Wrapping It Up After Christmas
Dear Wrappers:
Dorothy and I celebrated Christmas Day in one of the most traditional
ways, as documented in A Christmas Story — we ate Peking Duck at a
Chinese restaurant. The week between Christmas and New Years is the
slowest week of the year in DC politics and social life. Little news is
broken, and there’s nothing new to complain about. Thank goodness. Let’s
take a week off ourselves, and get back to work after New Year’s.
If you wish, please send your year-end summaries of 2011 in
Washington to themail, and share them with us. What has been memorable
for you?
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
###############
I sent this message to the Planning Division, and await their reply.
The goal of the program/plan is no doubt well-meant, but is it
feasible? American University (the other beneficiary is to be Gallaudet)
is surrounded by some of the most expensive — i.e., least
affordable — real estate in the city. Apart from well-paid senior
faculty and/or administrators, I wonder how many other employees of AU
can possibly afford to take advantage of $3000-6000 to take up the
program’s offering? Metro is over in Tenleytown, and the only bus
transportation from there is the M-4, which goes to Sibley hospital, but
does not run on weekends. The N-2 has, I believe, been redirected from
the route on which I took it from Friendship Heights, and the only other
bus must come from downtown up Massachusetts Avenue. (It may run from
Dupont Circle, but I’ve never ridden it, so don’t really know.) The
adjacent streets are not kind to long-term parking, and students and
others presumably monopolize the on-campus parking. But all of this must
already be known to you, I suppose.
###############
Rob Pegoraro Is Now Answering Tech Questions
Again
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
Rob Pegoraro, who left the Washington Post, is now answering
our tech questions again for his weekly column at USA Today, see http://tinyurl.com/7m58jpz.
Rob has a huge and loyal following. Smart move on the part of USA
Today to hire him. If you’d like to follow USA Today tech
on Twitter, they’re at https://twitter.com/#!/USATODAYtech
Interesting that Rob is in many ways performing the duties of a
reference librarian. Are public librarians in the DC-area sufficiently
able to answer tech questions posed to them by the public? Do we maybe
need specialty tech-expert librarians at some of our public libraries?
For example, how many librarians here in the DC-area can answer basic
questions about the Linux operating system? How many can compare the
strengths and weaknesses of video editing programs on Linux, Macintosh,
and Windows? How many can do simple troubleshooting of MIT’s Scratch
programming language (for kids)? How many can explain the possible uses
of 3D printers?
###############
Just wanted to remind you that AT&T and the Washington Regional
Alcohol Program (WRAP)’s SoberRide initiative is still going on this
holiday weekend and will continue nightly through New Year’s Day. If
you partake in a bit too much mulled wine, “mystery punch,” or adult
eggnog over the holiday season, stay safe and call SoberRide for a free
taxi ride (up to $30) in the greater Washington, DC, area.
AT&T customers can call #TAXI to get a safe, free ride home,
while others can dial 800-200-TAXI. The weather outside may be
frightening, but that doesn’t mean the roads need to be. WRAP’s
SoberRide provides greater Washington, DC, residents a safe way home on
high-risk holidays, including the December/January holiday season, St.
Patrick’s Day, Independence Day, and Halloween.
For more details on WRAP’s 2011 Holiday SoberRide program or
information on WRAP, visit their web site, http://www.wrap.org/soberride.
Please let me know if you have any questions or would like morec
information. I can be reached at 295-8795 or elyssa.rae@harbourgrp.com.
###############
Any real ethics reform should be introduced as a charter amendment,
so that it can’t be undone. The problem is, this would have to either
come from Congress (colonialism) or the council. There is no charter
amendment by initiative. If you want real reform, demand the latter.
As to the estate tax question, until there is a federal deal, the
estate tax rules under Clinton will be in full force starting January of
2013. Assuming the Mayan prophesies on the end of the world don’t come
true, the council should hold its fire on reform until the Congress
enacts a permanent solution, rather than a temporary patch. Personally,
I favor doing away with estate taxes and simply taxing the proceeds from
the sale of inherited assets as normal income, with the first $100,000
of such income being income-tax free and the enactment of a VAT and
VAT-like net business receipts tax. If Congress does the latter and DC
follows suit, they will have to solve the problem of nonresident taxes
— including distributing a payment in lieu of taxes for “value added”
by federal employees to both DC and surrounding areas.
###############
themail@dcwatch is an E-mail discussion forum that is published every
Wednesday and Sunday. To change the E-mail address for your subscription
to themail, use the Update Profile/Email address link below in the
E-mail edition. To unsubscribe, use the Safe Unsubscribe link in the
E-mail edition. An archive of all past issues is available at http://www.dcwatch.com/themail.
All postings should be submitted to themail@dcwatch.com, and should
be about life, government, or politics in the District of Columbia in
one way or another. All postings must be signed in order to be printed,
and messages should be reasonably short — one or two brief paragraphs
would be ideal — so that as many messages as possible can be put into
each mailing.
