Category Archives: All Politics is Local

All Politics is Local, The Daily Feed
By

District AG Peter Nickles’s Heart Grew Three Sizes

Photo courtesy of
Peter Nickles, DC Government Photo

District Attorney General Peter Nickles is cracking down on delinquent landlords, recently forcing fixes at at Southeast apartment complex. Freeman Klopott reports in the Washington Examiner today that Nickles stepped in to get fixes moving for the 1,500 residents of the Marbury Plaza apartment complex. Nickles got involved after hearing many complaints about lack of air conditioning and other dangers, all while the management company had a $5 million loan for renovations.

“If they screw around on this, they can expect trouble from me,” Nickles told The Washington Examiner, referring to the landlord. “I’m not a bashful guy, and I will come down hard.”

The attorney general is often described by critics as being a ‘crony’ of Mayor Fenty, serving the needs of the mayor’s political career rather than District residents. Could this move be a way to bolster his own image, as well as Fenty’s? Probably, there’s less than two months until the primary and this is some good P.R. for Nickles. To be sure, Nickles says he may get involved in more cases similar to this.

All Politics is Local, The Features
By

Campaign Notebook: The Passion of Fenty, July 16, 2010

Photo courtesy of
‘it’s Mayor Fenty!’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

It’s been a big week in DC politics, best summed up in two words: Game On. There was plenty of sparring in the mayoral race, culminating in a drama-filled radio debate yesterday. Council chair candidate Kwame Brown continues to face questions about his finances, and Jeff Smith reaches out to bloggers in Ward 1. It’s 60 days until the primary and things are getting juicy. Continue reading →

All Politics is Local, The Features
By

Campaign Notebook: July 9, 2010

Photo courtesy of
‘police trooper writing a ticket’
courtesy of ‘woodleywonderworks’

There are 67 days until the primary.

This week’s edition will be a bit shorter given the short week, but there’s been some interesting news. It mostly involves traffic tickets. If you missed it, the DC Board of Elections and Ethics released the full candidate list for the September primary on Wednesday. Provided there are no objections to the petitions, the ballot will be set. Of course this is DC, and there have been objections in the past. In 2002, incumbent Mayor Anthony Williams was forced to run as a write-in candidate due to fraudulent signatures on his petition. Despite not appearing on the ballot, Williams still won the Democratic nomination and was re-elected in November. Continue reading →

All Politics is Local, The Daily Feed
By

Final list of candidates for September primary released

Photo courtesy of
‘Ballot’
courtesy of ‘Berto Garcia’

The filing deadline for the District’s September primary has passed, and the Board of Elections and Ethics has released the final candidate list. You can download the entire list as a PDF from the DC BOEE web site. For the Mayoral race, both Vincent Gray and incumbent Adrian Fenty submitted their petitions back in June. Leo Alexander and Sulaimon Brown also had their petitions in before the deadline, rounding out the first and second tiers. Assorted others, including White House party crasher Carlos Allen turned in enough signatures to appear on the September ballot. In total, there will be seven Democratic candidates for Mayor: Adrian Fenty, Vincent Gray, Leo Alexander, Sulaimon Brown, Carlos Allen, Michael Green, and Ernest Johnson.

There aren’t any big surprises here. For Chairman of the Council, four Democratic candidates turned in their petitions before the deadline. Kwame Brown, Vincent Orange, Dorothy Douglas, and Calvin Gurley. For the At-Large Council seat there are also four candidates including incumbent Phil Mendelson, Clark Ray, Will Ross and another Michael Brown. Not to be confused with Michael A. Brown, a current At-Large member of the Council. No, this is Michael D. Brown, the Democratic Shadow Senator for the District. Continue reading →

All Politics is Local, The Daily Feed
By

Vince Gray meets with DC bloggers

Photo courtesy of
Photo by Dave Stroup, We Love DC

On Monday, DC Council Chair and candidate for mayor Vincent Gray sat down with DC bloggers at Ben’s Chili Bowl. For nearly ninety minutes, Gray answered questions posed by bloggers from DCist, We Love DC, Greater Greater Washington, Borderstan and the District Curmudgeon. The event was part of the Gray campaign’s effort to tap into new media, and it provided a chance to talk about topics including education, crime, poverty and transportation.

This was my first chance to meet with Gray, who is challenging the incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty for the Democratic nomination for mayor. The meeting was interesting, and shed some light into Gray’s attitude towards DC government, as well as his campaign style.

