Recent Results tagged “district”
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Same-Sex Marriage Foes Have Few Options on Hill
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Ut.) With the D.C. Council's same-sex marriage bill scheduled for a December 1 vote and a petition to put the issue on the ballot denied, opponents of same-sex marriage might finally have to live up to a threat they've been making in recent months: to take the issue to Congress. But a hearing on the Hill this week on legislation that could grant the District more budgetary and legislative autonomy showed...
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D.C. Unemployment Rate Reaches 11.9 Percent
The unemployment rate for the District of Columbia jumped to 11.9 percent in the month of October, its highest level since the current recession began, according to figures released today by the Department of Employment Services. That number marks an increase over the previous month, September, which saw an unemployment rate of 11.4 percent. The national unemployment rate for October was 10.2 percent. Today's news comes paired with an estimate that the District actually added...
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Congressional Hearing on D.C. Autonomy Set for Wednesday
Photo by Kevin H. The fight for D.C. voting rights has always been two-fold. On one front, the city has demanded representation in Congress, while on the other it has fought for greater autonomy in local budgetary and legislative matters. While the struggle for congressional representation often gets more press, tomorrow a hearing on Capitol Hill will focus on how better to allow the city to make decisions for itself. The hearing before the...
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D.C. Starts Awareness Campaign in Advance of 5 Cent Bag Fee
DCist had just been wondering when the city was going to get around to raising awareness about the impending 5 cent disposable bag fee, which goes into effect in January 1, 2010, and lo and behold, the “Skip the Bag, Save the River” Education Campaign press release landed in our inbox today. You can find the bulk of the campaign literature at http://green.dc.gov/bags, but the here's the highlights: 122,000 reusable bags will be given...
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Another Guilty Plea in OCTO Case
Yusuf Acar Yusuf Acar, the former D.C. computer security official who was arrested and charged in March for his part in a bribery scheme that allegedly funneled phony contracts and pay checks through the District's Office of the Chief Technology Officer, is expected to plead guilty, the Examiner reports. The full terms of the plea agreement are not yet known, but "Acar would pay back more than $200,000 in stolen money, including $69,000 in...
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D.C. Cutting Back its H1N1 Vaccine Clinics
The D.C. Department of Health announced Thursday that it is reducing the hours and frequency of its free H1N1 vaccine clinics in order to be able to send more doses to doctor's offices and community health centers. DOH says that over 11,000 people have been served in D.C.'s clinics in the past two weeks. Some of the changes include an earlier closing time of 1 p.m. (instead of 4 p.m.) for this Saturday's clinics,...
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A Year of Obama & the District
Then President-elect Barack Obama eats with D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty at Ben's Chili Bowl on Jan. 10, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) It was a year ago today that District residents awoke -- likely groggy from the celebrations the night before -- to a new president-elect. Barack Obama not only became the nation's first African-American president, he also offered residents of the District of Columbia the promise of a new relationship between the federal executive...
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Norton Introduces Elected District Attorney Bill
D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton today introduced a bill that would allow District residents to elect their own District Attorney for the first time. “We’re happy to help the president select the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. But for local crimes, we need a D.A. elected directly by the people of this city, just as other jurisdictions select their own chief law enforcement officials," Norton said in a statement. Before DCist readers...
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My H1N1 Vaccine Experience
Unless you've got little kids or are under 24 (and apparently the young people care not for this vaccine, if the Post is to be believed), you probably haven't even tried to go get an H1N1 vaccine yet. The District government only late last week opened up its free vaccine clinics to adults over age 24, and for the time being, that only includes adults with underlying health conditions such as asthma or diabetes,...
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Fall Leaf Collections Start This Week
Photo by benbalter The D.C. Department of Public Works began its fall leaf collection period this week, so if you've got a lot of leaves to deal with around your house, it's worth a reminder how this works. First things first, head to http://leaf.dcgis.dc.gov/ and search for your address on the DPW leaf collection status map. The map will return a list of of scheduled leaf collection periods for your area. Take a note...
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Police Investigating Two Fatal Shootings in Northeast D.C.
