Latest News

Dana Farrior • October 28, 2014

This morning marked the opening day for early voting in the 2014 General Election. As of now, the only poll open is located at One Judiciary Square. However, on Saturday, Oct. 25, all nine early voting locations will open across the District of Columbia. Voting hours run from 8:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and will remain open until November 1 – excluding Sundays. For your convenience, the District of Columbia Board of Elections offers a webpage that will show current wait times of each Early Voting Center. For more details, including directions and contact information for each voting site, click here.

Dana Farrior •

On Sunday Oct. 19, 2014 at approximately 6:00 a.m., an adult female was sexually assaulted in the 3300 block of Prospect Place NW.

The Metropolitan Police Department is requesting help from the public in the search for the assailant.

The victim describes the suspect as a Hispanic male, approximately 5’7″ in height, in his twenties, clean shaven, last seen wearing a black leather jacket.

Anyone with information regarding the assault can help solve the case by texting the tip line at 50411 or calling the police at (202) 727-9099.

Also, DC Crime Solvers is offering a reward of up to $1,000 to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for the assault.

Dana Farrior •

Sean Thompson is expressing gratitude at the George Washington University community’s outpouring of financial and emotional support in the wake of his sister’s suicide attempt.

Last Thursday, Sean’s sister, Emily, attempted suicide by jumping nine floors from Shenkman Residence Hall. Though Emily’s fall was not fatal, she was severely injured by the impact.

Emily broke her feet, femurs, kneecap, right arm and cracked her spine. She has undergone a fourth surgery at George Washington Hospital and her nerves are recovering quickly allowing increased mobility in her arm, according to Sean’s update on his GoFundMe.com account.

Recently, Sean launched the GoFundMe campaign to subsidize some of the costs of medical expenses his family will incur. He set what he believed to be a sufficient goal of $10,000 to pay for his sister’s care.

To his surprise, within the last five days, over 500 people have donated nearly $24,000 and his cause has been shared 2.2k times on social media.

“I want people to be helped by this and not scared or hurt or worried. I want whatever good that can come from it to come from it,” Sean Thompson told The Hatchet.

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 Kristofer Ohm • October 23, 2014

On Oct. 1, the Metropolitan Police Department will start a pilot program to test mounting body cameras on officers. The six-month, $1-million program, will monitor 165 police officers as they make their rounds. Officers will be required to begin recording as soon as they receive a call for service until they finish the call. After 90 days, the video will be deleted unless it is being used in an investigation.

The program hopes to increase department transparency and lower the number of complaints with the police department.

The pilot program will use five different models of cameras, costing between $400 and $700, mounted on their head, shoulders or shirt. If the pilot goes well, all 4,000 MPD officers may be wearing cameras within the next few years.

Getting police officers to wear body cameras has gained national momentum since the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 9. Mayor Vince Gray said that this has been in the planning since before the events in Ferguson.

DCFerguson will be holding a march and rally on Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. in Georgetown for police and criminal justice reform. The march and rally are demanding the arrest of Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, the demilitarization of the police and the institutionalization of civilian review boards of the police with the right to hire and fire. The march will be starting at the Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro stop and head to Georgetown.

A press conference will be held on Sept. 26 at 11 a.m. by #DCFerguson that will feature representatives from the #DCFerguson leadership team giving details of the march. They will also be responding to the police departments decision to use body cameras. The press conference will be taking place at the L Street Bridge at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center

Anders Ohm •

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

Gary Tischler •

Remember “A League of Their Own,” the 1992 Penny Marshall-directed movie about an all-girls baseball league during World War II? At one point, Tom Hanks, playing the gruff old-pro manager of one of the teams, the Peaches, watched exasperated as one of his players burst into tears after he had chewed her out at length for making an error.

Shocked, he turned to her and yelled: “You’re crying? You’re crying? There’s no crying in baseball!”

Guess again.

