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April 25, 2007

Accounting

Dear Auditors:

A “forensic” audit of the public schools’ finances? That’s what Mayor Fenty demanded today. (Actually the mayor is appropriating the call for an outside audit of the school system from the proposals made by the Board of Education back in January to counter the mayor’s takeover plan, and now he is claiming the idea as his own.) But the mayor is calling it a forensic audit, implying that there was wrongdoing. Because of all the crime shows on television, most of us think of “forensics” as a scientific way of solving crimes. But that newer sense of the word derives from its origin as applying to debate and argument, as in a court or a legal proceeding.

There is no reason to assume that the audit will uncover criminal activity or crimes. There is every reason to believe that the audit is meant to be a weapon in a debate, in the argument over control of the schools. The mayor intends the audit to prove that the school system’s financial books are in terrible shape, that the problems can be attributed to the schools’ lack of accountability, and that they will be solved by giving control to the administration and city council. It is intended to “prove” to the public that the takeover was justified; to excuse slower-than-promised improvements because the mayor, city council, and Chief Financial Officer could not have had any idea how bad finances and management were; and to provide a reason to fire many school system employees.

But the fact is that the schools haven’t had independent control of their finances since Congress took it away from them in the legislation that created the Control Board and independent Chief Financial Officer more than a decade ago. Congress gave the city’s Chief Financial Officer power over all the city’s finances, including those of the schools. Since then, the CFO has named the financial officer for the schools, and the schools’ financial officer has staffed his own office. The schools have been accountable to the CFO ever since.

The Board of Education and the Superintendent of schools haven’t controlled accounting for the school system since then. The mayor and city council will blame whatever mistakes, errors, or foolishness that is found in the forensic audit on the Board of Education and the Superintendent, and use it as a debating point to support the takeover, and the press will undoubtedly report it that way. But financial reporting and accounting are one thing for which the Board and Superintendent bear absolutely no blame.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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A Tale of Two Cities
Trish Chittams, pchittams@yahoo.com

Yesterday afternoon, Crista Marie Spencer was killed while in the crosswalk at 6th and Orleans Streets, NE, by a hit-and-run driver. Yesterday afternoon, the mayor, the Ward 6 representative, and the police chief were at the home of the grieving mother. By the 11 o’clock news, the mayor had pledged that stop signs would be placed on 6th Street, as well as speed humps to slow traffic down. By 7:00 p.m., a makeshift memorial has sprung up by the accident. A candlelight vigil is held, the family mourns, the neighborhood pauses, the city grieves. On the 5:00 a.m. news, it is reported that Tommy Wells, the Ward representative, pledges that temporary stop signs would be in place by this afternoon. The city breathes again because promises have been made and action will be taken.

On Friday, April 13, Ms. Covington was hit while in the crosswalk of Minnesota Avenue and M Street, SE. The driver stopped. On Saturday, April 21, Ms. Covington died as a result of the injuries sustained during the accident. The family mourns, the neighborhood pauses. There are no candlelight vigils, no curbside memorial. Only orange marking show that something happened there. There are no TV cameras, no mayor, no Ward representative, not even an “In Brief” mention in a newspaper. Two weeks later, there are no stop signs. Two weeks later, no temporary stop signs, no speed humps. Two weeks later, we have promises that the situation will be “reviewed,” but they can’t promise that action will be taken.

What is the difference in these two situations? In each case a precious life was lost; in each case the street is notorious for speeders trying to catch the light. In each case the pedestrian was in the crosswalk. I can only think that the difference is that we are on the wrong side of the river, or even the wrong side of the Ward. Where are our voices crying out for equity? Where are our representatives crying out for action? When will enough be enough?

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Am I the Only One Who Thinks We’ve Gone Too Doggone Far?
Nancee Lorn, nanceelorn@yahoo.com

I just received an E-mail on my community listserv about an online petition in support of public dog exercise parks. Does anyone know of a petition that supports not having dog parks? Call me crazy, but I would like to see more parks for children and adults. I don’t think there are enough spaces here for children to run, exercise, roll around on the grass, and just be kids without sliding in poo or poo residue or being marginalized by the growing area now taken over by their four-legged friends.

