Late Lunch
Dear Lunchers:
In an episode of the 1950’s TV series "Mr. and Mrs.
North," passionate Latin lover Hans Conreid (that’s funny in
itself if you remember Hans Conreid), expresses his grief to Katy Jurado
when she is late joining him at a restaurant: “I waited. I suffered. I
had lunch.”
The city council is suffering as it waits to find out whether the
District government will seek an en banc rehearing of the US
Court of Appeals decision in Shelly Parker v. District of Columbia (http://www.dcwatch.com/issues/gun070309.htm),
or whether it will accept the court’s findings: first, that the
Second Amendment isn’t a nullity, but actually does guarantee
meaningful rights to Americans, and second, that the Constitution and
the Bill of Rights apply just as fully to residents of the District of
Columbia as they do to other citizens of the United States. I’m
suffering as I wait to hear from Mayor Fenty and Interim Attorney
General Linda Singer whether they believe, as the District government
argued in the case, that the Second Amendment doesn’t apply to
citizens of the District.
But meanwhile, we’re all having lunch. On Wednesday, the city
council’s Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary will use the
occasion of a hearing on Councilmember Marion Barry’s “Gun Violence
Reduction Act of 2007,” Bill 17-93, to rail against the court, the
Second Amendment, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution. Barry’s
bill has been publicized mostly because it would create a ninety-day
opportunity for DC residents to register firearms legally, and thus to
exercise their right to keep and bear arms. But the more lasting effect
of the bill would be to increase the penalty for owning an unregistered
firearm to a longer jail term than most murderers serve in this
jurisdiction; some penalties are doubled, some tripled, and some
sextupled. Considering the current mood of most councilmembers, my guess
is that they will strip the bill of its ninety-day window to allow
firearm registrations, and keep the increases in penalties for having
unlicensed firearms, as a slap at the Court of Appeals.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Citizen Representation on the Rosenbaum Task
Force
Anne M. Renshaw, DC Federation of Citizens Associations, milrddc@aol.com
DC citizens are the primary consumers of the city’s emergency
medical services delivery system. Why, then, are knowledgeable citizens
being excluded from participating on the blue-ribbon Rosenbaum Task
Force which will ultimately shape the future of DC’s Emergency Medical
Services (EMS)?
When asked about citizen participation on the Rosenbaum Task Force at
a recent public meeting in Chevy Chase, Mayor Adrian Fenty responded
that there was "no citizen position" on the task force.
According to the mayor, the composition of the panel had been negotiated
with the Rosenbaum family. However, the mayor was reminded that there
was nothing in the Rosenbaum Settlement Agreement to exclude citizens [http://www.dcwatch.com/issues/rosenbaum070308.htm].
The mayor seemed surprised that the Agreement had been put in the public
domain when the document had been passed out by his aides at the
Rosenbaum Settlement press conference. The document merely states that,
“The District agrees to convene a Task Force comprising members
selected by the Parties,” who are the District and the Rosenbaum
family. Backing away from his “no citizen position” statement, the
Mayor said that he would “look again at the document.”
In addition to the mayor and representatives of DC Fire and EMS,
others on the Rosenbaum Task Force are reported to be DC’s new Fire
Chief, Dennis L. Rubin from Atlanta, and Boston’s EMS Chief, Richard
A. Serino. In fairness, the public must be added to this panel as an
affected party. If citizens are to have renewed confidence in the city’s
EMS delivery system, they must participate in its transformation. To bar
them from the process would be shortsighted and unacceptable.
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Wells Supports Referendum on School Takeover
Marc Borbely, borbely@fixourschools.net
Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) repeated to constituents today
his support for a referendum on the council/mayor school takeover
legislation. “I am likely to support a referendum, if it can be done
by July," he said. If the takeover legislation passes in late May,
after the Ward 4 and 7 reps take their seats, a referendum by late July
should by possible. In the Washington Informer on March 6, Wells
was quoted as saying, similarly, "If a referendum only delays it by
thirty or sixty days I would support a referendum,” http://www.washingtoninformer.com/A1FentySchoolTakeover2007March8.html.
Which other councilmembers respect District citizens and
self-determination enough to support a referendum on changes to our
Charter? Many civic associations citywide have already formally called
for a referendum. With a referendum, the District could make changes on
its own; without one, our leaders would be asking our congressional
overseers to make the changes (but none other, please) for us.
