Latest News

Joseph Park • October 28, 2014

The D.C. Department of Transportation will start training streetcar operators in real-time traffic Aug. 4 along H Street and Benning Road, the first segment of the new D.C. streetcar system to offer passenger service later this year.

The first 2.4-mile long segment of the D.C. streetcar rail extends from Oklahoma Ave., NW, to Union Station, making multiple stops along H Street and Benning Road. Each operator will train with supervisors under various traffic scenarios as a part of the certification process to carry passengers.

D.C. Transportation Officials said that drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists are advised to use caution when travelling along the H Street corridor as the streetcars will now begin operating.

“Remember to ‘Look, Listen, Be Safe!’ around streetcar vehicles at all times – look both ways and listen for the streetcar before stepping into the crosswalk, and never walk in front of a moving streetcar,” said a DDOT official.

Also be alert that vehicles will now be ticketed and towed that are parked in the streetcar’s path, including cars parked outside the white lines and illegally double-parked cars.

For more information about the new streetcars, visit dcstreetcar.com.

Robert Devaney •

Last week’s torrential rainstorm caused untreated sewerage to flow into the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, according to the National Park Service. The wastewater also flowed into the canal in Georgetown, prompting NPS to caution people not to fish in the canal and to sanitize any items that were in the water below Lock 6 until the end of Sunday. NPS said that the overflow amounted to 5 million gallons.

The canal’s towpath remains open.

Other spillage from the storm also caused the Capital Crescent Trail between Fletcher’s Cove and Water Street (K Street) to be closed. The trail will be closed for several weeks, according to WJLA.

Gary Tischler •

In this town, which is our town, the world is always with you, right outside the morning-opened door, the Georgetown streets, in cushy hotels, in front of the White House which we pass every day, in the traffic jams, from which we glimpse visiting black limo dignitaries, amid the demonstrators who come here every year, always different but always the same.

In this town, which is our town, history is always with us, our monuments are concrete paeans and poems to our shared histories and memories. We’re always remembering, commemorating, celebrating the singular events of our events, which are imbedded in cement, in the grassy knolls of our memories and cemeteries, in books and street addresses.

No other city is quite like this in this quality—our local news are national and world news, our daily travels to offices, work and chores take us through a kind of daily theme park of history. Some things occur here, rest here and our part of our routine like a backpack, the clothes we wear, the messages we retrieve from our open pads while having coffee at a Starbucks.

Yet, we live in our blocks and villages and neighborhoods, and sleep under blue-dark skies, and wake up to retrieve the morning or pore over the magical contents of a baseball box score: IP 7 H 3 R 0 ER 0 BB 1 SO 10 MNP 99 ERA 3.39. That would be the beatifically splendid pitching line on the Washington Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg in a 4-0 win over the Phillies.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, a large part of the other part of the world came to Washington as part of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, in which leaders from most of the nations in the continent of Africa arrived for discussions, workshops, gatherings, speeches and policy-making, headed by President Barack Obama.

They—political leaders and business leaders and perhaps social and cultural leaders— came from all over Africa, from Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and a host of other countries. Black cars whizzed around town, stopping traffic around places like the Mandarin Hotel. There was a particular logjam around the Four Seasons Hotel across from the Georgetowner office on M Street. Still and all, the day proceeded on the avenue: a couple taking a self, sitting on the faux cow in front of Ben and Jerry’s, a father trying to tickle his baby boy into a laugh in front of a clothing store, and fashion-conscious girls prancing in twos and threes along the avenue as if it were spring still and all.

We breathe, we dance or come out of the Whole Foods Store, slightly less richer on a Saturday when the bloody struggle in Gaza came home to Lafayette Square in front of the White House in a protest rally by thousands of Palestinian supporters, condemning the rising death toll there, the Israeli incursion and invasion of the Gaza strip to stop rocket firing by Hamas. It is one of those horrible tragedies where we all have opinions, in our town, this town.

Earlier in the week, Latinos, some of them illegal immigrants also gathered to protest in front of the same White House, demanding an end to deportations sparked by the flow of illegal immigrants mostly young people at the Texas border, streaming up from Central American countries.

The world echoes loudly here, especially if, as some of us do, or have done, we mingle with the gathered crowds, and when we do that, we seem to tumble under the onrush of history.

