Latest News

Peter Murray • December 7, 2015

Tonight, President Obama and his family will turn on the lights for the 93rd annual National Christmas Tree Lighting held at the Ellipse in President’s Park. While hundreds will attend, and thousands more will watch at home, D.C. workers and residents will have to deal with the traffic nightmare presented every time the White House holds a major event. Below is a list of road closures so that you can avoid traffic and get home quickly tonight, maybe even to turn on the tree lighting ceremony when you get home.

– 17th Street, NW closed from Independence Avenue to New York Avenue, NW
– 15th Street, NW closed from Independence Avenue to New York Avenue, NW
– Constitution Avenue from 14th Street to 18th Street, NW
– Pennsylvania Avenue from 14th Street to 15th Street, NW
– Madison Drive from 14th Street to 15th Street
– Jefferson Drive from 14th Street to 15th Street

Anyone with a ticket to the ceremony should beware of heightened security, which restricts a large number of items allowed into the event. The list of restricted items includes large bags and backpacks, aerosols, coolers and balloons in addition to obvious leave-at-home items like laser pointers, weapons, ammunition, toy guns, mace, explosives and pets.

Guests can enter the ceremony through a secured entrance on 17th St. NW.

Georgetowner •

Tudor Nights: Make Merry in the Mansion!
December 3rd, 2015 at 06:30 PM | 0-20 | fherman@tudorplace.org | Tel: 202-580-7321 | Event Website](http://www.tudorplace.org/event/tudor-nights-make-merry-in-the-mansion/)

See Tudor Place sparkle in a holiday installation that blends contemporary design with the traditions of 200 years. Enjoy seasonal libations and delicious snacks and appetizers, and tour a mansion decorated to dazzle yet highlighting rare artifacts — like the 19th-century goosefeather tree dripping with ornaments from the earliest days of Christmas trees in America. What better way to kick off your holidays than with this evening of old and new under the glitter of chandeliers?
Address

1644 31St Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007

Over The Rhine
December 4th, 2015 at 08:00 PM | $25-$28 | wolftrap@wolftrap.org | Tel: 703-255-1900 | Event Website](http://www.wolftrap.org/tickets/calendar/performance/1516barns/1204show15.aspx)

Uplifting Americana duo whose “soul-nourishing music” (LA Times) will transport you to “The Edge of the World”
Address

The Barns at Wolf Trap
1635 Trap Road
Vienna, VA 22182

Gas Station Horror
December 4th, 2015 at 09:00 PM

From NYC, Gas Station Horror is a high-energy improv show that turns terrible horror movies into excellent comedy. For this special edition they are bringing horror to the Holiday with films like Silent Night, Zombie Night.
Address

Source – 1835 14th St. NW

Great Falls Holiday Fest, Dec 5 & 6
December 5th, 2015 at 10:00 AM | free | GreatFallsStudios@gmail.com | Tel: 7037599386 | [Event Website](http://www.greatfallsstudios.com/)

10 AM – 5 PM. 23 artists@ Grange – Original art, prints, photography, pottery, holiday gifts and more
Noon – 4PM. Santa @Old Schoolhouse,authors storytelling! Music,dance, food at Grange, ornaments atArts of Great Falls, demonstrations at art studios. Sunday, 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM.Celebration of Lights -cider,cocoa,Yule log,song. Petting zoo, ponies,live nativity. Santa and Mrs.too! By Great Falls Studios,Fairfax County Park Authority, Celebrate Great Falls,Arts of Great Falls.

Address

Great Falls Grange and Olde Schoolhouse
9818 Georgetown Pike
Great Falls, VA 22066

Smithsonian Holiday Festival
December 5th, 2015 at 10:00 AM | Free | [Event Website](http://www.si.edu/Events/Calendar/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Dseries%26seriesid%3D1106471)

The Smithsonian will host its 2015 holiday festival December 5 & 6. This year’s festival is the Smithsonian’s largest holiday festival to date with 10 participating museums!

