Gotcha
Dear Victims:
The government is playing gotcha with us again this week. The Friday
after New Year's Day was a holiday for most of us, but not an official
holiday for the District government. The regular listing of holiday
closings in the Washington Post, which is where most of us get
our information about what will be open and closed, published the
information — which it said it got from the District government —
that on January 2, 2004, parking restrictions and meter charges would be
the same as on Sundays and holidays. And to the suckers who believed
that one, the District government said, “gotcha, here's your parking
ticket.” How does the government propose to make good the injustice?
Quite frankly, it doesn't. The mayor or the Department of Motor Vehicles
could quite easily and simply have waived any of the undeserved parking
tickets. They didn't, of course. Instead, citizens are being put through
the inconvenience of appealing their tickets. If the government actually
intended to honor these appeals it wouldn't make its citizens go through
this procedure, since everyone who appeals will have the same excuse.
But officials know that making it inconvenient for citizens to attempt
to get our tickets waived will discourage most of us from trying, and
that denying the remaining appeals individually will escape the glare of
bad publicity.
Another example of gotcha is the city council's delay of its vote on
reducing the cap on property tax increases from 25 percent a year to 10
percent a year. Councilmembers are still framing the issue upside down
— arguing that if your property taxes are a thousand dollars this
year, and if they rise to only $1100 next year, instead of to $1250, the
government will lose $150, rather than gaining an additional $100.
Councilmember Kathy Patterson, who introduced an amendment to the
property tax cap bill to delay the lowering of the cap for one year,
argues below that this delay is necessary. What she demonstrates is that
allowing the excessive and extortionate 25 percent increase to go
through this year will cost taxpayers an additional $23.7 million —-
not only in this year, but in every subsequent year, since this new rate
will be established as the floor. Again, let's get the language
straight. Capping tax increases doesn't mean the government will get
less money from taxpayers — it only means the government will get less
additional money. If the council wanted to budget for less of an
increase, it could, but it would rather sock home owners and taxpayers
with higher bills.
The executive summary of a draft proposal for the “DCPS High School
Reform Initiative” has been posted at http://www.dcpswatch.com/dcps/0312b.htm.
It has a link to DCPS's online response questionnaire for commenting on
the draft.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
###############
I am seeking stories and investigations of DC housing inspectors not
doing their job. I am filing a DC Civil Personal injury lawsuit that
involves a DC real estate property investor, broker, and architect who
are completing a major rehab on a row house without any permits or
license. This rehab work resulted in my breaking my ankle in my own back
yard. This was in 2001, and the row house is a 100-year-old property
that had not been rehabbed before.
Even though I complained to the DC housing inspectors at least five
times, there never was a stoppage of this illegal and dangerous work. I
ended up having an accident and injury from tripping and falling in my
back yard from their construction debris. Why wouldn't the inspectors
address this major DC housing violation?
###############
Rude and Inconsiderate
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aoldotcom
As a fairly frequent rider on the Metrobus system in DC, I have had
lots of time to observe the misbehavior of Metrobus riders. Specifically
I'd like to focus on those who get off the bus using only the front
exit. In New York that is a cardinal sin. Only those who are disabled or
infirm in the Big Apple would ever leave by the front door of a city
bus. Here in DC, it is almost the only way people will exit the bus. On
my trip downtown Monday morning at about 9 a.m., I rode the N bus from
48th Street, NW down to K Street and Connecticut Avenue.
During that ride almost one hundred folks boarded the bus and that
same number exited. Of that one hundred or so folks (none infirm or
disabled) only seven exited the bus using the rear exit doors (and I was
one of those seven). More than half of those exiting the front door were
much closer to the rear exit doors. Some folks all the way at the back
of the bus would signal for a stop, wait for the bus to stop, and then
leisurely walk all the way to the front of the bus to deboard. This
folks, is both rude and inconsiderate. It probably adds about twenty
percent additional time for making the bus run downtown and creates some
unpleasantness between those trying to board and those exiting the bus.
Since the rude and inconsiderate behavior of DC Metrobus riders is
unlikely to change, then the transportation folks in DC should modify
their specs for new buses in DC. They should be specifying buses that
are hybrid powered buses (using a combination of fossil fuel engine and
electric motor, a la the Toyota Prius, and without the rear exit doors).