Life, of course, doesn’t care about the town, any town, and it moves on, and provides us with its own lessons. One day, a 69-year-old woman named Patsy Stokes Burton of La Plata, Md., a mother of four, went to one of her four jobs in Upper Marlboro and was struck by a bus and died of her injuries. Her husband Mack Burton said, “When she left yesterday, she told me to have a good day and I told her to have a good day.” The words, so everyday, suddenly turned into last words. Burton said, “I have no vendetta against that driver. Like I said, she was just out doing her job. It happened, and not a thing in the world anybody can do about it.”

One day, history comes that way in our town, old history, refreshed in the passing of someone we felt we knew who made history. Today, the news came that James Brady, the former press secretary of President Ronald Reagan, who was among those who was shot in an assassination attempt on the president in 1981, died at the age of 73. He was paralyzed by his wounds. For a time his name was on gun control legislation—the Brady Bill—which was eventually allowed to expire as law.

In this town, our town, we make our own diversions, the daily life this city gives. On Saturday, we went to the National Zoo, in hopes of catching up with Bao Bao, which we did not. But we did see the two sets of lion cubs, three by three, and their lionesses, their mothers, lounge a little separate from each other, like worldly, sanguine young ladies and women. A distance away, father lion lounged, his tail swatting flies, looking like the laziest, most regal of lion kings, black mane darkly royal.

The young cubs posing on ledges, with their mothers, looked for all the world, like feline debutantes in a John Singer Sargent painting, languid, self conscious and aware of being beautiful and rare, and pure. A mom licked the ears of one of the cub. You could practically hear the cub whisper, “Oh, mom, not in front of everyone,” as if an ordinary teenager.

In this town, our town, the world is always with us, one way or another, within walking distance, within a shout or the murmurs of hearts and minds, our hearts and minds.

Natalie Koltun •

The Ebola crisis in West Africa has put the world on high alert, forced some leaders to remain in their home nations to miss the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit and caused the postponement of “The Future of Development and Business in Africa, ” a forum to be held today at Georgetown University.

Like some other universities, Georgetown University has taken action against the spread of the virus. Joseph Yohe, associate vice president for risk management, and James Welsh, assistant vice president for student health, announced Friday that there will be a temporary travel moratorium on all university-sponsored trips and programs to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, three West African nations in the midst of battling what is considered to be the worst Ebola outbreak in history. This moratorium follows U.S. health officials’ travel warning about the dangers of the virus, which kills 90 percent of those infected. As for when the travel moratorium will conclude, Yohe and Welsh intend to comply with the CDC’s guidelines.

The Gaston Hall event was to feature Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who delivered the university’s School of Foreign Service commencement speech in 2010. The forum’s focus was to discuss private investment in Africa while looking at its role in the region’s health, education, poverty and emerging business opportunities, as well as benefits of receiving support by the United States’ government and other international organizations. The event has yet to be rescheduled.

Sirleaf, along with 50 other African leaders, was invited to attend the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in D.C., taking place Monday to Wednesday this week. To contain the deadly virus that has already killed over 700 people, Sirleaf and leaders of Guinea and Sierra Leone have cancelled their attendance to the summit.

Although there have been no known Ebola outbreaks in the United States to date, residents should still take caution when coming into contact with those exhibiting flu-like symptoms. A Washington, D.C.-area man was hospitalized last month after contracting a flesh-eating bacterial disease. Joe Wood of Stafford, Va., was swimming in the Potomac River when a scratch on his leg became infected with an aggressive bacteria that feeds on flesh – vibrio vulnificus. Wood was admitted to Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg where he received skin graft surgery the following week.

This news comes just days after a 66-year-old Maryland man was treated for the same strain, characterized by fever, chills, vomiting and other flu-like symptoms. In Maryland, the number of vibrio cases reached a 10-year high last year, according to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Gary Tischler •

James Garner was a purely American actor.

You would never think to call him a thespian, or imagine him playing Hamlet — or, getting old, King Lear.

Garner was a movie star, a television star, and in both venues, he often and famously and most memorably played the hero as anti-hero, or the anti-hero as hero. He was also a natural—his most famous anti-hero heroics were done in such a way that he hardly seemed to be acting at all. He inhabited the leads in “Maverick” (for three seasons) and, later in his life, the hero of “The Rockford Files” with a combination of elan and ease that it made him look almost lazy. In his starring movie roles, he ranged quite a bit further, but that casual comic style stayed with him through several romantic comedies with Doris Day—taking over where Rock Hudson had left off.

Garner died July 19 at the end of a long career and a full life, during which he carried his movie and television personas with him, not like baggage, but like a coat you could dig into to find reminders of his screen life.

