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Earth Hour 2012: Saturday March 31st at 8:30pm
April 5, 2012
•Lights across the world will go dark for Earth Hour 2012. Support the
World Wildlife Fund for Nature’s “I Will if You Will” campaign by
saving energy and flipping those switches.
For more information, EarthHour.org
Primarily Yours, Tomorrow: Vote or . . .
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Can you believe it?
Tomorrow, April 3, Tuesday, is the official voting day for the 2012 District of Columbia Primary Election. Tomorrow, Vincent Orange will know if he’ll be running in the general election to keep his at-large Council seat for another four years. Tomorrow, we’ll find out if several other council incumbents will live to fight another day — almost surely.
One thing we know for sure. Jack will be back.
That would be Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans, the formidable, perennial and most enduring member of the City Council, who is running unopposed, at least by any Democrat. The story will more than likely be different in November. There are, after all, with a changing electorate and population, a few more Republicans in Washington.
Although it’s hard to tell — no polls, not that much chatter, reported spotty attendance at candidate forums — Orange appears to be in a bit of a battle to keep his seat out of the hands of at least three worthy opponents on the Democratic side.
[Editor’s Note: The Georgetowner endorsed Vincent Orange for the 2011 special election, and it endorses him this time around, too. Orange e-mailed detailed information about mail-order contributions to the newspaper and has answered questions about any perceived improprieties. Along with his hard-working, long days, Orange’s citywide concerns and interests remain constant. He supports Georgetown, and the Georgetowner supports Orange.]
There are ongoing investigations of Mayor Vincent Gray’s campaign that now include the activities of major developer Jeffrey Thompson, his contributions not only to the Gray campaign but to District Council campaigns, as well as other federal investigations and the departure of Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas Jr. The passage of an ethics legislation bill (which includes a board that has yet to be filled) has not noticeably dampened a growing popular notion that the council is permeated with old-style politics marked by a membership that has been around too long. People are talking — seriously? — about term limits. Orange has had to answer questions about money-order contributions to his last campaign.
A kind of inertia seems to have settled on city politics and government, although financially the city appears to be in pretty good shape considering that tough times still prevail across the country and that jobs — especially East of the River — are still hard to come by.
The other shoe — Thomas was the first — has not dropped on anybody yet, but there seems to be a feeling that city politics is tap-dancing in place awaiting the results of ongoing investigations.
Orange, who has been in his political career part of many campaigns, including wins for the Ward 5 seat, losses in runs for mayor and council chairman and a win for the at-large seat making him an incumbent — may become a victim of that growing indifference or aversion to politics as usual. Or just aversion to politics. The advantages of incumbency for Orange — everybody knows his name and voice — may be liabilities this time.
We’ll find out tomorrow if Sekou Biddle, the educator and brief incumbent of the at-large seat who lost it in a special election, can return to the council on his merits. Biddle, appointed by Democrats to the seat after Kwame Brown became chairman, lost it to Orange, finishing a close third. The runner-up just to jog your memory was Republican Patrick Mara, who won big in Northwest. In a recent forum in Kalorama, Biddle appeared sharp, thoughtful and engaged answering questions about the fate of the D.C. Public Library and its branches, as if he’d been up all night studying on the subject. Orange — who like Biddle appeared late to the forum — was less detailed if just as positive.
Also impressive at the forum were Peter Shapiro, a former member of the Prince George’s County Board of Supervisors who is described as a leadership and organizational development consultant who has recently moved back to Washington and lives in Chevy Chase, D.C., and E. Gail Anderson Holness, a pastor at Christ Our Redeemer Baptist Church, who said she was the only candidate who had not accepted corporate contributions.
Of the other council members running for re-election, the safest bet would appear to be Ward 4’s Muriel Bowser, who seems to have grown in her time on the council ever since she won the seat vacated by former Mayor Adrian Fenty when he ran for mayor the first time. She helped spearhead the ethics bill and is being opposed by five candidates, including Calvin Gurley.
