Free Republic

The U.S. Senate voted moments ago to authorize long-sought federal funding for Washington's cash-strapped and aging Metro system, clearing a major hurdle toward providing $1.5 billion over 10 years to help maintain the nation's second-largest transit agency. The Senate passage is the furthest the measure has advanced since Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) began the effort two years ago to secure a reliable source of financial support for Metro. The bill, part of a major rail safety reform package, was passed by the House last week and now goes to the president for signing. Supporters say a veto is unlikely, partly...

A group of family members, survivors and first responders shared their thoughts about 9/11 while visiting the nearly completed Pentagon Memorial here on Aug. 28. Pentagon Memorial Fund manager Jim Laychak visits the Pentagon Memorial, Aug. 28, 2008. Laychak lost his younger brother, David, an Army civilian employee, during the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. The $22 million memorial, Laychak said, is a culmination of years of effort and hard work. “It is a great feeling of pride and accomplishment. Everybody has worked together on this over the past five and a half years,” he said. Tom Heidenberger, 62, lost...

Midnight Train to DelawareIt is the image the Obama campaign has been pushing since the moment the selection was made: that of Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Amtrak. Lunchpail Joe, they say, is just “one of the people.” Such a Regular Joe Sixpack, in fact, we’ll end up calling him Vice President Joey. Joe Biden, you see, takes the morning train. He works from nine to five a day. He takes another home again, to find….well, you get the idea. Or, if you don’t, there’s been no shortage of voices clamoring to paint the picture for you: "He's not a creature of...

On its Web site, the Alliance for Smart Transportation bills itself as a "coalition of concerned citizens advocating for smart transportation solutions for Montgomery and Prince George's Counties." But read on. The new group criticizes Maryland's plan to build a 16-mile Purple Line transit link between Bethesda and New Carrollton but offers no ideas for how to relieve traffic...Nor does the site identify the "concerned citizens." The site's...founder is a board member at Columbia Country Club in Montgomery, whose 100-year-old golf course would be bisected by the transit line. Purple Line supporters say the Chevy Chase club is merely disguising...

WASHINGTON -- Thousands homes and businesses are without power and Dupont Circle and Metro Center Metrorail stations are closed after a major outage in northwest D.C. on Friday. Officials said the outage was due to a failure at a substation on 10th Street. About 12,000 customers were without power at 10:30 a.m. Pepco said the outages stretches from as far north as U Street N.W. to F Street N.W., the Dupont Circle area to the west and Third Street N.W. to the east. Many downtown workers have been waiting outside on city streets because their offices are dark. Power is...

Commuters should expect major delays on Metro's Red Line this morning after a fire on the tracks near the Dupont Circle station, officials said. At the same time, a power outage in downtown Washington is affecting thousands of homes and offices, as well as traffic signals and Metro elevators and lighting.

A pro-family activist and former presidential candidate says it is outrageous that military personnel in uniform, who use public transportation while traveling to the Pentagon, are being publically harassed by anti-war leftists. The Air Force recently issued a security advisory, relating several incidents where military personnel have been approached by individuals expressing themselves as anti-government and shouting anti-war sentiments. Gary Bauer, Chairman of American Values, says in one case a woman in uniform was followed as she exited a Washington, D.C., subway train and a left wing thug continued to berate her as she exited the metro station. Bauer believes...

Maryland transit officials have determined that riders on a light rail Purple Line between Bethesda and New Carrollton would make up to 68,000 trips daily, a number that supporters said yesterday would only grow as gas prices soar. This compares with about 260,000 daily trips for Metro's Red Line and 175,000 daily trips for the Orange Line. Dulles Metrorail is projected to have about 85,700 daily boardings in the first phase. The state's more detailed estimates also show that a 16-mile east-west Purple Line would reduce travel times, particularly for people stuck on slow and unreliable buses to get to...

Federal transportation officials today told Congress and Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) that they have approved the proposed 23-mile extension of Metrorail to Dulles International Airport, reversing their announcement in January that the project was unfit for federal funding. In a letter to Kaine and in a 10 a.m. conference call with the governor and Virginia congressional leaders, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said the $5 billion project had finally met the Federal Transit Administration's standards for cost efficiency, construction and expected ridership. The project will now move into the final design phase, a major step toward receiving $900...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Capitol Police arrested a man carrying a rifle outside the Capitol building Friday, authorities said. The man was in custody and no one was injured, police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. An officer first spotted the man near Union Station, about two blocks from the Capitol. A car belonging to the suspect was being searched.

