Join The Conversation! Talk about the news of the day with public radio fans on WAMU 88.5's The Conversation.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Your Amazon.com purchases support WAMU 88.5
Your purchases from the NPR Store support WAMU 88.5
August 28, 2009 - We Were Pirates is the name of a D.C. band conjuring images of a crew of swaggering seamen with peg legs and eye patches.
But in fact, the new CD by We Were Pirates, "Cutting Ties," is the work of one man. Mike Boggs plays all of the instruments himself in his D.C. apartment. We're joined by two of the members of the live configuration of We Were Pirates, Mike Boggs and Gabriel Fry, for an in-studio performance. They will be making an appearance Saturday night at the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame.
The singular pirate of "We Were Pirates," Mike Boggs.
Courtesy of: Mike Boggs
August 28, 2009 - (August 29-September 27) ZERO HOUR Theater J kicks off its season near D.C.'s Dupont Circle with Zero Hour, opening tomorrow and running through September 27th. The play is a character study of the ebullient, mercurial and comical star Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel, perhaps most famous for his role as Tevye in the original Broadway version of Fiddler on the Roof. Actor Jim Brochu holds down the one-man show with ease and versatility as he takes on Mostel's persona as artist, activist and blacklisted actor.
(August 29) ROPE IN YOUR HANDS The [Chesapeake Arts Center] in Brooklyn Park, Maryland (http://www.chesapeakearts.org/events.html) presents The Rope in Your Hands, a one-woman show commemorating the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, with just one performance tomorrow night at 8. This original show is based on interviews with survivors in New Orleans, conducted after Katrina hit the Crescent City. All proceeds from this Pay-What-You-Can performance will be donated to Habitat for Humanity's Musician's Village in New Orleans.
(August 29) RISE AND SHINE Key Wilde and Mr. Clarke perform songs from their new CD Rise and Shine - part of the "Tot Rock" series at Jammin' Java in Vienna, Virginia, tomorrow morning at 11. This all-ages concert features grooves with story-like lyrics, where pigs grow as big as tractor trailers, little dogs imagine themselves as bullfrogs and there are red balloon rides to the moon, offering a fresh musical treat for even the most jaded ears.
Actor Jim Brochu channels Zero Mostel's wild moods, crazy humor and righteous anger.
Courtesy of: Theater J
August 28, 2009 - Even as members of Congress are hearing from their constituents about the issue of health care, more people are losing their coverage every day.
One of those people is Leroy Dickerson, a 63-year-old bricklayer who is seeking care at the Arlandria Health Center, a neighborhood clinic that offers free health care to people without health insurance. Over the last year, the center has seen a 40 percent increase in the number of people asking for services, and a steady rise in the number of people without health insurance.
The center has seen such an increase in demand that it asked a management consulting group to help them cope with the crush.
Lincoln Smith is the president of the Altarum Institute, which plans to work with the clinic for two years, helping them move into a larger facility and streamline operations.
Michael Pope reports...
August 28, 2009 - Laboratories at the Army's Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland are expanding. It comes as the H1N1 flu virus is on a lot of people's minds.
Lieutenant General Eric Schoomaker is the Army's surgeon general. Diagnosing the so-called swine flu is easy, he says, if you have the tools. According to Schoomaker, that technology has now been developed.
Much of the technology was developed at Fort Detrick, which also conducted research that helped identify where the West Nile and SARS viruses came from. Schoomaker says lessons learned from those scares, and the first arrival of H1N1 last spring, are vital to combating the virus this fall. The new labs at Fort Detrick are scheduled to be completed by 2015.
Matt Bush reports....
August 28, 2009 - The District of Columbia claims better enforcement is the reason the city is doing a booming business in tickets and towing.
Jamila Bey visited an impound lot in Southwest. Thousands of cars sit behind a seemingly endless chain link fence. A narrow walkway is the only clue for drivers who have come to retrieve their vehicles. The city may boot and tow for two or more unpaid tickets within 60 days.
In the two hours Bey spent at Blue Plains, she watched 16 cars being towed onto the premises, and ten people claim their vehicles in the customer service office. Most were too infuriated about the impound lot experience to speak with me, but Kay Rigby says being towed is just part of owning a car in D.C.