The number of opponents — with chances to split the opposition as it were — are large for Yvette Alexander in Ward 7, which helps her mightily. She has William “Rev. Bill” Bennett, among others, to contend with. Bennett is senior pastor at Good Success Christian Church and Ministries. There’s also a familiar name in Kevin B. Chavous, running for the seat once occupied by his father. Two Republicans are also fighting for Alexander’s seat: Don Feldon, Sr., and the always outspoken Ron Moten, the founder of Peace-a-holics and fiery supporter of Fenty.
In Ward 8, it appears that we will always have Marion Barry to contend with on the council, although he also faces opposition in a big way from, among others, perennial candidates S.S. Sandra Seegars, Darrell Danny Gaston and Jacques D. Patterson.
Among the shadow-senate crowd, Democrat Michael D. Brown is running again. As you might — or not — remember, Brown made a brief splash in the last at-large race held by Phil Mendelson, in which he got a surge in the polls after many voters thought he was the Michael Brown who held an at-large seat on the council.
In the past, the district held its primaries in September. Because of a change in the voting law, the switch was made to spring. The new and earlier voting day will likely affect turnout. Voter turnout is off — and really off-elections like this are critical and notoriously low. It’s like the lottery: You’ve got to play to win. If you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain.
[gallery ids="100713,120466,120458" nav="thumbs"]Supreme Court Health Care Hearings (photos)
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This week the Supreme Court heald hearings on the constitutionality of President Obama’s signature health care law, which attracted the attention of proponents of both sides of the issue. View our photos of the activity surrounding the Court on March 27-28 by clicking on the photo icons below. (photos by Jeff Malet)
View additional photos by clicking here. [gallery ids="100706,100693,100692,100691,100690,100689,100688,100687,100686,100685,100694,100695,100696,100705,100704,100703,100702,100701,100700,100699,100698,100697,100684,100683,100670,100669,100668,100667,100666,100665,100664,100663,100662,100671,100672,100673,100682,100681,100680,100679,100678,100677,100676,100675,100674,100661" nav="thumbs"]
Weekend Roundup March 22,2012
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Grande Fète de la Francophonie
Friday March 23, 2012 at 7 p.m. | Tickets $35 | Event Website.
La Maison Francaise at the Embassy of France will host the Grande Fète de la Francophonie. More than 35 embassies will unite to present their cuisine and culture. Sample their food and beverages and check out their arts and crafts from 7 to 10 p.m, listen to a live concert at 8 p.m. and dance the night away when the volume gets turned up at 10 p.m.
Address
La Maison Francaise at the Embassy of France
4101 Reservoir Rd NW,
Washington, DC 20007
Family Days
March 24, 2012 at 10 AM to 4:30 PM & March 25, 2012 from 11 AM to 3:30 PM |Event Website
This weekend, the National Building Museum will present Family Days, a two-day festival of family entertainment. Experience fun activities, such as creating shoji screens and pop-up architecture, dressing up in traditional Japanese Costumes and interactive lessons on climate change and energy conservation.
Address
National Building Museum
401 F Street, NW
Washington DC
Girl Scouts in Georgetown Day
Saturday March 24, 2012 |10-11:30 AM | Costs $10 for scouts and tag-alongs and $3 for accompanying adults |Event Website
Scouts can explore architectural styles from around the world, tour Tudor Place and the Georgetown neighborhood and be creative in designing their own landscape and building.
Address
Tudor Place
31st Street NW
Washington, DC
Georgetown University’s Annual Spring Charity Fashion Show
Saturday March 24, 2012 at 7 PM | Tel: 734-717-6056 | Email: vmp22@georgetown.edu
Georgetown University will host its annual Spring Charity Fashion show. Proceeds will go towards the construction of a new kindergarten for the children of Roslin Orphanage in West Timor, Indonesia. There will be designer clothes, Georgetown models, raffles, live music and a beauty queen.
Address
Gaston Hall at Georgetown University
37th and O Streets, N.W
Washington D.C. 20057
Springtime Pops!
Saturday March 24, 2012 at 8 PM | Students get in for free; adults, $17; seniors, $11 | Event Website
The City of Fairfax Band will play a concert called “Springtime Pops!,” featuring a program of classical and popular selections in the format made popular by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops.
Address
Fairfax High School
3501 Rebel Run
Fairfax Va 22030.