Gray is an experienced politician and also a bit of a policy wonk. The first impression you get is that he knows what is going on, and that he doesn’t always need to fall back on talking points. It is obvious that Gray is running a campaign aimed directly at people who have felt left behind by Fenty. Gray stresses that he is a uniter, and that he wants to be the mayor of “all of the people, not just some of the people.” He aims to bridge the divide between rich and poor, Northwest and Southeast. He feels too many people have been left behind, and that too many people don’t feel invested in the city. Continue reading →

All Politics is Local, The District, The Features
By

Campaign Notebook: July 2, 2010

Photo courtesy of
‘Pride Parade’
courtesy of ‘erin m’
There are 74 days left until the primary.

As we approach the holiday weekend, the mayoral campaign continues to ratchet up a bit. Education was the big topic this week, a subject that most certainly matters and most certainly will not fade. There’s been some developments in the Ward 1 race, and Vincent Orange is becoming a bit more visible. There’s been a good deal of news, so let’s get to it. Continue reading →

All Politics is Local, The Features
By

Campaign Notebook: June 25, 2010

Photo courtesy of
‘on the campaign trail’
courtesy of ‘mofo’

Primary Day in the District may be 81 days away, but there’s plenty of news to be covered. In fact, there’s a ton of campaign news to cover. There’s so much, that we’ve decided to help readers by distilling it into an easy-to-understand and digestible weekly round-up. From now until September, we’ll be providing a weekly summary of the big news, complete with some analysis. We’ll also be interviewing candidates and delving into the issues that are dominating the campaigns. We certainly applaud the diligent work being done by the Washington Post and the Washington City Paper, but understand that even for the wonkiest of the DC wonks, it’s a heck of a lot of information to sort through.

Let’s get at it, the introduction to the WLDC Campaign Notebook. Continue reading →

All Politics is Local, Arlington, Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
By

President Obama Makes A Return Stop To Ray’s Hell Burger

Photo courtesy of
‘”you gonna eat that?”‘
courtesy of ‘oceandesetoiles’

It’s hot out there in the district but that won’t keep President Obama from being a gracious host to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. The two just hit up Ray’s Hell Burger in Rosslyn where the two had burgers and shared fries together. What a touching moment for the US and Russia, sharing fries! According to Fox News’ Major Garrett Obama enjoyed a burger w/cheddar cheese, onions, lettuce, tomato & “bread & butter” pickles and Medvedev had a burger with cheddar cheese, onions, jalapenos and mushrooms.

How bold of the Russian leader to opt for the spicy on his burger!

Medvedev is in Washington today to talk with Obama about the global economy and other assorted international business stuff that World Leaders often talk about. Obama is no stranger to Ray’s, having visited the joint with VP Biden last May.

Check out more photos and video below:

Continue reading →

Adventures, All Politics is Local, Entertainment, Fun & Games, History, Life in the Capital, News, People, Special Events, The Daily Feed, The District, The Hill
By

Recap: 2nd Annual Congressional Women’s Softball Game

2nd Annual Congressional Softball Game

Yesterday at Guy Mason Park in Glover Park, female members of the media took on female members of Congress in the 2nd annual Congressional Women’s Softball Game to benefit Young Survival Coalition.

Both teams were stacked with a who’s who list of Washington pols and reporters, including Captains Dana Bash of CNN and Shailagh Murray of the WaPo, and Captains Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a principal organizer of the event, who was diagnosed with breast cancer two years at the age of 41. MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell and Sen. Amy Klobuchar announced the game and kept the friendly banter going.Very entertaining.

Off the field, it was a politico convention. DC’s First Lady Michelle Fenty kicked off the game was the first pitch. Supreme Court Justice, and Yankee’s fan, Sonia Sotomayor hungout in the Congressional dugout and Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in the second inning. Also spotted at the event were Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Minority Leader John Boehner, Majority Whip Eric Cantor, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, etc. Continue reading →

All Politics is Local, News, The Daily Feed
By

Does The DC Democratic Party Straw Poll Mean Anything?

Photo courtesy of
‘CPAC Straw Poll’
courtesy of ‘Gage Skidmore’

This past weekend, the DC Democratic Party held their convention at Howard University’s Law School, and as part of the festivities, the assembled citizens held a straw poll election of candidates for Mayor. The showing wasn’t good for Mayor Adrian Fenty, who was booed by those in attendance. They were all there to see Council Chairman Vincent Gray, who received just over seven hundred votes. Mayor Fenty could only come up with just under two hundred.

Is this straw poll a big deal? Probably not. If it had meant anything, I would imagine the Mayor would have rallied a comparable number of supporters to make it a close vote. In 2006, the straw poll voted strongly for Vincent Orange and Linda Cropp, with Fenty only gathering few votes, but he drew much more heavily at the primary election, where he won all the precincts.

This was an empty victory, largely geared toward the Democratic Party apparatus, and not the citizens as a whole. Keep an eye on the polls.

