‘Pride Parade’
courtesy of ‘erin m’

Embattled DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee will turn in her resignation in the morning, effective 31 October 2010, according to multiple news sources.  In the interim, her deputy chancellor Kaya Henderson will head the school system, according to our sources at DCPS.  Henderson came with Rhee from The New Teacher Project, where she served as Vice President for Strategic Partnerships.  If there’s one trait that Rhee lacked, it was the “playing well with others” category that so many of us relied on in Elementary School to keep us up with social promotion, and that seems to be a place where Deputy Chancellor Henderson shined.  Before New Teacher Project, she was the Director of Admissions at Teach for America, and she has worked in difficult environments in Memphis, Atlanta and Baltimore amongst other challenging districts.

Did everybody have a good long weekend? I know that some didn’t get Monday off but now DC should be at full strength as we take a look at what DC is tweeting about today.

FedTalks Strolls Into Town

Combine politics and technology and what do you get? The FedTalks conference that has everybody in town over at the Sidney Harman Hall tweeting with the #fedtalks hashtag. References to Craig Newman‘s remarks this morning filled up the local timelines and local Arlington comedian Remy will be entertaining the crowds there as well.

Interesting choice of venue for FedTalks- could they not get the Convention Center? Perhaps the Shakespeare Company was looking for some extra revenue- regardless I’m sure it’s a pretty setting for a conference.

Continue reading →

‘Blizzard of Foreclosures’
courtesy of ‘Photos by Chip Py’

Eleanor Holmes Norton today called for a moratorium on foreclosures due to malfeasance at national banks concerning the documentation surrounding many mortgages.  Citing specifically J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Ally Financial, the District’s delegate to Congress requested a moratorium “until they can assure residents here that they have systems in place to prevent improper foreclosures.”

The issue here is that in many circumstances, legal documents required by banks as part of foreclosure proceedings have been improperly certified by staff at these lenders.  Planet Money has been running some excellent stories on the issues that are surrounding these documents, and they’re worth a read.

DC is a special case because there is a non-judicial foreclosure process, whereby the courts are avoided entirely, and the process is handled through the contract that you sign when you take out the loan on your house.  Norton’s call for a moratorium could likely buy families time to avoid these processes, but given the rate at which banks are not modifying loans, I’d say a moratorium isn’t going to save too many homes.

‘258/365 – vince gray, dc’s next mayor (unless adrian fenty runs as a republican?!)’
courtesy of ‘dracisk’

Last night’s nearly full house at the Community Academy Public Charter School on First Street in Bloomingdale was the first of eight Town Hall events put on by the Gray Campaign to help unite the city behind the democratic party candidate for mayor.  Following Gray’s campaign mantra of uniting the city, the event last night was part Q&A, part pep rally, and though it started late, it didn’t underdeliver in terms of access to the candidate.

Questions came from all sides on all issues, running the gamut from school reform to economic issues to social services to budget priorities, and there wasn’t a single question that stumped Gray.  There wasn’t a single number that Gray couldn’t come up with last night, and even if a few of them were suspect (His answer on Hardy Middle School’s AYP figures was incorrect, the school has not met AYP each of its last ten years, it missed in 2003 and 2010 for Reading and 2004, 2007, 2009 and 2010 in Math) the democratic candidate was quick with both statistics and analysis in his responses.  At one point, he quipped, “there are glib answers [to these questions], but I refuse to give them.”

Continue reading →

‘Adams Morgan Harris Teeter’
courtesy of ‘jacquesofalltrades’

With Fall officially here two weeks already, and the brisk mornings of early October back as of this morning, that means we’re close to an opening of the Harris Teeter at Constitution Square near Union Station, right?

Well, yes and no.

We did hear back from Harris Teeter this morning, and they’ve set the calendar date for the opening of the new 50,000 sqft grocery store for December 7th, 2010 at 5pm.  This will be my new grocery store starting at about 5:01pm on December 7th.  It’s great to see another grocery store go into Northeast DC, along with the Aldi’s that will open in Starburst Plaza in Early 2011.

‘what else is new?’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Two Metrobuses collided at a Silver Spring bus stop at 7:15 this morning, injuring 23 people, many of whom were high school students.  The striking bus was cited for “failing to control vehicle speed” by Montgomery County police.  The bus sustained damage to its windshield and front door in the crash. A WMATA spokesman declined to release the names of the drivers involved in today’s incident. The injuries required that several people be transported to local hospitals, but none were thought to be serious.

‘Crime Solvers’
courtesy of ‘Marcellina.’

This morning in a news conference Chief Cathy Lanier announced that MPD have made an arrest in the investigation surrounding yesterday’s shooting at the funeral of Ashley McRae. Police arrested Brandon Miller on a charge of Murder 1 while armed (Video of the press conference available there, too).  Police are looking for people who may have seen a White 2001 Buick near the scene yesterday.  Please call 202 727 9099 or text 50 411 or call anonymously at 1 888 919 CRIME if you have any information about the White 2001 Buick seen near the scene of the crime yesterday.

Jason Cherkis and Bryan Weaver both knew Jamal Coates, and have a very touching profile of Coates, whose life was fairly complicated.  It’s absolutely worth your time.

Photo by Dave Stroup, We Love DC

An early morning fire in the 3100 block of 16th Street forced the evacuation of an apartment building and required multiple rescues from DC Fire & EMS.  8 people were transported to area hospitals with serious injuries, including smoke inhalation, and one person has died from their injuries related to the fire.  A 38-year-old male, yet to be identified, leapt from the burning building and sustained fatal injuries in doing so.

We Love DC correspondent Dave Stroup reported from the scene via twitter, and compared it to the 2008 Mt. Pleasant Fire.

TBD was on the scene as well this morning, and has comments from the Fire Chief and others.

‘DSC00608’
courtesy of ‘Arlington Karl’

If you’ve been wondering what Vince Gray’s campaign was up to after they’d won the primary, you weren’t alone.  It turns out, though, that they’re working on a series of Town Hall meetings, one for each ward, starting in early October.  You can sign up to be at one through their website, or you can read about their Build One City plan, which also offers you the chance to be a part of their transition team, or apply to work in a Gray administration (or, rather, you can’t yet, but maybe once he’s Mayor-Elect).

The whole series of Town Hall meetings is behind the break. Sorry, Courtland, Ward 9 isn’t on the list.

Continue reading →

I’ve been hearing the word “genius” thrown around with David Simon’s name since Homicide: Life on the Street came to NBC in the mid 1990s.  This morning, it’s official, as David Simon was named to be one of this year’s MacArthur Fellows, the recipient of a “genius” grant of $500,000 over 5 years. Simon, born here in DC, and covered the crime beat for the Baltimore Sun through the 1980s and 1990s, is the author of books and teleplays that have won numerous awards.  His TV series, from the aforementioned Homicide to The Wire and Treme have won him critical acclaim. Congratulations, David!