Everyone seems so up and arms about there not being enough spaces for dogs to exercise, and I’m thinking, huh? What’s next, forcing fitness centers to open their dogs and treadmills for Lassie and his companions? It’s not enough that there are pet bakeries, day care centers, and that pets have their own card section at Hallmark? Is it really appropriate for people to bring their dogs into the indoor/enclosed portion of the open air market at Eastern Market where raw and cooked food is on display (hello, any health inspectors out there)? What’s next? Will pets be allowed in Safeway? I remember dining at a restaurant in Paris a few years ago, cringing while watching the woman next to me feed her dog using the restaurant cutlery (and we know what a good job they do of cleaning those things). I remember thinking that I was glad that Americans weren’t as fanatical about their pets as many Europeans. And now here we are.

I feel like this city is dividing into the dog owners — I forgot, the correct term now is “care givers,” who are banding together and making more and more demands on behalf of their pets, and the people who believe there is a distinction between dogs and people but who are too afraid to voice their opinion for fear of being called “dog Nazis.” I don’t think the dog fanatics speak for all dog lovers and especially not for those of us who yearn for the simple days when parks were filled with happy, frolicking . . . children.

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The Ward 4 Bowser Who’s Qualified
Scott McLarty, scottmclarty@hotmail.com

Readers of themail who have expressed dismay over council’s indulgence of Abe Pollin and other big business interests, the mayor’s DC School Board takeover scheme, and the domination of city politics by a single party should check out Renee Bowser’s campaign in the Ward 4 special election. Renee accepts no corporate contributions, which sets her apart from Muriel Bowser (no relation to Renee) and Michael Brown, who’ve received thousands of dollars from developers and other firms seeking taxpayer-funded handouts and other favors from the council. Renee has been elected to her ANC three times and is now chair, and has also served two terms on the DC Human Rights Commission. For obvious political reasons, the DC Metropolitan Area Central Labor Council endorsed Muriel, who has negligible labor organizing background. Renee, on the other hand, has worked as a union lawyer for over two decades (Assistant General Counsel for UFCW International Union) and is also a former shop steward for SEIU. (An earlier AFGE endorsement for Renee was voided by the Labor Council’s decision.) From 1990 to 1997, Renee served as a tutor in reading and math for homeless children DC, and she helped organize the opposition to Mayor Williams’ plan to dismantle DC General Hospital, the District’s only full-service public health care facility.

Renee’s web site is http://www.reneebowser.org. You can also read recent press releases from the Renee Bowser campaign at the Ward 4 Special Election site, http://ward4specialelection.org/rbowser, including “Top 10 reasons Renee Bowser is the best candidate in DC Ward 4,” http://ward4specialelection.org/rbowser/rbowser-top10/view, and at the Statehood Green Party’s web site http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org. Renee has testified before council numerous times on DC jobs, public education, the School Board takeover, and other topics: read her testimony at http://reneebowser.com/ward4.php/testimony/home. Renee says she’s running to be the voice of Ward 4 residents. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone on council who isn’t a mouthpiece for the mayor’s office, an operative for the Federal City Council, or a flunky for developers, sports billionaires, and the charter school industry?

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Unions, Environmental Groups, and Big Corporate Donors Endorse Wrong Bowser in Ward 4
John Hanrahan, johnhanrahan5@yahoo.com

I write as a union member of more than forty years (The Newspaper Guild in earlier years and currently the National Writers Union), and as a longtime supporter of Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club, to chastise my labor and environmental organization friends for their inexplicable endorsements of business-favored candidate Muriel Bowser, rather than labor attorney and progressive activist Renee Bowser, in the Ward 4 Council special election next Tuesday.

Maybe the lion can lie down with the lamb, but the specter of local unions and environmental groups lying down with big corporate campaign contributors in support of Muriel Bowser makes my head spin. After all, Muriel Bowser has shown no particular affinity for labor or environmental issues. And she is the most corporate cash-laden candidate in the Ward 4 race, with $371,254 in contributions reported to date (a particularly obscene figure in a short, local ward race), great bundles of it coming from outside her ward and even outside the District of Columbia, as has been widely reported in the press.