Adventures, All Politics is Local, Business and Money, Entertainment, Essential DC, History, Special Events, The Daily Feed
By

Oh You Embassy Folk! You’re So Funny!

Photo courtesy of
‘The Last Lion’
courtesy of ‘LaTur’

As the USA v. England World Cup match up fast approaches, the American and British embassy folk have begun the typical trash talking/friendly betting that normally occurs when two nations/cities play each other.

The email stream between both ambassadors has leaked on to the internet exposing the wager and now the details of their little bet are fully known.  If the US wins, then the US Ambassador gets a pub dinner on the crown. If the English win, then the English Ambassador gets a steak dinner on the colonies.

Personally, I think the wager is somewhat of a win-win situation for the British Ambassador.  He gets either the win and a steak, or if he loses some “home-cooked” food from his favorite pub. Whereas, if the USA wins, our Ambassador merely gets some fish n’ chips, and if we lose, he has to fork out for a steak dinner, and you know the British Ambassador isn’t gonna settle for a Tasty Diner steak. We’re talking Charlie Palmer’s here.

All Politics is Local, Crime & Punishment, History, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed
By

Area Corruptitude, Not DC

Photo courtesy of
‘corrupted fleur de lis’
courtesy of ‘dsb nola’

Our beloved DC is often lambasted for being full of corrupt pols and evil lobbyist bent on turning America into their own little self center, money making machine. However, despite our seedy reputation, DC is only the 36th most corrupt “state” in the union, according to the DailyBeast.

Sure we had the largest case of tax fraud courtesy of  Harriette Monica Walters, who serves as DC’s image in the poll, but we’re no match for southern neighbor Virginia, who ranks #2, just behind the most corrupt state Tennessee, or Maryland which came in at #23.

All Politics is Local, The Features
By

ABCs of ANCs: Your Advisory Neighborhood Commission

Photo courtesy of
‘My First ANC Meeting!’
courtesy of ‘Wayan Vota’

If you live in the District or read about District politics, you’ve probably heard the term ANC. You may have read a news story about how a local ANC is holding up a liquor license application, or how a certain commissioner is known to be a curmudgeon who hates all forms of change. Beyond these stereotypes, the ANC system doesn’t always get much attention. However, the mission of the District’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions is to provide a direct conduit between the government and citizens, so it’s something worth learning more about. This ABCs of ANCs will be an ongoing feature here, and this first part serves as a bit of a primer on the system.

So what is an ANC? An Advisory Neighborhood Commission is a government body representing a subdivision of a ward. Each commission is made up of ANC Commissioners, who in turn represent a Single Member District (SMD). A SMD is a sub-division of the ANC, generally consisting of around 2,000 residents.

Whew. It wouldn’t be government if there weren’t a dozen or so acronyms involved, right?

You are lumped in with about 2,000 other people and you elect someone from your area to serve on the local ANC. Most ANCs have five or six commissioners.

So what do they do?

According to the official ANC web site, “The Advisory Neighborhood Commissions consider a wide range of policies and programs affecting their neighborhoods, including traffic, parking, recreation, street improvements, liquor licenses, zoning, economic development, police protection, sanitation and trash collection, and the District’s annual budget.” Considering that encompasses just about everything in the world, let’s put it this way: ANC’s serve as the voice of a community, and have a bit of pull when it comes to negotiating in certain areas, most notably with development issues and liquor licenses. The Board of Zoning Adjustment and the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration give strong consideration to the opinions of ANCs. Continue reading →

All Politics is Local, Crime & Punishment, Life in the Capital, News, The Daily Feed
By

MPD, with Secret Service, Arrest ATM Robbery Suspect

atm robbery suspect, courtesy of MPD

As reported yesterday, the MPD arrested a suspect in connection to a series of armed ATM robberies in the First and Second Police Districts.

Prior to the May 19th arrest, the MPD had obtained an arrest warrant for the suspect, John Fenley Woodland, based on evidence from a robbery that occurred on May 5th along the 600 block of Massachusetts Avenue NW.

The suspect was apprehended on the evening of May 19th when U.S. Secret Service agents observed him committing an armed ATM robbery near the 800 block of 17th Street, NW.  The agents stopped the robbery, arrested the suspect and awaited MPD response. When MPD arrived the suspect was immediately recognized as Woodland, taken into custody and charged with two count of Armed Robbery for the May 5th and 19th incidents.

MPD detectives are currently investigating Mr. Woodland in connection to 10 robberies and potentially other similar offenses.

All Politics is Local, Business and Money, Entertainment, Essential DC, Life in the Capital, News, The Daily Feed
By

Magic Johnson & Co. Makeover Landmark Hotel

Photo courtesy of
‘Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Inglewood, Calif., 1996’
courtesy of ‘cliff1066â�¢’

On Tuesday, May 25th at 3:30pm,  Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Mayor Fenty and Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund (CJUF) and Lowe Enterprises will unveil their 150 million dollar restoration of the historic Landmark Washington Hotel located at 1919 Connecticut Avenue NW.

