Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Howard Brooks likely to plead guilty.
One of Mayor Vincent Gray's former campaign aides has been charged with one count of lying to the FBI in an unfolding political scandal, the Associated Press reports. Court documents say Howard Brooks, who served as a campaign consultant in Gray's 2010 bid for office, made payments to Sulaimon Brown. The cash was intended to persuade Brown to remain in the mayoral race and to continue to hurl negative comments toward incumbent candidate Adrian Fenty. The AP reports Brooks will likely plead guilty to the charge, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. These charges come one day after Thomas Gore, Gray's assistant treasurer during the campaign, pleaded guilty to one count of obstructing justice by destroying records in a …
Friday, March 23, 2012
Residents of Hill East in Ward 6 want to know what that would mean for proposed mixed-use development in the neighborhood.
Mayor Vincent Gray appeared before a room of some 300 Capitol Hill residents to try to qualm their fears about what his lofty goal to bring the Washington Redskins back to the District would mean for their hopes of community-serving development at Reservation 13. Reservation 13 is a swath of land near RFK Stadium at the eastern edge of Capitol Hill (Hill East as many residents describe it). Since the Mayor and Councilmembers Jack Evans and Michael Brown took a trip to Tampa in late October, the community has been abuzz with concerns that a long-awaited and mired mixed-use development proposal for that same space would be jettisoned in favor of a Redskins Training facility that would be largely off-limits to the community. The Washington …
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Unethical politicians, and the ethics reforms they propose.
When a governing body such as the D.C. Council tackles ethics reform, it's a sign that lawmakers have failed the public trust. What's an elected representative to do? The obvious public relations fix is to pass a new set of laws. Brilliant. It doesn't matter what's contained in the ethics reform bill being proposed by D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown and Mary Cheh. The simple fact that Brown faces serious campaign ethics violations makes this one of the most ridiculous attempts at legislation in recent memory. Thank goodness someone in the D.C. government has stood up to point out how silly it all looks. Attorney General Irvin Nathan deserves credit for going before the council and testifying how the Cheh/Brown bill falls way short. His …
Saturday, March 12, 2011
No one wins in the fight between Sulaimon Brown and Vincent Gray.
It’s hard to know which is worse — a politician accused of playing dirty to reach the top, or a wannabe politician willing to slime his way to a government appointment. It’s pathetic, really. Whether D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s campaign broke ethics rules by paying Sulaimon Brown thousands in cash to levy political attacks against Adrian Fenty is a matter that is now up to the Inspector General's office. The IG will also determine whether Gray promised Brown a job for his actions during last year’s campaign. The mayor made the right move, strategically, by calling a press conference on the same day the allegations were published. He called the charges against him “surprising, shocking and appalling.” Gray’s defense is simple: “I was not in …
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Mayor Vincent Gray, Councilmember Jack Evans and ANC officials hailed the beginning of construction on the much-anticipated project.
Today, officials marked the ceremonial start of the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Georgetown's historic O and P Streets. What was hailed as a project long in the making, the restoration of the existing streetcar tracks and repairs to the streets and infrastructure is one of the "last major projects" in Georgetown, said Councilmember Jack Evans. Officials noted the project has been in the works for over 20 year and in earnest since 2003. District Department of Transportation Interim Director, Terry Bellamy, describes O and P Streets as some of the oldest in the District. Mayor Gray said the project was, not a labor of love, but definitely "a labor" on the part of the community and one that was "badly needed." Commissioner Ed Solomon …
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Hyde-Addison Elementary School
3219 O St NW, Washington, DC
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Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Median income and unemployment numbers are drastically different from one quadrant to the next. The results are visible in the homes and businesses that occupy 30th and M Streets in southeast and northwest D.C.