Now, could it be that those generous corporate donors are looking for legislation to toughen the city’s environmental and labor standards? Could it be that, by golly, business and labor/environmental interests have converged -- the lion with the lamb? Or, more likely, could it be that the decision-makers among my labor and environmental brothers and sisters in the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Central Labor Council, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Friends of the Earth, and Sierra Club have become seriously afflicted with that old DC political illness — “access” — in this case supporting the candidate who just happened to have been hand picked by Mayor Adrian Fenty, rather than a candidate who more closely reflects their own interests?

I am astounded that the Central Labor Council and those two environmental groups all claim to believe that Muriel Bowser will best represent labor and environmental interests. Likewise, I fail to grasp why Renee Bowser reportedly could get the endorsement of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) in early April, only to have that endorsement voided after the Central Labor Council endorsed Muriel Bowser. I am especially disturbed that these organizations gave no substantive explanation for their puzzling endorsements beyond bland press releases (and in the case of the environmental groups, won’t release all the detailed questionnaires that the candidates filled out), and chose to ignore Renee Bowser in this contest. Renee Bowser’s work career as a union labor attorney (assistant general counsel for United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, whose UFCW Local 400 has endorsed her), a former shop steward (with SEIU), a two-term commissioner on the DC Human Rights Commission, and her political activism over more than three decades — as well as her detailed knowledge of the issues in her ward and citywide as an ANC chairperson -- makes her the most qualified, pro-labor, pro-environment candidate in Ward 4. And Renee is the only candidate who does not accept corporate contributions, making her a rarity in a city where big money increasingly talks too loudly in our local governance.

Just one of the examples of the disconnect between these union and environmental endorsements and what the candidates stand for: I attended a few candidates’ forums in Ward 4, and one of the environmental questions I heard raised from the audience was whether the candidates favored or opposed the opening of Klingle Road in Klingle Valley (a stream valley that is an arm of Rock Creek Park), long a hot-button issue for environmentalists and auto commuters since the road was partially washed out and closed to auto traffic in 1991. In Friends of the Earth’s “2006 Environmental Agenda for the District of Columbia,” there is the following: “. . . the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth continue to support preserving Klingle Valley as a park without automobile traffic.” At this particular candidates’ forum only Renee Bowser stuck to the environmentally supportive position to keep the road closed. Muriel Bowser said she favored having Klingle Road open — the traffic-flow supportive position.

I will continue to be a supporter of those labor and environmental organizations that have made these colossal endorsement blunders, but urge all union members and environmentalists — and all citizens — in Ward 4 to ignore these endorsements, to go to various campaign-related web sites and look at all the candidates’ positions on (and experience with) labor and environmental issues — as well as on such issues as the Mayor’s school takeover, the $50 million handout to Abe Pollin for the Verizon Center, and Ward 4 development that protects residents and small businesses — and vote for Renee Bowser. I also challenge the environmental groups to shed some daylight on their mystifying endorsement process by putting on their web sites the answers each Ward 4 candidate gave to their detailed questionnaires. And the unions, too, owe Ward 4 voters more of an explanation for their endorsements than sketchy press releases.

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Re: Use of City Property to Promote Muriel Bowser
Dan Dugan, DC Firefighters Association, dandugan@comcast.net

The fire truck [that was used to campaign for Muriel Bowser] is an antique owned by one of our members; it’s a 1971 Ward LaFrance that came from Connecticut. They closed their company more than thirty years ago. No one was on duty or in uniform. We did not race up and down the streets as if we were on a response; we were traveling around slowly in order to get the most exposure. We would pull into a block, blow the siren a few times to get the pedestrians’ attention, call out our support for our candidate, and throw out some T-shirts. We did our best not to interfere with traffic, and I think we were fairly successful. I’m terribly sorry for the confusion we have done this many times in the past for other candidates and have never had anything but positive feedback from the community. We are rethinking how we go about showing our support for our candidates.

