Free Republic

RICHMOND | The governors of Virginia and Maryland, both Catholics, said Tuesday that it would be wrong for the church to suspend or reduce social services in the nation's capital if the District approves gay marriage. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley criticized the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington's response to the District's gay marriage proposal during a joint appearance on Washington radio station WTOP. The D.C. Council is expected to approve gay marriage next month. The archdiocese says that unless the proposal is amended to add a religious exemption, its Catholic Charities won't be able to continue...

The D.C. Council introduced a marriage equality bill on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009. Public hearings were held on Oct. 26 and Nov. 2 and supporters of marriage for same-sex couples significantly outnumbered those who testified against it. The full Council is expected to take an initial vote on Dec. 1 with a final vote by the end of the year.

WASHINGTON - D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty's use of government resources to facilitate his recreational activities isn't limited to a police escort while he trains with his bike team. The mayor has used a federal Homeland Security vehicle to transport himself and his bike to at least 14 races in the past two years. The District's Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency has two large SUVs, which are detailed to the city from the U.S. Government Services Administration. According to records obtained by WTOP through the Freedom of Information Act, the mayor's Executive Protection Unit has signed out one or both...

Attorney General Eric Holder tries to kill a TV ad supporting D.C. school vouchers. President Obama isn't taking kindly to a television ad that criticizes his opposition to a popular scholarship program for poor children, and his administration wants the ad pulled. Former D.C. Councilmember Kevin Chavous of D.C. Children First said October 16 that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder had recently approached him and told him to kill the ad. The 30-second ad, which has been airing on FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, and News Channel 8 to viewers in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, urges the president to reauthorize the...

Kevin Chavous is an African American and former Democratic city council member from Washington, D.C. He says he’s an Obama supporter, but he is distinctly unhappy with the president. Elections may have consequences, but no one expected that the White House would be so brazenly petty as to allow poor minority children in the nation’s worst school district to become the victims of political score-settling. That’s exactly what happened when the Obama administration killed off the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program several months ago. Of course, if the White House thought that it could pay off the powerful teachers’ unions, and...

The D.C. Council voted Tuesday to block Ximena Hartsock from becoming the next director of the Department of Parks and Recreation, aggravating the tension between the council and the mayor and casting fresh doubt on the future of the troubled agency. After a long debate, the council voted 7 to 5 to reject Hartsock and remove her as the head of an agency that has had seven permanent or interim directors in the past decade. It was the first time since Fenty took office in 2007 that the council had rejected one of his nominees ...The vote followed a contentious...

A massive layoff of teachers and support staff at D.C. public schools triggered chaos outside of McKinley High School Friday afternoon. The melee happened after school let out, as students and parents filled McKinley's parking. Many were upset about the layoffs of 388 school employees, including 229 teachers. "The students were emotional, you know, they were upset to see their teachers being escorted by the police officers, knowing that they did nothing," said Saymendy Lloyd, a parent activist. "Why do you choose to do it at the time the children are out there and you do not expect to have...

A key circuit on the train track near Monday's derailment in Washington, D.C., was apparently not operating as it should have been, raising the possibility that the Metro train that crashed into another one may not have known to slow down, accident investigators said today. Investigators tested six circuits between the two stations where the crash occurred. Five of those performed as expected, according to National Transportation Safety Board investigator Deborah Hersman. Such circuits let trains know how fast to go and provide them with information about whether there's another train up ahead. But one circuit showed what Hersman described...

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, following through on promises to dismiss teachers deemed ineffective, has fired about 250 tenured and novice instructors this week for poor performance or failure to obtain a license, union officials said yesterday.... The dismissal of 80 tenured teachers is a landmark of sorts for the school system, which historically has fired only a handful of instructors each year for poor performance. ...

WASHINGTON - D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty continues to travel out of town, keeping his whereabouts a secret from the public. A spokesperson for Fenty refused to say where the mayor is today, whether or not he's in the country, or how long he will be gone. Even people close to Fenty aren't aware of his travel schedule. Fenty's spokesperson Mafara Hobson wrote that the mayor is on a "personal trip" and declined to answer any other questions. Fenty recently returned from an undisclosed trip to the Middle East. When asked by WTOP, Fenty said the trip was "basically a family...

The District has installed a heater at the East Potomac Pool, the outdoor aquatics facility Mayor Adrian M. Fenty sometimes uses to train for triathlons. Out of the city's 19 outdoor pools, it's the only one that has received the upgrade, which cost $75,000. John Stokes, a spokesman for the Department of Parks and Recreation, said the installation is "part of an extended outdoor pool-season pilot." He said the city is hoping to "maximize and expand pool services for District swimmers" at its premier pools: East Potomac, Banneker and Anacostia.

Fighting to save the District's popular school-voucher program, some 1,000 parents, pupils and politicians gathered near Mayor Adrian Fenty's office on Wednesday to protest Congress' plans to end school choice in Washington. That same day, the Senate approved a $4,500 voucher for cars, encouraging citizens to trade in their old automobiles for newer ones that burn less fuel. So, Congress thinks that vouchers for schools are bad, but vouchers for cars are good. Slashing school vouchers spares teachers' unions from competition. On the other hand, car vouchers are supposed to boost demand for cars built by the United Auto Workers....

Mayor Adrian Fenty continues to travel out of town, keeping his whereabouts a secret from the public. A spokesperson for Fenty refused to say where the mayor is today, whether or not he's in the country, or how long he will be gone. Even people close to Fenty aren't aware of his travel schedule. D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, who is first in the line of succession to the mayor and the second-highest ranking elected official in town, is in the dark. Fenty recently returned from an undisclosed trip to the Middle East. When asked by WTOP, Fenty said the...

Supporters of a celebrated school voucher program in Washington rallied near the mayor's office Wednesday to save the scholarships from being slashed by Congress -- nearly 40 percent of whose members send their own children to private schools. An estimated 1,000 parents, children and community leaders attended the afternoon protest in Washington's Freedom Plaza, where they called on D.C. politicians to help preserve a federal school choice program that currently assists more than 1,700 students with scholarships worth up to $7,500. "Several years ago many of us in this good city worked very hard to get a program going with...

Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of the struggling public school system in the District of Columbia, has already won bi-partisan admiration for her energetic and innovative efforts to shake up one of the most troubled educational establishments in the country. Now she deserves further plaudits for her courageous clarity on the issue of vouchers. Most public education bureaucrats reflexively oppose vouchers as a threat to their monopoly, denouncing any use of government funds to allow poor children to choose parochial or private school alternatives to failing neighborhood schools. Ms. Rhee, however, fearlessly spoke up against efforts by Congressional Democrats to kill a...

Democrats are taking away funding for DC area kids

Democrats are once again proving that "choice" as it relates to children applies only to killing them, not to parents choosing where to educate them. Sorry, but for pro-choice politicians to argue against school choice shows that they care only about the teachers unions that elect them, and not for the lives of the people they represent. The Washington Post called congressional democrats on their hypocrisy in an editorial today: REP. DAVID R. Obey (Wis.) and other congressional Democrats should spare us their phony concern about the children participating in the District's school voucher program. If they cared for the...

Government Spending: Did anyone really think $787 billion would be enough to quench the Democratic Congress' thirst for play money from the taxpayers? Now they want $410 billion more.In addition to solar water heaters for rural Puerto Rico and the Raul Alvarez Golf Course in Austin, Texas, Obama administration sources say the U.S. is also planning to relieve taxpayers of $900 million for Gaza, much of which can be expected to land in the pockets of the terrorist group Hamas, which runs the region. To a family being foreclosed on, or a businesswoman forced by tough times to close up...

Boehner Condemns Provision Tucked in Democrats’ Secret $410 Billion Spending Bill to Kill D.C. School Choice Program Language Designed to Eliminate Program Was Kept Secret by Democratic Congressional Leaders for Weeks, Never Passed by Committee Washington, Feb 23House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today condemned a provision tucked into Congressional Democrats’ $410 billion “omnibus” spending bill that would phase out the District of Columbia’s groundbreaking school choice program, which has provided educational opportunities for thousands of inner-city children since it was established with bipartisan support in 2004. Boehner issued the following statement: “The D.C. school choice program has provided hope...

WASHINGTON (AP) — While senators worked into the night on an economic stimulus plan, President Barack Obama could sit back and relax — if only for a couple of hours — to observe a popular dance theater group at the Kennedy Center. Though it was announced earlier in the day the president would attend, the Obamas picked the right moment to reward themselves with the show. They left around a flurry of news that lawmakers had reached a deal on a stimulus measure at the heart of the president's plan for reviving the economy. The Obamas were accompanied by Attorney...