At 30th and M Streets in Northwest on any given day, you will find well-clad shoppers, hands loaded with bags and $4 lattes. They stroll down Georgetown's brick sidewalks with Christmas wreaths or potted plants adorning the street lights. What about 30th and M Streets in Southeast? M Street and 30th Street, SE meet at an intersection with Minnesota Avenue in a neighborhood known as Dupont Park. A used auto parts store and a small corner grocery with security grates over its windows sit nearby. M Street Southeast is residential, homes sit on a hillside. Some front yards are impeccable and the homes are tidy. Others have collapsing awnings, overgrown yards and rusting vehicles belonging to owners unable to pay for their upkeep. According …
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30th St NW & M St NW, Washington, DC
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30th St SE & M St SE, Washington, DC
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Friday, December 10, 2010
The Washington metropolitan area continues to put up strong numbers in job growth and boasts lower than average unemployment. Areas of the District, however, lag severely behind and D.C. unemployment is higher than the national average.
Tuesday as the District Council closed an $188 million gap in the Fiscal Year 2011 (FY2011) budget and protesters shouted about turning our backs on the poor, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the latest employment and unemployment numbers where the D.C. region comes out on top in many instances. In October 2010, the D.C. region classified as "Washington-Arlington-Alexandria" posted unemployment rates of 5.8 percent, though the District on its own came in at 9.6 percent, compared to the national rate of 9.0 percent; all rates are lower than the same month last year. According to the BLS report "the largest over-the-year employment increase occurred in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va." with 43,700 more …
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Thursday, Mayor-elect Vincent Gray made additional announcements about appointees to his new administration. Gray will bring many familiar faces from his Council staff to work with him as Mayor.
In a press conference Thursday, Mayor-elect Vince Gray announced seven additional appointees to his new administration, two of which require Council approval. The appointees like Eric Goulet, the current Budget Director for the Council, are familiar faces in D.C government and demonstrate that Gray is bringing his current team along with him to his mayoral administration. Still looming in the shadows are announcements about current District Agency heads who have not resigned or received formal termination letters, such as Police Chief Cathy Lanier. Gray called his team a group of "highly qualified" people who were not new to District government and who would be "responsible to residents" of D.C. When asked if being a Fenty administration …
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Wednesday, Mayor-Elect Vincent Gray announced his first appointments, Allen Y. Lew and Gerri Mason Hall. Tuesday, several Fenty-appointed agency heads received termination notices.
Wednesday, mayor-elect Vince Gray announced the first of his appointments for his new administration with Allen Y. Lew serving as City Administrator and Gerri Mason Hall as Chief of Staff. Tuesday, several agency heads appointed by Mayor Fenty received termination notices from Gray indicating their services would no longer be needed come January. The terminations include Gabe Klein, District Department of Transportation Director, Brian Sivak, District Chief Technology Officer, and Linda Argo, Director of Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. After putting the budget gap-closing issue behind him Tuesday, Gray moved swiftly forward with his transition and created a new page on his transition website, listing appointees and their…
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Tuesday, Nov. 30, hundreds of D.C. residents testified before the District Council about proposed gap-closing measures to balance the D.C. FY2011 budget.
Tuesday, Nov. 30, the District Council held a public hearing to allow residents a voice in the decision-making about gap-closing measures for the Fiscal Year 2011 Budget (FY2011). The District faces a budget shortfall of $188 million for FY2011 and between $340 and $430 for FY2012, depending on measures taken for FY2011. Over 140 people signed up to plead that their program not receive cuts and to offer suggestions for other ways to make up the gap in funding. Chairman of the District Council and Mayor-Elect, Vincent Gray, started the morning off with a somber tone saying the gap-closing task before the Council was "daunting." Gray echoed a statement he made during several of his town hall meetings held throughout the District, "everyone …
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8:39 am on Saturday, May 26, 2012
Part 2 of 4 gain/lose. That being stated, election fraud is a very real threat. That being the case, the charge that I’d really like to see Governor Scott, Secretary of State Ken Detzner, and all the rest of Governor Scott’s immediate cohorts lead is the charge to excise corrupt actors from the election process. Right now in Alachua County there is a proven criminally-corrupt judge—a judge by the… more ›