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On Not Marching
Aaron Lloyd, aaronlloyddc@hotmail.com

I expressed my reasons for not marching in the April 16 march, and why I am for statehood as the solution, not just representation, in a commentary in The Politico. I would revise the headline they gave me to say “DC needs statehood and a vote”: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0407/3624.html.

“So if a voting representative will not solve the puzzle of the District’s unequal status, why are we fighting for it? If we ‘win’ this battle, and our newly empowered representative votes against Congress controlling our local tax dollars, will we in the District feel better that the bill passed by one less vote? Or will her vote instead be providing legitimacy to a system that is fundamentally discriminatory? I am a native Washingtonian who has been disenfranchised all my life, never able to elect a voting senator or representative. I could be an active, enthusiastic part of the movement to get a voting representative for the District, if only I thought it satisfied the rule of first doing no harm. But I fear that this drive to empower Del. Norton distracts us from the real issues of the District’s unequal status. And as long as the District is not a state, or incorporated into another state, no vote of Norton’s will free us from inequality.”

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The Department of the Environment and George Hawkins
Philip Blair, blair-rowan at starpower dot net

I am generally underwhelmed by Mayor Fenty’s appointments, and Dorothy Brizill certainly does raise legitimate questions in her April 22 message about Fenty’s pick to be the founding head of the Department of the Environment. I especially thank Dorothy for raising the issue of eminent domain. Over here in Ward 5 the proposed “new town” development at the Florida Avenue wholesale market looks to me like a witch’s brew of illegitimate political influence and payoffs, all because eminent domain is the only way to make the project work. And when I hear the terms “smart growth” or “Brookings Institute” I reach for my airsickness bag.

However, when I checked out things with some eco-buddies in New Jersey to see if I could find some dirt on Hawkins of my own, I found instead an appreciation for his “fact-based” decision-making and solid environmental work.

But the real reason I am writing is this: if Harriet Tregoning, the new Director of Planning, helped to recruit Hawkins, as Dorothy suggests, that is a huge factor in his favor. Tregoning has worked something of a miracle over here in Brookland in turning around a perfectly dysfunctional small area planning exercise for the Brookland Metro station area. Without pandering and without manipulation, she has listened to Brooklanders and is acting on what she has heard. She has given us a way to exercise our creativity and wisdom to make something happen, rather than forcing us yet again to fight a rearguard action to stop something unacceptable. Her take on smart growth seems to me to be, um, smart. Tregoning is, unless I have been totally suckered, my idea of an exemplary public servant. If Hawkins is someone she supports, more power to him.

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A Little Context On Historic Districts
Mark Eckenwiler, themale at ingot dot org

I can’t help commenting on Laura Elkins’ broadside against the DC Historic Preservation Review Board in the last issue [April 22]. Readers of themail will be better able to put her comments into context if they understand the personal history involved. Here’s how the Capitol Hill Restoration Society’s president, writing in the July 2005 newsletter (http://chrs.org/newsletter/05.07-News.pdf), described Ms. Elkins’ celebrated run-in with HPRB: “Purporting to make roof improvements in the original application for permits, she and her husband John Robbins, a[n] official of the National Park Service, raised the roof in question and proceeded to create an extension to the house that aroused the neighbors to ask CHRS to support their objections. DCRA and the HPRB began the continuing process of trying to make Ms. Elkins and her husband accountable.

“In Ms. Elkins’ upside-down world she casts herself as the aggrieved and victimized home owner, when the opposite is true. . . . The regulations requiring permits and conforming to HPO standards were protection, not an invasion of anyone’s rights, except Ms. Elkin’s perceived right to do what she pleased, neighbors’ concerns be damned. She is anything but the good steward she claims to have ambitions to be.”

Here’s the Post archives’ abstract of their story on 9/27/02: "[HPRB] Chairman Tersh Boasberg told John Robbins and his wife, artist Laura Elkins, that they must reapply, retroactively, for permission for the renovation, which is nearly complete and involved doubling the height of an addition on the rear of their rowhouse, in the unit block of Ninth Street, NE. Robbins and Elkins did apply for, and receive, permission for the project. But board members said their staff processed the application with minimal scrutiny because Robbins defined the work as a simple roof repair."

