FENTY FANTASIZES FUNDING FOOTBALL FIASCO

Not even the collapse of the Nationals bubble can seem to knock any sense into Adrian Fenty. He's talking about bringing the Redskins back to DC "as fast as humanly possible", saying on a recent TV show that "The Redskins should play in Washington, D.C. I think it would be great to have a brand-new stadium, one that could accommodate a Super Bowl. So stay tuned."

Notes Mark Maske of the Washington Post: "Two teams in the Redskins' division, the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants, are building new stadiums. The price tag for each project exceeds $1 billion."

Said Fenty: "We have a stadium site sitting here ready, willing and able to go. A new stadium could go on there. We could probably donate almost all of the land to the stadium and, I think, build a brand-new stadium that could accommodate a Super Bowl that has all of the new trappings of new stadiums. So I think there's a win-win in it."

PS: A Super Dome would be more than twice the size of the Nationals' stadium.

PPS: Just yesterday someone who has dealt with Fenty described him to us as "not very smart." We had thought of him as arrogant and self-absorbed, but after hearing about the Super Dome project, it seems that we may have not only that to worry about but a local version of George W. Bush's mind as well.

DC FRIDAY

Richard Layman suggests that instead of building a UDC community college from the bottom up, it becomes part of a regional institution working with Montgomery and PG County community colleges. He asks: "Why not have a combined system, leverage the strengths of the jurisdictions, and slim down the size and cost of having separate administrative structures? Not to mention that DC hasn't demonstrated a good track record for creating best practice institutions from the ground up." It's worth considering. Incidentally, one of the sad moments in DC history was the creation of UDC, which turned out to be an overlarge and-over politicized creature that swallowed up three smaller institutions that were beginning to show real promise: a teacher's college, Federal City College and the Washington Technical Institute. One of the problems when you let institutions become too large is that their leaders have to be better at politics than they are at whatever they're really meant to be doing.

Harold Brazil has joined a select group of city council members remembered for their brushes with the law as well as their creation of it. In the group are Doug Moore who once bit a tow truck driver and another councilmember who earned the nickname "Jumpin" when he reputedly leaped out of a window to avoid being caught by a certain woman's husband who had arrived home unexpectedly. Here's the story of how Brazil earned his honor, although the Post is quite wrong in describing him as a member of a group of "first term ant-establishment reformers." Brazil, who worked for Pepco, never had an ounce of anti-establishment blood in him.

Washington Post - Former longtime D.C. Council member Harold Brazil was arrested last night for allegedly assaulting a tattoo parlor employee during an argument inside the Georgetown shop, D.C. police said. Brazil, 59, entered the Jinx Proof Tattoo shop in the 3200 block of M Street NW with two women, one of whom went to the back of the store to receive a tattoo, police said. When Brazil tried to follow the woman, an employee told him only customers were allowed in the work area, which prompted an argument and then a fight. It took three employees to subdue Brazil before officers were called at about 7:30 p.m., authorities said. He was arrested and charged with simple assault and taken to the 2nd District police station, said Assistant Police Chief Diane Groomes. Authorities released Brazil with a citation and a summons to appear in court at a later date, officials said. Brazil could not be reached for comment.

And would be city council member Dee Hunter wants to join the club. According to the Post, he "bounced a check for $2,087.51 back in August, and vendor VMW Printing Inc. is still looking to get paid for pumping out 20,000 brochures that touted Hunter's 'New Energy, New Ideas.' In a Sept. 9 letter to Hunter, Hyattsville-based VMW reminds Hunter that he promised that he would not "stiff us on the bill. As of today's date, Sept. 9, 2008, we have yet to receive payment from you," the letter reads. . . It's another problem for Hunter, a lawyer, already dogged by disciplinary charges from the Office of the Bar Counsel that he bilked clients in three cases. Hunter has said that the clients did not understand how settlements work. In the case of the bounced check, Hunter said, "Our check bounced, and we're taking care of it."