There’s a hell of a lot of crying in baseball going on right now, right here in Washington, D.C., and up the road a piece in Baltimore, and all of Southern California and probably in Mudville, too.

The Washington National, owners of the very best record in the National League for the second time in two years, lost three excruciating, nightmare-inducing, heart-breaking games to the San Francisco Giants, an NL wild-card team, same as they did two years ago, against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Not only that, but the California Angels, owners of the best record in the American League and all of baseball, were swept unceremoniously by the Kansas City As, a—you guessed it—a wild card team who hadn’t won much of anything in decades.

The very same A’s, as of this writing, own a 2-0 lead over the Baltimore Orioles, the Nats’ nearby rivals, in a best of seven American League championship series.

Wait. There’s more. The Los Angeles Dodgers, owners of the second best record in the National League and the highest payroll in the land were dumped by the St. Louis Cardinals along with Clayton Kershaw, without argument probably the best pitcher in baseball. At this writing, the Cardinals and Giants are tied 1-1 in the NL Championship series. It’s entirely possible that two wild card teams will play in the World Series.

But, then, that’s baseball. The history of baseball is full of ghosts—of inches and feet, of seconds. It is measured as much in improbabilities as in certainties.

It’s a tale of opportunities lost, and glorious triumphs, of heroes who come through in the clutch, of impossible catches, and blown saves, of blunders and homers and boners, of improbable losses and improbable wins, of heroes who fail and little known players who become for one moment heroes.

Nothing bears this out than the Nationals-Giants four-game set, won by the Giants, 3-1. Here at the most important stats—forget all these new numerics baseball geeks have come up. 3-2, 2-1, 3-2. Three. Those were the scores of the games the Nationals lost, two at home and one to end it all in San Francisco. In there was a last hope-inducing 4-1 victory by the Nats in SF. The margin of error was about the length and size of a breath held a little too long.

The Nats squandered an efficient, if not brilliant, pitching performance by Stephen Strasburg in the opener, plus a couple of home runs, one from Harper. Then, they entered into what would turn out to be the longest game ever in playoff history, 18 innings or the equivalent of two games, and lost, 2-1, just after the clock struck midnight.

The game stretched heartache every which way. With Jordan Zimmerman, who had pitched a no-hitter in his last outing, cruising in the ninth inning with a tingly 1-0 lead, he walked a batter, prompting a prompt thumbs out from Manager Matt Williams, who replaced Zimmerman with Drew Storen, who had been doing well in his year of redemption, the same Storen,who blew the decisive game in the playoffs two years before. He allowed the hits that produced the tying run the seemingly endless deadlock broken up by a San Francisco home.

The 2-1 loss highlighted almost everything baseball is about, including its endless open-endedness. A manager appeared to forget that the game is about the players and the fans—not the managers. As has been noted, the game should have been Zimmerman’s to win or lose. He’d pitched a phenomenal 17 straight scoreless innings.

You can’t blame the manager, who also got thrown out of the game the next inning, for everything. In a short series, a slightly inferior team can beat the favorite if that team suddenly stops hitting altogether, which the Nats did, pretty much up and down the lineup except for Harper and Rendon. At one point, they went 21 innings without scoring until the seventh inning of the third game.

Baseball is a game full of Sunday sermon homilies of hope, which springs eternal everywhere, but especially in baseball. Baseball, unlike other sports, has no clock. So, as the saying goes, it ain’t over ’til it’s over, which is to say until after the last out.

Anything can happen goes the siren song of hope, and the Nats, needing to win three straight, won one, bringing that emotional pinch hitter hope out of the dugout on wobbly legs.

It had been done before. In 2004, the Boston Red Sex, down three games against the Yankees in a seven-game playoffs, won four straight, to take the AL title, and then swept the St. Louis Cardinals 4-0 to win the Series, reeling off eight straight wins.

Hope springs, partly because the sport is full of ghosts and memories, and its literature is rooted in the hieroglyphics of the box score.