Cherry Blossom Bike Ride & Cycle Expo
Sunday March 25, 2012 from 10 AM to 2 PM | Event Website
The Cherry Blossom Bike Ride & Cycle Expo will take place in Georgetown. There will be rides along the Capital Crescent Trail and educational demonstrations and vendors in front of Jack’s Boathouse on Water Street under Key Bridge. The event will benefit the American Diabetes Association
Address
Georgetown Waterfront Park on Water Street.
Opening Ceremony
Sunday March 25, 2012 5 to 6:30 PM | The event is free but requires that you register online in advance | Event Website
Opening ceremony for the Cherry Blossom Festival at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The ceremony presents performances that tell the story about how the gift of trees turned into the annual festival.
Address
The Walter E. Washington Convention Center
801 Mt Vernon Place NW
Washington, DC 20001
Benetton Spring Fashion Show
Sunday March 25, 2012 from 6 to 8 PM | Tel: 202-625-2183 | Event Website
A VIP Fashion Show at the United Colors of Benetton Store in Georgetown. See the new spring collections, enjoy refreshments and shop the spring/summer collection, enjoying a 20-percent discount.
Address
The United Colors of Benetton Store
1200 Wisconsin Ave., N.W,
Washington, D.C. 20007.
Blossom Kite Festival (photos)
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It was perfect flying weather as hundreds of kites of various shapes and sizes populated the skies over the National Mall on Saturday, March 31. The Blossom Kite Festival, formerly the Smithsonian Kite Festival, is an annual kite event usually held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in late March during the National Cherry Blossom Festival. View our photos of the event by clicking on the photo icons below. (All photos by Jeff Malet).
View additional photos by clicking here. [gallery ids="120383,120291,120284,120276,120269,120261,120253,120246,120239,120298,120306,120313,120374,120366,120359,120351,120343,120336,120329,120321,120232,120225,120216,120120,120112,120392,120103,120398,120403,120095,120410,120128,120136,120144,120207,120199,120191,120184,120176,120168,120161,120152,100711" nav="thumbs"]
Pedestrians, Beware: D.C. Considers Banning Your Use of Electronics
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Bright blue skies and sunshine-filled days have most Washingtonians walking or biking to work, leaving their four-wheel gas guzzlers back at home.
With the increase of foot traffic, the District of Columbia government has considered fining pedestrians who use electronic devices, such as cell phones and iPods, while crossing the street.
“Every day in Washington, sidewalks and crosswalks are filled with people who are plugged in to another environment — the ether,” says the Pedestrian Safety Committee of the Council for Court Excellence, a civic group that works to improve the administration of justice in the District.
According to the council, 12 percent of D.C. residents walk to and from work on a normal basis, which is twice the national average. With the unseasonably warm temperatures this month, that percentage is likely to have been even higher.
These walkers are plugged in during their commutes on foot and, according to the CCE’s Pedestrian Safety Committee report, “Walkers using electronics are bumping, slipping, falling and harming themselves through inattention.”
The report recommends that the District Council consider banning the use of electronics not only by walkers but by bikers as well. If people are listening to their iPods at full volume or in the middle of an intense conversation, they are not giving the road their full attention.
The University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical Center recently published a study indicating that the number of headphone-wearing pedestrians killed or injured by motor vehicles and trains have more than tripled in six years.
Nothing has been set in stone at this time to prevent more injuries and deaths, but Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, said the time is now to “aggressively enforce pedestrian laws, and pedestrians need to be educated about the hazards of walking distracted.”
Celebrity Sighting: Glenn Close (photos)
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We spotted actress Glenn Close and husband David E. Shaw outside the entrance to the Newseum in Washington D.C. to attend the 60th birthday party for John S. Hendricks, the Founder and Chairman of Discovery Communications on Friday, March 30. Hendricks received a surprise gift, a 1968 full restored white Chevrolet Camaro.
View our photos by clicking on the photo icons below. [gallery ids="100712,120433,120425,120450,120416,120456,120408,120463,120400,120470,120442" nav="thumbs"]
Gloria In Excelsis: National Cathedral’s Climb of the Spring Restored
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Saturday’s misty morning seemed nature’s soft rebuff to Friday’s 80-degree day at the Tidal Basin under the cherry blossoms. A sunny walk near the monuments around the cherry trees with petals at their peak was to be followed by the next day’s climb along the stones into the monumental tower of Washington National Cathedral.