He led a life, and it took him a while to become who he was, which was, originally, a fella by the name James Scott Bumgarner, born in Norman, Oklahoma, the home of the University of Oklahoma and “sooner boomer” football mania, a place you could stare across the flat landscape and feel the breath of next door neighbors Missouri and Texas. He did not initially dream of becoming an actor and instead went from job to job, got into the Merchant Marine and fought in Korea, and awarded two purple hearts.

A friend encouraged him to get into theater, from which he started getting small parts in films like “Sayanora” and a bigger part in “Darby’s Rangers,” a World War II, small-scale epic, in a part turned down by Charlton Heston.

But it was the “Maverick” series which made a star out of Garner—although he stayed only for three years—and in a way branded him. The series—which debuted in a time when the so-called adult westerns were king on network television—featured Garner (and later a brother played by Jack Kelly), as a slick, fancy-shirt, black hat, black jacket, gambler, who avoided conflict at all cost, not to mention heroics. Bret Maverick was catnip for ladies, often got in trouble, even when he would admit he was a coward, but somehow, kicking and screaming and very reluctantly was often the hero. He was the opposite of James Arness’s Matt Dillon on “Gunsmoke.” Imagine the husky, slow-moving Arness playing Bret Maverick.

This aversion to violence made Maverick a convincing anti-hero, even when he resorted to violence. It was a kind of style you would often find in other Garner roles—“Support Your Local Sheriff,” a comedy western which was great fun, with the wonderful Jack Elam as his sidekick and, most convincingly, “The Americanization of Emily,” a World War II story, cynical and slick, in which he played an American officer who did not want to be sent to the combat zone. The parts seemed to suit Garner or he suited them. He played men who appeared strong but could dance around conflict—and commitment in the romantic comedy version—with ruggedness and verve.

Every now and then, the hidden fire and flame underneath came out as a form of obsession, a quality he shared with another well-liked star, James Stewart. He could play the all-American hero, influenced by obsession, Wyatt Earp on a killing spree in “Hour of the Gun,” the anti-hero of “Duel at Diablo” or “Mister Buddwing”.

“The Rockford Files,” another long-running series (six years), brought Garner back to television and another huge success, although he was injured in the course of playing a private eye several times and suffered mental stress in a law suit over net profits.

Although he could wear a suit and tie almost as well as Cary Grant, he was at heart a heartland kind of guy. He would continue to work in his later years—“Space Cowboys”, a popular quasi-comic story about aging astronauts with Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones, and “Murphy’s Romance,” playing a widower opposite Sally Field, a role for which he got an Oscar nomination, and the title of greatest kisser by his co-star.

James Garner, American actor, lived in Brentwood, Calif., and was 86.

Joseph Park •

President Obama and other African leaders are expected to meet with President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, who denies ongoing human rights abuses in the small Central African nation.

Obiang will be honored by the Corporate Council for Africa, which is highlighting the “new Africa” at the summit, according to Al Jazeera America.
Many meetings will be held during the first-ever U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington D.C. from Aug. 4 to Aug. 6, with 50 heads of state in the city at the same time. It is the largest gathering of national leaders ever for a three-day event in the nation’s capital.

“President Obiang is trying to shed his image as the head of a corrupt and abusive government,” said Lisa Misol, senior business and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Instead of giving him propaganda opportunities, President Obama should press for an end to torture, corruption and other abuses that are rife in Equatorial Guinea.”

In a recent human rights report, the State Department cited the most serious human rights abuses in Equatorial Guinea as “disregard for the rule of law and due process, including police use of torture and excessive force; denial of freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association; and widespread official corruption.”

Nguema Mba, a former military officer who was granted status as a refugee in Belgium in 2013, was abducted illegally in his visit to Nigeria in late 2013 and turned over to Equatorial Guinea, where he is believed to be held by government authorities and tortured. Nguema still remains in custody and reportedly was transferred to solitary confinement on July 26.

The Obiang government has denied that torture takes place in Equatorial Guinea. In 2013, when the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights inspected the country, the delegation from the government highlighted “the absence of torture in the country’s prisons and the care given to inmates.”

Equatorial Guinea is one of the largest oil-producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and has a population of 735,000, making it the wealthiest country per capita in Africa.
However, government critics allege that corruption has led to the country having only a small portion of the population sharing the wealth, while conditions for most Guineans remain worse than in many African countries with fewer natural resources.

“It is shocking that President Obiang gets the red-carpet treatment in Washington while his perceived opponents in Equatorial Guinea are thrown in prison to be flogged,” said Tutu Alicante, a human rights lawyer from Equatorial Guinea. “We hope President Obama tells President Obiang loud and clear to end false imprisonment, torture and oil-fueled corruption.”