Yes, it’s risky asking voters for our approval. We may not turn out
in high numbers, and we may vote no. But asking Congress instead would
be the ultimate betrayal of home rule and self-determination. In my
opinion, a councilmember who tries to take away our right to vote on DC
governance issues, as provided for by our Home Rule Charter itself, has
no business being a councilmember.
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Dog Park Brouhaha
Ed T. Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
The onerous and absurd rules that would allow dog parks to be set up
in DC will likely preclude any dog parks being established. Unlike DC,
the Big Apple has many dog parks in Manhattan that have worked well for
years. Dog parks in NY are sometimes are sometimes isolated and
sometimes part of a larger park. But in NY there are no regulations that
say these parks must certify that there are no rats within a radius of
five blocks. That’s absurd. If dog owners follow the rules for the
park, which require that all dog leavings be picked up and disposed of
properly, then there will be no attraction to rats and no health issues.
The folks in McLean Gardens who have protested against a dog park near
their organic gardens should come out late at night near their gardens
if they really want to see rats in DC.
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DC Voting Rights Act Moves to House Floor
Kevin Kiger, kkiger@dcvote.org
The DC Voting Rights Act (H.R. 1433) passed in the House Judiciary
Committee on March 15 by a vote of 21-13. H.R. 1433 will be sent to the
House Floor soon, possibly as early as next week. This historic act
marks the first time in a generation that the House of Representatives
will consider a bill to give the taxpaying, American citizens living in
the District of Columbia a voting member of Congress.
Congressman Gohmert (R-TX) threatened to attach more than forty
amendments, but withdrew many of them at the request of Chairman John
Conyers (D-MI). Rep. Gohmert continued to stall the proceedings,
introducing amendments that would put off addressing the issue of DC
voting rights until the 113th Congress, among others. Chairman Conyers
prevailed upon him to end his stalling tactics. A major victory for the
bill came when Congressman Mike Pence voted for the DC Voting Rights
Act. A leader among conservatives, Pence set aside partisan politics and
voted for a bill that addresses a problem that nearly every member
agreed needed to be fixed: the denial of voting representation for DC
citizens.
The bill, sponsored by Representative Tom Davis (R-VA) and Delegate
Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), balances a vote for the traditionally
Democratic District of Columbia with a vote for Republican-leaning Utah.
It would raise the number of members in the House of Representatives
from 435 to 437. On Tuesday, the bill passed in the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee 24-5. Democratic leadership, including
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), have
pledged their support for DC voting rights as the bill moves to the
floor.
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Citizen Rights and Government Powers
Paul Wilson, dcmcrider at gmail dot com
With respect to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruling in Parker
v. DC, I applaud the court for overturning Judge Reggie Walton’s
overly broad and constitutionally defective ruling. As for the District’s
attorney general’s argument — that non-statehood allows the District
to eviscerate the Second Amendment by legislative fiat -- I am most glad
the court swatted down this particular line of reasoning. There is no
end of mischief possible under this concept. I suspect it is only
because the private ownership of handguns is politically unpopular that
most DC folks are sitting on their hands at this affront to our civil
liberties.
Is there any thinking person that would blithely accept nullification
of any other enumerated right based on non-statehood? Would we accept
that the First Amendment means something different, depending on which
side of the DC line you’re standing. How about equal protection clause
in the Fourteenth, an amendment aimed squarely at the states that sought
to curb civil rights of freed slaves after the civil war. Is there no
equal protection in DC either, because it is not a state?
I will admit the DC Council seems to have a particular problem with
the “petition for redress of grievances” clause in the First
Amendment based on its inability to pass a meaningful open meetings
legislation. And they don’t have much use for the narrow meaning of
the "takings" clause of the Fifth, either. Perhaps there are
other exceptions to the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments that DC
officials find overly burdensome and would like to have go away to make
their lives easier. Some constitutional provisions are by design highly
inconvenient to overweening government power, and the Second Amendment
is one of them. That is, after all, why the Founders had a Bill of
Rights in the first place, as a curb on government.
I would like to see the Mayor publicly repudiate this particular line
of argument as the case proceeds. For DC officials to posture and
caterwaul about “statehood” or make a “civil rights” case for
congressional representation while backing this odious line of reasoning
is highly inconsistent, to say the least.
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If the DC gun law is struck down three things will happen: the pool
of available guns will increase exponentially by either theft or illegal
resale to those intent on using them for felonious purposes; there will
be an increase in injury and death from gunshot occurring during crimes
of passion; there will be an increase in injury and death among children
ten or younger from accidental discharge of a fire arm. No matter how
hard adults work at secreting dangerous instruments children have an
uncanny knack for locating them.