The Green Festival, a joint project of Global Exchange and Co-op America will be back for its fifth year on November 8 & 9 at the Convention Center. On hand will be 125 speakers, 350 exhibits, how-to workshops, games and shows for children, a film festival, yoga classes and live music. New to Green Festival is the Green Teen Pavilion. Fee: $15 for adults and free for those under 18.

Washington Blade - Frank Kameny didn't know until this week that actor Paul Newman, who died Sept. 26, supported his bid to become Washington's first non-voting delegate to Congress in 1971. The $500 donation came too late to spend on the campaign, but Kameny's campaign staff used the money to travel to New York City, where they met with the Gay Activists Alliance. Upon their return to Washington, they founded the Gay Activists Alliance, which operates today as the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance. "I was well aware that they spent residual funds . . . for the trip, but I was totally unaware of Newman or any other specific person as the source," Kameny told the Blade in an e-mail this week. When asked why he thought Newman donated to his campaign, Kameny said, "I suppose it was simply something forward thinking. I was only the second person in the entire country to run as an openly gay candidate, so I got a good deal of publicity."

Washington Post - The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics and the company that provides the city with its voting equipment are both responsible for last month's primary election blunder that caused thousands of phantom votes to appear in initial results, according to a preliminary report from a special D.C. Council committee. The report says Sequoia Voting Systems, a California-based firm, "was too quick to exonerate itself and the equipment used in the tabulation process. . . . To date, the evidence appears to indicate that there was a problem both in equipment (the server) and in the software." . . . The report dismisses Sequoia's theories that human error or static discharge, not defective software or hardware, was at fault when a cartridge from Precinct 141 added thousands of votes. . . But those issues cannot be resolved before the Nov. 4 election, which officials expect will draw a record number of voters. The committee's recommendations include actions to be taken Election Day. A significant step is to train poll workers to persuade voters to use optical-scan machines instead of electronic touch-screen ones, although the primary night blunder has been traced to a cartridge from an optical-scan machine. The committee -- composed of council members Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5) and Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) -- said the optical-scan machines, which use paper ballots, would create "a verified paper trail" that could be audited, should another mishap occur. The optical-scan machines are also faster, because more voters can fill out ballots at the same time. Just one person at a time can use a touch-screen machine, the report says.

City Paper - The arguments for and against a taxpayer-financed baseball stadium in the District bear something of a resemblance to the ongoing debate about a Wall Street bailout. Back in 2004, populists protested that the park would be a giveaway to the fat cats in Major League Baseball, and their antagonists countered with the notion that the park would buoy the long-depressed economy of Southeast. . . Now that the team has officially chalked up 102 losses and the worst new-stadium attendance since the '82 Minnesota Twins inaugurated the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, definitive answers about that 2004 civic rumble are pouring in. Yes, we did fork over our money to fat cats-a stingy and petty family of fat cats at that, one that won't pay rent on the ballpark that it received for free. Yes, the stadium did foment economic development, notably in the form of a new Five Guys outlet. But no, it did nothing for our communal spirits, our civic pride, or however you wish to couch those inestimable intangible benefits. The whole experiment failed to insinuate itself into every night of spring and summer. In D.C., only the humidity can pull off that sort of stunt. Proof of the failure of Nationals Park to unite us all lies in the ticket. The Nationals' ticket is a nice-looking specimen, rectangular with a drawing of an idyllic Nationals Park at the top. But that's where its allure ends. In cities where the ball club is a source of civic pride, you wave your tickets around, and people come running. Got extras? How much are you asking? Here, you wave your tickets around, and people come up with excuses. Sorry, gotta work late. Nats tickets can be had for $5 a pop at the gate, so it's hard to depress the market much further. In the 2008 season, however, that's precisely what happened, as season ticket holders in many cases struggled just to offload the seats on someone who would make use of them. If the national economy ever suffered such a blow, everyone would be talking about a bailout package. But hey, we already gave the Nats a nearly $700 million stadium.