D.C. Police say they are investigating two fatal shootings that happened overnight in Northeast. The first shooting occurred at about 12:30 a.m. in the 1100 block of 48th Street NE, where officers responding to the sound of gunshots found an unconscious adult male lying in an alley and suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. The victim, who has been identified as 20-year-old Deuante Ray of the 1100 block of 45th Street NE, was declared dead at...
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Same-Sex Marriage Opponents Plan Their Offensive
Photo by M.V. Jantzen Legislation legalizing same-sex marriage in the District is going to pass, and no one is more aware of that fact than its opponents. Seeing that they've got little chance of swinging any votes on the D.C. Council, they've instead announced an offensive that will include pushing Congress to stop the legislation from taking effect and using the courts to enforce the federal Defense of Marriage Act on the city. At...
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It's Fight Night at the Wilson Building!
Photo by M.V. Jantzen Let's just say that the Fenty administration and the D.C. Council aren't planning any friendly get togethers any time soon. Tensions between the two city government branches had already intensified after news broke late last week that millions of dollars of recreation contracts have been funneled improperly through the semi-autonomous D.C. Housing Authority, allowing bids to be awarded non-competitively to firms owned by friends of Mayor Adrian Fenty, without Council...
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D.C. Unemployment Up to 11.4 Percent
Photo by photo_secessionist The District Department of Employment Services released its monthly jobs numbers this morning, and the news appears to be rather grim. D.C.'s September unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percent over August, up to 11.4 percent, marking a brand new high since the current recession began. August, with its 11.1 percent unemployment rate, had previously seen the worst D.C. jobs figures of the year. The September numbers compare with a national unemployment...
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Don Peebles Considering Run for Mayor
Don Peebles Real estate mogul (and D.C. native) Don Peebles is thinking about giving Mayor Adrian Fenty a run for his money, according to a report this morning in the Washington Business Journal. Peebles told reporter Jonathan O'Connell that he will 'either run himself or support another candidate because of what he called "a continued pattern of a lack of oversight and accountabilty" under Fenty.' Harry Jaffe had previously reported the Peebles rumors in...
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D.C. Public Library Launches Redesigned Web Site
The D.C. Public Library launched a redesigned web site today, and it appears to a substantial upgrade from its previous version. Check it out for yourself at www.dclibrary.org. A news release accompanying the launch touts new features including separate pages for each neighborhood library; a new calendar that filters events by day, location, and type of program; an online meeting-room reservation system; the ability to request a text message to alert you when library...
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Bryan Sivak Named to Head OCTO
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty has named Bryan Sivak, a founder of the Silicon Valley company InQuira, as his new chief technology officer, both D.C. Wire and City Desk are reporting. Sivak, 34, was introduced for the first time by the mayor at a press conference at city hall this morning. The nominee takes over for interim chief Chris Willey, who had been tasked with minding the OCTO ship since the departure of Vivek Kundra, who...
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229 D.C. Teachers Received Pink Slips Today
This afternoon, DCPS released final details of the budget reductions that have caused an uproar in the schools community since probable staff cuts were first announced last month. In total, 388 employees will be let go across the District, 229 of whom are teachers. According to a DCPS release, "60 percent of schools will lose one or zero teachers and 80 percent of schools will lose two or less." Twelve campuses lost five or...
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House of Ruth Also in Funding Struggle
The Save WEAVE campaign may have allowed that domestic violence assistance non-profit to stay open, but with the start of the new fiscal year today, other local groups are facing similar financial problems. House of Ruth, the District's largest nonprofit aimed at helping homeless women and children, most of whom have been victims of domestic violence, this week found out that it has lost nearly $500,000 in city funding, as the Washington Post's Susan...
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City Reaches Deal with Barry's Recreation Wish List Committee
Photo by christaki The office of D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty released a statement this afternoon announcing that it has reached a deal with Cora Masters Barry and her Recreation Wish List Committee for the group to remain at the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center. "All parties involved are satisfied with today's settlement agreement, and look forward to working together to ensure that District residents and children receive high quality public recreation services," reads the...