A one-day event was announced by the cathedral for a “tower climb” on March 24 to show that the central tower — its ecclesiastical name is Gloria in Excelsis Tower — was “deemed to be structurally sound and safe for visitors. The tower climbs have been a semi-regular tradition for many years.” It was the first time since the Aug. 23, 2011, earthquake that visitors were allowed into the central tower, the highest geographical point in Washington, D.C. Four teams of about 80 persons took separate morning climbs.
With volunteer guides to direct and comfort, we began our 45-minute tour in the cathedral’s crypt at the Chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea and ascended approximately 333 steps to the tower’s bell ringing floor. The stairs, whether of stone or metal, spiraled and challenged some a bit. And whether physical or mental — “I have issues,” said one woman — all made it.
There were stops to look out narrow windows, doors or balconies to see the sides of the one of the largest churches in the world with some of its pinnacles missing and masonry cracked because of the earthquake. Our heavenly view was constricted by the fog to the cathedral’s close and parts of Wisconsin Avenue and Woodley Road, but we were touring through the holy hollow of master work that went on for 83 years. Only in 1990 was the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, a national sacred place of many celebrations and memorials, considered officially completed, its final stone set. Now, with the earthquake damage, the cathedral estimates that it will take 10 years and $20 million dollars to fix the cracks and replace lost finials, pinnacles and other stonework. Only $2 million has been raised for the restoration.
In the bell room, ringers of the Washington Ringing Society showed us the ropes to the massive peal bells above us, heard often up and down Wisconsin Avenue. Spiral stairs above that room are now closed but were used to get to the observation deck years ago. Nevertheless, out on the balcony the view could go down to the Potomac — though not on this drizzly day. Descending to the cathedral’s carillon room, carillonneur Edward Nassor put on another show. Happily, he did not ring the largest bells, closest to the floor and bigger than his visitors.
Moving through the transept, we looked down on the netting that protects worshippers from falling mortar or dust and the rose window unobscured and prepared to climb to the ground floor. Soon enough, we were back on earth, our glimpse of heaven within and without veiled in the fading mist. [gallery ids="100640,100653,100652,100651,100650,100649,100648,100647,100646,100645,100644,100643,100642,100641,100654" nav="thumbs"]
Seeing All the People (and God, Too) in the Cherry Blossoms
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This is what it’s like to be in Washington in the spring, punchy, yelled at, bowled ever, embraced, cajoled, and awed by history almost everywhere you go.
If you come here to see the sites and sights, history is purposefully and permanently here in all the monuments, past, present and soon to be erected.
If you come here to be in the nation’s capital and ingest the atmosphere of what’s on the nightly news you may get lucky and get more than you bargained for. If you came here to let your passions burn out loud, your feelings spill into parks and streets, your face on television as an army of many on the very same nightly news, well, here and there you are.
And if you want to be a part of something enduring and fragile, all at once and steeped in history, well, there’s that, too.
All sorts of history was going on over a Washington weekend and is still going on. On a Saturday, you could catch a large group of demonstrators at Freedom Plaza, many of them young black men dressed in hoodies to protest the death of as 17-year-old unarmed Florida teenager shot to death nearly a month ago by a self-appointed member of a neighborhood watch in a gated community. The voices were loud, impassioned and as clear as an open wound, even if the larger issues were not so easy to decipher.
You could go over to Capitol Hill (and to the Department of Health and Services) and see the preparations as the country’s highest court in the land, the Supreme Court, prepared to take on the landmark Health Care legislation, called ObamaCare, passed more than two years ago and now under question on constitutional grounds. Tea party demonstrators were already here, demonstrating at HEW, while other folks prepared to get in line for the limited seats available to spectators.
Down at the Tidal Basin, on Friday, history was being honored again — in that unique way that is both immediately, beautifully, sweetly, mysteriously, in the here and now and firmly rooted in the commemorative past.
