‘Drinkist’
courtesy of ‘andertho’

If your water at home tastes a bit better tonight, you have the annual switch back to chloramine from chlorine will bring less flavor to your tap. The chlorine treatment is an annual thing, and for ten weeks, DC WASA uses chlorine to do cleaning of the mains, and then switch back to chloramine which has fewer byproducts. It may take up to a week for the change to be completed throughout the area, and those water-imbibers who have special needs should be aware of the change. You can also go to this website for your plumbing needs and they can help you with your water treatment.

‘Facebook – become a fan’
courtesy of ‘TeX HeX’

You, dear reader, are keyed in to all the social networks, on your bliggety-blogs, and your faceyspaces, and your tweetie pages, and that’s why you probably know at least one candidate for higher office with their own Twitter or Facebook page. Or do you? Perhaps that account you’re following is just a knockoff candidate. The Maryland Board of Elections is here to help save you. They want to require that candidates engaging in social media certify their social media accounts by including the Authority Line.

‘one {red} cent’
courtesy of ‘christaki’

Keeping track of all the different taxation proposals currently in front of the council, as they figure out the budget for next year, is not a job I’d want to have. Fortunately, Michael Neibauer of the Washington Business Journal is doing that for you. He’s got a summary of the different committee proposals for alteration of Mayor Fenty’s budget. According to Neibauer, the budget remains largely intact with spending at $5.2B.

‘DSC_4267’
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

Is Mayor Fenty looking to go back on his word, regarding the bag tax? If you may recall, the 5-cent plastic bag tax was supposed to fund cleanup efforts on the Anacostia Waterfront, and only that. However, according to the Tax Foundation, Mayor Fenty wants to use that money for street-sweeping budgets, instead of the general fund.

C’mon now, Mr. Mayor, I’m pretty sure that’s not what you said the tax was for. I know that times are tight, budgetarily, but this is just silly.

‘pepsithrowback’
courtesy of ‘wfyurasko’

Lead by approximately three dozen local restaurants, a new coalition against the Soda Tax has emerged in the wake of Mary Cheh’s proposal to the City Council. Members include Magruder’s, Au Bon Pain, Corner Bakery, Pizza Boli’s and pretty much every corner market in the city, as well as an unexpected member: United Medical Center. The tax would add a penny per ounce to every soda purchased, from single bottles, to multipacks.

‘Barnes Dance preview’
courtesy of ‘nevermindtheend’

DDOT’s experiment with the Barnes Dance in Chinatown kicked off today at the intersection of 7th and H streets NW at 10 this morning.

Almost 27,000 pedestrians and 26,000 vehicles use the proposed intersection on an average day, making it a prime location for such a test.

A few details pertaining to this particular variation on the Barnes Dance include: allowing pedestrians  to cross with traffic that has a green signal and prohibit all turns by all vehicles at that intersection to increase pedestrian safety and maintain a steady flow traffic.

Drivers: If you intend to turn left or right off of 7th Street NW or H Street NW, DDOT requests you use an intersection before or after the Barnes Dance Intersection.

Anyone get any fun photos of today’s inaugural Barnes Dance in Chinatown? If so, let us know in the comments!

‘Nice Peterbilt’
courtesy of ‘Nevada Tumbleweed’

There’s a big sign on New York Avenue at the 3rd Street Tunnel. It reads, if memory serves, “Trucks over 13 feet must use 4th Street” instead of the tunnel. Today, a driver ignored that sign and crashed into the southbound entrance into the tunnel and caused a bit of damage. Southbound entry to 395 is being redirected to the Mass Ave entrance for the time being, while engineers figure out how bad the damage is, and clean up the rubble.

‘the first national cemetery’
courtesy of ‘Pappa91’

A body thought to be Alonte Sutton, 18, was found in a ravine in Southeast DC over the weekend. Sutton had been serving as an intern for Councilman Michael A. Brown, who Sunday expressed sadness over Sutton’s death in some touching comments given to the Post. Sutton’s death appears related to an argument had between Sutton and an unnamed assailant who wanted Sutton to transport his girlfriend. The assailant left the scene and returned with a firearm to address the argument. The story is deeply sad. Our condolences to Sutton’s family on their loss.

‘$196,876,282.12’
courtesy of ‘M.V. Jantzen’

Thanks much to tipster Jennifer who reminded us that today’s the day: the City Council is taking up expanding the service tax to raise revenue.  Included in what you might start paying new taxes on are personal instruction, massage services, magazines, house cleaning, gym membership fees, carpet cleaning and cultural event ticket costs.  Chances are, if you do business with someone in a one-on-one sort of way, the city wants a cut of the transaction, and that extends from personal trainers, to maid service, to pet grooming.

I know times are tough in the budget arena, but the answer during a recession, or the early rebound from one, is not to increase the load on area small businesses.  While the list of services at the Post’s blog doesn’t include my own area of IT Consulting, it’s a short leap from the current list to an expanded list.  If you operate a personal services business, or side gig, this might affect what you do, if you’re a dogwalker, or masseuse, or work at a gym, chances are you’re going to be responsible for tax collection and disbursement, adding a whole other line item to your administrative routine and complicating what it takes to do business.

If you don’t want your gym bill to go up, or any of the other personal services you purchase to go up, email your city council rep.  Don’t know who that is? Find out with your address.  Over 2,000 people had emailed Mary Cheh as of yesterday, and more than that had hit Jim Graham.

There’s really no “good” way to raise taxes, but focusing on small local businesses after you’ve driven the big ones to the burbs? That’s just insult to injury, DC Council.