Harry Jaffe

Busted snowplows ruin Fenty's pledge of clear streets

Tip O'Neill uttered the immortal line "All politics is local." I would corrupt Tip's line thus: Nothing is more local than snow. Take my street in Northwest D.C. It's a short stretch between two well-traveled roads. One is a bus route along McKinley Street, the other takes carloads of kids to Lafayette Elementary School. My expectations that a plow might have cleared my street of the 2 feet of white stuff that fell last weekend were low. That was wise. I saw no sign of one. "Never saw or heard a plow," my daughter reported, and she was up most of then night with friends, because that's how they roll at 23. No surprise. With cars parked on both sides, our lane is barely wide enough...

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D.C. shadow senator gets first junket -- to see shuttle launch

Ah, the perks of being the shadow senator for the District of Columbia! We are stuck here in our winter wonderland, contemplating whether to dig out the car or shove another frozen pizza in the oven. Shadow Sen. Paul Strauss is down in Florida at Kennedy Space Center watching Endeavor lift off. "It should be quite a thrill," Strauss told me as he loaded his family and his car on the Amtrak in Lorton, Va., for the 17-hour trip south. "Flying was too iffy if we were going to make our schedule." Maybe you didn't know the District has two shadow senators. Even those of us who live and vote in the nation's capital, and have even voted for Strauss, might not understand what purpose he and...

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D.C. budget wars coming over higher taxes

Jack Evans guided me to the corner of the budget classroom Thursday, turned me to the wall and stuck a dunce cap on my head. The veteran chairman of the city council's finance and revenue committee said I needed a refresher course on city finances. My last column, he said, was dumb and dumber, because it mixed capital spending with operational spending. Guilty! What steamed Evans was my suggestion that council members consider cutting capital projects, rather than social service program that affect poor people. One of those projects -- the O Street Market -- lies on the far eastern side of Evans' Ward 2, which stretches from Georgetown through downtown to Shaw. The council has...

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Time to cut D.C. government's pet projects

Math is not my strong suit, so help me out here: Is the District going broke, or is the government fat with cash? For Council Chairman Vince Gray, the sky is falling. The chief legislator's take seems to be: OMG, we are more than $200 million in the red! On Monday he called D.C.'s fiscal condition "very alarming." Mayor Adrian Fenty sees blue skies. His message to Gray: Chill Chairman. Fenty fired off a news release that promised "continuous improvement in services for District residents." Easy peasy! Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi comes out with news that the latest audit of D.C.'s books is "clean," which means his bean counters can show where the money is coming from and...

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Obama disappoints advocates for democracy in D.C.

When President Obama took the podium last week for his first State of the Union address, advocates for greater democracy for residents of the nation's capital city had high hopes. This, they believed, would be the perfect time for the president to mention the injustice under which we D.C. residents live. We pay taxes, and we fight in wars, but we don't have a vote in the House or Senate. Why would the president not make a mention? Just one phrase? "It would have put a glow on the bill," says D.C. congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. Make that D.C. delegate. Our representative can vote only in committee. Senators? None. The "bill" is the D.C. Voting Rights legislation that Norton...

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Contract squabble becomes potential Armageddon

The mayor and the city council have been at one another's throats for three years. There was the skirmish over the baseball tickets Mayor Adrian Fenty declined to share. And the squabble over the firetruck Fenty wanted to send to the Dominican Republic. And the constant skirmishing over schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee's handling of school reform. But the behind-the-scenes dispute over the council's right to review city contracts is more dire. It has the potential to shut down the city. It is nearing Armageddon. Want your trash picked up? Your health clinic to stay open? Your driver's license renewed? If the mayor and city council cannot come to some agreement, funds to pay...

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D.C. schools chief needs schooling on her image

Michelle Rhee needs an image consultant. A marketing manager. A junkyard dog press agent. Something! First it was Rhee on the cover of Time magazine with the broom. She looked mean. Uncompromising. Ready to sweep away anything in her path. For that cover story in the news weekly, the photographer snapped images of D.C.'s school superintendent helping students, teaching, consulting with staff. And a few shots with the broom -- which winds up on the cover. Didn't Rhee get the memo that media stars should be careful about how they appear on the cover of a national magazine? Time loved it. Probably sold a few magazines. It also created the image of Rhee as a too tough lady. That has its...

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Friends and family celebrate George Michael

Local heroes and Washington's characters of the sporting clan gathered last Thursday to bid farewell to George Michael, perhaps the character with the most character of them all. Riggo showed. So did John Thompson Jr., and his son, JT III, current Georgetown basketball coach. Sonny Jurgenson, of course. Joe Gibbs and Jim Vance. Even Redskins owner Dan Snyder showed up with his lovely wife, Tanya. They turned out on a cold, sunny day to pay tribute to Michael, the sports anchor who personalized reporting and paved the way for ESPN's type of 24/7 coverage. He died on Christmas Eve after a long battle with leukemia. "This is the end of an era," Charlie Brotman told me. Brotman is...

