The Obfuscation Goes On
Dear Obfuscation Spotters:
Colbert King writes about six incumbent councilmembers who will be up
for reelection in the 2012 election (Marion Barry, Michael Brown,
Vincent Orange, Jack Evans, Muriel Bowser, and Yvette Alexander), and
encourages challengers to run against all of them: “Which gets us to a
seldom discussed, but serious, problem with DC politics: election after
election, the city gets flooded with dopey, unprofessional political
campaigns waged by woefully unprepared candidates with no political
strategy, no organization and no money. They crowd the ballot and absorb
time and attention, thus giving better-known, well-funded incumbents an
easy pass. . . . But if there are to be competitive challenges to the
reelection bids of Barry, Brown, etc., now’s the time for potential
candidates to start organizing and planning and conducting the research
and fundraising necessary to get serious campaigns get up and running.
You can bet that’s what the six incumbents are doing,” http://tinyurl.com/65curxy
#####
Reason Magazine writes about the taxicab medallion scheme: “[W]hy
would the nation’s capital consider implementing such a system? DC’s
medallion bill was written by lobbyist and former city councilman John
Ray, who was hired by taxi magnate Jerry Schaeffer. Ray has worked as a
lawyer for councilman Harry Thomas, and it was Thomas who introduced Ray’s
bill in the city council. The other major sponsor of the bill: Council
member Marion Barry, the former mayor best known for his 1990 arrest for
smoking crack in a hotel room with a girlfriend,” http://reason.com/blog/2011/07/07/reasontv-dc-taxi-heist
#####
Valerie Strauss writes about DCPS’s spin on the latest test scores,
“The pass rates for elementary reading were down 1.1 percentage
points, to 43 percent, Turque wrote, and for elementary math were down
0.8 points, to 42.3 percent. The pass rate in secondary grades for
reading rose 1 point, to 44.2 percent, and in secondary math, it rose
2.7 points, to 46.4 percent. That’s not a lot to write home about, but
what the school system’s release stresses is ‘solid growth’ in
secondary math, and, instead of concentrating on differences in scores
from last year — an annual comparison that is traditionally made —
it talks about the progress made since 2007, when Rhee became chancellor
and instituted reforms that made test scores even more important than
they had been before in decision-making on teacher and school
evaluations. ‘We have made important progress in all of our public
schools since 2007 when we placed our schools under the authority of the
mayor,’ Gray said today. ‘We have much to celebrate and even more
work to do.’ The release, of course, didn’t mention the
investigation under way into suspicions of widespread cheating on these
tests in previous years. So Turque raised the issue at a press
conference where the scores were released, asking officials if they
thought the scores were flat because of increased security for the 2011
test. Officials said they had no reason to think so, and then kept
talking up the scores. Turque also asked Gray whether he thought that
the DC Inspector General’s investigation into the allegations of
widespread cheating, made in a USA Today investigation released
in March, was on track. Henderson asked the DC inspector general to
investigate at the end of March, and Turque just discovered that so far
only ten people have been interviewed. How did Gray respond? He told
Turque he would talk to Inspector General Charles W. Willoughby about
stepping things up. Rhee and Fenty often touted rising test scores as
proof of the success of her reforms, while ignoring questions raised
several years ago about possible cheating. The obfuscation goes on,” http://tinyurl.com/5rlqu8s
#####
Timothy Cooper’s law review article, “The District of Columbia v.
the 50 States: A 21st Century Lawsuit to Remedy an 18th Century
Injustice,” is now online at http://www.dcwatch.com/columns/cooper.pdf
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
################
Councilmember Jim Graham has devised a parking plan for the residents
of Ward 1 to provide them with parking, but the plan is flawed. The ANC
allowed themselves to be beguiled by the councilmember into believing
that this plan is the solution to our parking problems. However, the
councilmember and DDoT have placed themselves in the position of
dictating to the residents that at 6:00 p.m. all bets are off and the
plan will revert to the Residential Parking Permit program, and parking
enforcement will enforce the RPP Program. As residents we have been told
to be home by 6:00 p.m. or that we will be unable to find a parking
space. In other words, we will be unable to venture out for dinner,
movies, or meetings. The 6:00 p.m. cutoff benefits the visitors to the
commercial strips in Ward 1, and not to the residents. In effect the
plan is useless as a deterrent and does nothing to give the residents
curb space for parking. Why have a plan that benefits the residents
during the daytime hours when they are at work and not when they are
arriving at home from work or coming back from their activities in the
evening. A 6:00 p.m. cutoff discriminates against residential blocks
that have RPP until 10:00 p.m.