Obiang has been in power since 1979 as its president, having overthrown his uncle, who was the first president of the small nation, in a bloody coup d’etat.

Georgetowner • October 27, 2014

Hoya Homecoming, Georgetown University

October 24th, 2014 at 10:00 AM | advancementevents@georgetown.edu | Tel: Events Hotline 202-687-2064 | Event Website

Starting Friday 10/24 and continuing through the weekend students and alumni will have a chance to catch up with old friends and get acquainted with new ones. Some of the events will include: Homecoming Tailgate, The 2014 Mr. Georgetown Pageant and Homecoming Mass at Dahlgren Chapel.

Address

Rafik B. Hariri Bldg., Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. 20007

S&R Foundation’s Arts Concerts Series

October 24th, 2014 at 06:30 PM | $65 | Tel: 202.298.6007 | Event Website

Winner of the prestigious Primrose International Viola Competition in 2011, Ayane Kozasa also captured the competition’s Mozart Award for the best chamber music performance, as well as its Askim Award for her performance of the competition’s commissioned work.

Address

1623 28th Street NW

Visit of the Restored Historic 1914 Copperthite Pie Company Truck

October 25th, 2014 at 01:00 PM | Tel: 202-727–0233 | Event Website

Meet Michael C. Copperthite, descendent of the founders of the Connecticut-Copperthite Pie Company (established 1885 in Georgetown), and learn about the restoration his company’s 1914 Model T Ford pie delivery truck.

Address

3260 R St. NW

Smithsonian Craft2Wear Show

October 25th, 2014 at 10:00 AM | $8 | austrpr@si.edu | Tel: 888.832.9554 | Event Website

A show and sale of wearable art featuring jewelry, clothing and accessories featuring over 50 American craft and wearable art designers, all previously juried into the renowned Smithsonian Craft Show.

Address

National Building Museum; 401 F Street, NW

Marco Bicego Personal Appearances at Tiny Jewel Box // Saturday, October 25th

October 25th, 2014 at 11:00 AM | N/A | vbustamante@lsagency.com | Tel: 212 242 9353 x 245 | Event Website

Marco Bicego redefines the phrase “timeless luxury.” He truly embodies the essence of an Italian brand, with all of his designs artisanally produced by hand in Vicenza, Italy.

Marco will be at Tiny Jewel Box in Washington DC on Saturday, October 25th from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Address

1147 Connecticut Ave NW

Opera At The Plaza

October 25th, 2014 at 02:00 PM | isobel@taapr.com | Tel: 2026258370

Enjoy the sounds of the upcoming season’s best loved arias through a preview of the Washington National Opera’s talented Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists. All are welcome to enjoy the live musical performances, enter to win special shopping giveaways and enjoy light bites courtesy of the various restaurants at The Shops at Wisconsin Place, including the Capital Grille, Le Pain Quotidien and P.F. Chang’s.

Address

5310 Western Avenue; Chevy Chase MD 20815

Fashion. Art. Design. Georgetown: Advance Style the Movie

October 25th, 2014 at 03:00 PM | $18 | Event Website

The Georgetown Business Improvement District, in partnership with Bond 360 and AMC Loews Theater, brings to Washington the much-anticipated fashion documentary, Advanced Style. This exclusive regional premiere is part of FASHION ART DESIGN, taking place in Georgetown on.

Address

AMC Loews Georgetown 14; 3111 K St NW

Artist Talk with Michael Hampton

October 25th, 2014 at 03:00 PM | FREE | gallery@callowayart.com | Tel: 202-965-4601 | Event Website

Michael Hampton’s watercolors, part of the joint exhibition Observations of Form at Susan Calloway Fine Arts, draw from the artist’s passion for classical architecture. In his artist talk, Hampton will describe both his focus and inspiration from 17th and 18th century architecture of the French Ancien Regime, Italian Baroque and Palladianism in England. Hampton will explain his drafting technique and dedication to this specialized and fading art form.

Address

Susan Calloway Fine Arts, 1643 Wisconsin Ave NW

The 2014 Community Ball

October 25th, 2014 at 06:30 PM | 125 | mark@awidercircle.org | Tel: 301-608-3504 | Event Website

Join A Wider Circle for its annual fundraiser, The Community Ball, a premier event that brings together hundreds of individuals and companies to celebrate the work of A Wider Circle and its mission to end poverty. The 2014 Community Ball will be held at the Grand Hyatt Washington on Saturday, October 25. Enjoy a fantastic dinner, music, great company, and a program for the ages!