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Time for a truce between police chief, FOP boss

It's going to be a long two years for Police Chief Cathy Lanier. I'm not talking about the potential that crime rates might rise or terrorists might attack or that she will have to endure more scrutiny during the coming mayoral election. The poor chief has two more years of Kris Baumann -- in her face, in her roll calls, in her deployment plans. Baumann, chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police, won another two-year term Wednesday. According to preliminary vote counts, 1,800 officers cast ballots. Baumann and his slate got just over 1,000 votes; two other slates split the rest. The verdict by the rank-and-file cops is bad news for both the chief and Mayor Adrian Fenty. Baumann is...

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Fenty beats council in the latest game of kill the contract

Vince Gray blinked. He threatened to stop payment at midnight tonight on $875 million in contracts. On Tuesday he said -- never mind. Can we come to another conclusion from the city council's capitulation? The legislators, lead by Chairman Gray, agreed to give Mayor Adrian Fenty another week to submit the $875 million in contracts that he should have sent up for review -- last year. It's no secret that Fenty has little regard for the city council. Oh, he "loves" individual members. "Best council ever," he says when asked. But as a whole legislative body, he will kick it to the curb with a flick of his running shoe, ignore its votes and do as he wishes. After watching the city...

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D.C has a real shot at bringing Northrop to town

All politics is local, especially when it comes to the game of landing a big business in your jurisdiction. The wooing is done with what politicians call "incentives." You and I might think of them as sweeteners or, if we are cynics, corporate bribes. Leaving aside any judgments on the methods, we can agree that the competition over major corporations can be as brutal as the wooing of an athletic franchise. The stakes are similar. Sports franchises are supposed to bring tax revenues of various kinds, jobs, development around the stadium, perhaps, and psychic rewards of promoting the city spirit. All of these benefits are debatable. Many economists have concluded that sports franchises...

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Will D.C.'s next election be free and fair?

Human nature is at play in the matter of whether Vince Gray or any major politician will challenge Adrian Fenty in this fall's election. I am just as interested in the mechanics at play in the balloting. When we go to the polls Sept. 14 and Nov. 2, will we be casting paper ballots? Will our votes be accurately and properly tallied? Or will we wind up wondering about "phantom votes," as we did back in 2008? Forget hanging chads. In the Ward 2 election two years ago, our cracker jack voting system counted 1,554 write-in votes, despite the absence of a write-in campaign. Calling the system "fundamentally flawed," the city council established a special committee to try to avoid...

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Police chief out to knock off police union boss

Adrian Fenty plays hard. For the mayor, politics is sport. He likes to win, at any cost. He will crush opponents, if he must -- if he can. This is not to say the mayor plays dirty, or that he is mean-spirited, but he will take you out. It's just how he rolls. Few who have crossed swords consistently with Fenty and his top team are still in the game. I can think of only one: Kristopher Baumann. The chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police has openly challenged Fenty, Police Chief Cathy Lanier, Attorney General Peter Nickles and city council members who have taken positions he thinks would hurt rank and file cops -- or endanger residents. Like Fenty, he relishes the fight. Perhaps...

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Chocolate city turns to mocha town

By Harry Jaffe In 1960 the nation's capital became the first major U.S. city to count African Americans in the majority, according to the census of that year. The District had a total population of 763,956: blacks counted for 411,737, and whites made up 345,263. In the following decades, the percentage of African Americans kept rising to close to 80 percent. Those were the days when D.C. earned the moniker "Chocolate City." The trend has reversed in the last 10 years. Now it's official: According to new census estimates released last week, the nation's capital is a few percentage points away from being even up: half African Americans and half Caucasians, Hispanics and Asians. The...

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Props to NBA for popping Gilbert Arenas

In the matter of Gilbert Arenas and his gun play in the Wizards' locker room, at least one part of our society has shown some backbone, standards and old-fashioned gumption. Was it the lawmen? The politicians? The clergy? Nope. It took David Stern, commissioner of the National Basketball Association, to punish Arenas for his foolishness in the very unfunny matter of handguns. Arenas has admitted to bringing four hand guns into the locker room in downtown D.C. He also is said to have told investigators that he playfully used the guns to make a point in a beef with teammate Javaris Crittenton. But I think it was Arenas' making a gun with his hand and pointing it at teammates before a...

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D.C. safe haven for rapists

If you are a serial rapist and you need a safe base of operations, the nation's capital city is the place for you. From the quiet corners of the District, you can set forth to the suburbs to carry out your heinous acts, or you can simply sexually assault someone down the street, return home, click on the TV, crack a beer and rest easy. The chances you will be caught are nil. No joke. Being the father of three girls, I was sickened when I read my colleague Bill Myers' Monday article that said D.C. may be harboring nearly a dozen rapists. Why? Because police and forensic scientists have failed to check DNA evidence that could link rapists to unsolved crimes. "Detectives are now...

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It's old home week at D.C.'s gathering spots

For a dinner to celebrate the gathering of my far-flung family members, I chose Arucola, a local eatery on Connecticut Avenue just south of Chevy Chase Circle. It was that hazy, semivacation week between Christmas and New Year's Day. The place was jammed, from wood-fired pizza stove to bar to windowed front room. It seemed the entire neighborhood had turned out. I saw union boss Andy Stern, who has Barack Obama on speed dial. My daughters pointed out kids they had known since Lafayette Elementary. Our waiter had graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High with one of my girls. As a city, Washington, D.C., has the rap as a transient place populated by rootless politicians and bureaucrats....

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Random killer PCP meets its match in D.C.

By Harry Jaffe Mary Jones worked the night shift at a nursing home on Capitol Hill. She was a grandmother, sang in the Trinity Baptist Church choir, lived with her husband of many years. She had turned 50 in October. Tuesday before Christmas, Jones was waiting at a bus stop on Southern Avenue for her trip to work. She wouldn't make it. Glendale Ogburn, behind the wheel of a white Cadillac, came barreling down Southern Avenue. The speed limit is 25 miles per hour; Ogburn was doing at least 50, according to witnesses. He lost control, jumped the curb, leveled a tree, bent the pole at the bus stop and struck Jones. Ogburn's Cadillac kept going. He drove along the sidewalk, hit a stop sign and...

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The woman behind George Michael will miss him most

Washington had a love affair with George Michael for nearly 30 years. If we were into sports, we were enamored of his way with video tape and inside skinny on the Skins; maybe we just liked his face, his big smile and boisterous presentation of even the most mundane athletic event. For more than a quarter-century, he was the face of Washington sports. Behind the "Sports Machine" hoopla and the TV sportscaster pioneer was a real-life love affair that George Michael didn't broadcast. Didn't need to. His partner in writing and producing his shows was Pat Lackman, his wife since 1978. In thinking about George and all he meant to us Washingtonians, my heart goes out to Pat. I interviewed...

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Has Lanier rushed to judgment over snowball cop?

Police Chief Cathy Lanier knows it all about Detective Michael Baylor. "Let me be very clear in stating that I believe the actions of the officer were totally inappropriate," she wrote in a statement Monday. "In no way should he have handled the situation in this manner," she added. "We have taken swift action by placing him on non-contact status until all the facts are gathered and discipline is handed down." Rarely has the chief taken such "swift action" with regard to a fresh police incident that has yet to be investigated. But it is her last line that is most puzzling, dare I say maddening, to many of her troops. She took Detective Baylor off the street before all the facts were...

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A note from Robert Frost on a snowy Sunday

By Harry Jaffe On this lovely, snowy Sunday, I am with the school kids: what fun! But such a waste. Why couldn't it have snowed on Sunday night so schools would be closed on Monday and we could have another day to play? Better yet, why couldn't it have dumped so much snow on Monday that schools had to close all week until Christmas, which could be white? Indeed, we can expect the first truly white Christmas since 1969, according to kiat.net. We had a dusting in 2002, but more than four inches in '69. The weather Web site says we have had only nine white Christmases in recorded history. With any luck and cold temperatures, Friday will make an even 10. A muscular snowfall is about...

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Power and integrity at stake in Pershing Park case

By Harry Jaffe The facts and ramifications of the Pershing Park case have the potential to bring down a sitting police chief and give D.C. residents the power to sue the government, but one question was settled yesterday in federal court: Who's the boss? Is it U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan, who has been hearing the case for more than a year? Or is it D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles, who is representing the District against hundreds of people who claim cops unfairly arrested them during 2002 street protests downtown at Pershing Park? We know Nickles likes to be the boss. He likes to boss people around. He would like to be the boss in the Pershing Park courtroom. He...

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Bill to elect D.C. AG zips through council

If you polled the 13 D.C. Council members on who they liked the least — Mayor Adrian Fenty, Chancellor Michelle Rhee or Attorney General Peter Nickles — I suspect Fenty and Nickles would vie for most reviled. Fenty treats the council members as a necessary nuisance. He pats them on the head in public; in private he plots ways to neuter them. During Fenty's six years on the council, he got along with no one. He was elected mayor without one legislative ally. Nickles, on the other hand, doesn't bother with many niceties. His disdain for the city council shines through his eyeglasses with every glance. When he chooses to testify before the council, his face is screwed up as if...

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D.C. awash in violence as police brass tout drop in crime

The two thugs who relieved Julia Corker of her car in D.C.'s Penn Quarter the first week of December were a tad too casual. One asked the daughter of U.S. Sen. Bob Corker for directions, the other threw her out of the car, and both took off with her SUV. They drove across the Maryland line to Seat Pleasant to get a burger. Police saw the car, confronted the suspects, brought Julia Corker in to ID them, and cuffed them. They are awaiting extradition to D.C. She's OK. The Metropolitan Police Department touts its statistics that show crime is down in the nation's capital. Ask Julia Corker. It's not fair to base crime trends on one event. Predators abound in any big city. But Julia...

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If D.C. builds great schools, will white kids come?

There's something you wouldn't expect to see in Tom Nida, chairman of D.C.'s Public Charter School Board. At first glance, he's a tall, white fellow with salt-and-pepper hair, frameless glasses and a generous mustache. We know he's a banker by trade. But why has he devoted nearly a decade to give D.C. public school kids a better choice? Tom Nida is a proud product of D.C. public schools. He graduated from Anacostia High; his forebears attended public schools going back to the 19th century. So what? As the city's schools begin to show signs of improvement, it's worth taking a look back -- and forward -- at the racial makeup of the system. Before desegregation in the 1950s, almost all...

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Must the Army destroy bombs in D.C.?

Let's see if this makes sense to you: The Army Corps of Engineers wants to dispose of bombs that could be considered weapons of mass destruction behind Sibley Memorial Hospital, on federal land close to the Dalecarlia Reservoir, which supplies drinking water to D.C. and parts of Northern Virginia. This is a fictional scenario, right? The Army wouldn't destroy bombs behind a hospital, near a reservoir, in the midst of Spring Valley, one of D.C.'s most elite neighborhoods? No joke. A bit of background: In 1917, the Army had experimented with toxic chemicals at American University. It was seeking a game changer in World War I's stalemated trench warfare in Europe. It blew up bombs in...

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Note to Santa Obama: Peirce Mill needs a half mil

Dear President Obama: I could send this request to Santa Claus, but my plea might get lost in the Christmas pile. Plus, I think you can deliver with one phone call. No sleigh required. My request is simple -- and cheap, compared with the costs of financing two wars, health care overhauls, and bailouts. Peirce Mill, the last of eight grain mills on Rock Creek, is in the midst of a renovation. Work has begun. Friends of Peirce Mill have raised $1 million toward putting the 19th century mill back in operation. But in order to make the wheels turn and the stones grind, they need $500,000 for a pumping system. Surely, amid the billions in stimulus funds, you can find a half-million for...

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D.C. is first in bars, last in private businesses

Rankings are rarely favorable for the nation's capital. D.C. does well in soft-core assessments of livability. Or great bars. Or best cities for bicycling. But on hard-core statistical studies on health, we are often ranked lowest among states. Take infant mortality and AIDS, for example. Now comes the Small Business and Entrepreneurial Council with its "small business survival index" for 2009. The year is not yet over, but the District of Columbia comes in 51st, edging New Jersey as the worst place in the nation for people who want to start and grow a small business. The first critique of any study that compares the District with states is that D.C. is not a state, that we are a...

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Tommy Wells tries to throw school vouchers under the bus

Why did Councilman Tommy Wells decide to take a hard line against federal funding of school vouchers in his letter Monday to Sen. Dick Durbin? Why buck the majority on the city council who favor some kind of voucher? And Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee? Why risk the ire of hundreds of families whose children now go to private schools thanks to the federal funds? Why argue against a bill coming through Congress backed by Sens. Joe Lieberman and Barbara Boxer? "Discrimination," Wells tells me. "We tend to believe some discrimination is benign. It's never benign." Wells got courage on the voucher issue at a cocktail party on Capitol Hill a week or so ago. Wells found himself chatting with...

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A good cop gives thanks for being exonerated

Even if you had the sweetest Thanksgiving, full of spiritual and familial joy, I would wager Kevin McConnell and his wife, Michelle, had at least as much to celebrate, in pure relief. For the past year McConnell, a D.C. police detective, has been living under threat of termination for firing his weapon in self-defense in summer 2008. He shot and killed the man who attacked him. Though the department's force investigative board determined his actions were justified, one official ordered he be fired. His case has been pending before the police trial board. Ten days ago, a federal jury cleared him of blame in a $25 million wrongful-death suit brought by the dead man's family. Still, his...

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