Leaving off a rear exit door on the bus would save about five percent of
the procurement price.
###############
Parking Ticket Snafu
Brian Vogel, vogelbp@mail.com
Tim Cline writes (themail, January 4) about an announcement in The
Washington Post regarding parking regulations for Friday, January 2,
being the same as Sunday regulations. The city parking enforcers appear
to have believed otherwise. I was also the victim of the same sort of
snafu on Friday, November 28, 2003. I simply presumed that Friday of
Thanksgiving weekend would not include standard rush hour restrictions.
I also was sure I'd heard that these had been lifted on all the area HOV
lanes. Does anyone know how to confirm when and whether restrictions
have been lifted? I'd love to be able to find out after the fact, but
have not been successful. I wrote to the DC Government via their web
site to get further details, and this is the non-helpful reply I got:
“This is in response to your e-mail requesting detailed information
about RUSH HOUR PARKING restrictions. Detailed information concerning
all PARKING restrictions can be found in the District of Columbia
Municipal Regulations (DCMR), Title 18, Vehicles and Traffic, Chapter 24
STOPPING, STANDING, PARKING AND OTHER NON-MOVING VIOLATIONS. Also,
definitions can be located in the back of the DCMR. The DCMR can be
obtained from the D.C. Office of Documents and Administrative Issuances,
441 4th Street, NW, Room 520. Just for your information, we do not have
an official listing of locations where the RUSH HOUR PARKING
restrictions exist. However, if you are inquiring about a specific
location I will be happy to assist you.”
It's really sad when these restrictions cannot be accessed online and
when those in charge don't maintain any official listing of locations
where these restrictions are in force.
###############
Parking Enforcement on January 2
Mary L. Myers, DPW, mary.myers@dc.gov
The Washington Post, like all other conduits of mass
communication, is prone to an occasional error. However, DPW does not
confine its public outreach to the print media alone. DPW sends news
releases regarding scheduled services changes, holiday trash collection,
and other announcements — via E-mail and/or fax — to Councilmembers,
government agencies, and several thousand residents on twelve community
listservs, in addition to print, broadcast, and electronic media. The
DPW holiday services schedule was disseminated three times — before
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day — to the entire
distribution list. In addition to coverage in the print media, I noted
that the listservs published the services schedule before all three
holidays. themail also published the holiday services release at least
once (on December 24). Each time in each outlet, the release stated that
January 2, 2004, would be a regular business day. The same information
can be found on the DPW website.
Personally, I am very sorry that some Washingtonians started the new
year with a parking ticket. However, there is a remedy. If Mr. Cline and
others believe they received parking tickets in error, he/they should
simply follow the mail-in adjudication instructions on the back of the
ticket. The adjudication officer at DMV will review the ticket, and any
correspondence included, before making a decision to uphold or rescind
the ticket. The process is no more onerous than writing a note, stuffing
an envelope and affixing a stamp.
###############
Property Tax Cap Legislation
Kathy Patterson, kpattdc3@aol.com
Here is the record on my role in the Council’s consideration of
Bill 15-303, the “Owner-Occupant Residential Tax Credit Act of
2003,” to lower the 10 percent the cap on annual property tax
increases for owner-occupied housing, which I cosponsored and continue
to support. At the committee markup of the bill on November 25 I voted
for the bill, while noting, as stated in the Finance and Revenue
Committee report on the legislation, that I “would recommend changing
the effective date of the legislation to FY 2005 should we be unable to
identify funds in the current fiscal year.” The most recent estimate
is that the tax cap will result in a $23.7 revenue reduction for fiscal
year 2004. At the December legislative session I moved an amendment to
delay the effective date, accepted as “friendly” by Councilmember
Evans because, like other supporters, he knew it would be ruled out of
order without the amendment. Council Rule 443, which governs fiscal
impact statements, requires “an identification of the revenues and
funds currently available to implement the measure, if it is to be
implemented within the current fiscal year.” As reported out of
committee Bill 15-303 did not meet this requirement and would not have
been sent forward for final approval.