DC North - The District's historic preservation plan released last month says Ward 5 has many places of significance to preserve and warns that many of those resources are under threat. The plan acknowledges that "extraordinary" redevelopment pressures throughout the District target Ward 5 in particular. Many valuable resources in neighborhoods that are currently undesignated as historic are being lost to demolition and "character-destroying alterations," the report states. The report names Brookland, Bloomingdale, Eckington and Deanwood as having lost and continuing to lose historic resources. The report names "pop-ups," oversized additions, demolition and neglect as some of the main threats. . . On the issue of protecting historic landscapes and open space, the city says it is working to "accommodate reasonable demands" for new development at the Armed Forces Retirement Home and McMillan Reservoir. Both projects planned for the sites would turn vacant land into high-density, mixed-use development that residents have opposed in part based on arguments about the need to preserve the historic open spaces. . . Dubbed New Town by its backers, the proposed development is meeting stiff resistance from many landowners. Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas is trying to move legislation to slightly shrink the footprint of the project in an attempt to gain the support from a majority of landowners that it needs to go forward.

Mike DeBonis, City Paper - Seven at-large candidates traipsed down to John Tyler Elementary on Capitol Hill for the race's first candidate forum of the general election-and most of them arrived on time. . . David Schwartzman. . . beat extremely low expectations with candor, a sense of humor, and showing up in a coat and tie. Make no mistake that Schwartzman, a Howard University biology professor, is well to the left of any other candidate out there, and he was not at all reticent about positioning himself as a "real independent progressive." That's not to say LL endorses his policy positions: On the need for austerity measures in upcoming budgets, Schwartzman said that spending on housing and human services issues is too low and called on a steep tax hike on the richest 5 percent of D.C. residents to pay for it. Probably a bad move in this economy, but it's a nice change of pace to have an unabashed small-s socialist in house, in any case. Grade: A

Washington Times - A federal judge has ruled that the District failed to comply with a two-year-old agreement to improve services for special-needs students and has set forth an exhaustive list of questions for Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee to answer when she testifies Oct. 20, as the judge ordered last month. In a harsh appraisal, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman wrote, "The District has not made those requirements a priority and has not tasked particular individuals . . . with day-to-day hands-on responsibility [for them] . . . "Indeed, it is not even clear to the Court whether . . . it is [D.C. public schools] or the [Office of the State Superintendent of Education] that is responsible for implementing certain Consent Decree requirements. " Judge Friedman also ordered State Superintendent Deborah A. Gist to appear before him with Mrs. Rhee.

Washington Times - The D.C. Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program helped a record number - more than 30,000 - households during fiscal 2008. Of those, 8,000 had at least one child younger than 5. The program offers one-time grants to help low-income residents pay overdue utility bills and suggest ways to use less energy. . . About 1,000 D.C. residents were turned away from an annual Joint Utility Discount Day, hosted Sept. 30 by the city and utility companies to offer discounts on bills and to enroll residents in the city's energy-assistance program. Organizers were overwhelmed when more than 7,000 residents arrived.

Kaitlyn Funk, Examiner Starting this week, the Department of Public Works [recycling program] will collect film plastics, such as grocery bags, as well as aerosol cans and a variety of rigid plastics including toys and milk crates. . . Jim Dougherty of Sierra Club D.C. said that although recycling initiatives are a good thing, the city's recycling record is poor. He pointed to the Department of Public Works' annual report, which says 22 percent of D.C.'s waste is being diverted to recycling facilities. Compare that with another major city like Seattle, he says, which recycles 52 percent of its waste. "[D.C.] loves to portray this as a good program, but it's a sick program," Dougherty said. Public Works Director William Howland said the expansion of recyclables will allow residents to recycle their bags at home rather than take them back to the store. . . .

Examiner - The D.C. Council is considering legislation that would impose a $100 fine on drivers who infringe on bicycle lanes and would mandate a 3-foot clearance between cars and cyclists. . . D.C. law prohibits cars and motorcycles from using bicycle lanes but does not impose a fine on violators, the lack of which discourages enforcement, Graham said. . . If passed, the law would be the second this year to impose increased fines on drivers who endanger pedestrians or bikers. The Council last month approved a $250 fine for drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians and a $65 fine for double parking if the violation occurs in a bicycle lane.

