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March 18, 2007

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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Gun Law
Ron Linton, vzep0l1w@verizon.net

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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Legal and Illegal Guns
Bryce A. Suderow, streetstories@juno.com

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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Respect
Anne-Marie Bairstow, abairstow@alum.swarthmore.edu

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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My Encounters with Extraordinary People, March 20
Lois Kirkpatrick, lois.kirkpatrick@fairfaxcounty.gov

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

Furniture Refinishing
Tom Sherwood, tom.sherwood@nbcuni.com

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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