For the last seven years, a renegade group of anti-pants New Yorkers have held an annual No Pants Subway Ride event, which last year attracted over 200 participants. In 2006, it even garnered several arrests. And now a Facebook group has popped up promoting a copycat event here on D.C.'s Metro this Saturday, Jan. 12. The proposed event, scheduled from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, currently has 82 confirmed guests on Facebook and another 140 people who are listed as maybes. The organizers, Elizabeth Ody and Richard Julian, are asking anyone who'd like to ride Metro without pants...

A reporter for WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. said on the air that police will be "detonating" a suspicious package found on a Red Line car of the Metro subway system at the Dupont Circle station.Dupont Circle, Woodley Park and Cleveland Park stations on the Red Line have been closed. Shuttle buses are being used to ferry passengers.The suspicious package was found on the last car of a train bound for the Glenmont station in Montgomery County, Md.The Dupont Circle station has been evacuated.Record breaking temperatures of 102 degrees in D.C. promise to make this a rush hour to remember, even...

Prince George's and Montgomery County are investigating a possible chemical exposer and a strange substance at several above ground Green line Metro stations, Sunday afternoon. Metro spokeswoman Cathy Asato says the Greenbelt and Takoma Park stations on the green line are closed while authorities investigate an early report of a man seen spraying some sort of chemical. Asato says the Greenbelt station had as many as 20 dead birds outside, and the others had one to three each. The first report came from Naylor Road just after noon Sunday.The Anacostia Stations, College Park, and Branch Avenue stations have also been...

Pro-Israel group fights back with ads StandWithUs counters anti-Israel poster campaign on Washington DC subway with its own posters Yaakov Lappin Published:  05.15.07, 15:42 / Israel News P{margin:0;} UL{margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;margin-right: 16; padding-right:0;} OL{margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;margin-right: 32; padding-right:0;} P.pHeader {margin-bottom:3px;COLOR: #192862;font-size: 16px;font-weight: bold;}The subway system in America's capital city is set to be the scene of a poster campaign war between a pro-Palestinian organization seeking to harm Israel's image and a pro-Israel group which has decided to fight back.  Last month, the 'US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation' (ETO) placed 20 poster ads showing "an imposing tank pointing its main firing turret at...

Greenbelt Station Closed Until Further Notice POSTED: 4:45 pm EDT September 4, 2006 UPDATED: 4:52 pm EDT September 4, 2006 Email This Story | Print This Story Sign Up for Breaking News Alerts GREENBELT, Md. -- Metro Transit Police have closed the Greenbelt Metro Station after a person on a Green Line train said he had explosives in a bag. Metro officials said a customer on a train asked another rider if a suitcase that was on the train was his, and the man responded by saying the bag was his and that it had explosives in it. The passenger...

Representative Tom Davis (R-VA) is requesting the House of Representatives to consider an amendment (H.R. 3496, as revised) to the Deep Water Energy Resources Act (H.R. 4761) that would divert $1.5 billion of federal revenues earned through offshore drilling to subsidize the deeply troubled Metro transit system serving the nation’s capital and his congressional district. If enacted, this earmark would be one of the largest ever passed—seven times larger than Alaska’s “Bridge to Nowhere” and twice as large as Mississippi’s “Train to Nowhere.” This earmark would reward Metro’s poor performance with an astounding sum of money while enabling the system...

Union Station has been closed, and trains are not being allowed at the station after a suspicious package was discovered Thursday evening. An Amtrak spokesman says an Amtrak police officer found the suspicious piece of baggage unattended around 7:45 p.m. D.C. Police and U.S Capital Police are assisting with an investigation. At least one train from New York has let passengers off at New Carrollton. Metro trains are running through Union Station but aren't stopping for passengers. Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein says they are setting up bus service between Judiciary Square and New York Avenue.

Metrorail officials are considering adding permanent Spanish-language signs, system maps, fare-card machines and announcements in stations after a push by immigration advocates. They say the idea has been discussed for several years within the agency's Office of Project Communications, but no official plans have been made. The estimated cost of the changes is at least $500,000 per station and as much as $900,000 for a large, multilevel station such as Metro Center or L'Enfant Plaza. "It would really depend on what signs, where, what they're made of, the cost of fabricating and installing them," said Murray Bond, director of sales...

The subway system serving the nation’s capital had a different look and feel yesterday, featuring fare signs and announcements in Spanish to assist with an influx of illegal-immigrant supporters who were lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill.Throughout the day, audible announcements that are piped through Metro’s system came through in both English and Spanish. At station entrances, Spanish-language signs explained the cost of a ride. Metro also boosted the presence of Spanish-speaking employees at stations.The efforts came in response to the April 10 protests in Washington, which drew tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to the National Mall. Operators of the...