The renovation project hoped to return the hotel to its glory days with significant overhauls to the lobby, 1070 guestrooms, outdoor and indoor event/meeting areas, including the 36,000 square-foot, largest column-free International Ballroom complex.

The renovations, which began in 2009, are scheduled for completion on June 1, 2010. Can’t wait to check the place out.

Adventures, All Politics is Local, Essential DC, Fun & Games, History, Life in the Capital, Technology, The Daily Feed, The Great Outdoors, We Green DC
By

“Smart” Buoy Deployed

Photo courtesy of
‘Buoy Red ‘6’ took a pounding’
courtesy of ‘Tony DeFilippo’

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) deployed a “smart” buoy just south of the Wilson Bridge on Friday, May 4.  The new device will provide scientists and local area boaters/educators with real-time information about the Chesapeake Bay.

The buoy is part of the the CBIBS (Chesapeake Bay Interpretative Buoy System) program and will collect weather, oceanographic and water-quality observations along the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail.  The program hopes to not only provide relevant data for restoration efforts, but also provide insights about the waterways’ history and encourage stewardship and protection of the Chesapeake Bay.

All of the eight buoys’ measurements, along with historical information, can be accessed at www.buoybay.org (www.buoybay.org/m for mobile devices) and by phone at 877-BUOY-BAY (877-286-9229).

All Politics is Local, Crime & Punishment, Life in the Capital, Special Events, The Daily Feed
By

HOV Violators Beware

Photo courtesy of
‘Wanna go for a ride?’
courtesy of ‘warrenski’

Today, local area police are cracking down on High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane violators, aka: you lousy, stinking cheaters, as part of Capitol Region HOV Awareness Day.

So if you’re traveling in an HOV lane during rush hour either by yourself or with a dummy or your imaginary friend Buster, or with a blow up doll as your “other passenger,” you could a face a $90 fine and one point on your Maryland driving record or fines reaching as high as $1,000 and three points on your Virginia record.

Don’t mess with the law. Cheaters.

All Politics is Local, Life in the Capital, News, Special Events, The Daily Feed
By

Teacher Appreciation Week: Hooray Teachers!

As part of Teacher Appreciation Week and tomorrow’s Teacher Appreciation Day, the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) is offering a variety ways to honor and recognize our local teachers for the lasting contributions they’ve made and continue to make in our lives.

Chancellor Michelle Rhee wrote a personal letter and created the above video highlighting the efforts made by DC teachers during the last year and encouraging the public to extend their own personal thank yous to teachers.

Visit the DCPS site to read outstanding district teachers profiles, publicly thank your own DCPS teacher, or generate your own special 140 character DCPS teacher message and tweet it to @dcpublicschools.

All of the above are fantastic ways to participate in this worldwide teacher celebration week and they only require a few moments of time to show our appreciation to teachers for all the effort they put in each day to teach and for the education that we and our youth receive thanks to them.

All Politics is Local, Essential DC, History, Life in the Capital, Media, The Daily Feed, The District
By

U.S. Census Workers To Hit The Streets Starting In May

Photo courtesy of
‘Census #3’
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

If you haven’t yet filled out your 2010 Census form, starting in May chances are you’ll be getting a friendly knock on the door from your local census worker. The U.S. Census staffer will be asking you the same questions that are on the census mail form with the hopes of upping the 69% DC’s current response rate.

The big question is, how do you know who is a legit census worker and who might be scamming you. Well, fortunately the good census folks have put together some fantastic informational videos, including what to expect/look for from a real census employee.

YouTube Preview Image
Adventures, All Politics is Local, Life in the Capital, News, The Daily Feed
By

DDOT To Implement New Safety Rules For Pedicabs

Photo courtesy of
‘DSC_2432’
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

Under new rules proposed today by the DDOT, D.C. pedicabs will have to meet additional safety standards.  The new rules include requiring seatbelt usage for every passenger, establishing pedicab equipment requirements, mandating that pedicabs only operated  on public streets and in accordance with the “safe operation of bicycle regulations,” and prohibiting pedicab operators from parking or riding on a sidewalk, from riding while intoxicated, from parking in a restricted zone identified for other vehicles and from riding on any D.C. street with a posted speed limit of more than 30 mph.

Across the U.S. pedicabs are growing in popularity as are the number of accidents involving pedicabs.  It’s quite possible that these new rules may open the door for further regulations, such as pedicab licensing and mandatory insurance for all operators. The new rules are currently under public commentary and will likely be adopted in 30 days.