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Historic District Designations
Laura Elkins, laura@3plystudios.com

Regardless of what Mark Eckenwiler thinks of me, the issue I raised, or, more accurately, that Jack McKay raised, remains valid -- that we should have council review of historic district designations. What is the harm in that?

Mr. Eckenwiler’s old “news” about our project, by the way, is not good news in more ways than one. He might ask his sources for an update while they share a dish from crowbusters.com. I suggest Crock Pot Crow, although the Summer Crow Kebobs might be more seasonal. Bon appetit!

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Windows Boot-Up Disk
Gabe Goldberg, gabe at gabegold dot com

Bryce Suderow asked, "Does anyone have a Windows XP Professional boot CD? I use an IBM clone with Windows Pro XP as its operating system. The computer won’t boot up for some reason. All my belongings are in boxes, so I can’t find my operating system or a boot-up disk. Without a disk, can anyone give me advice on what to do?"

For technical questions/problems/resources, keep CPCUG (Capital PC User Group, http://www.cpcug.org) in mind. It’s an organization that is more than twenty-five years old and has more than seven hundred members through the DC region; we have more than a dozen meetings in the area every month, a HelpLine for members, and many free discussion lists where you can post questions like this. To subscribe to the Consultants and Entrepreneurs list, where I’ve gotten help with requests like this, send an E-mail to listserv@listserv.cpcug.org containing (in the message body, not the subject line)

subscribe conent-d firstname lastname

Follow the instructions for confirming the subscription, then post the request.

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

DC Public Library Events, April 26-28
Randi Blank, randi.blank@dc.gov

Thursday, April 26, 6:30 p.m., Takoma Park Neighborhood Library, 416 Cedar Street, NW. We will watch the film version of Their Eyes Were Watching God, starring Halle Berry. For more information, call 576-7252.

Thursday, April 26, 7:00 p.m., Lamond-Riggs Neighborhood Library, 5401 South Dakota Avenue, NE. Book discussion. For more information, call 541-6255.

Saturday, April 28, 2:00 p.m., Southeast Neighborhood Library, 403 7th Street, NE. We will watch the film version of Their Eyes Were Watching God, starring Halle Berry. For more information, call 698-3374.

Saturday, April 28, 11:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW. Outside, on the sidewalk in front of the main entrance, and inside the lobby. PoetryFest 2007, featuring Robert Pinsky. PoetryFest 2007 will include a live Mother Goose for children, poetry slams, readings, and music featuring local poets. Former poet laureate Robert Pinsky will do a reading at 2:30 p.m. Wendy Rieger, co-anchor and general assignment reporter at News4, is the honorary chair of this event. For more information, call 727-1281. This event is sponsored by the DC Library Foundation and the Library’s Federation of Friends.

Saturday, April 28, 12:00-4:00 p.m., Francis A. Gregory Neighborhood Library, 3660 Alabama Avenue, SE. The Friends of the Francis A. Gregory Neighborhood Library host their annual Spring Flea Market, Book and Bake Sale.

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Mystics General Manager Linda Hargrove, April 28
Hazel Thomas, thomashazelb@aol.com

The DC Federation of Business and Professional Women invites you to participate in its fifty-eighth annual conference on Saturday, April 28, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at the Washington Plaza Hotel located at 10 Thomas Circle, NW. The special guest speaker for the conference luncheon will be Linda Hargrove, general manager of the Washington Mystics. Cost of the luncheon is $32.00. To attend or for information about the luncheon or the conference, call Mary Jane Wolcott at 301-279-5874.

Linda Hargrove will enter her third season as the Washington Mystics general manger this year. Ms. Hargrove was formerly one of the Mystics’ assistant coaches and in 2003, prior to joining the coaching staff, she was a scout for the Mystics. Ms. Hargrove will share her experience of rising up through the ranks to become coach of one of the nation’s most successful women’s basketball teams; and will comment on the challenges facing women in professional basketball in light of the recent negative portrayals by mass media personalities.