Further, the plan has discriminatory parameters contained within it.
Who will make the determination as to what side of the street will be
reserved for Ward 1 vehicles? What criteria will be used to determine
the side of the street for non-Ward 1 vehicles? There is nothing
contained in the parameters of the plan on how each residential block
will determined the sides of the street and their use. Mind you, there
is not enough curb space to accommodate the residents’ vehicles in any
one block. For any plan to be a success there must be enforcement.
Lately in the blocks east and west, north and south of the commercial
strips in Ward 1, parking enforcement is nonexistent and I certainly do
not expect it when and if this plan goes in effect. Also, not one
commissioner can speak for any one residential street unless the
majority of residents in a block agree to enter the plan.
Until the zone parking becomes ANC specific, we the residents will in
many cases not be able to park near our homes.
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Municipal Bonds
Vic Miller, Washington Heights, miller.vic@hotmail.com
One can be understanding of and still not sympathetic to the
arguments of those whose investment structures have been affected by the
recent change in the District of Columbia treatment of the tax exemption
of non-DC municipal bonds. The holders of such bonds have suffered the
indignity of losing extremely profitable after-tax bond yields in favor
of only very profitable yields. Let’s say you have bought a $10,000
municipal bond that yields 5 percent annually. That means $500 annually.
Since you don’t pay either federal or DC income taxes on this income,
that means that the approximately 40% in foregone taxes is added to that
yield, for a total of 7 percent. Not bad in an environment of almost
zero real yield in most markets.
The DC change will lower that $700 annual yield for affected bonds by
perhaps $35, still providing the kind of high yield unavailable to folks
who are reliant on small bank accounts and IRAs for the meager yields
they bring. It may also reduce the necessary interest rate that DC pays,
as DC taxpayers scour the market for homegrown securities.
One might also be sympathetic if the change had occurred during a
period of reduced valuations in municipal bonds. However, the Financial
Times tells me that the values of such bonds — reflecting high
after-tax yields in an otherwise low-yield marketplace — have risen
4.45 percent in the past three months. This is far from all gravy, since
municipal bond valuations fell last year. However, combined with a small
increase in the January-March quarter, there is no question that
valuations are high, or that bond holders might suffer a capital loss
from selling most bonds. This legislation is good public policy, and its
timing minimizes the impact on affected resident bond holders. It
deserves to stand.
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DC Vote Leads Advocacy Effort on Capitol Hill
Leah Ramsay, lramsay@dcvote.org
The advocacy group DC Vote led District of Columbia residents and
activists to over twenty meetings with House of Representative staffers
of both parties on July 7, where they presented a letter cosigned by
nearly one hundred organizations from across the country. The activists
called on lawmakers to oppose any social policy “riders” affecting
the District’s local affairs that may be introduced on the House floor
later this month during consideration of the 2012 Financial Services
Appropriations bill.
Currently, the 2012 Financial Services Appropriations bill contains
one DC-specific rider, which would reinstate a ban on the District using
local tax revenue to provide low-income women with equal access to
abortion services through Medicaid, a practice currently in place in
seventeen states. DC activists fear other past restrictions, lifted by
the 111th Congress, will be reintroduced on the House floor.
DC’s nonvoting delegate in the House, Eleanor Homes Norton, joined
the activists for a briefing before they fanned out to congressional
offices. Norton encouraged them to continue standing up for their
rights, whether in face to face meetings or in the street protests that
erupted across the capital this spring. Addressing the activists, Norton
said, “You are leading a new revolution in this town and sending a new
message: don’t underestimate us.”
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InTowner
July
Issue PDF Now Available Online
P.L. Wolff, newsroom@intowner.com
This is to advise that the July 2011 issue PDF is available at
www.intowner.com and may be opened by clicking the front page graphic on
the home page. There will be found news, commentary, and features
content, including the popular Scenes from the Past (this month titled
“Everybody, or So it Seemed, Was a Thompson’s Dairy Customer”) —
plus all photos & other images.
