VIA WTOP:

Same-sex marriage has only been legal in the District for about two months, but the city is on track to set a record for marriages this year.

The D.C. Superior Court has already issued more than 2,000 marriage licenses.

“To put that in perspective,” Judge William Jackson says. “All of last year was about 3,000.”

In the first three months of 2010, the court processed 376 applications. Since March 3 — when gay marriage became legal in the District — the marriage license office has received 2,082 applications.

Based on the early numbers, the District is on target to issue four times as many marriage licenses this year as they did in 2009.

The court does not break down the number of same-sex and opposite-sex applications.

The increase means the court is seeing a cash windfall because fees for the application and the licenses come to $45. That’s tens of thousands of dollars the court is collecting that it didn’t count on.

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VIA WTOP:

The new “barnes dance” crossing at one of the busiest intersections in the District is being met with some mixed reviews.

The D.C. Department of Transportation unveiled this unusual pedestrian crossing in Chinatown Wednesday, just a few blocks from the Verizon Center.

Here’s how a “barnes dance” works: Traffic is allowed to cycle through the intersection in each direction (just like any other normal intersection), but then all vehicular traffic is stopped completely. Pedestrians are then allowed to cross in any direction they want — including diagonally.

The “barnes dance” in the District has a different take: Pedestrians will be allowed to cross with the green light and the walk signal (as they normally would), even as vehicular traffic flows through. In a traditional “barnes dance” intersection, cars and pedestrians take turns. Cars go and then pedestrians have the longer cycle.

“It’s confusing,” said one man as he reached the other side of the street.

Others seemed timid about stepping into the middle of the intersection. That’s why DDOT has deployed traffic control officers at the intersection to guide pedestrians.

“Without those people telling us what to do, I wouldn’t have known,” said another man.

DDOT Director Gabe Klein was monitoring traffic flow Wednesday, and is already talking about a couple of tweaks. For instance, putting a pedestrian symbol at the corners of the intersection to let people know they can walk across diagonally.

“I think we’ll get used to it,” another pedestrian said. “I think it is a good thing.”

“There is going to be a period of getting used to it,” says DDOT Pedestrian Program Coordinator George Branyan. “We have more pedestrians than vehicles at this intersection. The conflicts between the turning drivers and the pedestrians legally in the crosswalk has always been a problem.”

Aside from having to wait a while longer, another major change drivers will notice is that with the new pattern, you can no longer make any turns at the intersection.

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VIA THE WASHINGTON POST:

A Southeast Washington man was arrested Tuesday and charged in the death of the 18-year-old D.C. Council intern whose body was found in woods Sunday, D.C. police said.

Omare Ishmael Cotton, 28, was charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of Alonte Sutton, police said. Sutton, a Ballou High School senior, was killed Saturday in the 200 block of Newcomb Street SE.

In announcing the arrest, police gave few details. However, D.C. Council member Michael A. Brown (I-At Large), for whom Sutton had worked, said he thinks that police quickly obtained a “pretty good bead” on a suspect.

The shooting occurred “in broad daylight,” Brown said, and there were “several witnesses.”

Sutton had worked last summer in Brown’s office, and Brown has described him as “a super kid.” Brown had recommended him for a one-year internship this year.

Family members have said that Sutton was killed after declining to give a ride to a man’s girlfriend.

The victim’s grandfather, Wayne Sutton, said witnesses told him that Alonte Sutton and the man had exchanged words Friday night.

Tires on Alonte Sutton’s car had been slashed, and he was changing them Saturday afternoon when a gunman encountered him.

The gunman began shooting, pursuing Sutton into a wooded area in the 200 block of Newcomb Street, according to accounts.

The victim’s body was found Sunday in a wooded ravine just east of Interstate 295, and not far from the St. Elizabeths Hospital campus.

Police said Sutton had been shot several times.

D.C. police have opened an internal investigation into their response to the shooting, after witnesses said officers did not thoroughly investigate at the scene. The intern’s body was not found until Sunday.

No street address was given Tuesday for the suspect and no information could be immediately obtained about links between the suspect and the victim.

Brown expressed uncertainty Tuesday about whether all the details of what led to Sutton’s death would come to light.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever know,” Brown said. There are “too many different stories.”

He said he had spoken with Sutton’s relatives and “a lot of people are pleased” that an arrest has been made. But, he said, people “are still going through the grieving process.”

Source

VIA THE WASHINGTON POST:

D.C. sports fans may have to pay a little more to watch their teams next fiscal year, the D.C. Wire reports.

(Nationals fans, you’re exempt.)

A D.C. Council committee is recommending the adoption of a new tax on sporting events to generate an estimated $3.7 million in revenue to fund city recreation programs for fiscal 2011.

Any admission ticket costing $25.02 or more would tack on an extra $1. Tickets valued at $25.01 or less would cost a fan an additional 50 cents. The tax would not apply to tickets under $10.01, according to a written recommendation of the Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation.