The Conference will include: the DC/BPW annual business meeting, a presentation by a Young Careerist (rising professional under thirty-five years old) and several workshops centered on BPW/USA’s theme: “Women Work! Pay them Fairly!” DC/BPW has long been an advocate for fair pay and pay equity for women. Sadly, today, even with numerous women in managerial and executive positions, women are still paid only seventy-seven cents for every dollar earned by men. The convention will complete the week-long celebration which began on Tuesday with “Equal Pay Day,” the day in 2007 when the average women’s salary is equal to the 2006 salary of the average man.

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Rally to Save Darfur, April 29
Chuck Thies, chuck at savedarfur.org

The Save Darfur Coalition, Amnesty International, NAACP, American Jewish Committee, Darfur Interfaith Network, and others are hosting a rally in Lafayette Park on Sunday, April 29, 2:00-4:00 p.m., to call for international peace keepers and an end to the genocide in Darfur. Meet at 1600 H Street, NW, directly across from the White House.

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Working in Africa, May 2
Dorinda White, dorindaw@aol.com

Join us for Working in Africa, a WIFV Wednesday One event, on Wednesday, May 2, from 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. at Interface Media, 1233 20th Street, NW, 1st Floor. Get various perspectives from media producers with recent projects about the continent in Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Swaziland, Namibia, Bostwana, and Kenya. Africa is a continent of fifty-four countries and is home to more than a thousand ethnic groups and languages. It’s rural in heritage, but urbanizing at rapid rate. It has survived colonialism and celebrated independence. However, in the west it continues to be portrayed as the “Dark Continent,” a monolithic entity of poverty, backwardness, war, and disease. This program will shed light on the opportunities and challenges of working in African countries, as well as look into the responsibility to produce balanced programming.

Panelists are: Carol Pineau, producer of “Africa Open for Business”; Dapo Otunla, secretary of the Nollywood Foundation, which supports the growth of the Nigerian media and entertainment industry; Carolyn Projanksy, president of Five Star Films and co-producer and director of “Breaking the Rules,” a feature documentary about the white South Africans who opposed apartheid; Adrienne Brawley, producer of “Moms on the Road Africa”; Ms. Juanita “Busy Bee” Britton, founder of Random Acts Foundation and producer of Random Act’s documentary filmed in three African countries. Dorinda White, President of Women in Film and Video, will moderate the panel. This event was chaired by Talaya Grimes, WIFV Board/WIFTI Board. For further information contact Talaya Grimes at talayag@yahoo.com or call the WIFV office at 429-9438 or visit http://www.wifv.org. Free to WIFV members and $15 for nonmembers.

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The Italian Letter, May 7
Michael Andrews, mandrews@udc.edu

Peter Eisner, co-author of The Italian Letter: How the Bush Administration Used a Fake Letter to Build the War in Iraq, will be on campus of the University of the District of Columbia for a book signing and reception on May 7 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. in the Windows Lounge, Building 38, 4200 Connecticut Avenue, NW. Mr. Eisner will explore this very controversial subject in the context of how certain international and domestic events can trigger war.

Peter Eisner is a deputy foreign editor at the Washington Post. He served as a foreign editor at Newsday from 1985 through 1989 and as the paper’s Latin America correspondent from 1989 through 1994. He was also a reporter, officer and bureau chief with the Associated Press. Eisner won the American Press Association Award in 1981 for his investigations of drug trafficking in the Americas. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland. Mr. Ian Portnoy of the law firm of McKenna, Long, and Aldridge is bringing Eisner to the University for a discussion with journalism and other students, as well as interested members of the community.

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And Then Came Love, May 10
Caytha Jentis, caytha@foxmeadowsfilms.com

And Then Came Love, starring Vanessa Williams, Eartha Kitt, Kevin Daniels, Michael Boatman, Stephen Spinella, and Ben Vereen, will kick off the 2007 Urban Film and Discussion Series hosted by Landmark Theater, 555 11th Street, NW. Members of the public are invited to attend the special sneak preview screening on May 10 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets range from $10 (general) to $20 (VIP) and can be purchased through advanced RSVP at UrbanFilmSeries.com or at the Landmark Theater box office. Following the screening, there will be a discussion and Q&A with the film’s writer-producer, Caytha Jentis, and other members of the cast and crew. The discussion will be moderated by Corey “CJ” Jennings, the Urban Film Series founder.