The holiday festival will feature family-friendly concerts, Mars Chocolate demonstrations, a Star Wars C-3PO costume exhibit, the world’s largest LEGO American Flag exhibit, free film screenings, trunk shows, book signings, festive food, free gift-wrapping and hours of additional family-friendly entertainment.
Address

National Mall and Smithsonian Museums

Holidays Through History Open House
December 5th, 2015 at 04:00 PM | $20 | education@dumbartonhouse.org | Tel: 2023372288 | [Event Website](http://dumbartonhouse.org/)

Make your merry way among three historic houses featuring period installations from the Federal period to the 1960s. Dumbarton House, Anderson House, and Woodrow Wilson House all offer a festive evening of elegance, refreshments, and ornaments to make at each site.
Address

Dumbarton House, 2715 Q Street, NW, Washington, DC 20007

Breakfast with Santa at Volta Park
December 6th, 2015 at 10:00 AM | free | [Event Website](http://voltapark.org/)

Come sit and take photos with the DC areas best looking Santa while enjoying crafts, coffee, food, Christmas carolers and fun. Arrive early to see Santa’s magical sleigh. Festivities will be held on the playground. This event is free.
Address

Georgetown Volta Park Playground. 1555 34th St NW, Washington, DC 20007

Holiday Wreath Workshop
December 6th, 2015 at 12:00 PM | $60 | education@dumbartonhouse.org | Tel: 2023372288 | [Event Website](http://dumbartonhouse.org/)

Create a festive holiday wreath with a new twist: dried herbs! We provide the greens, forms, and fragrant herbs including silver king, sage, rosemary and lavender for you to create a beautiful and aromatic wreath to adorn your front door. Materials are provided to complete a ten inch wreath. For parties of 15+, please contact education@dumbartonhouse.org.

Address

Dumbarton House, 2715 Q Street, NW, Washington, DC 20007

A Celtic Christmas
December 6th, 2015 at 04:00 PM | $30-$35 | office@dumbartonconcerts.org | Tel: 2029652000, ext. 100 | [Event Website](http://www.dumbartonconcerts.org/)

A Celtic Christmas. The Barnes and Hampton Consort, flutist Joseph Cunliffe, percussionist Steve Bloom, and radio celebrity Robert Aubry Davis return to Dumbarton Concerts with this annual Christmas tradition, featuring well-known pieces like “In the Bleak Midwinter”, traditional Irish music, and readings of “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” by Dylan Thomas, as well as other poems by Langston Hughes.
Address

3133 Dumbarton St. NW

Fairfax Choral Society Youth Choirs Present “There is Peace”
December 8th, 2015 at 07:00 PM | $8-$25 | office@fairfaxchoralsociety.org | Tel: 703-642-3277 | [Event Website](http://www.fairfaxchoralsociety.org/)

Today our world is pervaded by conflict, violence and fear, but there is hope – there is peace! Our Central Campus Youth Da Capo Choir, Lyric Choir, Treble Choir, Concert Choir and Master Singers will lift your spirits with the sounds of the season. Our holiday concert will include a wide array of styles, genres, and instrumentation. Throughout this concert our audience will be reminded that, “there is peace when we look in the eyes of our children and feel the touch of their hands.”
Address

Annandale United Methodist Church
6935 Columbia Pike
Annandale, VA 22003

Winternational
December 9th, 2015 at 11:00 AM | Free | [Event Website](http://www.itcdc.com/Upcoming-Events/Winternationalhttp://www.itcdc.com/Upcoming-Events/Winternational)

Join us for Winternational – 4th Annual Embassy Showcase. This year there will be many opportunities for 1:1 interviews with diplomats, embassy exhibitors, sponsors and attendees. This festival has the atmosphere of an international bazaar with displays of visual arts, handcrafts, travel and tourism information as well as samples of national specialties, coffees and teas. Guests have the opportunity to travel the world and do some holiday shopping — all during the lunch hour!

Address

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
Atrium
1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20004

Robert Devaney • November 30, 2015

The Key Bridge Exxon gas station at 3607 M St. NW was held at gunpoint around 11:30 PM on Saturday, Nov. 21, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. No one was injured, and the suspected has not been captured.