Source

VIA WTOP:

The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum has reopened after a UPS delivery truck broke through a barrier and crashed into the building and the Sculpture Garden.

The 16-foot truck sheared off an ornamental light pole and plowed through a row of flower pots. It went into the plate-glass window of the museum’s lobby about 8:30 p.m. Monday The window, which is punctured at its base, is a spider web of cracks.

The truck ended up about one foot into the building, according to Linda St. Thomas, spokeswoman for the Smithsonian Institution. The Hirshhorn is part of the Smithsonian museums.

The museum had closed about three hours before the crash.

D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Pete Piringer says the UPS truck caused minor structural damage to the building.

Bomb-sniffing dogs checked out the packages on the truck, but did not find anything that raised concerns.

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VIA THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:

Montgomery County Public Schools’ tax-supported operating budget has grown by more than 75 percent in the last decade, far outpacing the growth of other county agencies.

Even this year, as the county and schools fight over potential cuts to the schools’ funding and the county faces a $1 billion shortfall, the schools’ share of the budget is poised to grow to 57 percent of all agency operating budgets, the most in more than 11 years.

The figures, compiled by County Council staff, are giving ammunition to some county lawmakers who are pushing for a reduction in school funding as a way to prevent more drastic fiscal measures elsewhere.

“The school system needs to be asked to help more,” said Councilman Phil Andrews, D-Gaithersburg/Rockville.

County government’s share is about 34 percent of the county’s $4 billion budget, while the county’s parks and planning budget has grown 30 percent in the last decade.

The county is trying to bridge a nearly $1 billion budget gap. County Executive Ike Leggett has proposed funding the schools at the same amount as this year while other county departments see their budgets cut by more than 20 percent next fiscal year. Leggett also is asking that one-fifth of county employees take 10 days of unpaid leave while leaving school employees alone.

Leggett also is proposing doubling the county’s energy tax, a move the business community says will unfairly burden local companies.

To offset the proposed energy tax increases and spread the budget pain in what it considers a more equitable way, the County Council has expressed support for furloughing school employees, who make up two-thirds of the county’s work force. A five-day furlough would trim the schools budget by more than $30 million.

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VIA THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:

In January, Metro waited more than a day to notify the oversight group charged with monitoring its safety that a maintenance vehicle carrying 20 workers slid on an icy Red Line track into a stopped truck.

The communications gaffe violated safety protocols, one more concern after months of safety problems forced out Metro’s top leader and safety chief.

Enter a new general manager and a new chief safety officer, pledging safety would be Metro’s No. 1 priority.

But last week, a communication failure occurred under their watch: The agency waited for a full day before it investigated the incident and before it notified the oversight group about a near miss between two trains.

The agency also reported the wrong time and location for hours after it did make the incident public, saying it occurred near the Red Line’s Forest Glen station at 1 p.m. Wednesday when the train operator actually pushed the emergency brake to avoid another train about 9 a.m. near the Wheaton stop.

“They failed,” said Jackie Jeter, president of Metro’s union representing train operators. “It’s a sign. Even though everyone talks about how seriously they are talking about safety, I haven’t seen that. Somebody has to stop talking and start acting.”

It marked the first major safety incident involving riders since Richard Sarles took over as interim general manager on April 2. His new chief safety officer, James Dougherty, started April 19. In response, both men sent strongly worded letters to staff calling for reform.

But the incident had already renewed outrage toward the agency. Transportation department chiefs from Virginia, Maryland and D.C. together fired off an angry letter. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley slammed the agency’s leadership on WTOP on Monday, telling Metro leaders to get out of the way if they can’t do the job.

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VIA THE WASHINGTON POST:

Maryland residents are shifting toward a more positive opinion of same-sex marriage, with registered voters now narrowly supporting a law to allow it, a Washington Post poll has found.

A clear majority of people responding to the poll — 55 percent — also say that if gays get married in another state, those unions should be considered legal in Maryland; 38 percent say the state should not recognize them. Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) in February told state agencies to begin granting married same-sex couples from elsewhere the same rights as Maryland’s heterosexual couples.

The poll, conducted May 3-6, finds that 46 percent overall favor legal same-sex marriage, 44 percent oppose it, and 10 percent have no opinion. Among registered voters, 48 percent are in favor and 43 percent are opposed.

In late 2007, an identical Post poll question found 44 percent in favor overall and 51 percent opposed.

Maryland’s move away from a clear majority opposition to same-sex marriage — and into a nearly equally split electorate — mirrors national trends. The numbers also suggest that Gansler’s position is more closely aligned with public opinion than his opponents’ views.

A conservative Anne Arundel County state delegate tried unsuccessfully to impeach Gansler, and a coalition of black pastors and conservative Christians repeatedly traveled to Annapolis this spring to hold rallies in hopes of pressuring lawmakers to pass bills that would have rolled back the attorney general’s decision.