Jerome says his business towing cars to Blue Plains is thriving.
The city argues that the number one complaint to the Department of Public Works is illegal parking. Still their own estimates show they'll raise nearly 13 million dollars more next year with 65 additional parking control officers slated to start in January.
Jamila Bey reports...
August 28, 2009 - Anti-violence advocates in Washington's gay and transgender community say the district still has a long way to go when it comes to fighting hate crimes.
The stabbing death of a 21 year old has put the issue back in the spotlight. Police say it's still too early to say whether the stabbing death of 21 year old Joshua Mack in broad daylight on Q Street in Northwest was definitely a hate crime.
Jennie Mayes has lived on the block for nearly 30 years -- and says her neighborhood was friendly to transgender people like Joshua Mack. "They give us respect and we give them respect," Mayes said.
Chris Farris, with the anti-violence task force GLOV, says he's been impressed by how police have handled the immediate aftermath of possible hate crimes. He's more worried about what happens to perpetrators of sexual-orientation based hate crimes once they've been arrested.
"What I am seeing is a lack of aggression in enforcing all the laws that we have to prosecute these crimes," Farris said.
A spokesman for the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office says prosecutors take every homicide case seriously, regardless of the victims sexual orientation.
Jonathan Wilson reports...
August 28, 2009 - Two more cases of the horse disease Eastern Equine Encephalitis have been confirmed in Virginia. One was in Loudoun County, where a 28 year-old horse with multiple medical problems including equine encephalitis was euthanized.
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services says the Loudoun County case is unusual, as the disease most often crops up in Virginia's Tidewater region. The other newly confirmed case involved a seven-year-old horse from Southhampton County, which the department said was still alive at last report.
The confirmations bring the total number of Equine Encephalitis cases in horses in Virginia this year to eight, although the department says an alpaca in Surry County also tested positive and recovered on its own. The state veterinarian says there's no cure for the disease and urges horse owners to vaccinate their animals every six to 12 months.
Matt McCleskey reports..
August 28, 2009 - Democrat R. Creigh Deeds says he plans to make Virginia's massive computer agency the first to face performance reviews if he's elected governor.
Deeds wants the chief of Virginia's Information Technologies Agency needs to report to the governor, as other state agencies do. The technology agency was created six years ago to standardize the state's computing systems, and was supposed to streamline the government. But instead of a more efficient and inexpensive system, state agencies are complaining that prices are higher, delays are longer and service to the system is poor. The complaints triggered three inquiries into the tech agency's 10-year, $2.3 billion partnership with defense company Northrop Grumman. It is the largest contract to a single vendor for one project ever in Virginia.
Stephanie Kaye reports...
August 28, 2009 - Restaurant Week is upon us and there are deals to be found in restaurants across the metro area.
In the kitchen at Zola - an upscale restaurant in Chinatown - sous chef Greg Lloyd works on a Beurre Blanc Sauce. Zola is one of over two hundred restaurants participating in Restaurant Week. It's a biennial event where restaurants show off their best while slashing their prices: $20 for lunch, $35 for dinner.
Dan Mesches owns Zola. He helped start Restaurant Week. "For people that either you're on a tight budget or you wanna go to a place and weren't quite sure and you didn't want to spend the money before, it gives them that opportunity."
Mesches says Restaurant Week has its roots in, of all things, 9/11 when D.C.'s restaurant industry was brought to it's knees. He says it was like an economic Ground Zero.
The initial 2001 promotion was successful - D.C.'s Tourism Office says business more than doubled for a lot of places. Restaurant Week went from around 75 restaurants in 2001 to over 200 today.
Across town, at Bistro Francais in Georgetown, owner Gerard Cabrol looks over an aromatic bowl of fresh ceviche. Ceviche is one of the things he's cooked up for Restaurant Week - also duck breast and leg of lamb. Cabrol is proud of his menu, but isn't really sure that Restaurant week is worth the cost anymore because so many restaurants participate.
"[Years ago] it used to be busy, very full! But at that time there weren't hundreds of restaurants participating." These days, he says it's a gamble. "You don't know if you win or lose, but you do it anyway. I'll let you know if it was worth it. . . so far.. no. "
Todd Kliman is food editor of Washingtonian Magazine. He says Restaurant Week should be something special, and not necessarily about the bottom line. "This is where Restaurants are put on the spot and are asked to put on a show." So, he says, look for the best deal for the best menu and make it a Gastronomical experience.