The cashier of the Exxon said that a five-eleven-feet black male, according to one police source, “wearing all black clothes with a hoodie up over his head, entered the establishment and walked around to the cashier booth while brandishing a silver handgun demanding money.” The suspect opened the cash register drawer and grabbed an undisclosed amount of money—and left some on the floor of the gas station mini-mart, as he made his get-away.

MPD reported the second-degree robbery just after midnight, Nov. 22, as responding police cars lined M Street towards Key Bridge.

Immediately west of the Exorcist Steps, the gas station and its property is slated to become a condominium complex by Eastbanc Development.

Also involved in the investigation was the Georgetown University Department of Public Safety, which issued a crime alert around 1 a.m., Nov. 22, to students and others at the university’s nearby main campus that they stay away from the crime scene at 36th and M Streets. It issued an all-clear after 2 a.m.

The suspect was last seen headed westbound on M Street NW, where it becomes Canal Road NW.

Robert Devaney •

Austin Huntington Kiplinger—journalist, publisher as well as civic and cultural leader—died of cancer at the age of 97 on Nov. 20 in Rockville, Maryland.

A journalist since his college days at Cornell University, Kiplinger worked at newspapers, magazines, newsletters, radio and television between the 1930s and the 1980s. He ran the family business, founded in 1920 by his father W. M. Kiplinger, Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc., for almost 35 years. Today, his son Knight Kiplinger heads up the family-owned group which publishes “The Kiplinger Letter, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, The Kiplinger Tax Letter, Kiplinger.com and other publications on personal finance and business forecasting,” according to the company.

Well known around the nation’s capital for his philanthropy and civil leadership, Kiplinger was born in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 19, 1918. He is best known in Georgetown for his devotion to Tudor Place Historic House and Garden on 31st Street and as a graduate of Western High School, now the Duke Ellington School for the Arts.

Tudor Place, where Kiplinger served as trustee and president and was known as “Kip,” issued this statement on Nov. 23: “His passing leaves a void among lovers of D.C. history. His enthusiasm for preservation and gleanings from our shared past will be sorely missed.”

“Working with him for 15 years, I found him to be gracious, ebullient and generous in sharing his love for the history he knew so well of this city and of Tudor Place,” said Leslie Buhler, Tudor Place Executive Director until October 2015. “He connected the past to the present in very real terms,” she added, praising his “extraordinary memory, sparkle in his eyes, and thirst for knowledge.”

According to Kiplinger Washington Editors, “Kiplinger served in governance leadership at Cornell University, the National Symphony Orchestra, Historical Society of Washington, Federal City Council, WETA, National Press Foundation, Tudor Place, Washington International Horse Show, and other local institutions. He was the longtime president of the Kiplinger Foundation, a charitable trust established and funded by his father which has made grants totaling many millions of dollars to nonprofits in education, the performing arts, history and mid-career journalism training.”

“Among his notable civic achievements in Washington was spearheading, with co-chair and former D.C. mayor Walter Washington, the 2000 capital campaign that restored the District of Columbia’s historic Carnegie Library on Mount Vernon Square to be the new home of the Historical Society of Washington,” wrote Kiplinger Washington Editors. “In 2012 Austin and his son Knight donated to the Historical Society and several other Washington museums the 5,000-piece Kiplinger Washington Collection, a corporate collection started by W. M. Kiplinger in the 1920s that grew to be the largest assemblage of historical prints, maps, photos and paintings of Washington, D.C. in private hands.”

Kiplinger was a U.S. Navy aviator in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He was the oldest and remains the longest-serving member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

His wife Mary Louise “Gogo” Cobb Kiplinger died in 2007. His older son, Todd Kiplinger, died in 2008. He is survived by his son Knight and daughter-in-law Ann Miller Kiplinger, of Washington, D.C.; daughter-in-law Dana Stifel Kiplinger, of Weston, Connecticut; six grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and his companion of seven years, Bonnie Barker Nicholson, of Bethesda, Maryland.
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Peter Murray •

Georgetown’s Rent The Runway is upping its game with a new, one-year collaboration with Birchbox, the 5-year-old online subscription service that sends subscribers new makeup samples every month. The move turns the store into a one-stop shop for women looking to get dressed — and now dolled — up before big events.