Gansler, who is Maryland’s only statewide elected official to endorse same-sex marriage, said Monday that the evolution of public opinion on same-sex marriage is progress.

“More and more people know gay people and realize they are working people, that they do their jobs and conduct their lives like everybody else,” Gansler said.

“Attitudes are changing, and they are changing rapidly because there is a recognition that it is unfair, legally and morally, to prohibit people from the pursuit of happiness,” he added. “Twenty years from now we’ll look back and think this was a quaint discussion — every state will have gone this way.”

But Del. Emmett C. Burns (D), a Baltimore County pastor and an opponent of same-sex marriage, said the poll results do not show a change in public opinion. He said the numbers instead reflect that Marylanders are being pressured to accept same-sex marriage.

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VIA THE WASHINGTON POST:

Tonette Sivells, the first in her family to graduate from college, saved her money to achieve another dream: buying her first home, in Congress Heights.

But when a community group suggested opening a home for at-risk youths, she and other neighbors opposed it, because there are four programs to help the needy in close proximity. For that act of defiance, Sivells, who works with victims of domestic violence, found herself labeled as selfish and uncaring.

“They bit our heads off. Called us rich. Said we don’t care about the youth, we don’t care about black people,” said Sivells, 35, who grew up in inner-city Baltimore. “That is not true.”

Gentrification is usually thought of as the white middle class displacing low-income residents in traditionally black neighborhoods. But increasingly in the District, black professionals are being hit with the same tag as they move into neighborhoods, organize, and weigh in on how to improve their way of life and preserve property values.

Ronald Moten, a founder of the anti-violence group Peaceoholics, which proposed the youth residential program, said Sivells and her Congress Heights neighbors are being shortsighted. Moten said they have a not-in-my-backyard attitude toward his organization’s project. If residents wanted to buy expensive condominiums, they should have moved to Georgetown, he said, not to a neighborhood filled with poor people.

“You can’t just come here and push the people out who were here before you,” he said. “Somebody poor is going to be in that building. I guarantee that.”

Moten said he and his organization have been in the community and working to improve the neighborhood by providing opportunities to young people, such as helping renovate the building for the residential program. Those who oppose his project have not done anything for the community, he said.

The organization bought the property, at 1300 Congress St. SE, for $400,000 last May. It hopes that by September it could become a $1.2 million condominium with 13 units of affordable housing for youths, founder Jauhar Abraham said.

Abraham and Moten said opponents have unfairly labeled the project a group home. Abraham said Peaceoholics will accept applications from older at-risk youths, who could eventually purchase their condo. The program would teach life skills and financial management.

It is not clear where the applicants would come from, Abraham and Moten said, but as part of the group’s agreement with the city to get public funds, they must serve underprivileged District residents.

Sivells and her neighbors have been working with Sandra Seegars, an Advisory Neighborhood Commission member who is now being sued for libel by the Peaceoholics, to talk about their concerns with the Peaceoholics since February, before renovation on the building began.

There are four shelters, programs and group homes near the Peaceoholics project. Neighbors cite a law that says group community residences should be at least 500 feet from each other.

“We just don’t want everything clustered on one corner,” Sivells said. “The zoning laws in D.C. seem to agree with us.”

But the neighbors said they are not having much luck getting cooperation from the city.

Bernadette Briscoe has lived in the neighborhood for more than 40 years, a block away from the site of the proposed project. Not long ago, she said, three young men were shot on the block, and a woman was kidnapped and raped. Now, though, the community has a Giant grocery store, and she fears that the proposed project would lower her property value.

“We agree we need to help kids. We need to help young adults,” Briscoe said. “We can’t put them all in the same place.”

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VIA THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:

A proposed tax on sugary drinks in the District of Columbia has the Big Soda lobby all shook up.

Dozens of soft drink workers and advocates — many of them decked in the bright reds and blues of Coke and Pepsi — flooded the city council Friday to protest against a tax on high-sugar drinks in the District.

The bill’s sponsor, Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3, says the tax will help the city fight what she says is rampant obesity. She wants to charge 1 cent per fluid ounce of sugary soft drinks and spend the money on healthy lunches in the city’s schools and other weight-watching programs. She expects to raise about $16 million.

More than one of every five Washingtonians is dangerously overweight, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says.

Cheh says it’s a public health crisis.

“It’s particularly dramatic among children,” she said. “Doctors are telling us we’re seeing all sorts of new ailments among children that we would ordinarily see in adults — diabetes, hypertension — and if we carry on the way things are, the predictions are that this generation will be the first to have a shorter life span that the previous one.”

Cheh has been emboldened by first lady Michelle Obama, who has adopted childhood obesity as her pet cause.

The soft drink industry says the tax will punish poor families for whom soft drinks are a cheap alternative.

“Now is not the time to pass a regressive and discriminatory tax,” Coca-Cola mid-Atlantic spokesman Curtis Etherly told the Washington Examiner. “It’s going to push businesses out of the District.”

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