Sabri Ben-Achour reports...
August 28, 2009 - The furlough plan for lawmakers in Maryland looks a lot like the one the O'Malley administration is using for state employees. Senate President Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael Busch unveiled the plan on Thursday.
Legislative offices will close for five days around holiday weekends. There will also be additional furlough days based on salary that could add up to five additional days. The plan affects 633 Maryland General Assembly and Department of Legislative Services employees.
It will save $1.1 million. The salaries of state lawmakers cannot be reduced, but they can give back up to ten days pay. Last year, 85% of lawmakers took part in a voluntary giveback when furloughs were implemented.
Bill Redlin reports...
August 28, 2009 - A lawmaker in Maryland has reimbursed police in Baltimore for a marriage proposal stunt that involved department resources. Delegate Jon Cardin had police perform a mock search for contraband on a boat in Baltimore's Inner Harbor where he proposed to Megan Homer of Rockville. A police helicopter flew overhead.
Cardin submitted $300 check to reimburse the department and made numerous apologies on his website to police, who are under investigation. A spokesman with the police says the department based the figure on the hourly rate paid to the officers in the stunt, which lasted about 13 minutes. Fuel for the helicopter also was included.
As for the proposal, Ms. Homer did say "yes."
Natalie Neumann reports...
August 28, 2009 - Inspection records for the water main that burst and flooded River Road in Bethesda Maryland last year are still missing, despite a three-month search. The main that burst last December dated back to 1965. The break in December left several people trapped in cars. They had to be rescued by helicopter and boat. After the flood, investigators determined that the main had been laid incorrectly.
Since then, officials have been looking for the original inspection records. The records were supposed to help identify other lines that could have similar problems. But the Washington Post reports the WSSC has come up empty handed.
A spokesman for the commission tells the paper the records could have been thrown away when a storage room was cleaned out in March or April. That was before the search began. Though he says the records may have been discarded years ago. The commission only has to keep them for 2 years.
Rebecca Blatt reports...
August 28, 2009 - The latest town hall meeting on health care reform in the area targeted a single demographic. Leisure World is a sprawling age-restricted retirement community in Montgomery County. And it was there where seniors, and only seniors, were able to discuss the current health care bill with Congressman Chris Van Hollen. The questions were civil...but pointed.
Matt Bush reports...
August 28, 2009 - DC's Mayor unveiled a new campaign to increase HIV testing but it may lack the comprehensive approach AIDS activists want.
Adrian Fenty's $225,000 marketing strategy--called "Ask For the Test", essentially consists of TV, radio, print and Metro ads that encourage DC residents to make HIV testing as routine during doctor visits as measuring one's blood pressure.
Fenty was flanked by half a dozen health department and HIV/AIDS allies when he made the announcement in Northeast Washington.
"We don't want to make the mistake of years past where we focus testing on one particular area because when you start focusing on one group you leave someone behind and people get complacent," said Fenty.
But the Mayor is under criticism from activists who say he's consistently placed too much emphasis on testing and not enough on prevention or patient care.
Larry Bryant is the D.C. Field Officer for the AIDS activist group Housing Works.
"We don't need any more billboards. We're putting all this money into media campaigns that take us nowhere. We're not getting people into care and we're not doing anything to reduce the number of positive tests we're getting. We're just making more noise about the positive tests but we're not doing anything to reduce infection rates."
Dr. Shannon Hader of the city's HIV/AIDS Administration was at Fenty's side when he unveiled the campaign. She countered that criticism by saying most studies show that once people know they are HIV infected the vast majority take action to prevent transmission to others, and that testing is a cornerstone to the any AIDS response.
Mana Rabiee reports...
August 28, 2009 - By REBECCA MARTINEZ The News Leader
STAUNTON, Va. (AP) Keith Smith is a chatty 16-year-old who likes watching TV, playing with his puppy and volunteering with Meals on Wheels. Imagine his concern when he found himself at the Staunton Police Department one night recently; he thought he was in trouble.