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Catania to Introduce D.C. Gay Marriage Bill on Tuesday
At-Large D.C. Council member David Catania (I) will introduce legislation to extend full marriage rights to same-sex couples in the District of Columbia on Tuesday, Oct. 6. Catania announced his intention to put forward the long-expected "Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009" at a meeting of almost 200 LGBT activists at the True Reformer building on U Street NW Wednesday night. "We are going to do it now," Catania told...
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D.C. Sales Tax Goes Up to 6 Percent Thursday
Thinking about making a major purchase in the District this week? You might want to go ahead and pull the trigger tonight, because starting Thursday, the D.C. general sales and use tax rate increases from 5.75 percent to 6 percent. It's not a massive jump, but that additional .25 percent can and will add up....
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D.C. Tied With Seattle as Top City for Young People in Recession
Photo by Mr. T in DC The Wall Street Journal has one of their career trends by ordinal list pieces today on where young people in the United States are deciding to move during the recession, and once again Washington, D.C. is at the top of the list. We've heard almost all of this before, but here's why the newspaper says the D.C. area is the best option for young job seekers:Government hiring is...
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Secret History: Trans Am's Surrender To The Night
Our occasional series "Secret History" features profiles of classic D.C. albums as a way of looking back at the District's contributions to music over time. This installment looks back at Trans Am's post-rock triumph, Surrender To The Night (Thrill Jockey, 1997). The mid to late 1990s saw the emergence of post-rock, a Chicago-centric genre which filters Brian Eno-influenced experimentalism, progressive jazz, and electronic bleepscapes through a more or less standard rock lens, shedding what...
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D.C. Libertarian Party Tries to Get Back on its Feet
It's always seemed to me that Washington has a disproportionate number of residents who self-identify as libertarians. Perhaps it's just the nature of our politically-focused city, or the location of the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, et al and the subsequent deployment of so many Koch fellows here, but I've never met more libertarians in one city than I have in D.C. As such, I've always been surprised by the lack of an...
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Gallery
EHN's Town Hall Meeting Marked by Substance, Lack of Shouting
This is the picture of a Town Hall Meeting on health-care reform hosted by D.C.'s non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives, Eleanor Holmes Norton. No offensive signs. No angry shouting. No vaguely racist mob clamoring to get inside. At recent health-care town halls hosted by other area congressmembers, like the one Rep. Jim Moran held last month, theatrics have been the order of the day. Far right-leaning protesters, suspicious of seemingly any Democratic policy...
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Free Adult Training Classes for D.C. Residents
Over at his blog, D.C. Council member Kwame Brown is pimping the new fall classes available from the city's Workforce Development Program. These are free job training classes available to D.C. adults, most of which start later this month. You can download a list of classes and registration materials from the CCDC web site. The types of classes offered include carpentry, pre-apprenticeship construction, hospitality industry, computer basics, medical billing, Spanish in the workplace, and more....
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Capitol Hill's Last Smoking Rooms Prepare to Close
Photo by cacophony76 The last two smoking rooms on Capitol Hill, in the Cannon and Longworth House Office Buildings, will close for good this week, The Hill reports. How can Congressional office buildings even have smoking rooms anymore? Because they are technically exempt from D.C. law, so they aren't subject to the workplace smoking ban the District enacted at the beginning of 2007. But when Democrats took over Congress a couple years ago, they...
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Local Politics Columnists Warn of Gay Marriage 'Storm'
Photo by gerdaindc As the battle over gay marriage in the District heats up -- the Washington Blade reports today that D.C. Council member David Catania (I-At Large) may introduce a bill before the end of the month -- a number of politics watchers have warned of political tension and conflict that may ensue. In the Examiner today, longtime local politics watcher Harry Jaffe argues that Catania's move may provoke what he terms a...
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Southeastern University No Longer Accepting Students
In case you hadn't heard already, Southeastern University in Southwest D.C. lost its accreditation on Aug. 31, the Washington Post is just reporting now. A message on the school's web site simply states, "Southeastern will not be offering a Fall Session. We are not accepting students at this time." The college has been in visible trouble for years, with word of its shaky accreditation status coming down from the Middle States Commission on Higher...