The Council will consider the tax-cap legislation, as well as a
substitute proposal offered by Councilmember Mendelson, at a special
session on January 20th. Prior to that date, Chief Financial Officer
Natwar Gandhi is expected to officially certify a revised FY 2004
revenue estimate more than $90 million higher than prior estimates. This
would enable the Council to enact the property tax cap this year while
keeping the budget in balance, and is a step that I recommended and
support. The Council appears fairly evenly split between the two
measures of tax relief — the cap and the Mendelson amendment, which
includes a 20 percent cap and an expansion of the homestead deduction.
The Finance and Revenue Committee has scheduled a hearing Tuesday at 10
a.m. on the homestead bill and other tax measures, and those supporting
the 10 percent cap might want to testify on the need for relief from
higher assessments as a more urgent priority than changing the homestead
benefit.
As to my adherence to budget rules, criticized in themail, the
District’s current budget rules were written during and after the city’s
financial crisis. I joined the Council as the crisis became evident, and
had a role in moving the city to a surer financial footing. Budget
discipline was hard to achieve and is difficult to maintain, and is not
something I am likely to abandon.
###############
Public-Private Initiatives and DCPS
Sue Hemberger, Friendship Heights, smithhemb@aol.com
Unlike Matthew Gilmore [themail, January 4], I don't see
self-congratulatory press releases from the 21st Century Fund and LCOR
as necessary context for addressing the questions I'm raising about
whether public-private initiatives should be allowed to override DCPS's
system-wide prioritization of capital improvement needs. I do agree,
however, that Oyster School is a case worth studying. I haven't ferreted
out all of the relevant details yet, but clearly the claim that
public-private initiatives can be used to provide us with new schools
that will cost taxpayers nothing is bogus. In the Oyster case, DCPS gave
up a $3 million parcel of land it owned, issued an $11 million dollar
bond to be repaid (at least in part) out of money the developer would
otherwise have owed the city in taxes, and pledged a $250,000
"success fee" to the nonprofit organization that brokered the
deal. Transferring assets, taking on debt, and foregoing future income
all involve costs to the city and thus to its taxpayers. Oyster wasn't a
school that we got for free.
At a minimum, the city will end up paying a total of about $13
million dollars for the construction of Oyster over the 35-year life of
the bond. ($9,744,000 in lost property taxes plus $3 million in land
plus the $250,000 fee). The cost could be substantially higher if DC
waived more than just LCOR's property taxes (e.g. if it waived taxes it
otherwise could have collected on rental income for the building), if
the city had to service the debt during construction, if the apartment
building appreciates over the next 35 years, if the tax rate on
multifamily property increases during that period, or if there were
other costs associated with building the school that weren't reported in
the articles I've read. These are the kinds of details that would be
needed to determine whether the Oyster public-private initiative was a
good deal for the city. I share Harold Foster's skepticism [themail,
January 4] that desperate/cash-strapped public institutions making these
deals are likely to drive good bargains when negotiating with private
profit-making entities like LCOR who are repeat players in the
public-private initiative game and who can afford to take or leave any
particular project offered to them. I'd love to see someone do a full
accounting on the Oyster project, rather than just a puff piece. But
we've certainly got enough information already to know that the
city/school district paid a substantial amount of money to build Oyster.
And even if a full accounting would lead to the conclusion that the
money the city spent on Oyster was money well spent and that the
public-private partnership was the most advantageous way of financing
the construction of a new school, that doesn't mean that Janney's
public-private initiative is a good idea. Oyster does not appear to have
presented the same equity issues that Janney does. As far as I can
determine, there was no comprehensive prioritization of DCPS's capital
improvement needs at the time that the Oyster deal was made. I've also
gotten the impression that, had there been such a prioritization, Oyster
might well have been near the front of the line. It was a highly
successful program being housed in a building that the school district
was talking about tearing down. So, arguably (again, I may not have all
of the details and I'm eager to learn more), the queue-jumping issue
that Janney presents was not present in the Oyster case. And the
rationale for queue-jumping, remember, is that Janney's gain does not
represent any other school's loss because Janney would be getting this
new wing at no cost. That's clearly not the case. The public-private
partnership proposals that the Janney committee describes would involve
the sale of DCPS-owned land and, perhaps, the earmarking of tax revenues
generated by future development on that land to fund capital
improvements for the school. I think that we should question whether the
sale of this land and its designation as a special tax district would be
in the city's/school district's best interests, but even assuming that
they are, then, in both cases, the income produced could be spent on
other schools whose needs have been determined to be greater/more urgent
than Janney's. This is not inherently a situation where if Janney isn't
allowed to benefit from such a transaction, then the opportunity for
revenue-generation must be lost entirely.