In some ways, it’s a game of stillness, interrupted by furious seconds of actions—the crack of the bat, the missed swing, the slide and throw at home plate, the loud rocket noise made by thunderous home runs, the swift blur of a double play, (Tinkers-to-Evers-to-Chance) and the basic rhythm of pitch, swing, hit (or not), catch (or not), and run. Towards home, always the journey towards home.

Nothing is certain in baseball—it is a battle against obvious futility, in which a player is deemed to be an excellent hitter by making outs two out of three times. It is a game that leaves players naked—you can’t always spot the grievous missed block in football, but when a hitter strikes out with the bases loaded, he might as well drop his pants.

Baseball is full of ghosts—the ghost riders in the sky of the heroes and triumphs of long gone players, and their mistakes and blunders and failures under pressure. In the 1964 World Series between the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals, Cards manager Johnny Keane allowed the brilliant but struggling Bob Gibson—one of the most fearsome pitchers ever—to finish the game, grimly winning a 7-5 game. “I was committed to this fellow’s heart,” Keane said. The vagaries of baseball and its glories were on display that fall—Mickey Mantle in his last year of playing for the Yankees, hit three home runs in the World Series, manager and Yankee legend Yogi Berra (“When you come to a fork in the road, take it”) was fired. Johnny Keane became the Yankee manager, and he too would eventually be fired.

This time of the year, fall with leaves and nuts on the ground, and in the stands, is baseball season when all the other things—steroids, unbelievable salaries, and so on—just fade away.

We are seduced by baseball’s long-treasured cliches, listening for the opening words as if in a play in a theatre: “Play ball!” It is the baseball equivalent of “Places, please.”

We hope until hope is gone as it was in Mudville and as it is in Washington. So, we embrace another old slogan, hope’s last ditch siren song: “Wait until next year.”

Robert Devaney •

UPDATED 12:15 p.m., Oct. 22.

Rabbi Barry Freundel of Kesher Israel Congregation was arrested at his O Street home in the early hours of Tuesday, Oct. 14 and charged with six charges of misdemeanor voyeurism by the Metropolitan Police Department.

Prosecutors say that video retrieved from Freundel’s computer and hard drive substantiates the voyeurism allegations.

According to prosecutors, Freundel used a camera hidden in a clock radio he placed in the women’s bathroom near the synagogue’s mikvah – an Orthodox-required ritual bath used for conversion – to spy on female congregants bathing themselves. Victim Leah Sugarman of Silver Spring told the Washington Post that Freundel, who acted as a rabbi-guide for her conversion, pressured her to bath more frequently in the mikvah to speed up the process. Other young female converts complained to Kesher’s leadership that Freundel was commenting on their looks in an inappropriate way.

Kesher Israel’s board of directors, which immediately suspended Freundel, issued this statement: “This is a painful moment for Kesher Israel Congregation and the entire Jewish community . . . Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the board of directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials. Throughout the investigation, we cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so.” The synagogue removed information about its rabbi soon after Freundel’s arrest.

On Oct. 20, the Rabbinical Council of America said it had received similar complaints, and some that were more salacious (one detailed that Freundel co-signed a checking account with a woman who was not his wife), that went back to 2012. He was involved in the council, leading its group on protocol for conversions. While the council reprimanded him, he was not removed from the position and “made assurances these behaviors would discontinue.”

Freundel was the leader of Kesher Israel, a modern Orthodox synagogue, at 2801 N St. NW, five blocks from his home. Since 1987, Freundel has been with the synagogue, which counts among its members former Sen. Joe Lieberman and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.

Neighbors of Freundel on O Street like Carol Joynt reported on social media that the arrest took place. “Interesting goings on across the street,” wrote Joynt. “Neighbor hauled off in cuffs. Detectives swarming, hauling out hard drives. Police cars here and there. Ah, Georgetown.”