As Virginia moves closer to extending Metrorail to Dulles International Airport, Maryland officials are ramping up plans and support for their own multibillion-dollar extension to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. The General Assembly late last month approved a $1 million study of the proposed 20-mile extension of the Green Line, the latest sign that the project -- long considered a pie-in-the-sky transit wish -- has increasingly become a top priority for key transportation planners in Annapolis. "Clearly, we're racing the clock, because they are going to start building that rail up to Dulles," said Sen. John A. Giannetti Jr. (D-Prince...

MPD reports that there is a suspicious package at Metro Center at 11th & G street NW. Metro Center is closed pedestrian traffic. The road closure are reported to be 11th & H, 12th & G street and the 1100 Blk G street NW. MPD and Metro police are on the scene. EMA will continue to monitor.

It’s getting stranger, I tell you. Riding the subway from Vienna Station to Franconia-Springfield, at every stop the woman driving the train said in an over-elocuted voice, “A-ten-tion, customers. This is a Metro Safety Tip. Pay attention to your surroundings. Look up from your newspapers and blackbirds [it sounded like, though nobody seemed to be carrying any sort of bird at all] every now and then. Report suspicious activity to Metro employees immediately.” Then—I can’t stand it: “Let’s be pre-pared, not scared.” Nobody paid the slightest attention to these motherish admonitions. I was glad, picturing the whole car peering at...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4, 2005 – David Mortlock, 28, learned while volunteering at a homeless shelter in Alexandria, Va., that a lack of access to transportation is a barrier to self-sufficiency. Four years later, after a stint in the Marine Corps that included six months in Iraq in 2003, Mortlock was interviewing for a job here. The interviewer mentioned that one of the company's monthly benefits is a $20 to $40 Metro card for the region's public transit system. He learned that some employees stockpiled the fare cards even though they got to work by other means. "I thought, 'What a...

The project to extend Metrorail through Tysons Corner would be exempt from new federal cost standards under the transportation bill Congress passed last week, effectively removing a key guideline it would have flunked. The exemption, tucked into the 321-page legislation, allows the controversial project to win federal funding despite scoring only a "medium low" rating for cost-effectiveness. A recent change in federal standards called for projects to receive a cost-effectiveness rating of "medium" or better. "It means we don't have to meet the new criteria," said Marcia McAllister, a spokeswoman for the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project, an arm of the...

Senate Democrats are preparing to play to the cameras once more while raking Supreme Court nominee John Roberts over the coals, but the fight may not be as fierce as some Liberals want. There's bound to be some huffing and puffing during the confirmation hearings, as many of the radical groups controlling the Democrats demand they fight a battle that cannot be won. Though Democrats will probably use the "we need more documents" dodge to avoid an outright filibuster, Roberts will surely be confirmed in the end. One almost has to feel sorry for the Democrats, pushed into this fight...

Roberts Upheld D.C. French-Fry Arrest By JENNIFER C. KERR, Associated Press Writer 13 minutes ago Judge John G. Roberts' views on abortion may be murky, but there's no question where he stands on the issue of girls eating fries in a subway station. As a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Roberts wrote a decision last year upholding the arrest of a 12-year-old girl who violated the ban on eating food on Washington's subway system, Metro. But Roberts said that while the arrest was legal, he felt transit officers overreacted by handcuffing and...

The Associated Press Thursday, July 7, 2005; 7:55 AM WASHINGTON -- The Homeland Security Department asked authorities in major cities Thursday for heightened vigilance of major transportation systems after a series of explosions on London transit systems. Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said, however, that there were no immediate plans to raise the nation's threat level. "We do not have any intelligence indicating this type of attack is planned in the United States," Roehrkasse said. The Homeland Security Department asked authorities in major cities for "continued vigilance" of their transportation systems, Roehrkasse said. In the nation's capital, bomb-sniffing dogs and armed...

WASHINGTON -- The nation's capital sent bomb-sniffing dogs and armed police officers to patrol subways and buses Thursday after a series of explosions on London transit systems.">

Since the recent proposal to nearly double the workforce at Fort Belvoir, Fairfax County lawmakers have been talking up the idea of extending Metrorail tracks to the military post.But planners have yet to resolve who would pay for the construction and where the extension would run.One idea, which Metro has studied since at least 1999, would extend the Blue Line from the Franconia-Springfield Station and run it south along the CSX railroad tracks and the Fairfax County Parkway to the post. Some options would swing the line west to serve the post's Engineering Proving Ground as well. Estimated costs, depending...