###############
New Year’s Notion for Commuters to DC
Harold Goldstein, mdbiker@aol.com
[Len Sullivan, themail, January 4, wrote:] "Instead of pressing
for handouts from the suburbs, wouldn't it make more sense for DC
residents to belly up to their own costs of living in the nation's
capital, while those living in its suburbs belly up to paying the real
costs of alleviating regional traffic gridlock?" I hate the DC
government, and the attendant hassles of living with it was a
contributing reason for my recent departure for the countryside. But I
hate even more this absurd notion that, in asking for the right to tax
the users of its services, the city is asking for a handout. Are other
cities with commuter taxes asking for handouts?
And as for traffic gridlock, which the writer implies is not being
solved because of DC's unwillingness to pay, there are various complex
formulas in use to pay for transportation costs based on proportionate
usage of the various nodes so the jurisdictions are already attempting
to allocate those costs fairly.
Finally, for now, the fiction that you can alleviate traffic gridlock
by throwing money at capital projects is just that, a fiction. You can
not point to a single situation in this country where spending money on
new highways, or, for that matter, traditional transit systems, have
alleviated traffic congestion. Quite the opposite. New transportation
supply just generates new transportation demands, which further
exacerbates gridlock. An entire new approach to planning, which attacks
both the supply and demand sides, is needed. Consider that, at
effectively no cost, one can reduce peak demands tremendously by going
to a four-day work week., expanding telecommuting, and flextime, and
compare that with spending billions and achieving little.
###############
I am sick and tired of the self-righteous lecturing of DC's
suburbanites who have become accustomed to robbing the District's
treasury through their failure to pay taxes on their income where it is
earned. Because Congress, at the behest of Maryland and Virginia,
unfairly prohibits the District from utilizing the same local taxing
mechanism available to every state in the country, suburbanites such as
Len Sullivan [themail, "New Year's Notion for Commuters to
DC," January 4] feel as though ceasing to receive their ill-gotten
gains would amount to "handouts from the suburbs." Taxes on
income where it is earned are not handouts nor an anomaly. What is an
anomaly is the continuing disgraceful meddling of Congress in its
efforts to abuse the unrepresented citizens of the District to the
benefit of those in Maryland and Virginia. Len Sullivan and other
"aggrieved" commuters should take a moment to honestly
contemplate the unwarranted greed-based unfairness of Congress, rather
than arrogantly deriding every fiscal policy within the District that
they determine to be unwise.
###############
Automated Traffic Enforcement
Jacqueline Dupree, jacdupree at yahoo dot com
[Re: Candace L. Davison, "Automated Traffic Enforcement,"
themail, January 4:] Would Candace like to tell us how she knows for a
fact that the other cars around her didn't get tickets, too? And how is
going 61 in a 50 mph zone not against the law?
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
UDC-DCSL Panel on Guantanamo Bay Prisoners,
January 9
Joe Libertelli, jlibertelli@udc.edu
Save the Date! UDC David A. Clarke School of Law Professors James
Gray and Will McLain and Virginia attorney, professor, and political
commentator Elaine Cassel will discuss the American-held prisoners at
Guantanamo Bay. Are they being held in violation of the US Constitution?
How will the Supreme Court decide this case? Join the UDC-DCSL American
Constitution Society for the first in a series on events in the news.
Friday, January 9, 12:00 p.m., Room 205, Building 39, UDC David A.
Clarke School of Law, 4200 Connecticut Ave., NW (Red Line, UDC/Van Ness
Metro), free. For further information: Debbie Anderson, dcande01@syr.edu.
