DC WEDNESDAY

DC CLIPS

Gawker - Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama's right-hand man, lives in a basement apartment on Capitol Hill rented to him by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro. Just one problem: He's not allowed to live there. That's what private investigator Joseph Culligan discovered after asking questions of D.C. officials. A zoning administrator responded to Culligan's inquiry and told him that DeLauro's house at 816 E. Capitol St. NE was listed as a single-family dwelling, and as such, could not be rented out. Emanuel, who splits his time between Chicago and D.C., will not have this low-rent problem for very long.

If we had a decent accessory apartment law in this town, what Emanuel is doing would be perfectly legal.

An exhibit of photographs of black Washington between 1911 and 1994, taken by Addison Scurlock and his sons, is on exhibit at the National Museum of American History.

WMAL - The University of the District of Columbia may be about to double its tuition. The school has proposed an increase from roughly 33-hundred dollars to seven-thousand dollars. The hike still has to be approved by the board of trustees, but it could go into effect next fall.

DCRTV - Washington will be losing its only lefty political radio talker. Redskins owner Dan Snyder's Red Zebra-owned WWRC, recently dubbed "Obama 1260," will be flipping to business news next week. The station, which features shows from Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller, and Bill Press, frequently doesn't even show in the local radio ratings. Program Director Greg Tantum tells the DC Post that he thought the station could work because of enthusiasm over Obama, but that ratings collapsed to a level that could not be measured after the election. But the lowish ratings nearly doubled, he says, at Snyder's right-leaning station, WTNT, 570 AM, which features Michael Savage, Laura Ingraham, and Bill Bennett. Tantum said he will move Schultz to WTNT to give him another shot. . .

On Inauguration Day, Metro set a record of 1.1 million rail trips, which sounds good were it not for the fact that thirty years ago, when Metro's boosters were seeking federal money, they projected a daily ridership only slightly below last month's record.

Washington Times - Judge Brooke Hedge appeared agitated during a hearing for plaintiffs in the bid to reopen the Franklin Shelter on 13th and K Streets Northwest. The shelter, which provided emergency beds and services for up to 300 homeless men, was abruptly closed on Sept. 26. . . "I'm not a legislator, I have no authority to rule that," said Judge Hedge, reacting to the plaintiffs' request that the court reopen the shelter. The closing of Franklin Shelter has caused outrage among homeless advocates, who say that those who were moved out are now suffering on the street or in run-down conditions at other shelters across the District. . . Judge Hedge said that since the opening and the closing of the Franklin Shelter were the responsibility of the D.C. Council, and since the earlier restraining order had failed, it was unlikely the court was going to intervene."I just don't think you have a substantial chance of success," she said.

READER COMMENTS

SOMETHING ROTTEN IN APPLESEED

Back in the day, a ten-mile square was about an hour's ride at full gallop from the boundary to the Capitol. Today, an hour's ride by common ground transportation (automobile) is more like 45-50 miles (neglecting rush hour). So we should update the Constitution by resizing the District, to protect Congress from potential tank attacks originating in Maryland or Virginia, by expanding the boundaries of the District to roughly a fifty-mile radius from the Capitol. - The Sanguine Pen

I once proposed in a radio interview with Rep. Tom Davis that northern Virginia be made part of the federal district, given that it had far more sensitive military and intelligence headquarters than DC. He didn't like the idea. - Sam