“Birchbox has a large subscriber base in the DC area and our customers want to look their best, but don’t always have time to navigate the latest new products and trends. Together with Rent the Runway, we’re able to offer a one-stop-shop edited with the very best in beauty and fashion,” said Katia Beauchamp, co-founder and CEO of Birchbox in a press release.

Rent the Runway and Birchbox have similar beginnings. Both started out as online-only outlets focused on women and based on non-traditional business models. Rent the Runway was founded in 2009, shortly before Birchbox got its start. And now, both companies are expanding to brick-and-mortar locations. The new outlet inside Rent the Runaway marks Birchbox’s second brick-and-mortar location. Rent the Runway now has storefronts in New York and Chicago, in addition to Georgetown.

The store is known for renting out high-end designer dresses for between $75 and $250 dollars. The new Birchbox station inside Rent the Runway will feature a $15 “Build Your Own Birchbox” offer where buyers can choose from products by Bumble and Bumble, Smashbox, Stila, Oribe, and other beauty brands. Birchbox will also offer makeup appointments running from $30 for eyes to $80 for a special occasion application.

Robert Devaney •

After a Nov. 12 student demonstration on campus and a sit-in in the front of his office on Nov. 13 and 14, Georgetown University John DeGioia approved the striking of names off two main campus buildings, which held the names of Georgetown University presidents who worked on a deal in 1838 that sold 272 slaves, owned by the university.

“As a university, we are a place where conversations are convened and dialogue is encouraged, even on topics that may be difficult,” DeGioia wrote in a Nov. 14 letter to the university. “This is what we will continue to do at Georgetown. We are supportive of our students and proud of the depth of their engagement in these urgent conversations.”

Students are also demanding that the university offer more information about black history on the campus, including programs, plaques and marking where slaves were buried, set up required diversity training for professors and fund an endowment for black professors. Protestors want the professors’ fund to be equivalent in 2015 dollars to the 1838 sale of 272 slaves — roughly estimated, conservatively, at $3.25 million with the average price for a human being at $500 in 1838.

Mulledy Hall was part of the repurposed buildings for new student dormitory housing, right at the school’s Quadangle. It was named for Rev. Thomas F. Mulledy, S.J., the 17th and 22th president of Georgetown University. He was also the first president of the College of Holy Cross, which also has a building named for him. A small building built in 1792, south of the Ryan and Gervase dormitories, was named for the university’s 18th president, Rev. William McSherry, S.J., who closed the deal on the slaves, sending them from Maryland to Louisiana as abolitionist protests began to cause devaluation of the Jesuits’ plantations in Maryland.

When the closed buildings were renovated, the name of Mulledy came to light, and a student column in the Hoya decried that the building would still be named for a slave-holder. The issue grew, along with other demands by students, such as reparations by Georgetown University for the slave sale. Students and supporters used hashtags #BuiltOn272 and #GU272 to spread the news.

The name change was proposed the university’s Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation — a group charged by DeGioia to discuss the problem. It offered it take over the weekend: “Until a broader conversation within the community enables us to recommend a permanent renaming of these buildings, we propose to the entire community that for the remainder of the academic year we refer to the Mulledy Building as ‘Freedom Hall’ and to the McSherry Building as ‘Remembrance Hall.’

“We propose the provisional name ‘Freedom Hall’ for two reasons: first, ‘freedom’ is, quite simply, exactly what the Society of Jesus and Georgetown College chose not to offer the enslaved in the early nineteenth century. And second, the name would give recognition to the historical, global, and pervasive fight for freedom that people around the world are still engaged in and dream to realize.

