Beltway Area Indymedia

ublic roundtable on Tuesday, July 3, that he is considering a bill to declare parent5s of "children" who are "found" outside after 10 PM guilty of perental neglect. This could mean city custody until age 21 for a 17 year old out at 10:30 PM if passed.

On July 5th, a date picked to minimize public involvement, the City Council held a public round table on selling off three parcels of city-owned land. One is a parcel on Ga Ave where a former owner wants to build condos, one a plot where an owner of boarded up homes wants to put in a garden-and one a property where Temple of Praise proposes to build "town homes with 2 car garages for the homeless!"

On Friday, June 29th, DC Superior Court Judge Bruce Beaudin ordered that no demolition of the Benning Library, abruptly closed in 2004 without community input, shall take place before July 20th, 2007. On that date, the involved parties will appear before Judge Retchin to argue more of the merits of the case. Community members had sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) and preliminary injunction to prevent the demolition of their library.

Concerned and outraged members of the community, including Dorothy Douglas (Chair of ANC Commission 7D), Rick Tingling-Clemmons (ANC 7D05), Betty Diggs (concerned community member), Eddie Rhodes, Cynthia Payne-Davis (President of Central NorthEast Civic Association), and Jane Zara (ANC 1D01) were forced to take legal action, after being consistently shut out of matters relating to their library. The Benning Library was closed in 2004, along with the Anacostia, Tenley, and Watha T. Daniel (Shaw) branches, supposedly for renovation, and without community input.

Here is contact information published on http://www.iccproject.com/contract-a/, including addresses and phone numbers for two Inter-County Connector subcontractors. You know what works from fighting HLS-go get 'em!

CONSTRUCTION SUBCONTRACTORS, VENDORS, & SERVICES:
Bonnie Prince, DBE Coordinator
(410) 792-9400
Intercounty Constructors
12001 Guilford Rd
Annapolis Junction, MD 20701

ENGINEERING DESIGN SERVICES:
Chris Hara, DBE Coordinator
(410) 837-5840
Intercounty Constructors
100 S. Charles St.
Ste 1000, Tower 2
Baltimore, MD 21201

Today, Wednesday, June 20, the heavily armed, anti-immigrant member of the Herndon Minutemen, Tyler Froatz Jr. was ordered to be released into the custody of his parents, Tyler and Jeanne Froatz (of Wayne, NJ), by DC Superior Court Judge James Boasberg. Mr. Froatz had previously been ordered to be held in the DC Jail, pending today's hearing, after being arrested at an immigrant rights rally on May 1st for assault, and for carrying a dangerous weapon (weapons found on Mr. Froatz that day included a stun gun, a claw hammer, a molotov cocktail, and a (converted) fully automatic M1 carbine rifle).

Free Eastern Market Mural Map
Available Only at Eastern Market

27 distinguished artists created murals to cover the boarded-up windows of Eastern Market’s South Hall. A free diagram indicates the location of each, the names of the artists who painted them, and the title of each work.

Free copies are available only at Eastern Market locations:

• Capitol Hill Books, 657 C Street SE (opposite the Market’s C St., SE façade)
• Uncle Brutha's Hot Sauce Emporium, 323 Seventh St. SE
• Market Poultry (refrigerated trailer, South of Main Market door, (Thursday through Sunday)

Mayor Fenty has announced "Operation Fixit" in which teams from all city agencies from trash collection to code enforcement will descend upon a single block, address-or entire neighborhood. Assesing fines against landlords is to be part of this operation.

The operation aims to show city residents that "change is possible" but what KIND of change? Rat, trash, and roach contgrol are one thing, but on Pacifica Headline news it was announced that "many neighbors are fed up whose owners are negligent, allowing trash to pile up, buildings to run down, and TENANTS TO RUN AMUCK!

(AUDIO 3 min 46 sec )
On June 16th, the MinuteKlan's "flag day" national mobilization finally came to a disgraceful end. Instead of the 10,000 people they told the Washington Post they were expecting, they had maybe 75, and had to scrub their march from the Capitol after being run of by the Capitol Police.

Instead, they went to the Washington Monument(close to a South Asian event), and that's where Resistance and Solidarity caught up with them.

That racist anti-immigrant book signing at the Capitol Holiday Inn(550 C st SW) set for July 15th was CANCELLED in midst of incredible bickering about "nobody showing up!"
Members of Resistance and Solidarity who entered the hotel prior to our own planned counter-rally saw the damnedest thing: Almost no MinuteKlan and a hell of a lot of loud arguing by the few who were there at all.

Mayor Fenty and police chief Lanier have unveiled their summer "crime-fighting" strategy: Zero tolerance policing, apparently based on "Guiliani time" in New York City! On the weekend of June 8-10, a police blitz produced well over 500 arrests, including 130 for prostitution and anothyer huge number for panhandling.

Although the double-overtime police shifts that were an integral part of this blitz is unsustainable, telling cops to make as many arrests as possible on any possible charges is another story.