The mission of A Wider Circle is simple: to end poverty for one individual and one family after another.

Address

1000 H St NW

Opera at the Plaza

October 25th, 2014 at 02:00 PM | $10 donation | info@shopwisconsinplace.com | Event Website

The free concert provides a unique
opportunity for music lovers to experience Washington National Opera’s (WNO) talented Young Artists perform
some of Opera’s Best Loved Arias and enjoy previews of the Opera’s season.

Address

5310 Western Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD 20815

39th Marine Corps Marathon

October 26th, 2014 at 07:55 AM | Event Website

Marines will fill streets in D.C. and Northern Virginia as they embark on the 26.2-mile journey through D.C. and Northern Virginia. The MCM promises a spectacular start with international flags from 54 different nations and the firing of the M2A1 Howitzer.

Address

Intersection of Army Navy Dr & Fern St; Arlington, VA 22202

Fashion Yards

October 26th, 2014 at 01:00 PM | Free | shelby@brandlinkdc.com | Event Website

Fashion Yards at The Yards Park is DC’s most popular shopping pop-up market. The region’s top four-wheeled fashion trucks and stand-alone boutiques will give new meaning to the term “yard sale” when they line Water Street for an afternoon of shopping. Twenty retailers will offer an impressive selection of clothing, accessories, home décor and more. Guests can also enjoy a complimentary champagne lounge courtesy of Gilt City DC, RSVP here – http://www.giltcity.com/dc.

Address

The Yards Park; 355 Water Street SE

Anders Ohm • October 23, 2014

There is still a lot of national momentum around the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo.

On Saturday, Oct. 4, the D.C. Ferguson group will hold a march and rally through Georgetown, demanding “Justice for Michael Brown” and changes in policing practices. Demonstrators are gathering at Foggy Bottom Metro Station at 7 p.m. and will be marching through Georgetown.

“The march is starting at Foggy Bottom, and then we will be marching down M Street,” said Salim Adofo, one of the organizers of the event.

Saturday’s march calls for the arrest of Officer Darren Wilson, the demilitarization of the police and the institutionalization of a civilian review board with the right to hire and fire. Organizers also want further investigation into all police killings in D.C. since 2004.

“Past marches have had a turnout of about 250 to 300 people. So, we are expecting a similar turnout this Saturday,” said Adofo.

“The group has been cooperative and caused minimal problems in the past,” said John Wiebenson, the operations director for the Georgetown Business Improvement District. “The Metropolitan Police Department is prepared for the march but since it is a Saturday night in Georgetown we are unsure what to expect. Past marches through Georgetown have been well organized.”

The sponsors of the march include the National Black United Front, the ANSWER Coalition, We Act Radio, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the American Muslim Alliance and others.

Other marches in D.C. by the same group, concerning police brutality and justice in Michael Brown’s shooting, include stops through Chinatown, H Street NE, Adams Morgan and elsewhere. Protesters have also demonstrated in front of the White House and the Justice Department.

Peter Murray •

The District Department of Transportation will close lanes in and around Georgetown next week to conduct a series of bridge and tunnel safety inspections. On Oct. 6 and 7, DDOT will close the right lane of the on-ramp from I-66 to the Whitehurst Freeway. Also on Oct. 6, there will be alternating right lane closures on the Potomac Parkway, both southbound and northbound, under the I-66 ramp.

On Oct. 8, there will be alternating right and left lane closures on Massachusetts Ave. underneath Thomas Circle. DDOT will close lanes on Massachusetts Ave. eastbound before moving to the westbound side of the street.

Traffic controls will be in place to alert motorists as they approach these areas. DDOT is encouraging drivers to be mindful while traveling through these locations while they are under inspection.

Georgetowner •

Be among the first to welcome Melissa Chiu to D.C. as she assumes the role of director at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The Australian-born former head of New York’s Asia Society Museum is here just in time to celebrate the Hirshhorn’s 40th anniversary.

Chiu’s hiring marks a new direction for the Hirshhorn, which was plagued by controversy under former director Richard Koshalek. She comes into the role as an able fundraiser with a strong background in the arts, particularly those from the Asia-Pacific. We are excited to hear and ask questions about how the Hirshhorn will grow, evolve and thrive under her leadership.

Oct. 9, 2014

8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

The George Town Club

1530 Wisconsin Ave., NW

$15 for George Town Club members

$20 for non-members

Continental breakfast included

RSVP by October 7th to Richard@georgetowner.com or call 202-338-4833