“We propose the provisional name ‘Remembrance Hall’ for three reasons: first, remembering the specific persons whose involuntary servitude has unjustly enriched our university is exactly what we have failed to do. Second, remembering this history and these people is at the heart of our current undertaking. And third, remembering this history and these people is what we want to ensure for the future. In addition, we are mindful of the current purpose of ‘Remembrance Hall’ as a center for meditation and the part that meditation can play in bringing peoples together in peace.”

The group plans to hold a discussion about the issues involved on Nov. 18 and 19 and a teach-in on Dec. 1.

Peter Murray •

Democratic presidential contender Senator Bernie Sanders spoke to a packed room at Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall Thursday, Nov. 19, in what was billed as “a talk on democratic socialism in America.” What followed was a reiteration of points Sanders has made throughout his campaign for the presidency about wealth inequality and an explanation of how he would deal with terrorism and the problems plaguing Syria.

Anticipation for Sanders’ was running high at the Jesuit university. Students waited in long lines in the rain to see the independent senator from Vermont, and the excitement only ramped up once they made their way inside Gaston Hall. When Mo Elleithee, the head of the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service, a part of the McCourt School of Public Policy that was established in June, made his way to the stage to commence the program, students whooped and chanted, “Feel the Bern,” a Sanders-derived meme that has almost become slogan to the senator’s supporters.

Sanders received a standing ovation on his way to the podium before beginning his speech by harking back to the times of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “He saw tens of millions of its citizens denied the basic necessities of life,” Sanders said before describing mass poverty brought on by the Great Depression. “He saw millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children. He saw millions lacking the means to buy the products they needed and by their poverty and lack of disposable income denying employment to many other millions. He saw one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.”

Sanders continued, describing the steps Roosevelt took to alleviate poverty, like instituting Social Security and Medicare, in the face of critics who called him a socialist. Then, he juxtaposed the past with economic conditions today, particularly inequality, the cost of health care and the hollowing out of the middle class, calling for a combative approach in dealing with what he called, “the ruling class,” one similar to the approach Roosevelt took while he was president. “The billionaire class cannot have it all. Our government belongs to all of us, and not just the one percent,” he said, before quoting Martin Luther King, Jr. in arguing that, “This country has socialism for the rich, and rugged individualism for the poor.”

Returning to Roosevelt, Sanders recited items from the 32nd president’s proposed second Bill of Rights, highlighting, “the right to a decent job at decent pay, the right to adequate food, clothing, and time off from work, the right for every business, large and small, to function in an atmosphere free from unfair competition and domination by monopolies, the right of all Americans to have a decent home and decent health care.”

“We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous men are not free men,” Sanders quoted Roosevelt.

Sanders emphasized, “Democratic socialism means that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy,” before calling for young people and working people to start a democratic movement that would further the second Bill of Rights and challenge the power of big political donors like Charles and David Koch.

“Democratic socialism means,” Sanders said over and over again as a lead up to expressing support to progressive policy proposals like a $15 minimum wage, universal single-payer health care and paid family leave, which he argued are all popular policies that have not been enacted because a lack of widespread political engagement in the U.S. “It is extremely sad that the United States, one of the oldest democracies on earth, has one of the lowest voter turnouts of any major country, and that millions of young and working class people have given up on our political system entirely,” he said.

Smattered in between the policy proposals, all of which Sanders has raised before, were bits attacking the GOP, Wall Street and industries that profit on fossil fuels. “I believe in private companies that thrive and invest and grow in America instead of shipping jobs and profits overseas. I believe that most Americans can pay lower taxes – if hedge fund managers who make billions manipulating the marketplace finally pay the taxes they should,” he said before expressing his support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

As in his opening statement at the last Democratic debate, Sanders used the tail-end of his G.U. speech to talk how he would deal with the threat ISIS presents to the West. He stressed international cooperation as a key factor in eliminating ISIS, saying, “We must create an organization like NATO to confront the security threats of the 21st century – an organization that emphasizes cooperation and collaboration to defeat the rise of violent extremism and importantly to address the root causes underlying these brutal acts.” He called on “Muslim nations” to lead the regional effort against extremism in Syria and Iraq.

