car dealers are asking $13,500 or so for similar 2002 models. I
will forward all responses to her.
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Refrigerator
John Whiteside, loganjohn at mac dot com
I need to get rid of a white, full sized, fridge, Roper brand. Basic
fridge, great for a rental unit. Three years old, was new in my house
when I bought the house. A friend bought a new condo and is getting rid
of a fridge that's a bit nicer and fits in my teeny kitchen better, so I
want to get rid of this one. Make me an offer. If you know of charities
who will take a fridge as a donation and come pick it up, please let me
know that, too!
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CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS
I need to find a cell phone plan that is low-cost (i.e., less than
$20/month) and useful just for emergency use every once in a while. Does
such a thing exist? Thanks in advance for ideas and recommendations on
this. I don't mind buying a cell phone via a prepay plan, if that seems
like the best way to go.
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