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Friday, November 20, 2009
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December 26, 2008 - (Dec 31) YIDDISH NEW YEAR A special Yiddish New Year concert celebrates the diversity and commonality of culture with the quartet Serendipity 4 at Theater J in D.C., Wednesday night at 10. Legendary actor (and singer!) Theodore Bikel appears with Tamara Brooks, Merima Kljuco and Shura Lipovsky, performing music from around the world that highlights the Sephardic, Yiddish, Bosnian, Hebrew and Greek musical traditions.
(Dec 31) NEW YEAR'S EVE GALA 2009 With the end of the year approaching, the New Year's Eve Gala "Salute to America" kicks off Wednesday night at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel at 10:30pm. With nine rooms emulating different American cities, there'll be nine parties in one. From the hottest clubs in Manhattan to the South Beach scene of Miami, it's a black-tie, multi-themed celebration of the nation. (WEB ONLY) You can check out photos from last year's event.
(Dec 31) NEW YEAR GRAND GALA 2009 For a New Year's party with a little spice, The Indian Experience presents its grand gala at the Hyatt Regency Reston in Virginia from 8:30pm to 2am. This family event offers fun for all ages, with live music and dance performances, banghra dancing by Shahrukh Kahn in the style of "Bollywood" movies; and a midnight champagne toast. http://www.Ascot-Restaurant.com
(Dec 31) JAMES BOND GALA For a "double-oh-seven" of a good time, the New Year's Eve James Bond Gala takes place at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center beginning at 6:30 Saturday night. This "licensed-to-thrill" event features Bond look-alikes, Bond Girls, exotic Bond cars and martinis "shaken, not stirred" set inside a mock casino.
Theodore Bikel appears with Serendipty 4 members Tamara Brooks, Merima Ključo and Shura Lipovsky on December 31st.
courtesy of: Serendipity 4
December 26, 2008 - If you haven't made any plans for December 31st yet - don't worry. Few parties have sold out. With the coming inauguration overshadowing New Year's Eve, many year-end parties are seeing slow ticket sales. Of course, the recession doesn't help either. Speaking with David Furst, Washington Post nightlife writer Fritz Hahn helps us make some last minute New Year's Eve plans.
December 26, 2008 - One lawmaker in Virginia plans to introduce legislation to make displaying a noose in order to threaten or intimidate a felony. The proposal, by state senator Mark Obenshain of Harrisonburg, follows two cases of alleged workplace intimidation in Rockingham County.
Current state law does not directly address the display of a noose to intimidate or threaten. If the new law passes, the offense would carry a sentence of up to five years in state prison and the possibility of a $2500 fine.
Nooses have long been symbols of lynching and have been used to create fear especially for African Americans, but Obenshain says the new law would apply to all intimidation by display of a noose, regardless of the race of the target.
Rebecca Blatt reports...
December 26, 2008 - The University of Virginia's Infectious Disease Clinic is starting a program to help HIV patients in rural parts of the state keep in contact with their doctors via text messaging.
The idea for the program came this summer when a social worker doing outreach found that patients in rural areas missed appointments and treatment more often than those in urban areas. Researchers say patients with HIV often can live happy, productive lives. But that requires strict compliance with anti-retroviral therapy. Keeping up with appointments and treatment is critical.
A pilot study of the U.V.A. program will see if the cell phones can help with that. Patients will get phones that receive text messages, and allow calls to health care providers and emergency contacts. Researchers want to see if the patients with the phones will follow treatments for longer than six months. Investigators will also look for reductions in HIV viral loads and how patients perceive their quality of life.
Rebecca Blatt reports...
December 26, 2008 - The search has been scaled back for two men from Virginia, whose plane disappeared in Guyana in November. The twin turboprop aircraft was reported missing November 1, after it did not return from an aerial geophysical survey.
Wes Barker and Chris Paris, pilots from Harrisonburg, were on board, as was a third man, Patrick Murphy, from Canada.
Barker and Paris work for Dynamic Aviation Group, which is based in Virginia. The company supplies specialized aircraft to federal, state and local governments for a variety of jobs including intelligence, surveillance, fire management and insect eradication.
A spokesman for the company says government and military personnel from several nations as well as some volunteers from Dynamic Aviation searched for the plane without success. Now, the spokesman says, the search has been scaled back to a single ground crew and high-resolution image analysis.
Rebecca Blatt reports...
December 26, 2008 - Police in D.C. are getting a new ride. A Harley Davidson dealership in Frederick, Maryland, delivered 12 new motorcycles to the department for use in next month's inauguration.
The shiny motorcycles will lead the parade's famous "V" formation. This is the fifth consecutive inauguration the dealership has provided the motorcycles for the Metropolitan Police Department. The shop's owner, Mike Vantucci, helped drive the bikes down to D.C. earlier this morning. He says the officers were excited when the new sets of wheels were rolled out. The dealership competes for the job every four years through a competitive bidding process. The bikes are fully equipped with sirens, flag holders and side cars. Each costs around $35,000
Patrick Madden reports...
December 26, 2008 - Christmas may be over but retailers are still trying to lure shoppers with sales and deep discounts.
As Jessica Forres found out this morning, many shoppers are staying home...
December 26, 2008 - Workers repairing a giant water main on River Road have discovered more cracks in the 66-inch pipe. That means the road won't be open Monday as planned, and the Washington Suburban Sanitation Commission isn't predicting how long the repairs might take.
Sabri Ben-Achour reports...
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