The SEIU won a 15% raise over three years for 50 cleaners at the Justice Department, who will also get a 150% increase in employer contributions to their pension plan and improved health care benefits.

Mark Segraves finds a cast to play a movie about DC pols

562 FORECLOSURES & BANKRUPTCIES IN DC BY PRICE AND LOCATION

BRITISH STUDY SAYS POT LESS RISKY THAN ALCOHOL, SHOULD BE LEGALIZED

As city officials seek ways to cut expenses, high on the list should be an end to arrests for selling or possessing pot.

NORML - The potential health risks associated with cannabis are less than those associated with alcohol and do not justify the continued criminalization of the plant or its users, according to a report published by The Beckley Foundation - an independent British think-tank that analyzes drug use and drug policy. "There is no justification for incarcerating an individual for a cannabis possession or use offense, nor for creating a criminal conviction," concludes the report, entitled "Cannabis Policy: Moving Beyond Stalemate."

Authors of the report recommend that governments consider enacting legislation to tax and regulate the sale of cannabis, or - at a minimum - to institute administrative 'fine-only' penalties regarding its use.

"The rationale for severe penalties for possession offenses is weak on both normative and practical grounds," authors state. "In many developed countries a majority of adults born in the past half-century have used cannabis. Control regimes that criminalize users are intrusive on privacy, socially divisive and expensive. . . They clearly do harm to the many individuals who are arrested, they abridge individual autonomy and they are often applied unjustly.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC CLEANSING UPDATE

Ward Six has been added to the list of areas which will ban single sales of liquor, yet another move - like the closing of the downtown homeless shelter - aimed at ridding the city of poor black males. The move is inherently discriminatory - the only people affected are those who can't afford a six pack - but since discriminating against someone because they are poor is perfectly legal in our society, no one even stops to think about the prejudice involved. At the very least Tommy Wells and others should move to ban single sales at bars and restaurants as well so the gentry will know how it feels. Or perhaps create a few jobs in this city for other than the gentry so the targeted group can afford a whole six pack.

A LETTER TO THE NY TIMES

Randi Weingarten, President American Federation of Teachers - No one who has been involved in, had children in, or followed developments in the Washington school system can deny that it is in need of real reform. I would wager that the six superintendents who have been employed during the last 10 years would agree. But imagine trying to reform a system by declaring, as Chancellor Michelle Rhee has on numerous occasions, that "cooperation and collaboration and consensus are overrated" whether that be with the local teachers’ union or as she said recently, with parents or community groups.

The plan that you applaud is one that Chancellor Rhee intends to impose upon teachers, not one that she hopes to develop with teachers. And it is one that will, in effect, create a temporary work force of highly paid, transitory teachers who will spend much of their time looking over their shoulders at one another - not at the children in front of them.

Chancellor Rhee has not put forth any plans to work together with teachers to improve the quality of instruction, nor has she recommended any new steps to support and enhance teacher quality. There has been no effort to replicate the types of programs that encourage creativity and risk-taking by teachers that have been so rewarding to both children and teachers in New York City.

And there has been no effort to sit at the table with educators and use the benefit of their years of classroom experience to advance the creative solutions demanded by our times.

Unlike Chancellor Rhee, the American Federation of Teachers believes that there is still a place in this world for cooperation, collaboration and consensus. Certainly, that’s something we teach our students. We fervently hope that you continue to believe the same.

DC WEDNESDAY

For several decades, we have been a lonely voice pointing out why Metro hasn't worked the way it was supposed to, one reason being that it encouraged people to move further away from the central city in what was essentially a development rather than a transportation scheme. Because Metro only served a minority of the development it encouraged, it resulted in more cars on the road, and things like this:

Washington Post - So much traffic clogs Washington area roads that Cox Communications has to use 20 percent more trucks here to serve the same number of customers as in other regions. Metro has to add an average of 10 buses a year, at $521,980 a pop, just to maintain rush-hour schedules that have slipped because of congestion. Virginia-based Guernsey Office Products decided to build a $5 million warehouse in Maryland because it was becoming impossible to cross the Potomac River during the workday and meet delivery deadlines. . . Washingtonians have the dubious honor of having the second-worst commutes in the country, in terms of time spent on the road, after New York, according to data recently released by the Census Bureau. . . Fairfax County public schools, with 1,200 buses driving 18 million miles a year, has one of the largest bus fleets in the nation. The school system adds 20 to 30 buses a year, even during times of flat enrollment, because congestion has added to travel times. Routes that used to take 30 minutes now take 50, said Dean Tisdadt, chief operating officer for the school system.