###############
Democratic Presidential Candidates’ Events,
January 9
Sean Tenner, DC Democracy Fund, stenner@mrss.com
With the January 13th DC primary barely a week away, I hope you'll
take the time to attend some great local events to support your favorite
presidential candidate. If you are a fan of Governor Howard Dean, or of
DC's great local music scene, please attend a benefit concert at the
Black Cat on Friday, January 9. Doors open at 9:30 p.m., and tickets are
just $8 at the door. Funds raised will support efforts to get out the
vote for Howard Dean in the DC primary. The Black Cat is at 1811 14th
Street, NW (U Street-Cardozo Metro). The show features an amazing and
diverse lineup: Citizen Cope, recently returned from touring Europe with
Santana, will lead things off. Then comes No Skilz vs. King Bass of 302
Acid, a DC-based collective of artists who combine their music with
real-time audio and video sources to create multimedia events. They are
big supporters of the local arts scene, and are described by the Washington
City Paper as a band that “is in the right place at the right time
. . . that can certainly deliver.” Finishing off the show will be one
of the DC voting rights movement's biggest allies in the local music
scene: Los Hermanos Rodriguez. They are described by the Washington
Post as, “making some of the most interesting rock in this town
since Fugazi” and as “one of DC's best . . . a brilliantly rocking
trio.” Come out Friday to this great event!
Congressman Dennis Kucinich, a longtime DC voting rights supporter in
Congress and progressive leader, will be meeting for lunch with voting
rights activists and citizens at Mimi’s Bistro on Friday, January 9,
from noon to 1 p.m. Mimi’s is located at 2120 P Street, NW. The
nearest Metro is DuPont Circle South. All are invited. The Congressman
has been unwavering in his support of the DC primary and the drive for
equality in DC. Come have some great food and talk to him about the
issues facing our city. Please contact his DC campaign coordinator, Yu-Lan
Tu at 240-888-4871 or yu-lan@kucinich.us,
for more information. If you are backing former Senator and Ambassador
Carol Moseley-Braun, please join her at the wildly popular hot spot Bar
Rouge in the Hotel Rouge at 1315 16th Street, NW, on Friday, January 9.
The event is tentatively scheduled for 7 p.m. Please contact her DC
campaign coordinator Peb Ali at 256-9129 for information. Reverend Al
Sharpton has raised the DC voting rights issue for the entire country at
recent nationally televised Democratic debates and forums, and has made
DC statehood a focal point of his campaign. He was the first candidate
to open a campaign office in DC and has been a fixture at local events.
To join the Reverend at an upcoming campaign appearance in DC or to
volunteer, call 581-5439 or stop by his office at 2526 Pennsylvania
Avenue, SE (Minnesota Avenue/Benning Road Metro).
Finally, don't miss the DC Primary Presidential Candidates debate on
WTOP radio at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, January 9. Voting rights proponent
and radio personality Mark Plotkin will discuss DC issues with
presidential candidates in what is certain to be a lively discussion!
Listen to the debate on WTOP radio at 1500 AM, 820 AM or 107.7 FM, see
the web cast at http://www.wtop.com, or watch it in person in the
Crossfire studio at 21st and H Streets, NW, at George Washington
University (across from the Marvin Center). Whomever you support,
remember to vote in the Tuesday, January 13 DC primary for the candidate
you believe will stand up for DC in the White House! Polls are open 7
a.m. to 8 p.m. and you can call 727-2525 for voting and polling place
information.
###############
Dean for President Rally, January 10
Jeffrey Norman, jeffrey.norman@att.net
Everyone is cordially invited to a Howard Dean for President rally at
the First Congregational Church, 10th and G Streets, NW, next to the MLK
Library) on Saturday, January 10 from 2-4 p.m. For further information,
contact Jeff Norman, Precinct Captain for Precinct 32 in the DC for Dean
campaign.
###############
Visit the City Museum on Tuesday, January 13, 6:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m. to
hear Dr. Michael Fauntroy discuss his new book, Home Rule or House
Rule? Congress and the Erosion of Local Governance in the District of
Columbia (University Press of America), which looks at the erosion
of home rule in the District between 1975 and 1998. Books will be
available for purchase in the museum shop. The City Museum is located at
801 K Street, NW, across the street from the new Convention Center.
Admission: $5-members; $8-non-members. Reservations are required.
383-1809.
###############
Primary Election, January 13
Janet W. Brown, janetwbrown@igc.org
Please make sure that voting on the 13th -- just next week -- is on
your calendar. This time, it's not so much whom you vote for, but that
you vote. This exercise is about making the Democratic Party, which
always seems to take DC for granted, pay attention to the unfairness and
injustice of withholding our basic right to full congressional voting
representation. Please rally all your neighbors and friends and make
sure they get to the polls. We need to make a good showing. You won't be
allowed to vote for the five cowardly candidates who won't stand up to
the party (wouldn't it be nice if they had all gotten together and all
agreed to be on this ballot even if the DNC doesn't recognize our
primary?), but go out anyway and vote for one of the ones that does
stand up for DC.