Hi everyone! Several weeks ago, a few of you came out to supports our troops at the Pentagon, which was great! But since then, numbers have dwindled to, well, me. Tomorrow, I'll probably be the only "Pro-Troop" person standing outside the Pentagon, trying in my own humble way to combat the forces of idiocy and complacency. I know it's probably too late for tomorrow, but since I'll be doing this every Monday until I am no longer able, I'd like to invite any of you who live in the area to please stop by between 7am and 8am on Mondays....

Metro Must Accept Pro-Marijuana Ads Metro officials must accept advertising that promotes the legalization of marijuana now that the Justice Department has opted not to defend the transit agency's ban on such ads. Justice officials had until Wednesday to appeal a federal court decision that struck down a law recently passed in Congress stating that transit agencies would lose federal funding if they accepted ads advocating the legalization or medical use of such illicit drugs. (snip) The government "does not have a viable argument to advance in the statute's defense," acting Solicitor General Paul D. Clement said in a letter...

Just received text message from DC Alert. Emergency at Pentagon Metro station. It has been evacuated. DC Emergency Management on scene.

WASHINGTON -- Two metro trains crashed in at the Woodley Park/Zoo Metro Station Wednesday afternoon, causing delays on the Red Line.News4 reported that one of the trains was carrying passengers and was hit by another train that was not.Metro representative Lisa Farbstein said the accident happened on the northbound track.A D.C. Fire Department spokesman said four people were injured in the collision. Alan Etter said the injured are three passengers and the operator of one of the trains involved. He said the injuries are not life-threatening.However, Etter said damage to the trains is "significant." He described the scene in the...

WASHINGTON -- A woman from Bowie, Md., who was arrested for eating a candy bar at a Metro station, had her day in court Thursday, but it was a brief visit. Stephanie Willett claims she was frisked under her shirt, handcuffed and held for three hours after a Metro transit officer confronted her for eating a candy bar on the escalator. Transit police claim Willett was "belligerent." In court Thursday, Willett tried to tell a judge what happened that day, but she was cut off after a few minutes. The judge told Willett her case is over and that it...

Excerpts: "Budget disputes in Maryland and Virginia and on Capitol Hill threaten to push the region's transit system into a "death spiral" littered with broken-down trains, overcrowded buses, frozen escalators and crumbling parking lots, Metro's top manager said yesterday." . . . "The 27-year-old transit system needs $1.5 billion over the next six years for maintenance, the purchase of enough rail cars to run eight-car trains and prevent jampacked conditions, and to buy 185 additional buses to alleviate crowding on popular routes. The first down payment of $34 million is due in October, when Metro must order 50 of 120...

over 'ex-gays' This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows. To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36122 Saturday, December 13, 2003 Ad campaigns duel over 'ex-gays'Homosexual-rights group launches counteroffensive in D.C. subways Posted: December 13, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Beneath the streets of the nation's capital, a leading homosexual rights organization has launched an advertising counteroffensive against a group that believes people can become "ex-gays." Angered that Washington's subway system allowed "anti-gay" ads, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation put together its own ad series on 10 lighted dioramas on platforms in the Washington Area Metropolitan Transit Association...

In watching FOX this morning they are discussing two security alerts in D.C. this morning and two suspicious packages found near RFK stadium. Anything new about this?

Updated: Friday, Dec. 12, 2003 - 11:04 AM WASHINGTON (AP) - Police now say a second suspicious package has turned up in Northeast Washington. Sergeant Joe Gentile of the D.C. Metropolitan Police says a package that appears to be a briefcase was found in the 500 block of Oklahoma Ave., NE. It is being taken to parking lot "B" at RFK Stadium, where it will be disrupted. An FBI spokeswoman tells WRC-TV the package was found about 25-yards from the first one. The location is right by the tracks that carry Orange and Blue Line trains. At the request of...

<p>WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- An Oklahoma congressman is so upset over a subway ad for legalized marijuana he wants to cut the federal government's annual payment to the Metro system.</p> <p>Change the Climate Inc. has been using public service advertising space on the Metro since 2001, the Washington Post reported Wednesday, but it was the latest round of advertising, this fall that drew the ire of Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr., R-Okla.</p>

Non-profit groups to pay for advertising in Washington DC Metro A non-profit organisation that advocates making gay people straight has been told to pay if it wants to advertise on Metro stations in Washington DC.Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays are among a group of non-profit groups that have been told they may no longer get free advertising space.The Metro's Operations Committee wants to eliminate free public service announcements by non-governmental agencies and force organisations requesting extra service to pay a deposit up front.The changes follow a financial dispute with the National Football League.Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays...