Impacted By IMPACT - 10% Of Evaluations Calculated Wrong, Teacher Fired In Error To Be Rehired

       This revelation brings up all sorts of questions - how long has DCPS known this? Has this happened before? How was this found out? Have those methods been used on previous year's results? Hmmmmm...  In this age of accountability, is anyone accountable? Responsible?
      Of particular note to me is that while 44 teachers are only about one percent of all teachers, they are also represent ten percent of the teachers actually being evaluated. So this is not a one percent error but a ten percent error. That is not acceptable.

D.C. schools gave 44 teachers mistaken job evaluations

By Nick Anderson, Published: December 23

Faulty calculations of the “value” that D.C. teachers added to student achievement in the last school year resulted in erroneous performance evaluations for 44 teachers, including one who was fired because of a low rating, school officials disclosed Monday.
School officials described the errors as the most significant since the system launched a controversial initiative in 2009 to evaluate teachers in part on student test scores.
Half of the evaluations for the 44 teachers were too high and half too low, said Jason Kamras, chief of human capital for D.C. Public Schools.
Those affected are about 1 percent of about 4,000 teachers in the school system. But they comprise nearly 10 percent of the teachers whose work is judged in part on annual city test results for their classrooms.
Kamras said the school system will leave unchanged the ratings that were too high and will raise those that were too low. He said the school system is seeking to reinstate the fired teacher and will compensate the teacher — whose identity was not revealed — for lost salary.
“We will make the teacher completely whole,” he said.
In addition, Kamras said, three teachers whose ratings are being revised upward will shortly receive bonuses of $15,000 each.
The evaluation errors underscore the high stakes of a teacher evaluation system that relies in part on standardized test scores to quantify the value a given teacher adds to the classroom. The evaluation system, known as IMPACT, has drawn widespread attention since it began under former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. It remains a centerpiece of efforts to raise the performance of long-struggling schools in the nation’s capital — and a flashpoint in the national school-reform debate.
Backers of IMPACT say it is essential to hold ineffective teachers accountable for poor results and reward those who are highly effective. Critics say efforts to distill teaching outcomes to a set of numbers are misguided and unfair.
Elizabeth A. Davis, president of the Washington Teachers’ Union, said the disclosure of mistaken teacher ratings for the 2012-13 school year was disturbing.
“IMPACT needs to be reevaluated,” Davis said. “The idea of attaching test scores to a teacher’s evaluation — that idea needs to be junked.”
Davis sent a letter to D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson demanding more information about the errors and the evaluation system.
Kamras said school officials moved to rectify the errors as soon they learned of them from Mathematica Policy Group, the research firm the city hired to crunch numbers used in the evaluations.
“We take these kind of things extremely seriously,” Kamras said. “Any mistake is unacceptable to us.”
The value-added calculations are complex. The first step is to estimate how a teacher’s students are likely to perform on the citywide D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System, based on past test results and other information. Then the predicted classroom average is compared to the actual classroom average. The difference is what school officials call the value that a teacher adds.
The value-added formula applies to English language arts teachers in grades four through 10 and to math teachers in grades four through eight — about 470 instructors in all. Kamras said the faulty calculations were the result of a coding error by Mathematica.
Under IMPACT, all teachers are evaluated based on classroom observations and other metrics. The value-added formula accounts for 35 percent of the evaluation for teachers in affected grades and subjects.
Teachers are given one of five ratings — ineffective, minimally effective, developing, effective or highly effective. Those rated ineffective are subject to dismissal. The same is true for those rated “minimally effective” two years in a row or “developing” three years in a row.
Kamras said that for the 2012-13 school year, 30 percent of DCPS teachers were rated highly effective, 45 percent effective, 19 percent developing, 5 percent minimally effective and 1 percent ineffective.
Of the 22 teachers whose ratings are being raised, Kamras said, three are moving to the highly effective rating; 12 to effective, six to developing and one to minimally effective. The latter is the teacher who was fired mistakenly.
In October, researchers from the University of Virginia and Stanford University who have examined IMPACT reported that its rewards and punishments were shaping the school system workforce, affecting retention and performance. The study found that two groups of teachers were inspired to improve significantly more than others: those who faced the possibility of being fired and those who were on the cusp of winning a substantial merit raise.

Emma Brown contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-school-officials-44-teachers-were-given-mistaken-performance-evaluations/2013/12/23/c5cb9f26-6c0c-11e3-a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html

DC Council Responds To Pro Legalization Push

  The conversation in DC has moved...... now the real details.....

D.C. poised for a giant leap toward legalizing small amounts of marijuana

By Aaron C. Davis, Published: October 24

D.C. lawmakers took more than 15 years to allow cancer patients to use marijuana for their pain. But over just a few months, city leaders have coalesced around a plan to decriminalize small joints, blunts or bowls full of marijuana in the nation’s capital.
Ten of 13 council members have signed on to a bill to make possession of less than an ounce of marijuana punishable by a fine of no more than $100. On Wednesday, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) said for the first time that he supports the idea. And on Thursday, the author of the bill and the office of the attorney general said they could agree to an even smaller, token fine of $25.
Such a move wouldn’t go as far as changes by Colorado and Washington state, where voters have legalized marijuana. Seventeen states also have eliminated jail time for possession in favor of civil finesof up to $1,000. If the bill passes, the District would rank behind only Alaska, which has no fine, as the most forgiving.
Even advocates of full legalization are surprised by the breakneck speed of the legislation in the District, where lawmakers have long been reluctant to test Congress on federal drug laws.
Two recent studies that ranked the District among the worst for racial disparity in marijuana arrests and the Justice Department’s growing leniency toward state plans for the medical usage of marijuana have given formerly reluctant Democrats cover to support the idea.
The city’s coming mayoral election has also turbocharged the debate.
Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who is seeking the Democratic nomination, wrote the bill. Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), another mayoral candidate, has signed on in support. So has David A. Catania (At Large), who might run as an independent. And as Gray decides whether to seek reelection, he has bowed to the political reality that the measure is likely to clear the council in December or January with a supermajority that could override a veto.
Wells has cast the effort in lofty terms of lifting up the city’s African Americans and has done so comfortably, with Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) by his side as co-author.
“Less than one ounce would not be a crime. . . . That would no longer mean a drug-arrest record,” Wells said Wednesday night to applause at a community hearing on the bill in Anacostia.
On Thursday, during a continuation of the hearing in the D.C. Council’s chamber in the John A. Wilson Building, Wells said: “Punishment for drug crimes disproportionately falls on the shoulders of blacks and Latinos. . . . We don’t want to accuse the police, we don’t want to accuse anybody . . . but it is a major societal justice problem, and we are going to fix it.”
The numbers that have shaped the debate so far have come largely from a study published in July by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and another earlier in the year by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The study by the lawyers’ committee found that nine of 10 people arrested in the District on charges of simple drug possession are black, even as blacks account for less than half the city’s population.
The ACLU study also found that the District is arresting more people than ever for marijuana possession: It was up 60 percent in the decade that ended in 2010, with black residents accounting for much of the jump.
Over the summer, the NAACP criticized authorities in the District and other cities for using a pretense of smelling marijuana to stop blacks.
The legislation doesn’t go as far as some legalization advocates would like, and they are awaiting the outcome of Wells’s bill to decide whether to press ahead with trying to get a nonbinding referendum on the ballot in 2014 to fully legalize and regulate marijuana sales in the city.
Backers of that idea said Thursday that they might abandon a costly referendum if a proposed amendment by Barry makes it into the legislation. Barry wants to let the District go the way of Uruguay and allow residents to grow a small number of marijuana plants in their homes.
If residents have their own, Barry said, it could “cut out a lot of the economics” of illegal street sales of the drug.
“My motivation is very simple. We have hundreds of black men, black boys, being locked up for simple possession, given a criminal record,” Barry said. “In my community, I talk to somebody almost every day who says: ‘Somebody just got arrested for having a bag of weed. Come on, man — What’s that all about?’ ”
Also during the summer, D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier urged a “robust discussion” of the proposal and cautioned against using the ACLU study to justify decriminalization.
“Some of the information being used as an argument for decriminalization is flawed,” she said in a statement. “Marijuana users are simply not being targeted in the manner suggested.” Lanier did not testify for Gray’s administration on Thursday.
That was left to the office of the attorney general, which among other things asked Wells to ensure that marijuana possession in school zones is still considered a crime. Wells said he agreed with that idea for adults but not for children, who under the bill would have their drugs confiscated and their parents called.




http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-poised-for-giant-leap-toward-legalizing-marijuana/2013/10/24/db183fb0-3cbe-11e3-b6a9-da62c264f40e_story.html

Garret County - Gone To The Hills

   We moved to DC from Vermont - the first time we had a chance for a vacation we headed to the highest point in Maryland figuring it would be somewhat Vermontish.....

Garrett County, Md., beyond Deep Creek Lake

By Ann Cameron Siegal, Published: July 18

After three visits to Maryland’s largest freshwater lake, I have yet to set foot on it or in it. Deep Creek Lake is an enticing destination, for sure, but Garrett County is awash in numerous hidden treasures just beyond the summer sounds of motorboats and jet skis.
As a traveling buddy and I made our first excursion into the county a year ago, I recalled a lesson architect Frank Lloyd Wright learned while traversing a snowy field as a child. Wright’s uncle admonished him to compare the footprints each had left: Wright, his uncle said, had wasted his time meandering left and right while he, the uncle, had proceeded directly to their destination. But Wright, in remembering that conversation, realized that his uncle had missed out on delightfully unexpected finds along their walk.
If you go: Garrett County, Md.
In that vein, I set off with a friend to explore Garrett County’s Barn Quilt Trail — one small link in an art-and-culture-oriented scavenger hunt phenomenon found in 45 states.
These country road treasure hunts are perfect for meandering travelers who want to get off main roads and explore small communities, local markets, cozy inns and down-home restaurants. Our self-guided tour wound past 16 barns, each decorated with an eight-foot-square panel displaying a quilt pattern chosen by the property owners and often painted by community volunteers.
Our route took us along part of the historic National Road — the first highway built by the federal government, in the early 19th century — and through a town curiously named Accident. Apparently, when King George II wanted to pay off a debt with a gift of 600 acres, the intended recipient hired two separate surveyors to scout out the best land. Unbeknownst to one another, they both selected parcels with the same oak tree as a boundary. Thus, the “Accident Tract” was born.
It was certainly no accident that recently brought my family to FireFly Farms Creamery in that same small town. The creamery’s artisan goat cheeses are well known to farmers market aficionados in Dupont Circle and Silver Spring.
You’ll never take cheese for granted after watching the intense, time-consuming and temperature-sensitive hands-on process involved in this craft. For example, one batch of Cabra LaMancha, a mature washed-rind cheese, gives FireFly’s cheesemakers an incredibly physical workout. I watched as Dan Porter briskly and rhythmically ladled curd from the 140-gallon pasteurizing vat to make 24 four-pound wheels. After 10 minutes of gravity settling, each wheel is flipped by hand, then again in three hours, and again the next morning before being stored for aging.
In the meantime, a similar process started in another 140-gallon vat — this time to make Merry Goat Round brie. Stabilizing the milk, cutting and agitating the curd, flipping each of 240 10-ounce rounds and moving all into aging rooms is seamless choreography.
Every step taken and each person involved becomes part of a batch’s written “birth certificate” ensuring product consistency. Even seasonality is a variable in making goat cheese. The deepest part of winter makes for the best goat milk, with the highest protein and fat content, said Dan.
Another “I had no idea” moment came as we visited Husky Power, just 10 minutes south. If you only think Iditarod when you hear “dog-sledding,” Linda and Mike Herdering, owners of what they say is the nation’s southernmost dog-sled touring kennel, will expertly broaden your knowledge through year-round, information-packed two-hour presentations. Husky conditioning, weight training, commands and care are just some of the topics covered during these appointment-only sessions.
“Many people learn about dog sledding through books and movies,” said Linda, which she called “a very incomplete picture.”
We were surprised to learn that many mushers use wheeled carts (gigs) for training, touring and racing. “There are more dry-land mushers in the world than snow mushers,” Linda said. “These dogs are genetically predisposed to pull, and they don’t care what they pull.”
The most important factor in dog sledding is keeping the lines taut by having an alert musher and excellent brakes on one end and a competent lead dog on the other. Slack lines can get tangled, creating a deadly situation, especially for canines.
I was curious about what makes a first-rate lead dog. The selection begins in puppyhood. The dogs are observed while jogging along trails, said Linda. “You look for one that doesn’t wander off — one that keeps going and doesn’t look back.” Sled dogs usually join a team when they turn 2.
The team’s shaded gravel yard is practical, not scenic. Wooden boxes serve as shelters, and each dog is tethered by a precisely measured chain to allow exercise room apart from the others. “They’re happier knowing that they have their own space and no other dog can get into it,” said Linda.
My daughter particularly loved face-to-face time with the most personable Alaskan and Siberian huskies ever. Litters are named in themes, such as Jag and Colt for sports teams, or Slider and BlackBerry for cellphones.
Mike Herdering referred to one dog, Denali, as his “attack licker.” Doffing his cap and revealing a gleaming bald head, he grinned. “She really got me!”
Snow is not required for dog sledding, but temperatures below 60 degrees are, so actually trying the sport on Husky Power’s extensive trail network must wait for the September-to-April running season.
Although we’ve only scratched the surface of Garrett County’s offerings, our list of favorites is growing.
For whitewater fixes, the adventurous are drawn to the Class IV and V rapids of the north-flowing Youghiogheny, Maryland’s wildest river. A 10-mile stretch from Sang Run to Friendsville is particularly popular during scheduled water releases.
For those preferring quiet, upright paddling, New Germany State Park and Broadford Lake beckon. Hikes through the old-growth hemlock forests of Swallow Falls State Park catch mesmerizing views of rushing water — especially as it pours over several falls, including Muddy Creek, the state’s highest single-drop waterfall.
A recently restored 1884 Queen Anne-style B&O train station, now a museum in the very walkable, cute small town of Oakland, is a definite head-turner.
The stately Casselman River Bridge in Grantsville — celebrating its 200th anniversary in September — was the largest single-span stone arch in the nation when constructed in 1813. A walk across it leads to Spruce Forest Artisan Village, where experts in weaving, paper quilling, pottery, metal crafts and more demonstrate and sell their work.
Okay, one day I’ll stop meandering and focus on Deep Creek Lake itself. But first, I must swing by Sugar & Spice Bakery and Cheese, a wee Amish shop on Route 219 just south of Oakland.

Siegal is a freelance writer/photographer in Alexandria.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/garrett-county-md-beyond-deep-creek-lake/2013/07/18/dc32bcf2-ee50-11e2-9008-61e94a7ea20d_story.html

Right Time is Now - It's A Plant, Not A Sin

  For years DC politricksters chanted their mantra that "the time is not now" and "Congress will block it" when asked anything about lowering penalties for marijuana. I give Zuckerberg and his run for City Council, the credit for getting us to the right time.
  Now to pressure the City Council to make the fine as low as possible so that there is no point in enforcing the statute.

D.C. mayor backs decriminalizing marijuana, replacing criminal charges with civil fines

By Aaron C. Davis, Published: October 23

D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) on Wednesday offered his first unequivocal support for decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, adding momentum to a legislative proposal that has the support of a supermajority on the D.C. Council and could make the District one of the nation’s most lenient jurisdictions on marijuana possession.
Under a measure proposed by council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), possession of less than an ounce of marijuana in the District would no longer be punishable by six months in jail and a penalty of $1,000.
Instead, those caught with amounts of the drug deemed for personal use would risk only a civil charge and a ticket of $100 — the equivalent of parking in a no-parking area in the District at rush hour.
Wells, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor, and civil liberties groups have urged passage of the measure. They say the District’s marijuana laws have disproportionately affected African Americans and have saddled some residents with criminal records, making it hard for them to find gainful employment.
Wells and council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) have scheduled a two-part hearing on the bill, beginning Wednesday night in Southeast Washington and continuing Thursday at the John A. Wilson Building.
Gray said that his surrogates would testify Thursday in favor of decriminalizing marijuana.
“I support decriminalization. Legalization is another issue. I’m not there on that issue, yet,” the mayor said, alluding to laws such as those in Colorado and Washington state.
This past summer, D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier urged a “robust discussion” of the legislation, calling it a significant issue and saying she has concerns about the risks marijuana poses for children, as well as the potential conflict with federal law.
Staff members in Gray’s and Wells’s offices said neither Lanier nor anyone else from the police department was scheduled to testify Thursday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-mayor-backs-decriminalizing-marijuana-replacing-criminal-charges-with-civil-fines/2013/10/23/b70d1f3c-3c2d-11e3-a94f-b58017bfee6c_story.html

DC Bus Privatization - Does Not Benefit Public

I picked this up at the Washington, DC, Greenfest - about privatization of buses in DC. Private companies by definition serve the share holders via the bottom line. I think they call that fiduciary responsibility. Responsibility to the public is low priority.

www.bettertransitDC.org

Disproportionate Marijuana Arrests In DC

ACLU: D.C. pot possession arrest data show differences from national trends

By Annys Shin, Wednesday, June 12, 2:36 PM

Following the report last week from the ACLU that marijuana possession arrests had surged across the country over a 10-year period, the civil liberties group’s local chapter has now drilled down into the data to produce what it says is a more detailed look at how that trend has played out in the District.
The national report attributed much of the uptick to an increase in pot possession arrests of African Americans. According to the local ACLU report released Wednesday, the District had higher pot possession arrest rates and greater racial disparity among those arrestedthan almost any other state or county in the country.
D.C. is often compared to other states, which include non-urban areas, but counties can be more comparable jurisdictions. The report said that the District outstripped places such as Miami-Dade and Philadelphia counties in pot possession arrest rates.
In 2010, based on Metropolitan Police Department numbers, D.C. police made a daily average of nearly 15 such arrests. Arrest rates, the ACLU report said, were highest in gentrifying neighborhoods.
The report is part of the ACLU’s efforts to decriminalize marijuana.
Police Chief Cathy Lanier last week took issue with the national report’s findings and said that under her watch, MPD has been focused on pushing down violent crime rates, not going after pot users.
While the ACLU attributes the rise in marijuana arrest rates to post-crack drug war policies, academic experts who have studied the issue are not sure precisely what the cause is.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/aclu-dc-pot-possession-arrest-data-shows-differences-from-national-trends/2013/06/12/3f845fe6-d389-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html

DC Sewage Politricks

Politics at every turn.......

As overflows continue, D.C. plan for sewage tunnels getting messy

Turf battles, firings occur over best way to control flow into city waterways

By Jeffrey Anderson  -  The Washington Times  -  Sunday, June 2, 2013

More than a billion gallons of stormwater and sewage flow into the District of Columbia's rivers every year, and there is a belief that George Hawkins is the man to fix it.
The D.C. Water general manager is a national environmental rock star, a charismatic man — as anyone who has seen him sketch a once-in-a-century infrastructure project on a white board can attest.
He is said to harbor ambitions of someday becoming administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
But with Mr. Hawkins acting in concert with D.C. Water's Chairman of the Board Allen Lew, who also is the D.C. City Administrator, the attempt to open up a 2005 federal consent decree requiring reduced overflows from the city's combined sewer system has gotten messy. The plan is to shift resources away from a three-tunnel project to divert and treat polluted rainwater that flows into the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers and Rock Creek, and into a pilot project to study green alternatives such as rain gardens.
Already, there have been consequences for D.C. officials who questioned the plan, with Mr. Lew exercising a heavy hand in firings and aborted attempts at firings. Meantime, Mr. Hawkins, with the approval of Mr. Lew and Mayor Vincent C. Gray, has quietly negotiated a "Green Infrastructure Partnership Agreement" with the EPA that could shift D.C. Water's financial burdens onto District agencies and taxpayers to support its stormwater projects.
On Monday, Mr. Gray and Mr. Lew will ask the D.C. Council to confirm appointment of the director of the District Department of Environment (DDOE) to the board of D.C. Water. But D.C. Water is supposed to be an independent agency, and DDOE is empowered to regulate stormwater management activities in the District.
Environmental groups see the maneuver as a conflict of interest, and Mr. Gray as willing to manipulate his DDOE director in spite of his regulatory authority in order to gain EPA approval of Hawkins' plan.
They are equally concerned the pilot project will forestall the tunnels in favor of newer technology that is unproven on a citywide scale.
Mr. Hawkins often plays by his own rules, according to those who have observed him up close. In promoting the pilot project, he reportedly bypassed EPA Region 3 Administrator Shawn Garvin and went directly to former EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, a friend from when the two served as environmental protection officials in New Jersey.
Mr. Hawkins denies bypassing Mr. Garvin — a major "process foul" in EPA parlance — but during a recent two-hour interview he conceded, "We communicate with EPA [headquarters] more than other agencies because they're in D.C. Plus, I know Lisa from New Jersey."
Mr. Hawkins also admits that he kept DDOE — the city's stormwater administrator — out of the EPA discussions until the 11th hour, a decision that would not be possible without Mr. Lew's approval.
"If I had it to do over, I would have involved DDOE earlier and more often," Mr. Hawkins said. "I misjudged that, and should've engaged them early on."
Put D.C. at the forefront
Mr. Hawkins aims to put D.C. at the forefront of the clean rivers movement. Currently the project to reduce stormwater and sewage overflows is funded by D.C. Water, which provides 600,000 residents, 17.8 million annual visitors and 700,000 District employees with water and sewer service.
D.C. Water is spending $1.6 billion to build a tunnel along the Anacostia River to divert those overflows to the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant. Mr. Hawkins said D.C. Water will finish that tunnel by 2017, and that by 2025, it will reduce billions of gallons of annual overflows into the city's rivers by 96 percent.
But faced with a 2015 deadline to begin work on the other two tunnels, at an additional cost of $1 billion, he is proposing spending $30 million to $40 million to evaluate the impacts of green roofs, rain gardens, rain barrels and "pervious pavements."
Initially, Mr. Hawkins asked EPA for an 8-year grace period from working on the other two tunnels, but now he says he "mischaracterized" the plan. He says he is asking EPA to give him until 2015 to gain the support of the other necessary federal and local agencies. If he cannot, or fails to meet other benchmarks by 2017 or 2023, then D.C. Water will keep tunneling, he said.
Cities such as St. Louis, Cleveland and Indianapolis are working under similar consent decrees with a combination of tunnels and green methods. Philadelphia has a plan that is almost entirely green.
But environmentalists ask why the District hasn't made more green progress since 2005, and question whether green infrastructure can capture the amount of stormwater that the tunnels can handle.
'International green city'
In 2009, as director of DDOE, Mr. Hawkins spoke before the D.C. Council on the importance of "teamwork" in turning D.C. into a "leading international green city." He supported the Stormwater Management Act, a 2008 law that made DDOE responsible for "monitoring and coordinating the [stormwater] activities of all District agencies, including [D.C. Water]."
In January 2012, however, once Mr. Hawkins became general manager of D.C. Water, his agency argued in an EPA appeal that "the District government cannot impose financial obligations on D.C. Water," and that "DDOE cannot speak for or constrain D.C. Water with respect to [its] obligations…"
That appeal was dismissed, and DDOE still regulates stormwater management, but its status relative to D.C. Water has changed. According to a letter from Mr. Gray to Ms. Jackson, by March 2012, D.C. Water had made "significant progress in its negotiations with EPA to establish a framework that would allow for an exploration of green infrastructure as an alternative to the costly underground tunnels."
This was news to DDOE when, in July, Mr. Garvin notified former DDOE Director Christophe Tulou that a draft green infrastructure partnership agreement with EPA was in the works, according to multiple sources. At Mr. Garvin's — and Mr. Hawkins' — request, Mr. Tulou submitted comments on the draft agreement to the EPA. He was fired in August, purportedly for not getting the mayor's approval prior to submitting the comments, despite having sent them to Mr. Lew, Mr. Hawkins and the mayor's chief of staff, Christopher Murphy.
Mr. Lew would not respond to requests for comment. Mr. Garvin did not return calls. The Gray administration did not respond to questions about its relationship with D.C. Water.
Mr. Tulou was not the only casualty. His special assistant, Barry Weiss, who wrote the Stormwater Management Act, was fired. DDOE's general counsel and deputy general counsel were reprimanded, but only after D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan refused requests from Mr. Lew's office that they too be fired, according to multiple sources outside D.C. government.
Environmental advocates took note of the lack of distance between Mr. Hawkins and the Gray administration, embodied in the draft agreement with EPA and two letters to the EPA administrator signed by Mayor Gray — without DDOE's knowledge.
"George Hawkins has everyone under his spell at some level, and the city has consolidated power with D.C. Water with Lew as the chairman of its board," said Chris Weiss, former aide to Council Chairman Phil Mendelson. "The mayor is clearly deferring to Lew, and he doesn't seem to have a problem undermining his own agency heads."
'Fiscally irresponsible'
Mr. Gray's letters to Ms. Jackson, sent without Mr. Garvin's knowledge according to multiple sources, state that "it would be fiscally irresponsible" for D.C. Water to continue spending funds for the Potomac River and Rock Creek underground tunnels without first studying the impacts of green infrastructure.
Neither the Gray administration nor D.C. Water would say who drafted those letters or the green partnership agreement.
In an Aug. 12 letter to Mr. Garvin, environmental groups accused D.C. Water of negotiating a backroom deal with the EPA, and said the 60-day comment period after the proposal is unveiled may not be sufficient. They also question whether Hawkins' plan can meet the consent decree's deadlines, and point out that both the Stormwater Management Act and the 2005 consent decree required them to have undertaken that review by now.
Rebecca Hammer of the Natural Resources Defense Council says Mr. Hawkins' plan is vague, that the city does not have enough land to build green infrastructure on the necessary scale, and that it is underestimating the maintenance such systems will require.
"How do you do it on private property?" she asked.
Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Lew say the maintenance will create jobs. Mr. Hawkins also insists he has found public land in less developed parts of the city that are contributing to toxic runoff into Rock Creek.
But talk of cost is fuzzy. While there exists a notion that green is less expensive than gray infrastructure, Adam Krantz, managing director of government affairs for the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, says this is a misconception. "The idea that green is a cheaper approach is not true," he said.
Mr. Hawkins agreed that the city will be "spending like crazy on these [green] projects," and noted that monthly water bills have gone up by $7 since the tunnel project began. "But we believe we will get more bang for the buck," he said.
Speaking for Mr. Hawkins, the mayor's chief of staff added: "We owe it to the rate payers and, frankly, the environment itself to get more data about the effectiveness and cost of what some have called 'green solutions.' It's a question about effectiveness and whether one approach has more ancillary benefits."
So who will pay for D.C. Water's green pilot project, and any further tunnel plans going forward? The EPA draft agreement states that decision points for the project will weigh "the extent to which District departments will commit to revising capital expenditure plans to prioritize [green infrastructure] retrofits in priority areas" — suggesting costs could shift from D.C. Water to District agencies.
Mr. Hawkins brushed aside such concerns, but confirmed the agreement will be part of the proposed modified consent decree to be approved by EPA and a federal judge. Of the possibility that DDOE and other agencies such as the District Departments of Transportation and Public Works end up paying for his projects while having limited input, he said: "Not if the parties are working well together. I'm not going to be political about it, but I'll explain to any mayor or city administrator why it's important. If anything, the costs will be to D.C. Water and not the other way around."
DDOE's recently appointed director Keith Anderson, who is up for confirmation as D.C. Water's newest board member, said he has not spoken with Mr. Lew — both chairman of that board and, as city administrator, Mr. Anderson's putative boss — or Mr. Hawkins about the role his agency will play. Yet he bristled at the suggestion he could soon be taking orders from Mr. Hawkins. "I'm never going to be working for George Hawkins," Mr. Anderson said. "I regulate D.C. Water, and I work for the mayor."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/2/as-overflows-continue-dc-plan-for-sewage-tunnels-g/print/

 

DC Obstructs The Peoples' Will On Medical Marijuana

  The DC City Council has seriously altered the original voter referendum that legalized medical marijuana in DC. Along with all sorts of other alterations (no personal cultivation as specifically allowed in the referendum), now they say a doctor must be registered to provide a patient with a recommendation fopr marijuana. Being a licensed medical doctor is not enough. That is ridiculous.

Opening of D.C. medical marijuana dispensaries delayed

June 2, 2013 | 9:00 pm 

D.C. marijuana dispensaries thought they'd be open a month ago, but a slow-moving District Department of Health still needs to give doctors the authority to recommend marijuana to their patients.
"If you drove by now you'd see the signs are up and everything is ready -- except the doors are locked," said Rabbi Jeff Kahn, owner of the Takoma Wellness Center on Blair Road in Northwest Washington.
Two marijuana dispensaries and three cultivation centers have been approved by the District.
Kahn has rented the property since April 2011 and said it's been fully ready to go since the beginning of May.
"It's been a very long experience, and it is kind of frustrating," he said. "We're still getting over the fact that it didn't happen in May. We certainly think it's going to be the beginning of June."
So if you are suffering from Crohn's disease or one of the other illnesses that qualify a patient for medical marijuana use, you're going to have to wait a bit longer.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said marijuana dispensaries would likely open in the middle of June.
"I believe the executive has been slow on just about everything," said Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells. "I don't want to over-politicize this, but my general feeling is there just has been molasses poured over the government -- it's not just this."
Wells, who is running for mayor, is also working with Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry to draft legislation to decriminalize marijuana.
The mayor's office said it is merely trying to thoughtfully address how it handles marijuana in the District.
"We prefer to get things right rather than rush for appearance's sake," Pedro Ribeiro, Mayor Vincent Gray's spokesman, wrote in an email. "The mayor has repeatedly said we need to get this program up and running properly, before we consider moving beyond it."
The Department of Health said it still needs to approve doctors who can recommend marijuana to patients in the District before dispensaries can open.
For his part, Kahn said he had talked to doctors who had requested forms to apply for the certification, but had not received them yet.
A spokeswoman for the health department on Friday said doctors had received applications.
The District's medical marijuana laws limits the amount of marijuana that cultivators can grow and restricts the number of dispensaries that can sell it. Adam Bierman, president of the medical marijuana consulting company Medmen, said the District regulations will severely restrict the business in D.C.
"I don't see how it will ever actually take any real foothold until there are some updates," he said.
The District approved medical marijuana with a referendum in 1998. Twelve years later, the D.C. Council approved legislation meant to move ahead the implementation of medical marijuana.
enewcomer@washingtonexaminer.com

 http://washingtonexaminer.com/opening-of-d.c.-medical-marijuana-dispensaries-delayed/article/2530926

Common Sense On Weed In D.C.

If only people would take action from Mr. Zuckerberg's words instead of nodding in agreement and turning the page.

Let’s stop wrecking lives over a bag of weed

By Paul Zukerberg, Published: May 24

In a little office on the third floor of Metropolitan Police Headquarters on Indiana Avenue NW is a small window to the future — open to some, closed to many. This is where you get your D.C. “police clearance.”
If you have never been there, that’s because you have never applied for a job flipping burgers, mowing lawns or cleaning restrooms in the District. Room 3033 is the human resources department for the poor, the young and the disenfranchised. The piece of paper you get there — if you have no criminal record — is what you need to land a job. Without it, you’re out of luck.
For 29 years, I have defended clients facing marijuana charges in the District. At every initial appearance, without fail, the judge admonishes the defendant either to stay in school or to hold down a job. In the majority of cases, however, a job is not possible because most employers in this town will not hire entry-level workers who do not have a police clearance.
What crime is increasingly tripping up those looking for work? Possession of marijuana.
In 1995, police in the District arrested about 1,850 people for having pot. By 2011, the number had skyrocketed to more than 6,000. It’s still rising.
To put that into perspective, there are twice as many marijuana arrests in the District as there are students graduating from D.C. high schools each year.
And though marijuana usage rates for blacks and whites are about the same, more than 90 percent of those arrested on pot charges in the District are black. Most of them are young men. By the time their cases are over, months or sometimes years later, they have gone from the unemployed to the long-term unemployed.
For young people denied jobs, crime and public assistance become far more enticing. Marijuana laws create a permanent underclass of people unable to join the legitimate workforce.
The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments.” Is it not cruel, and unusual, to deny a young person caught with a bag of weed his chance for entry into productive society? Long experience shows that legitimate employment is the best remedy for youthful indiscretions.
The costs of our current marijuana policy are extraordinary, both for those arrested and for society. We are spending millions of dollars, and tens of thousands of hours’ work by police, enforcing punitive marijuana laws. Add up what is spent on the arrests, booking, forensic testing, prosecution, court-appointed lawyers, judges, marshals and probation officers, and the cost of a single marijuana prosecution can begin to rival the cost of sending a student to college.
There are two types of marijuana users the District. Those who have avoided arrest, and those whose lives are derailed by involvement with the criminal courts. The first group is predominantly white and privileged. The second, black and disadvantaged. Research confirms what many people of color suspect: The disparity between white and black marijuana arrests is the result of racial bias in the application of the law.
I talked a great deal about this issue when I ran for D.C. Council in April’s special election. I didn’t win, but that doesn’t mean that the city’s leaders can’t take a sensible action to improve the prospects of thousands of young people.
It’s time for Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and the D.C. Council to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. Seventeen states and several major cities already have. Blue states such as Massachusetts and red states such as Nebraska have realized that it is counterproductive to pointlessly saddle their kids with criminal records. If Cambridge intellectuals and Nebraska “cornhuskers” can agree on decriminalizing marijuana, why can’t the District’s elected leaders figure this out, too?
Decriminalization is not legalization. With decriminalization, marijuana is still prohibited but the maximum penalty for those caught with small amounts is reduced from a criminal misdemeanor to a civil violation.
Adults are given a citation and fined. Juveniles are assigned to an educational class, and their parents are notified. Because there’s no arrest, there’s no arrest record — and no impediment to finding legitimate employment.
Public safety is not enhanced by locking up people for small amounts of pot. In fact, public safety is compromised, and society pays a hefty price, when law enforcement turns harmless young pot users into “lawbreakers” and drags them into a system that ultimately spits out them out on a dead-end street.
The writer is a D.C. lawyer.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-time-for-dc-to-stop-wrecking-lives-over-a-bag-of-weed/2013/05/24/e3bbc8cc-c314-11e2-914f-a7aba60512a7_story.html?hpid=z4

Zuckerberg Puts Legalization On Debate In DC

Without the candidacy of Paul Zuckerberg for City Council in the recent election, this would not even be in discussion. Thank you Mr. Zuckerberg!

Some on D.C. Council plan bills to ease penalties for having marijuana

By Tim Craig, Published: May 15

Some D.C. Council members are crafting legislation to lessen the penalties for marijuana possession, hoping to settle the matter before outside groups petition the issue onto the ballot.
Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) and Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) — who as chairman of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee would shepherd the legislation — are formulating a proposal to eliminate criminal penalties for those caught with small amounts of cannabis or subject offenders to fines.
“Absolutely, it’s time we look at decriminalization of marijuana in the District of Columbia,” said Wells, who is running for mayor next year. “It’s time we enter the 21st century and stop criminalizing people . . . for what is not really a major crime.”
Wells and Barry said they will introduce a bill as early as this summer. Meanwhile, Anita Bonds (D-At Large) also is considering a measure to decriminalize marijuana or reduce penalties for possession. The initiatives would be debated by Wells’s committee.
Although there appears to be council support for a debate, those who support decriminalizing pot face considerable obstacles, including a skeptical council chairman, Phil Mendelson (D).
“I don’t think it’s the right time,” said Mendelson, who noted that Congress has blocked similar efforts in the District. “I don’t think decriminalization of marijuana will go over easily with Congress.”
But advocates say they think that there is growing momentum in the District and across the nation to change drug laws. On Monday, the Vermont Legislature voted to decriminalize up to an ounce of marijuana, joining more than a dozen states to remove the threat of jail for possession. Colorado is preparing to tax the sale of marijuana.
Steve Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project said advocates may seek a referendum on the matter in the District as early as November 2014. A recent poll of District voters commissioned by the group and the Drug Policy Alliance, which support decriminalizing marijuana, found broad backing for decriminalizing or legalizing the drug.
But Barry, who first supported marijuana decriminalization as mayor in the 1980s, said he would prefer that the council, instead of voters, decide the matter.
He said too many young African Americans get criminal records because of small amounts of marijuana possession. “These council members ought to stand up, and I think they will, on behalf of their constituency, who suffers mightily from this archaic situation,” said Barry, who was arrested for cocaine possession in 1990 while mayor.
Barry said he and Wells hope to get “six or seven” council members to co-sponsor a measure. On Wednesday, David Grosso (I-At Large) pledged his support but added that he wants to broaden the discussion to include legalization.
“The people on the streets dealing are the nonviolent drug offenders who are going to jail for dealing drugs,” said Grosso, who at age 22 was arrested in 1993 in Florida for having marijuana. “I think that is a serious problem.”
Vincent B. Orange (D-At Large) compared the marijuana debate to the ongoing debate over regulating food trucks. “It’s just something we are going to have to address,” said Orange, who is undecided on decriminalization.
Mendelson, however, said the issue should be decided by voters instead of the council to avoid congressional scrutiny. “As a matter of strategy, an initiative might be a better way to go, strategically, because then you have all the voters speaking,” he said.
Under city law, possession of up to half a pound of marijuana is punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine on a first offense.
Most first-time offenders are sentenced to community service and are eligible to have their records expunged. But Paul Zukerberg, a lawyer who specializes in marijuana cases, said many offenders get criminal records because they lack the resources to get their records expunged.
Zukerberg, who unsuccessfully ran for the council on a decriminalization platform, said thousands of people cannot find work because of criminal records.
“You have to aggressively go after it to have the charge removed,” he said. “And, as a practical matter, once your name is in a public database for a number of years, to try to go back and erase it is futile.”
Regardless of what happens on the council, Wells’s decision to push for decriminalization means the issue will most probably become part of the mayoral race.
Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D), who has yet to announce whether he will seek reelection, has said the city should fully implement the medical marijuana law before considering decriminalization.
Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4), a candidate for mayor, said she’s considering her response but also thinks the city should stay focused on its medical marijuana program.
“I think the notion about the concern of the number of people in our criminal-justice system because of minor drug offenses warrants looking at,” said Bowser, who is also on the judiciary committee. “But I am not prepared to say we need to go another step.”




http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/some-on-dc-council-plan-bills-to-ease-penalties-for-having-marijuana/2013/05/15/18feed18-bd87-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html

Electric Cars and Vocational Education

Electric cars in DC schools? A great program to me - Milloy asks some good questions.

D.C. school was ahead of its time with electric car

By Courtland Milloy, Published: November 29, 2011

Whatever happened to the Volkswagen Rabbit that D.C. public school students converted to a battery powered racer back in the mid-1990s? The car had been the crown jewel of the Electric Vehicle Program at Phelps Vocational High in Northeast Washington. Students were always parading it around town and putting it on display at auto shows. They even got to race it at the Richmond International Speedway.
Then, while Phelps was closed for renovation between 2002 and 2008, the car disappeared from the school’s auto shop garage. When the new and improved Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School reopened, a scaled-down version of the auto mechanics course was moved to another school and the Electric Vehicle Program was discontinued.
So where is the car?
Advocates for restarting the program could sure use it as an example of how D.C. students once led the way in the use of clean energy. And with President Obama pressing on with plans to get 1 million electric vehicles on the nation’s roads by 2015, the city could recharge a program that had been ahead of its time — and it would still be right on time.
“The electric car industry worldwide is growing rapidly because of climate change and efforts to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels,” said LeRoy Hall, a retired Pepco employee who helped start the EVP at Phelps. “Yet our students are denied training in this expanding and potentially lucrative field.”
In recent months, Hall has testified before the D.C. Council, urging its members to restart the EVP. Other supporters have made similar appeals to school officials — as well as inquiries about the whereabouts of the student-built car.
Hall says he’s still waiting for a response.
When it comes to preparing students for work in the auto industry in the Washington area, Suitland High School in Prince George’s County, the Edison Academy at Thomas Edison High in Fairfax County and the Thomas Edison High School of Technology in Montgomery County offer excellent instruction. In the District, Ballou High got the remnants of the Phelps auto mechanics program while students at Spingarn focus on collision repair.
The EVP at Phelps was in a class by itself.
“Even students who weren’t in the program started coming around; they couldn’t believe what we were doing,” said Dave Goldstein, president emeritus of the Electric Vehicle Association of Greater Washington who also volunteered at Phelps. “They were saying, ‘What if you did this?’ and ‘What if you did that?’ They weren’t just standing around looking or giving answers by rote. They were making suggestions and coming up with new ideas. That’s how you know real learning is taking place. Kids who had been delinquent started coming back to school. They would come back to school at night to work on the car.”
Converting that Rabbit into an electric-powered racer had required the practical application of physics, electronics, electromagnetism, aerodynamics and hydraulics. Students researched different kinds of electric motors and the type and quantity of batteries needed to run them. They removed the old gasoline-powered engine, the gas tank and fuel lines, and replaced the automatic transmission with a five-speed stick shift.
They installed the electric motor and built their own electrical testing devices using resistance coils from old electric space heaters, put in some electrical adaptors and special gauges.
And it ran just fine. No batteries conking out, catching fire or exploding.
Perhaps even more importantly, the students worked as a team. They cooperated, made decisions as a group and delegated responsibilities. They weren’t just learning how to build a car; they were also picking up on the civic skills needed to build and sustain a democracy.
The team of that brought the EVP to Phelps included Hall, Goldstein, Edward Torrence, who was the Phelps auto shop teacher, and Dwayne French, one of Torrence’s students who went on to run the automotive technology program at Ballou. All say they would help start another EVP if asked.
As for the car, perhaps the city towed it from the auto shop and mistakenly took it to a government vehicle maintenance lot. It’s worth a look. The car was pearl white with the number 51 stenciled on the sides; students said they wanted the car to symbolize the District’s quest to become the 51st state.
Obviously the city didn’t think much of their effort.
“We’re still looking for it,” D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown, an avowed supporter of vocational education programs, told me recently.
Better yet, he could get the program restarted and just let the students build another one.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-school-was-ahead-of-its-time-with-electric-car/2011/11/29/gIQAqV418N_story.html

Did Rhee's So Called Reforms Harm DC Schools?

Report claims Rhee's reforms harmed D.C. schools

April 23, 2013 | 9:00 pm 

Many of the reforms instituted under former DC Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and continued under Chancellor Kaya Henderson have done more harm than good for the school system, according to a new report.
Under Rhee's leadership, achievement gaps grew, test scores showed little improvement, school closings accomplished little and new teacher evaluations led to high staff turnover, according to the report by Broader, Bolder Approach to Education, a campaign started five years ago by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank.
DCPS declined to comment. A representative of StudentsFirst, Rhee's new advocacy group, did not return requests for comment.
Though the report looks at public schools in Chicago, New York and the District, the data from the District are "unabashedly the worst," said campaign National Coordinator Elaine Weiss, who wrote the report.
While Chicago and New York had worsening standardized test scores or widening race and income gaps under their respective leaders at the time, only the District saw both stagnant or declining test scores and widening gaps.
Reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test known as the "nation's report card," rose for white, Hispanic and black fourth graders in the four years before Rhee came to Washington, but have since stagnated or declined, the report says. In the eighth grade, reading scores dropped across all three groups both before and during Rhee's tenure, and the achievement gap between white and Hispanic students widened.
Though math scores increased among fourth and eighth graders between 2007 and 2011, achievement gaps between low-income and middle- and high-income students and between white and black students widened.
Closing schools didn't help. When Rhee closed 23 underenrolled schools in 2008, students moved from low-performing schools to lower-performing schools, the report argues.
"When they closed the schools in 2008, they did give the receiving schools extra resources, and the idea was that they would make it more attractive to those kids that were coming from the closed schools," said Mary Levy, a school budget expert whose data Weiss used. "It didn't work out that way."
Instead, the school closings cost more money than anticipated -- $39.5 million, rather than $9.7 million -- and prompted more students to leave DCPS for charters, the report says.
The school closings combined with Rhee's flagship reform, teacher evaluations that rely on students' performance on standardized tests, created large staff turnover, the report argues.
The portion of teachers leaving DCPS after two years increased from 27.8 percent to 33.2 percent, and the share leaving after three years increased from 37.5 percent to 42.7 percent. More than half of the teachers hired under Rhee left within two years, and 80 percent left before the end of their sixth year. As a result, Weiss argued, DCPS is left with fewer experienced teachers to work with the low-income students who need the most help.
Rather than continue Rhee's reforms, the District should address health and other problems that lead to truancy, and it should make sure the teachers in Anacostia are as good as those in Chevy Chase, Weiss said. "Then it has to fundamentally rethink what are the gaps and how do we fill those in."
rbaye@washingtonexaminer.com


http://washingtonexaminer.com/report-claims-rhees-reforms-harmed-d.c.-schools/article/2527997