Those who plead the need for owning a firearm for self defense should
keep in mind that if they confront someone whose finger is already on
the trigger, their chances of outdrawing the assailant are minimal.
Therefore they should answer their doors with their finger also already
on the trigger which in all likelihood will make the job of a delivery
person a good deal more dangerous than it already is. A society that can
land a man on the moon ought to be able to deal sensibly with the
proliferation of firearms.
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I admired your comments on guns in DC. I’ve been told it’s easier
to buy an illegal gun in a housing project than a beer. Thousands of
young criminals in this city pack illegal handguns and we’re at their
mercy.
I’ve been the victim of four robberies and one attempt to break
into my apartment while I was home. In each case the police took at
least forty minutes to reply to my phone calls. And in every case the
criminals escaped. I have no faith in the ability of the police to
protect me or to catch the criminals who victimize me. There is no thin
blue line protecting us from the thousands of criminals who want to
shoot us, rob us or break into our homes. I think we have the right to
defend ourselves in our homes.
The ban on handguns is absurd. It’s illegal even to own a BB or
pellet gun. Until a few years ago it was even illegal to own mace!
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Open Letter to Board of Education Members
Erich Martel, Wilson High School, ehmartel at starpower
dot net
On March 14, you proposed and discussed a revised increase in DCPS
graduation requirements 24.0 credits, up from 23.5, starting with the
DCPS Class of 2011 (August 2007 ninth graders). I urge you to rethink
this decision. Against the previous proposal for 26 credits, this new
24-credit proposal, the same total that eight states require now or by
2012, might seem reasonable. Board members will not have to explain why
every DCPS student must earn more credits for a high school diploma than
any other state requires, while our students continue to have the lowest
national achievement scores and high dropout rates. But that is exactly
what happened.
By cutting elective credits from 4.5 to 1.5, your proposal increases
specific, core course requirements from 19.0 credits (the second highest
in the US behind WV’s 21) to 22.5, the highest in the nation, by far.
By increasing science and math from 3.0 to 4.0, Career Ed from 1.0 to
2.0 and social studies from 3.5 to 4.0, you have, in fact, made DCPS
official graduation requirements the most difficult in the country. The
reduced number of elective requirements, 1.5, is now the second lowest
in the country (eight states do not require electives; most of them set
state requirements between 13 and 18 credits) and will have a tremendous
depressing effect on student passing rates, since many of the credits,
e.g., Office Assistant I & II, Work Study, etc., are, in many cases,
non-classes with guaranteed A’s and no attendance taken.
In fact, you really did raise the total requirements to 26.0 or more
for most high school students: 1) Additional academy requirements total
more than the remaining 1.5 Carnegie units for electives; the same is
true for ELL/ESL students who, until now, could count newcomer courses
toward elective requirements. 2) Many students have incomplete
schedules. Reducing elective options will increase that problem. This
will lead to more students roaming the halls. 3) The teachers needed for
the increase in core requirements will draw teachers from electives. 4)
The increase in difficult courses will increase the number of failures
and the number dropouts. This will be seen in the challenge of
adjustment facing 9th graders this fall, as they transition from 8th
grades in middle and junior high schools to high schools where lax
enforcement of student behavior rules and adolescent peer-pressure have
created learning-unfriendly environments, a problem that Board members
and top officials ignore, year after year. 5) There will be greater
pressure to dilute course content, give passing grades for failing
performance and continue to long-standing practice of social promotion
and social graduation.
In conclusion, you need to go into high school classrooms and allow
teachers to talk confidentially with you about the degree to which they
are able to teach the mandated content of current requirements. Examine
transcripts and attendance, tardy and truancy reports. Instruct the
Superintendent to give you access to DCSTARS, so you can review student
and school data yourself. If you want to improve our schools, you cannot
do it based on second- and third-hand information and glowing promises
of future achievement.
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I am very offended by Clyde Howard’s assertion [themail, March 14]
that the DC government is run by total idiots. In my work, I have come
across many dedicated and hardworking DC government employees who really
care about their jobs and this. Many of them could make much more money
in the private sector, but enjoy having a job where they can do
important work. But that is eroded if everyone thinks you’re an idiot.
Do they make mistakes? Yes, and so do I. There are some who aren’t
very good and those who are competent and hardworking. It also
disheartens them and makes them more likely to leave for that private
sector job.