Bill Myers Examiner - D.C. officials have "ineffectively managed" the city's historic Eastern Market, exposing the public's money to "a total lack of financial and management accountability," a new audit has found. City council auditor Deborah Nichols reviewed five years of deals at the market and found that city authorities and executives at Eastern Market Ventures, the private nonprofit company asked to run the grand old farm stand, routinely broke rules and laws on contracting and financial management. Conditions may have worsened after the August, 2007 fire that decimated the market, Nichols found.

Susan Meehan - Once a week, the first graders at Ross [Elementary School in Washington] are asked to write a postcard. The idea is for them to improve their writing, vocabulary, and even grammatical/sentence structure skills. Ms. Butler, their teacher, helps by putting words up on the blackboard that she thinks the children might want to incorporate into their postcard - words along the lines of, "kindness," "helpful," and "generous." The kids are asked to address their postcards to another member of the class. The subject of the card is thanking the recipient for a kind act the recipient had performed during the week. The cards are read out loud and the children are thanked. The children love doing this, and of course, they love being the recipient of cards. It is a wonderful behavior changer; there are no class bullies, and I suspect that none of these children will ever become class bullies. They are being trained to become kind, decent persons, and this early-age training will, I believe, stick. One interesting aspect of the Kindness Game is that at the beginning, the popular children received the greatest number of postcards, but this has gradually changed, and the spread of postcards is quite even.

Tom Sherwood reports that Vince Gray went to the international Paris auto show and the Washington Area New Automobile Dealers Association is paying for the trip. "Turns out Gray has gone before. Several council members were grumbling that the chairman was leaving town without any announcement about his trip just as the council is deciding on budget cuts."

In order to further serve non taxpaying commuters, the DC Council has voted to add up to $100 to the fee for an illegally parked car during rush hour. The new fee would be for towing. Thus the suburbanites who shouldn't be driving during rush hour and who pay the city nothing in taxes are being further subsidized by taxpaying city residents who are nice enough not to drive during rush hour and leave their cars parked.

A report by the District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission finds that only Only two percent of tenants in D.C.'s landlord tenant court and two percent of parties involved in domestic violence cases are represented by attorneys.

BARRY STANDS UP TO FENTY'S ATTEMPT TO MAKE HOMELESS INVISIBLE

Washington Post - The controversial Franklin Shelter issue exploded into an expletive-filled argument over breakfast this morning before D.C. Council members went into a legislative meeting where Council member Marion Barry plans to introduce emergency legislation that would require beds for the homeless in the downtown business area. Downtown is in Ward 2. That's Jack Evans's territory. He said he did not understand why some of his colleagues are interested in reopening a "piece of. . . shelter." (Fill in the blanks.). . .

In an interview, Barry defended his legislation, "Homelessness is a national issue, it is a city-wide issue," he said. "For anyone saying this is a personal issue is out of their damn mind." He said that he introduced the legislation and placed in it boundaries because the homeless people need to be downtown so their livelihood depends on begging. (He is, however, pulling the legislation as council members try to work out disagreements among each other and with the administration.) "Homeless people during the day they panhandle. If they are moved to the Martin Luther King shelter, there is no people out there to panhandle," Barry said. "Most of us support housing first, low-barrier shelter; the reality (is) we have not seen the mayor's plan. The mayor thumbs his nose at the council. This is a human issue." During the breakfast, Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) and others also expressed concern that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) did not provide members with details of his plan, particularly the addresses to which 300 homeless have been moved. . . Evans also jumped on other council members for "making speeches at the shelter," which is at 13th and K streets NW.

WHO'S REALLY RUNNING WASHINGTON?

Anne Applebaum, Washington Post - Although there are plenty of native Washingtonians working as doctors or cabdrivers or bank managers, most of the people who actually control the city's most famous institutions -- Congress, the White House, the federal government -- weren't born in Washington. Like Sarah Palin, they are from "in the heartland," in places like Wasilla, and it is the values of the heartland and Wasilla that they must be therefore presumed to embody. . .

Among these "outsiders" I would include our current president, who was raised in Midland, Tex.; our vice president, who was raised in Casper, Wyo.; our most recent former president, who was born in Hope, Ark.; even our most senior former president, who comes from Plains, Ga. I would also include the large numbers of ex-Texans -- Karen Hughes, Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales -- who have towered over national politics for the past eight years, as well as such notable figures as Michael "heck of a job" Brown, the Oklahoma native who presided over the government's response to Hurricane Katrina as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Above all, I would include Congress, which by definition contains hundreds of "outsiders," many from places just like Wasilla. I am thinking here of Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska (a resident of Girdwood), now on trial on charges of corruption, and Texas Rep. Tom DeLay (born in Laredo), who resigned in disgrace. For the sake of bipartisanship, I'll mention Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson (originally of Lake Providence), recently indicted on charges of corruption. But if more small-town Republican names come to mind, that's because small-town Republicans have figured among the most powerful and most prominent Washington politicians for much of the past decade.

ANOTHER DAY WITH RHEE

Ed Week - We've now had an inside look at how Michelle Rhee's system manages talent. [Arthur] Siebens applied for all open science positions at a hiring fair in June, and was not called for interviews at any of the schools to which he applied. He interviewed at several other schools over the summer, and either was not offered the position or told that "the position has been filled for us." On the first day of school, Siebens – who has a PhD in Physiology - was assigned to teach 9th grade environmental science, a course he has never taught before. To date, he has not even received the teacher's edition of the environmental science book, despite asking for it repeatedly.

And the kicker? The Washington Post reported a week ago that Wilson has a science vacancy. Is this what the "strategic management of talent" looks like?

Art Siebens has 18 years of data, a PhD, a gaggle of national awards, and a legion of parents and students standing behind him. If this can happen to him, it can happen to almost any teacher in the DC system.

Bill Myers Examiner - Seven months after D.C. officials promised to have gotten the District's disabled and mentally ill citizens out of a Massachusetts shock-therapy clinic, three of them still are confined in the school, The Examiner has learned.

The Judge Rotenberg Center is one of the only clinics in the country authorized to use electroshock and other "aversive" therapies on its wards. D.C. officials said they were horrified to discover that that the city was paying to house at least 10 mentally ill or disabled children and adults at Rotenberg. Peter Nickles, the city's interim attorney general, promised to have every D.C. resident out of Rotenberg by March.

Yet the clinic continues to treat two children and a disabled adult from Washington, records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show and schools spokeswoman Dena Iverson confirmed. . .

"We are working diligently to find other placements for the two remaining students and will move them to other schools as soon as their placements are secured," Iverson said in an e-mail statement. She refused to discuss the matter further.

The Examiner has written extensively about Rotenberg, which is facing a criminal investigation after three of its patients — one of them an Alexandria boy — were snatched from their beds in the middle of the night and hooked up to shock machines. The "order" for the shocks was given by a runaway from the clinic who made a prank call and impersonated a clinic supervisor.

For critics of the District's $300 million special education system, Rotenberg is just one of several warehouses where the city's most vulnerable children are shipped with little regard for their safety or welfare. Last month, a federal court monitor blasted Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee for ignoring the free-falling special education system. Rhee declined comment for this story.

After The Examiner began documenting problems at clinics like Rotenberg, D.C. Councilwoman Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3, introduced legislation barring city officials from sending wards to any school or clinic that uses aversive therapy. "It's tantamount to torture," Cheh told The Examiner, =E 2and we're paying for it."

Bill Myers Examiner - A multimillion-dollar computer system brought in to help save D.C.'s failing special education program doesn't work with existing school software, and city officials are scrambling to account for thousands of vital records ahead of a crucial audit, The Examiner has learned. Earlier this year, the District signed a $4.2 million contract with the Public Consulting Group for help in organizing thousands of chaotically stored special education files and tracking federal deadlines for updating those files. But e-mails obtained by The Examiner show that the group's computer tracking system isn't compatible with the system's enrollment database. This means officials can't access information on thousands of children.

DC SUNDAY

DC Examiner - Federal data shows the number of people using food stamps in the Washington region has jumped over the last year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees the federal government's low-income nutrition supplement program. The agency's latest data shows that from July 2007 to July this year, the number of D.C. residents using food stamps increased from 83,000 to almost 91,000. That's a 9.2 percent rise.

Mark Seagraves, WTOP - At a recent council breakfast meeting, several council members complained that the Mayor had become unresponsive to their calls and letters. Council Chair Vince Gray pointed out that he wrote the mayor to ask for information about the closing of the Franklin Homeless Shelter. The letter was dated Aug. 13. As of Sept. 16, the mayor had not responded. The council voted 12-1 to allow the mayor to close the shelter, but they put restrictions on the process. Insiders say that angered Fenty, who wants no council interference on anything. Privately, some council members complain that Fenty does not return phone calls, but wastes no time in picking up the phone to call and lecture them about public comments they make criticizing him. Once you've gotten one of his calls to complain, it has become obvious to some that the word gets out to agencies not to prioritize requests from Council members who have been difficult with Fenty.

Notion's Capital - What we know about Michael Brown: he is determined to repeatedly invade the domestic privacy of DC voters via telephone. He thinks this will encourage them to vote for him. We are astounded to learn that "This is Michael Brown!" is actually leading in the polls. This may be another indication that many Washingtonians have cell phones but no land-line phones. Cell phones don’t get robo-calls.

The National Park Service has opened three acres of its new Georgetown Waterfront Park running from Wisconsin Avenue t 34th Street along the rive. Included is a bike trail connected to Rock Creek Park and the Capital Crescent Trail. This is the largest new park in DC in 30 years,

Michael Neibauer, Examiner - Two employees of the District’s Office of Unified Communications who testified before a D.C. Council panel that their agency is poorly managed and undermanned were fired last month for alleged insubordination and excessive unapproved absences. Alexandria Jones and Yolanda Geter said they both feared retribution when they twice told the council’s public safety committee that the communications office was understaffed and that the switch to a 911-311 system would endanger the public. Asked by the council in January whether the employees would suffer retaliation, Janice Quintana, the office’s director, responded, "Absolutely not." Both Jones and Geter have since been terminated. . . Jones warned the council committee in January that OUC employees were overwhelmed and that many call takers - those who used to answer calls for government services under the former three-number system - were not trained to handle requests for emergency assistance. Geter offered similar commentary during a February hearing.

GOOD ARTICLE ON IKE FULWOOD'S WORK ON THE PAROL COMMISSION

MAYOR DISSES CONSTITUTION AGAIN

Fresh from his efforts to ignore the Supreme Court gun ruling and his South Africa style neighborhood check points, Adrian Fenty and his Karl Rove, Peter Nickles, are up to more constitutionally contemptuous mischief. Reports David Nakamura in the Washington Post: "D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty introduced an omnibus crime bill that he said will allow law enforcement officials to more aggressively target violent crimes and gang activity. Among dozens of provisions, the proposed legislation would increase the mandatory minimum sentences for crimes involving firearms, make it easier for prosecutors to detain people prior to trials and allow law enforcement officials to seek civil injunctions against alleged gang members. . .

"Under the proposal, law enforcement officials would have to identify just three people acting together to prove they are part of a gang, instead of the six that are required now. Then, officials could obtain a civil injunction that would ban the gang from, for example, entering a particular neighborhood or street where it might have been intimidating residents. If the gang members violate the civil injunction, Nickles said, they can be prosecuted for crimes. . .

"Council sources said, however, that Williams had proposed legislation that made three people a potential gang, but the measure was removed by the council because such a law could lead to misunderstandings in which people are charged for hanging out with friends or family members. That still may be a concern of some council members."