This month’s lead stories include the following: 1) “P Street’s
Pasha Lounge Nightclub-like Activities Continue to Stir Opposition”;
2) “Adams Morgan’s Reed-Cooke Neighborhood Confronted With a Third
Controversial, Planned Unit Development Project Plan”; 3) “Old
Italian Embassy Redevelopment Moves Closer to Implementation With
Neighborhood Groups and Developer Agreeing to Community Benefits
Package.”
The next issue PDF will publish early in the morning of August 12
(the second Friday of the month, as usual). For more information, either
send an E-mail to newsroom@intowner.com
or call 234-1717.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Register for DC Bricks for Kids Today at Half
Price
Scott Sibley, dcbricks4kids@ymail.com
Do you have a child or know children who just can’t get enough LEGO’s?
Well, this is the place for them! Bricks 4 Kidz Creativity Center Summer
Camp opens Monday in our new location at 11th and P Streets, NW. Bring
your children to a safe, exciting center that is designed to challenge
their imaginations while they learn the basics of physics, architecture,
math, and more! All this in a fun, ever challenging lab style setting!
Pre-K classes up through age twelve are all welcome to join our camps!
Age groups are separated in our center. Camps include Famous Buildings,
Laws of Motion, Carnival Rides, Outer Space, and many more themes. No
matter your child’s interest, there will be a section of camp he or
she will be sure to love! At the end of each lesson, our students are
able to use “free-play” time to build on their creations in ways
only they can imagine!
Our camps are competitively priced, starting at $190.00 per week for
half day camps and only $350.00 per week for full day camps! Everything
is included to make your child a success at our camp! Special offer for
readers of themail: sign up by midnight, Wednesday, July 13, for the
second week of the camp and receive one week of Summer Camp at half
price, plus no registration fee. Just click on the camp you would like,
and then choose the option to “pay later”! You will then be able to
make the payment at the first camp session for half the price!
Hurry, space is limited. To check out the spaces left, please visit
our site at http://www.bricks4kidz.com/washingtondc
to learn more and to sign up. For more information, please contact us
directly at 609-7326 or 489-3730.
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Environmental Health Group (EHG) Events, July
12
Allen Hengst, ahengst@rcn.com
World War I munitions, bottles filled with chemical warfare agents,
and contaminated soil have been found in and around the Spring Valley
neighborhood of northwest DC. The Environmental Health Group (EHG) seeks
to raise awareness of the issues and encourage a thorough investigation
and cleanup. Every Saturday at 1:00 p.m., please join the Environmental
Health Group for an informal discussion about Spring Valley issues in
the cafe at the Tenleytown Whole Foods Market, 4530 40th Street, NW (one
block north of Tenley Circle). For more information, visit the EHG on
Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Washington-DC/Environmental-Health-Group/67807900019.
Tuesday, July 12, 7:00 p.m.: monthly meeting of the Spring Valley
Restoration Advisory Board with the US Army Corps of Engineers. Plans
for the release of a report outlining alternatives for cleaning up 4825
Glenbrook Road, and the mandatory public comment period on these
alternatives, will be discussed. In the Saint David’s Episcopal Church
basement, 5150 Macomb Street, NW (one block north of MacArthur
Boulevard). For more information go to http://www.nab.usace.army.mil/Projects/Spring%20Valley/
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Using the Cloud to Save Money and Increase
Productivity, July 16
Barbara Conn, bconn@cpcug.org
Confused about the cloud? Want to know what it is and what it offers
for small businesses and individuals? Computer guru Dennis Courtney will
explain what you need to know to comprehend and to use the cloud. He
will also compare some of the major cloud offerings so you can
understand just what each vendor is providing and can learn how to use
the cloud to save money and increase productivity.
Gather your colleagues, friends, and family members and bring them
Saturday, July 16, at 1:00 p.m. (check-in: 12:45 p.m.) to this talk
presented by the Capital PC User Group (CPCUG) Entrepreneurs and
Consultants Special Interest Group (E&C SIG). This free event will
be held at the Cleveland Park Library (First Floor Large Meeting Room)
at 3310 Connecticut Avenue, NW, just over a block from the Cleveland
Park Metrorail Station on the Red Line. To RSVP, send an E-mail to bconn@cpcug.org.
CPCUG is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization.
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