And Then Came Love is a romantic comedy about a successful single mother who opens Pandora’s box when she seeks out the anonymous sperm donor father of her young son. Tackling issues of motherhood, marriage, and the choices and challenges of parenting, this movie strikes at the heart of how, why, and whom we love. And Then Came Love promises to be the “feel good” film of the summer. And Then Came Love will be released in select theaters on June 1st, and nationally on DVD by Warner Home Video under the American Black Film Festival DVD series label on August 14. More information on the film can be found at http://www.andthencamelove.com or http://www.urbanfilmseries.com.

The Urban Film Series is a programmatic arm of the Next Generation Awareness Foundation (NGAF), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is connect urban communities with history and progressive cinema, and provide exposure of the arts and the motion picture industry to many communities across the United States. The Urban Film Series also produces the annual Black Docs Film Series, Urban Film Series Tour, and Black History Month Film and Discussion Series, and has received well over six hundred films from across the world for its various film-related programs.

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CLASSIFIEDS — FOR SALE

Original and Rare 1887 Hopkins Maps of Washington
Paul K. Williams, dchousehistory@aol.com

We are selling our remaining original, large, hand colored, Hopkins maps of Washington, DC, this week on eBay, including several that have never been offered before (the large NW DC area that was then outside the city limits). These are the first map that offers significant detail of each and every house and structure, showing named streets, paving types, building materials, even owners names in many cases. Find out if your house was built before 1887 or if a house existed on your lot before yours was built just by visiting the auction site! These have never to my knowledge been offered on eBay before, so this could be your last chance; I’ve never seen them listed before in my fifteen-year eBay experience. Simply search for “Hopkins Map” on eBay.com to find them all listed, with large pictures for each you can use for research today.

I’ve also digitized all 44 of the maps in the complete set using a full size scan (nearly 2x4 feet), and have full size prints of these outstanding maps printed in full color on heavy photographic paper, ready for framing as a cheaper alternative to the originals. You can find them in our eBay store at http://stores.ebay.com/The-House-History-People_1887-Hopkins-Atlas-Prints-DC_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ10286371QQftidZ2QQtZkm.

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CLASSIFIEDS — SERVICES

YouTube Training Offered
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com

Would you like to get up to speed putting your own videos on YouTube? I can assist you in learning the ropes. The barriers to entry are very low these days. If you use Windows XP, a $30 webcam is all you might need. (See http://tinyurl.com/2nmr8q for a video I shot with a low-cost webcam.) I teach on both the Windows and Macintosh platforms. $25/hour for one-on-one or small group trainings. I travel anywhere in the DC area. It’s important to remember that you don’t need to have your own Internet connection at home to be a video producer on the web. You can upload your videos to YouTube from many places besides your home — at a friend’s house, public library, etc. You can transport your video on a low-cost USB flash drive or CDR disk.

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CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS

Hilltop Exxon No Longer Recommended
David Haas, Davidjanice@verizon.net

In a 1999 edition of themail, Mark Servatius confidently recommended Dave Knutson and his assistant Herman at Hilltop Exxon. 301-229-3350. Dave is “honest to a fault,” he wrote. I took my car to Hilltop to have a rattling exhaust fixed, and they did so quickly for a reasonable price. However, they then told me I needed a transmission fluid replacement and that my brake pads were dangerously low. I took the car to the service center that did the original work and had them conduct a thorough brake check. My brakes were in great shape with more than enough pad life to last years. However, the mechanics did not see that two of my tires were worn below specifications, which meant that I needed an alignment and two new tires. The mechanic had to see the tire situation, because he had to pull the wheel to inspect the brakes. I’ll leave it to you, dear reader, to determine whether the mechanics were simply inept or intentionally dishonest.

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