I have been on both sides of government and other contracts and I’d
like to point out two things: 1) hindsight is 20/20. Often you don’t
realize what should have been in a contract, especially a contract for
an innovative project, until it’s too late. 2) Big firms that do work
for DC government often have big, expensive law firms that help them
ensure that contracts are favorable to them. DC government can’t
afford that amount of legal work.
I hope that Mr. Howard will run for elected office or take a job with
the DC government and show the rest of us idiots how to do it right. But
I doubt he will do that, because it’s so much easier to sit around and
write about what everyone else is doing wrong than to actually go out
and do something.
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DC’s Ever-Increasing Spending Should Be the
Means to an End
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net
In its March web site update, NARPAC picks up on recent newspaper
articles (in The Examiner) regarding the role of DC’s somewhat
notorious and certainly autocratic Chief Financial Officer. Some members
of the DC Council wonder why Gandhi and his cast of 1000 do not
challenge the program content and conduct of the steadily rising DC
operating budget. The self-styled “Golden Hammer” replies rather
disingenuously that he is only a "bean counter" charged with
balancing the city’s budget, not running its agencies.
NARPAC compares segments of DC’s operating budgets over the past
five years and finds the declining useful program content increasingly
distressing. The CFO is still spinning the beans with specious arguments
about “structural imbalance” and pressing for more federal or
regional beans. But spending, underspending in fact, has become an end
in itself. By FY07, there is virtually no quantitative analytical
content by which to assess the efficacy of any of the city’s major
programs. Is the city gaining on any of its blatantly obvious needs
ranging from demographic trends and land use to endemic poverty and real
infrastructure renewal? Don’t ask the CFO. We conclude yet again that
DC sorely needs a totally independent and fully objective Program
Analysis Office to assess whether DC’s current bean consumption is
effectively related to the underlying issues which keep our nation’s
capital from becoming a world class city. Maybe they’d call themselves
bean tasters, or even honest brokers. Visit us at http://www.narpac.org/REXDCPAO.HTM.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Sizzling Express and Labor Market Integrity,
March 15
Samuel Jordan, samunomas@msn.com
Using the age-old method of “witnessing,” Sam Jordan, candidate
for DC Council from Ward 7, has invited the news media to hear reports
from residents of the District of presumptively discriminatory hiring
practices. The witness statements will be presented at Sizzling Express
Restaurant at 1150 Connecticut Avenue, NW, at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday,
March 15. Jordan complained to the Capitol Hill Association of Merchants
and Professionals (CHAMPS), over three years ago about the apparent
practice of the Sizzling Express chain of restaurants, which excludes
African Americans from its work force. In response to CHAMPS’
mediation, Sizzling hired a woman from Tanzania, having interpreted its
obligation as simply to hire a person of African descent. Jordan chose
the “witnessing” method to record first-person accounts of the
employment practices currently in force at each of the five Sizzling
Express Restaurant locations. Not since the woman’s departure over
eighteen months ago has an employee of African descent been hired.
Whether on Capitol Hill, at 6th and Pennsylvania Avenue, SE; the Navy
Yard at 4th and M Streets, SE; Columbia Plaza at 534 Virginia Avenue,
NW; downtown at 1445 K Street, NW; or at 1150 Connecticut Avenue, NW,
Sizzling Express hires not one African American, yet its African
American patronage varies from 30 to 70 percent at various hours at the
several locations. The current composition of the workforce at Sizzling
Express demonstrates that the change in policy following the earlier
CHAMPS intervention has been rescinded.
It is not our intention to focus on the deficient employment policies
of Sizzling Express alone, but to underscore the harm such policies
inflict upon the integrity of the labor market. Ward 7 has few large
employers; therefore Ward 7 residents who work or look for work must do
so outside of the ward and travel to other wards of the city or to
neighboring jurisdictions. Employment-seeking pressure sweeps our
residents to the far corners of the metropolitan area. The Anacostia
River is our Rio Grande. Too often, residents of Ward 7, which comprise
the greatest concentration of African Americans in the city, are unaware
in the most earnest job search that the employer they’ve encountered
has a policy of not hiring African Americans. We use the witnessing
project at Sizzling Express to underscore the need to challenge the
business, political, and community leadership in the District to defuse
what can only be described as a growing or perceived tension among
African Americans and other ethnic groups over jobs, wages and public
services. Sizzling Express helps us demonstrate that this is a
manipulated crisis. The employers do the hiring. The employers set the
terms of employment. Our campaign promotes comprehensive workforce
readiness training programs, living wages with benefits, elimination of
hiring discrimination based on race or ethnicity and the early
convention of community-based forums on the common aspirations of
working people from all ethnic groups to provide for themselves and
their families.