Keith is autistic, and his tendency to wander has become a problem, his mother, Marsha Smith, said. Staunton Police have had to look for him on more than one occasion. They once picked him up with his dog at Grubert Avenue after he wandered from his home on Robinhood Road. "I was ... terrified," she said, adding that she was eager to find a way to prevent Keith from getting lost in the first place.
During Keith's police station visit, he was met by a smiling Officer D.A. Britt, who fastened a plastic bracelet with a small LoJack radio transmitter onto Keith's left wrist. He became the first participant in Staunton's Project Lifesaver program, part of a nationwide network of emergency response teams that can locate missing people with autism, Alzheimer's disease, dementia and other mental impairments, who wear special tracking bracelets.
Project Lifesaver started in the Chesapeake Sheriff's Office in 1999 and has since spread to emergency squads around the country. The organization, which provides tracking bracelets and trains emergency responders, boasts that 100 percent of participants who go missing are recovered.
Augusta County already has a Project Lifesaver program, but because they're Staunton residents, Marsha and Keith Smith were ineligible to participate. In May, the National Alzheimer's Association awarded a $6,800 grant to the Staunton Police Department to fund its program.
Officer Britt has helped search for a wandering Keith in the past and said he's glad the Smiths have access to the program, adding other families in the area have expressed interest in Project Lifesaver. "Hopefully it's never used, but it's just there in case [the bracelet wearers] do wander or ... bolt away," Britt said. "It's something law enforcement can definitely use when it does happen."
Rockingham County's Project Lifesaver program has been in place for more than a decade, said Sheriff Don Farley, and while there never have been more than five or six participants at a time, he said he's seen the program's value in the peace of mind it gives caregivers. He also said the network of participating departments allows families to move about more freely. For example, Farley said, if a family decides to vacation in Virginia Beach and notifies the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office, Farley can contact the Chesapeake Sheriff's Office, which could then respond in case of emergency.
Keith Smith's Project Lifesaver bracelet is a white plastic band with a plastic oval device attached to it. It looks like a watch without a face, and Keith has decorated it with star stickers. "I need the lucky stars because they're lucky," he said, showing off his newly decorated accessory. His mother said she's "relieved" the bracelet's on him. She thinks he won't have trouble keeping it on because he's already accustomed to wearing a watch. Plus, she encourages him to remember his bracelet is special, and not everybody "gets" to wear one.
She's already begun checking the battery and transmission of his bracelet, which she'll do daily. Once a month, Officer Britt will come to their house to change the band and battery. Marsha said she's been in touch with Waynesboro's City Council about setting up its own Project Lifesaver program. She hopes they'll work it out, saying she'll feel more at ease knowing Waynesboro police will know how to respond if Keith goes missing there. She said, "At least I know if he gets lost I've just got one number to call."
Information from: The Daily News Leader, http://www.newsleader.com
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
August 28, 2009 - Saturday, August 29, 2009
Washington, D.C. Motorcade, Stop at U.S. Capitol
Approximately 3:00 p.m. Arrival of Senator Kennedy at Andrews Air Force Base.
4:00 p.m. Senator Kennedy departs Andrews Air Force base. Motorcade route is open to the public.
From Andrews Air Force base, Senator Kennedy's motorcade will proceed to the east plaza of the U.S. Capitol building. The motorcade will enter through the Independence Ave entrance and proceed to the Senate Chamber steps.
4:30 p.m. Senator Kennedy arrives at the U.S. Capitol. Open to the public.
The Senator's motorcade will stop at the Senate steps for a brief prayer so that Senate staff and members of the broader Senate community with whom the Senator worked can bid a final farewell. The motorcade will then proceed to Arlington National Cemetery via Constitution Avenue.
Arlington National Cemetery
5:30 p.m. A burial service for Senator Kennedy will be held at Arlington National Cemetery.
The burial service is closed to the public and pooled press.
Senator Kennedy will be laid to rest next to President Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery.
Source: tedkennedy.org
privacy policy - terms of use - contact - sitemap - directions - rss - podcasts - jobs - community
Copyright WAMU 88.5 American University Radio | 4000 Brandywine Street NW | Washington, DC 20016-8082 | (202)885-1200
