Peter Nickles redux?

Not quite, but Mayor Adrian M. Fenty isn’t going to have an easy time getting his nominee to chair the Public Service Commission through the D.C. Council.

In June, Fenty nominated Lori “Missy” Murphy Lee to the post, which leads a regulatory body with broad authority over electric, natural gas and telecommunications companies operating in the District.

The Washington Post did a brief item in October, but Lee’s nomination has more or less sailed under the radar until recent days. Yesterday, Friends of the Earth, a local environmental activist group, sent a mass e-mail asking its allies to oppose Lee’s confirmation and either testify before the council or submit a written statement. And today, the local chapter of the Sierra Club dispatched a note to the opposing the nomination. (The enviros are concerned about the commission’s role in promoting green energy concerns.)

A hearing on the nomination is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon before the public services and consumer affairs committee, headed by Mary M. Cheh, who voted against Nickles’ confirmation as attorney general last month. Assuming the committee sends it along, a full council vote on Lee’s nomination could come at the Dec. 16 legislative meeting.

Read More “Fenty Faces Another Heated Confirmation Battle” »

1. Review: “Twilight� by Tricia Olszewski

2. Stop E-Mailing Peter Nickles: End The Witch Hunt by Jason Cherkis

3. Double Homicide in 5300 Block of Belt Road, NW; Victims’ Car Torched in Petworth by Ted Scheinman

4. Evidence in Spevak Case Found at 622 Ingraham by Ted Scheinman

5. Loose Lips Daily: Peter Nickles Doesn’t Care for Your E-Mail Campaign by Mike DeBonis

6. Robert Wone’s Death: More Details, Still No Answers by Jule Banville

7. Teen Robbery Suspect Is Back on the Street by Mike DeBonis and Jason Cherkis

8. $20,000 Inauguration Rental…In Mitchellville by Ruth Samuelson (Housing Complex)

9. Robert Wone Case: Some Powerful Attorneys by Jason Cherkis

10. WaPo Syndicated Columnists by Erik Wemple

Photo by Flickr user Kevin H.

DeOnte Rawlings. David Kerstetter. Both cases of police-shooting deaths. Both cases where there are outstanding questions left unanswered. The D.C. Police Department, so far, has remained mum on some of those questions which City Desk eloquently wrote up this morning. We also have a detailed account of the Kerstetter shooting.

In the police department’s latest annual report (2007) on use-of-force investigations, its authors champion accountability in the very first graph:

“The Department is responsible and accountable to its members and to the citizens of this community for ensuring that appropriate use of force training is provided and member-applied force is both reasonable and within Department policy.”

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier gives a blurbed quote at the top of the report’s intro. She states: “The success of a police department is measured by the level of trust and confidence that the community has for it.”

The use of force numbers are also pretty interesting.

Read More “Putting the Kerstetter Shooting In Context” »

Now that the Britney Spears of national elections has gone back to Wasilla, we as a culture are back on the real thing. And she knows it. And she’s coming to Verizon Center March 24 (via the Examiner).

I admit to sitting through most of Britney’s MTV docudrama this week (brought to you commercial-free and sponsored, oddly enough, by Curious, Britney’s perfume). As it turns out, Britney unplugged and shilling herself by showing us how tortured she is to shill herself: not all that fascinating. However, Britney, the embodiment of grits-eating Barbies? Totally somewhat interesting. Tickets pre-fee go from $39.50 to $128. Who’s going?

The NHL suspended Sean Avery yesterday for an “indefinite” period.

Allegedly, the penalty was dealt because the Dallas winger slandered his celeb ex-girlfriend, actress Elisha Cuthbert, and her latest flame, Calgary defenseman Dion Phaneuf, by telling interviewers that “it’s become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds.”

But any other player in the league could get away with saying much worse without having to sit out even two minutes. The stiff sentence is really a result of years of Avery giving off-color quotes to reporters, plus payback for all the publicity he attracted during last season’s Stanley Cup playoffs by coming up with a gimmick to frazzle goalies.

If there was a Nobel Prize for poor sportsmanship, Avery earned it in Game 3 of the New York Rangers’ series with the New Jersey Devils. Avery, then with the Rangers, stood in front of New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur and waved his stick and arms like a madman, while not even caring about the action taking place elsewhere.

Try not to giggle or appreciate Avery’s genius as one commentator after another says, “I’ve never seen anything like that!”

And then he scores. (I’ve watched these clips a hundred times, and I’m still in awe.)

Avery’s tactics were obviously tacky and wrong, but just as the spitball was once legal in baseball, his routine was also so novel that the referees couldn’t come up with anything in the rulebook to penalize Avery at the time.

Yesterday, that penalty was finally handed down.

Here’s a good idea. New Columbia Heights has a semi-regular feature where they review Metro bus lines. The blog’s latest installment focuses on the Buses of 14th Street–the 52, 53, and 54. The reviewer lets it rip:

“I’ve taken this bus heading south during rush hour and not during rush hour, and it’s always a pain. They don’t come very regularly, and they make so many stops (often every block) that it’s practically faster to walk. I’ve started taking them for work during rush hour, and it’s terrible - it takes about half an hour to go from 14th and Euclid St NW, roughly, to 14th and F. That’s less than 2 miles. I could roll down the hill faster.”