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The Fairfax County Public Library invites you to “My Encounters
with Extraordinary People,” which will be presented by author Susan
Orlean at 7:30 p.m. on March 20 at the Alden Theatre of the McLean
Community Center. Orlean’s book “The Orchid Thief” inspired the
2002 film “Adaptation,” in which the author was portrayed by Academy
Award-winning actress Meryl Streep. Tickets to this free event will be
distributed on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 7 p.m.;
limit four per person. For directions, call 703-790-0123. To hear a
brief interview with Orlean, go to http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/bookcast/.
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DC Public Library Events, March 20-21
Randi Blank, randi.blank@dc.gov
Tuesday, March 20, 12:00 p.m., West End Neighborhood Library, 1101
24th Street, NW. West End Library Book Club. American Sphinx: The
Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph. J. Ellis. For more
information, call 724-8707.
Tuesday, March 20, 6:30 p.m., Southeast Neighborhood Library, 403 7th
Street, SE. Capitol Hill Book Club. Call 698-3377 for the March book
title.
Wednesday, March 21, 12:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Great Hall. Insurance fraud. Stephen Perry,
director of the Enforcement and Investigation Bureau, DC Department of
Insurance, Securities and Banking, will present a seminar to acquaint
consumers with information to protect themselves from insurance fraud
and inform them of agencies engaged in identifying unfair and fraudulent
business practices.
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National Building Museum Events, March 20, 22
Lauren Searl, lsearl@nbm.org
Tuesday, March 20, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Building for the 21st Century:
Retailers Reap Savings by Cutting Energy Costs. Retail stores with
square footage up to 20,000 have much to gain when they reduce energy
use by 30 percent or more, including cost savings and increased comfort
for customers. Paul Torcellini, commercial building team leader at the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, has worked on a diverse set of
smaller retail buildings. He will share real-world examples in which
energy conservation benefited retailers, including a spa in Washington,
DC, a visitor’s center/bookstore, a home improvement center, and a pet
supply store. Torcellini will review the decision-making process that
determined what efforts made sense, and provide insights on new
technologies that enable retail buildings to achieve up to 50 percent
energy savings. Free. Registration not required.
Tuesday, March 20, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Films: Charles Guggenheim:
Documenting the Built Environment. Charles Guggenheim, four-time Academy
Award winner and AIA awardee for his films on architecture, produced a
collection of documentaries capturing changes to the built environment
throughout a fifty-year career. Grace Guggenheim, executive producer at
Guggenheim Productions, Inc., will discuss her father’s documentaries
A Place in the Land and A Place to Be. The Academy Award nominee A Place
in the Land (32 min., 1998) tells the story of three seminal American
conservationists: George Perkins Marsh, Frederick Billings, and Laurance
S. Rockefeller. A Place to Be (55 min., 1979) traces the contemporary
design and construction of the East Building of the National Gallery of
Art in Washington, DC, capturing the pride of the skilled laborers who
completed the building. These films are presented as part of the DC
Environmental Film Festival. $5 Museum members and students; $10
nonmembers. Prepaid registration is required. Walk-in registration based
on availability. For festival information, visit www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org.
Special rate for NBM members: $10 for all three Environmental Film
Festival screenings. Sign up at www.nbm.org.
Thursday, March 22, 6:30-8:45 p.m. Films: Skyscrapers of the 21st
Century. Building the Gherkin (52 min., 2005), directed by Mirjam von
Arx, chronicles the design, planning, and construction of the
controversial Swiss Re building, an "ecological skyscraper" in
the heart of London, designed by renowned British architect Norman
Foster. The Socialist, The Architect and the Twisted Tower (59 min.)
documents the intriguing (and twisted) story behind the design and
construction of the “Turning Torso” in Malmo, Sweden, Europe’s
tallest residential building, which was designed by world famous
architect Santiago Calatrava. These films are presented as part of the
DC Environmental Film Festival. $5 Museum members and students; $10
nonmembers. Prepaid registration is required. Walk-in registration based
on availability. For festival information, visit www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org.
Special rate for NBM members: $10 for all three Environmental Film
Festival screenings. All events at the National Building Museum, 401 F
Street, NW, Judiciary Square stop, Metro Red Line. Register for events
at http://www.nbm.org.
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CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS
I’m looking for someone to refinish an old, solid, but not too
valuable dining table and tighten its joints. Any recommendations in the
reasonable Washington area? I would prefer a DC-based person, if
possible.
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