The cherry blossoms, first presented as a gift to the United States from Japan 100 years ago were in full bloom. And they were early. And there was a storm coming, a “monster storm,” a “huge storm” as told by hyper-ventilating, vibrating weather people and television news in apocalyptic tones who expressed an uninvited opinion that the cherry blossoms were in serious danger.
As if anybody needed that kind of panic-inducing encouragement, everybody showed up. It’s fair to say they showed up in the thousands, on a sunny, brilliant, warm day as far removed from sturm und drang as you can possibly be.
I went to see the cherry blossom with my colleague Robert Devaney. I, too, felt some panic at the dire predictions. So, I feared that my usual penchant for procrastination might have dire results. The cherry blossoms might be gone, for all I knew, something that could not be said about demonstrators for justice or lines at the Supreme Court.
And so, for the first time since I moved in Washington, D.C., in the late 1970s, I went to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms in full, fabulous, fantastic bloom. Regrets? Boy, do I have a few. Ashamed? I certainly am.
Because the cherry blossoms themselves, and the festival that has evolved out of the gift and the flowering of white and pink blossoms, and that ballet-like swirling dance they do, making you blissfully blinded by the white, as they twirl like bashful multiple twins to earth, is one spectacularly good reason to be alive.
I’ve always seen the pictures, items on the web, accounts by word of mouth, local TV segments, and I have gone to National Cherry Blossom Festival events, such as parades, exhibits, shows, kites, and all things Japanese in America. The festival that has sprung up gets bigger every year until it runs the hopeful course of the coming of the buds, the blossoms and the dying of the light blossoms, a process that will perhaps be a bit shorter this too-sunny and warm year, although the festival will not.
But, as the song goes, “Ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby.”
I feel, after all, blessed by blossoms, and the spirit that they so lightly carry. We walked past the Washingtonia of the still slightly wounded-by-earthquake Washington Monument and the future site of the Museum of African-American History. And, as the poet Walt Whitman so sung of ourselves: the world’s humanity arrived pretty much all at once. They jostled for walking space, laid out blankets, kissed and made up, let their hot dogs drink, maneuvered their baby carriages, managed their canes and fragile bones.
All of us walked in splendor.
Across the paths to were the site of where the first trees were planted, you could see the thousands, and the packed blossoms straining successfully to be a vista edging up to either side of the Jefferson Memorial. Choppers in the sky — black ops? — paddle boats on the river, a dangerously flirtatious female duck making her final choice among four or five male admirers who appeared to be trying to drown her. Tough love indeed.
Everybody posed. Everybody clicked the age of the digital camera click — up for the blossom closeup, back for the larger world view, snap, snap. Get the girls lacrosse team, the park cop on her horse, the children running or sleeping.
And there was the group that had laid out a picnic cloth, friends, neighbors, acquaintances and an artist painting. One was a couple who live in Paris: he, American, a retired TWA pilot who once saw a biplane land in a field near his town and never forgot it; she, his instant French love-of-his-life.
Perhaps influenced by his surroundings, he said, “I got to say it. I’ve had a wonderful life.” He hushed my expressions of worry about getting older. “You’re an amateur,” he said. He was 91.
This is the way it was on a Friday in Washington, in the sudden peak time of the cherry blossoms and many other things. There are, I’m sure, very good and always mysterious reasons for believing in God, a deity, a creator, a higher being. The atheists or non-believers among us who were also gathering in Washington this weekend had found none. [gallery ids="100655,100656,100657,100658,100659,100660" nav="thumbs"]
Killer of Good Guys Manager Gets Additional 35 Years
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The murderer of Vladimir Djordjevic, a manager of the strip club Good Guys on Wisconsin Avenue in Glover Park, was sentenced to 35 years in prison last week by the U.S. District Court, according to the Associated Press.
Vasile Graure attacked Djordjevic in November 2007 after being thrown out of Good Guys for photographing one of the dancers. Graure then shortly returned to the entrance of the club and poured gasoline on Djordjevic and ignited it, causing burns over 90 percent of the manager’s body. Graure was found guilty of assault and arson four years ago and given a 30-year sentence in prison.
According to WTOP, Djordjevic had undergone dozens of painful surgeries since the attack and testified from his hospital bed by videotape during Graure’s first trial. Djordjevic died from his injuries in May 2010; Graure was convicted of murder in January.