There has to be better bus lines. There has to be worse bus lines. I really dig the 16th Street-to-Silver Spring bus. The 42 isn’t bad either. I’ve heard from sources over the years that the buses that run along MLK Ave SE are terrible after school lets out.

What are your bus horror stories?

As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Good morning, all. Everyone’s pumped about the 24-hour nightlife the District will offer come inauguration time. Well, everyone except Muriel Bowser, Carol Schwartz, and, especially, Phil Mendelson, who said yesterday, “There are very few people I know of out partying at 5 in the morning…who aren’t getting drunk.” And your point? Yeah, yeah—public safety and all that. But LL ain’t chair of the public safety committee, now, is he?

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—”Extended Drinking Hours at Inauguration: It’s Official“; “Extended Inauguration Drinking Hours Not a Done Deal!”

If LL’s blanket inaugural booze coverage wasn’t good enough for you (harrumph), try David Nakamura’s fine WaPo article or Leah Fabel’s fine Examiner article. NYT even gets in on the story. NC8 and WRC-TV have video. [LL can't recommend the WaTimes story, since it got the vote wrong: Michael Drost and Timothy Warren reported the 12-1 vote on the emergency declaration, not the 9-4 vote on the bill itself.]

Is there a chance Mayor Adrian M. Fenty won’t sign the bill? WTOP reports he hasn’t made up his mind yet.

Fun quote from Bruuuce Johnson’s coverage: “[Marc] Barnes, owner of “Love” and “The Park at 14th Street says while he’ll make a lot more money with the extended liquor hours, the DC Government stands to take in multi millions in tax revenue.” LL notes that Barnes’ clubs were namechecked on the dais by Marion Barry during the council debate. Can’t buy that kind of marketing!

As of tomorrow, cab riders no longer have to pay the $1 fuel surcharge, WTOP’s Mark Segraves reports. WTOP, of course, points out that WTOP had run a story on the surcharge the day before. Gee thanks, WTOP!

Read More “Loose Lips Daily: Mendo the Party Pooper” »

A belated kudos to the Washington Post editorial page, for nailing a thoroughly reported editorial-cum-investigative piece on the DeOnte Rawlings situation. Though we’ve already cited the piece in our fabulous Loose Lips Daily, a more complete breakdown is in order.

Rawlings, 14, was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer on Sept. 17, 2007. Subsequent investigations by the U.S. attorney’s office and the police department have concluded that the officer, and another off-duty police official, broke no laws or departmental rules. They returned to their jobs.

The Post editorial concerns itself with the city’s handling of the case, a response characterized by secrecy; details of the investigations have not been released to the public. Here are some of the shocking-but-then-again-not-so-shocking revelations in the Post editorial:

—James Haskel, the officer who shot Rawlings, pursued the youth after he found a minibike missing from his garage. Haskel and another officer spotted Rawlings riding it and testify that Rawlings shot at them. So Haskel fired back, hitting Rawlings with a fatal shot to the head. Though the U.S. attorney’s office exonerated the officer, the Post points to some holes in the case: “No gun was ever found, the minibike went mysteriously missing and the officers, who at the time did not identify themselves as police, left the scene — issues that have never been adequately addressed.”

Read More “DeOnte Rawlings in Mid-Morning Blog Post” »

-According to WaPo, GM, Chrysler, and Ford are begging lawmakers–that’s what it’s come down to. “”There is no plan B,” said Fritz Henderson, GM’s president and chief operating officer.”

-DCist had the scoop on the redesigned 9:30 Club website. But don’t take their word for it, check it out for yourselves and tell us what you think.

-Meet The Press, meet David Gregory. (So why the hell is Koppel leaving Discovery?)

-Wired has some great gift ideas for dealing with office bullies.

*photo by Flickr user freeparking

My friend Ray made a $60,000 bet with his friend Ted that he’d lose 60 pounds in nine months. Ted made the same bet back. At the end of nine months, Ray and Ted have to pay each other $1,000 per pound each has lost. Ray claims he’s hoping no money changes hands, but I hear he’s secretly putting butter in his friend’s food.

Ray, who has lost 3.6 pounds on Day 1, is keeping a video diary of his weight lo$$ adventures, which you can watch on YouTube if you are so inclined, and if you are so inclined and you see Ray Out and About and Eating Cake you have permission to steal his wallet.

The vote is 9-4 in favor of extending hours of alcohol service at local taverns and nightclubs until 5 a.m. in the days leading up to the inauguration.

The real drama was in a 8-6 8-5 vote as to whether nightclubs would be offered the extended hours or not. Here’s who fought for your right to party: Harry Thomas Jr., Yvette Alexander, Marion Barry, Kwame R. Brown, David A. Catania, Mary M. Cheh, Jack Evans, and Vincent C. Gray.

LL ran down the drama.

DCist points to a load of confusion over the District’s plans to extend drinking hours in the days leading up to the inauguration.