###############
Anacostia Waterfront Initiative at National
Building Museum, January 14
Briana Hensold, bhensold@nbm.org
To open the National Building Museum's first exhibition of 2004, D.C.
Builds: The Anacostia Waterfront, architect Lord Richard Rogers will
join Mayor Anthony Williams and Andrew Altman, director of the D.C.
Office of Planning, at the Museum from 7:30-8:30 p.m. for a free,
special program on Wednesday, January 14. Mayor Williams and Altman will
present the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative (AWI), a partnership among
various D.C. and federal agencies that will create a new, vibrant river
front for an area that historically has been neglected and misused. The
initiative seeks to unify the waterfront into a diverse but cohesive
mixture of commercial, residential, recreational, and open-space uses
through coordinated development and conservation. The D.C. Builds
exhibition explores the initiative in detail by examining the
Anacostia's ecology, history, and future, and looking at case studies of
other river front reclamation efforts in cities like Boston and
Providence.
Lord Richard Rogers will expand the content of the program by
discussing London's waterfront projects. Known for his design of
buildings such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Lloyd's Building
in London, Rogers is also active in developing the planning and urban
renewal strategies for London. As a member of the Mayor of London's
Advisory Cabinet and chief advisor on architecture and urban design to
the Greater London Authority, Rogers faces some of the same challenges
in London that Altman and Mayor Williams are addressing with the AWI.
D.C. Builds will be open to the public from January 17 through May
23. The opening lecture and exhibition preview is free. Advance
registration is required. Register online at http://www.nbm.org
or call 272-2448.
###############
An Evening for Iran, January 24
Ramesh Sepehrrad, ncwdi@igc.org
The Iranian-American Organizations and communities, along with the
American Red Cross, are hosting an event at the Washington, DC,
Convention Center on January 24, at 5:00 p.m. All the proceeds of this
event will go the American Red Cross fund for the Bam earthquake
victims. "An Evening for Iran" event is the first
international gala that will host distinguished speakers from US,
Europe, along with international artists and musicians in honoring all
the victims in Iran. This is an evening for the people of Iran. This is
an evening to remember the victims of earthquake along with the victims
of human rights in Iran. This is an evening of solidarity with Iranians
and their struggle for democracy and peace. For more information please
visit http://www.iran-solidarity.org
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — HELP WANTED
Legal Secretary, Full Time, Immediate Opening
Jon Katz, jon@markskatz.com
Silver Spring, Maryland. Marks & Katz, LLC, is a growing law firm
fighting for justice, individual rights, and the underdog . We have an
immediate opening for a legal secretary with a minimum of one year of
legal experience to assist in work including criminal defense and
Constitutional defense. Top pay and benefits. Pluses include at least
two years of private law firm experience and experience in a fast-paced
workplace. Please send, only via E-mail, a text version of your resume,
a persuasive cover letter (designating "Legal Secretary"),
salary history, and relevant references, to Jon Katz, justice@markskatz.com,
Marks & Katz, LLC. Please refrain from E-mail attachments and phone
calls. For more information, visit http://www.markskatz.com.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — FREE
I have a gas stove available immediately for donation to a nonprofit
organization in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. It is a Tappan,
self-cleaning stove in good working order and appearance. You will only
need to provide the labor to come to my house, disconnect the gas line
and remove the stove. Please call to discuss: 301-657-2934, evenings and
weekends.
###############
themail@dcwatch is an E-mail discussion forum that is published every
Wednesday and Sunday. To subscribe, to change E-mail addresses, or to
switch between HTML and plain text versions of themail, use the
subscription form at http://www.dcwatch.com/themail/subscribe.htm.
To unsubscribe, send an E-mail message to themail@dcwatch.com
with “unsubscribe” in the subject line. Archives of past messages
are available at http://www.dcwatch.com/themail.
All postings should also be submitted to themail@dcwatch.com,
and should be about life, government, or politics in the District of
Columbia in one way or another. All postings must be signed in order to
be printed, and messages should be reasonably short — one or two brief
paragraphs would be ideal — so that as many messages as possible can
be put into each mailing.