In the end, what was billed as a big speech defining Sanders’ campaign ended up being a long, winding speech, featuring a smorgasbord of past policy proposals and talking points in addition to fresh foreign policy details. This was not the star-quality charisma or soaring rhetoric of President Barack Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012, but Georgetown University students seemed pretty pumped nevertheless.

Linnea Kristiansson • November 29, 2015

On March 20, American University professor David Pitts was sentenced to serve one year and a day in prison for second-degree burglary. Pitts was arrested in September 2014 after breaking into an office building on New Mexico Avenue. According to the D.C. Superior Court, Pitts will also serve 182 days for theft of the first degree.

Prosecutors claimed Pitts broke into the building intending to steal prescription medications. He was arrested after he lit several fires in the area. He was caught in an office building trying to steal prescription pads, medication and controlled substances.

The police later found more than 5,300 prescription pills and blank prescription pads in Pitts’s apartment. In January, he pleaded guilty to the burglary charge.

Judge Zoe Bush acknowledged Pitts’s longstanding mental health and substance abuse issues during the sentencing hearing. However, the judge said the professor needs to spend time in prison as the fires he set prove that he presents danger to society.

Pitts is the former chair of the Department of Public Administration and Policy. His employment status is now on review, said Kelly Alexander, University Director of Public Relations.

”I owe my people an apology,” Pitts said of the university, its students and his partner of six years. “I ask for their forgiveness and the opportunity to earn their trust.”

Robert Devaney • November 23, 2015

Soon—early next year, in fact—it looks like the Georgetown liquor license moratorium, in effect since 1989, will cease to exist.

The Georgetown Business Improvement District took the first step in officially supporting the end of the moratorium that capped liquor licenses in Washington, D.C.’s oldest neighborhood. By the end of November, the Citizens Association of Georgetown and then the Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission will also take on the issue of the ban that many have said is stifling business growth in Georgetown.

The three main groups—about to reach a decision on liquor license protocol—will be talking with the Alcohol Beverage Control Board on how to implement their three-way agreement. To move the process forward, the BID has also produced a “Georgetown Settlement Agreement Template.”

The Georgetown BID CEO Joe Sternlieb issued the following statement Nov. 19:

“I just want to update you on the action taken this afternoon by the Georgetown BID Board to support ending the cap and moratorium on new restaurant liquor licenses in Georgetown when it expires on Feb. 3. The BID Board passed a resolution that supports a three-way agreement between itself, ANC 2E and the Citizens Association of Georgetown that was negotiated by representatives of each organization.

“For the last several months two representatives from each group have been meeting to seek a consensus position that would allow the moratorium to expire while addressing the community’s concerns about potential negative impacts on residents from some types of restaurants.

“Our mutual goal has been to encourage more, and more high-quality, restaurants to locate in Georgetown without creating new, undue negative impacts on residents. We believe ending Georgetown’s restaurant liquor license cap and moratorium, which is the only remaining such moratorium in the District, will send a positive message to restaurateurs that Georgetown wants them.

“The draft agreement, supported by the BID and to be voted on by CAG on Nov. 24 and the ANC on Nov. 30 has three parts. First, we ask the Alcohol Beverage Control Board to pre-screen CR and DR (restaurant) liquor license applicants for appropriateness under the law by holding a fact-finding hearing for questionable applications prior to placarding. This is the same protocol the ABC uses for Adams Morgan applications. Second, we ask the ABC to review a Georgetown Settlement Agreement Template for legal sufficiency. The group developed this template as a set of general terms that the Georgetown community would like new restaurants to adhere to with respect to noise, trash, and hours of operation (the new template would not apply to existing restaurants). It is very similar to templates used in other D.C. neighborhoods and would be negotiated, as needed, on a case by case basis. And third, the group agreed to meet at least every six months to review the restaurant situation in Georgetown to determine if any problems have been created by the community’s new approach to liquor licensing that the group can work to fix.

“The Georgetown BID sees the collaboration with CAG and the ANC representatives as a very positive development in creating a friendlier climate for new restaurants to open in Georgetown. We hope that the full CAG and ANC will follow the BID’s lead and adopt this resolution.”