Here’s what LL knows: This is not a done deal, and it looks likely that the 5 a.m. hour will change.

This morning, Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham walked into the pre-legislative-session breakfast meeting and told his colleagues about his plan.

LL noticed that Graham seemed somewhat tentative over the prospects for the bill, and he did not in fact mention the 5 a.m. cutoff in his initial remarks on the matter. He said that “negotiations are ongoing.”

“The debate is about the time,” he said, “whether it’s reasonable.”

For the record, many of Graham’s colleagues issued strong support for the 5 a.m. time, including Chair Vincent C. Gray, Ward 2’s Jack Evans, and at-larger David Catania.

Ward 6’s Tommy Wells raised an interesting point: “What’s the point of 5 a.m.? So you can start drinking at 8 again?”

Graham expressed the likelihood that he would hold off on presenting the bill, negotiate whatever needs to be negotiated, and bring it back for the council’s final legislative session on Dec. 16. Evans was more gung ho: “Just pick a number—we’ll support it!”

Catania got the last word in: “After eight years of Bush, we all need a drink.”

Here we are at 6:30 p.m., and the drinking-hours bill has not yet come up. The bill is emergency legislation, which traditionally comes last. (”Emergency” means that it’s a bill that will go into effect immediately; it’s distinguished from regular legislation, which doesn’t go into effect until a congressional review period is up. The trade-off is that emergency legislation expires after 90 days and needs nine votes to pass.)

LL will update here when they get to it.

UPDATE, 6:45 P.M.: Graham spokesperson David Lipscomb says the bill will come up today. The only change that will be made, he says, is that nightclubs will be exempted from the extended hours, at the request of the mayor.

UPDATE, 7:15 P.M.: OK, they’ve started the debate. Here’s Mendo the party pooper: “There are very few people I know of who are out partying at 5 o’clock in morning…who are not out getting drunk.” Duh! He cites an already overstretched police force for voting agin’ it.

UPDATE, 7:25 P.M.: In initial vote, on emergency declaration, vote is 12-1, with Mendo dissenting. Bah humbug.

Now they’ve moved to the bill itself. Catania is Mr. Party—introduces amendment to scrap the nightclub exception! Graham says to keep it, citing discussions today with “various stakeholders…not the least of which is the mayor.”

UPDATE, 7:30 P.M.: Marion Barry, who knows from a good time, supports the Catania Amendment, as fine a piece a legislation as has moved through this august body today.

UPDATE, 7:40 P.M.: Here’s the Catania Amendment tally. Party people: Thomas, Alexander, Barry, Brown, Catania, Cheh, Evans, Gray; party poopers: Mendelson, Schwartz, Wells, Bowser, Graham. Woooo! Nightclubs are in!

UPDATE, 7:41 P.M.: Mendo, Carol, and Bowser end up voting no. Graham votes no “in order to honor the commitment I made to the mayor.” Tally is 9-4 in favor of LATE-NIGHT DRUNKENNESS!

LL approves.

On WTEM’s “Monday Morning Quarterback” show yesterday, host Andy Pollin led a discussion of Sunday’s ceremony at FedExField honoring former safety Sean Taylor, who was murdered a year ago last week.

Everybody on the air agreed the tribute didn’t work for reasons ranging from the weather to the selection of the wrong host for a memorial service (former NBC sportscaster George Michael, whose only gear when the microphone is hot is “Top 40 Dance Party!”).

There was also a consensus that Pedro Taylor, the surviving father, gave a bizarre response to Michael’s bizarre question: What’s Sean doing now?

Pedro said something along the lines of “He’s on his sailboat fishing.”

Pollin declared Pedro would have better answered that the ex-Redskin was “looking down” at the Skins/Giants game.

“Or up,” co-host John Riggins chimed in quickly. “If Joe Gibbs is wrong…”

Washington, D.C. is a complicated place. Journalists in D.C. bureaus are getting laid off in droves. Kids these days like Second Life and other avatar-driven games. Dave Johnson, a professor at American University, is clearly smarter than the rest of us, because he thinks he’s figured out a way to reconcile all this by creating a game-like platform that presents a virtual D.C. that dynamically presents information to users by employing an algorithm that—oh, damned if I know. All I know is that he’s asking the Knight News Challenge for about $1 million to create the thing. Here’s an excerpt from his proposal, linked from Fishbowl NY today:

This project will build a working “SimCityâ€� model of Washington, DC, visualizing the federal buildings and placing avatars of elected and appointed officials in and around them. Based in open source tools such as Blender and the Python language, the environment will be built from the ground up with hooks to work with other open source data-driven projects as well as social networking sites. (The interface and engine can be brokered to model any state’s capitol, or any city in any state or nation.) Beyond the platform interface, the goal is to attach vast databases of public information: The effects of federal policies/politics on local policies/politics; the structure of financial relationships and their effects on policies/politics. Strong journalism – print, broadcast and new media – that relates these communities to Washington will be easy to find and new audiences will appreciate the relevance to their communities.

This may be an improvement over hiring a smart reporter in a D.C. bureau. I can’t see how, though.

Medical Museum, 1993