All Articles Tagged "washington dc"
D.C. Council Downplays Infighting
(Washington Examiner) — The D.C. Council kicked off its fall session with swearing over breakfast, mocking each other from the dais, passing a tax increase on high earners and then holding a hastily scheduled meeting behind closed doors guarded by police officers. But after three days marked by animosity and personality clashes, the city’s legislators are hesitant to say they their image has suffered, though political pundits were quick to zero in on that point. Council Chairman Kwame Brown said the tax increase as the first order of business immediately stepped up tensions. The rise to 8.95 percent, effective in October, will apply to those earning more than $350,000 annually.
Inflation Swallows Raises in the Washington Area
(Washington Post) — As salary increases have gotten smaller in recent years, you might have consoled yourself with the knowledge that at least you were staying ahead of inflation. Now you may not even be able to count on that. For the first time since 1979, the increase in salaries in the Washington area was less than the rate of inflation. Wages as a whole for metropolitan Washington rose just 0.04 percent in 2011, a new salary survey found. The rate of inflation in the region shot up to 4.1 percent in July (the latest month for which the figure is available) compared to a year ago. “If you earn $100,000 and get a 2 percent increase and the rate of inflation is 3 percent, you’re already in the hole $1,000,” said Angelo Kostopoulos, president of Akron Inc., a District-based research firm that compiled and analyzed survey data for the Human Resource Association of the National Capital Area.
Weight Loss Biz Says It's Easy as Pie
(Black Enterprise) — In business, it’s important to know your target market intimately, and Carmyn Robey certainly does. By age 14, she weighed 260 pounds and was a size 24. “One day I made up my mind that I was tired of being depressed,” says Robey. “I started researching information about nutrition. Over two years, with diet and exercise, I lost 140 pounds and dropped from a size 24 to an 8.” Seeking to help other women in similar straits, she founded Easy As Pie, a Hyattsville, Maryland–based company that offers custom meal plans, individual cooking lessons, pantry walkthroughs and grocery assessments to help women achieve optimal nutrition and lead an overall healthier lifestyle.
President Obama Tells Us to ‘Shake It Off..’
During the Congressional Black Caucus yesterday in Washington, DC, President Obama delivered a fiery summons to black people to quit crying and complaining and “put on your marching shoes” to follow him into battle for jobs and opportunity.
Obama’s speech to the annual awards dinner of the CBC was his answer to increasingly vocal griping from black leaders that he’s been giving away too much in talks with Republicans — and not doing enough to fight black unemployment, which is nearly double the national average at 16.7 percent.
The president encouraged us to “Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,”, “shake it off. ‘Stop complainin’. ‘Stop grumblin’. Stop cryin’. We are going to press on. We have work to do.”
D.C. Council's Bickering Could Be Omen
(Washington Examiner) — Midway through a biting, three-hour debate during the D.C. Council’s first meeting since its summer recess, at-large Councilman David Catania turned to Chairman Kwame Brown to ask: “Who is the chairman here?” The thinly veiled assault Tuesday on Brown’s leadership capabilities — and for the public record — was indicative of a council that observers say lacks control and direction. It’s an unruliness that will grow without someone stepping up to stop the mayhem, they say. This week’s debate that ended in an income tax hike on the District’s high earners might be a preview of what’s to come.
Scott Slate Wins Ward 8 Democrats Posts
(Washington Informer) — Michael Shuler could hardly wait to participate in the Ward 8 Democrats Biennial Convention, which took place at Savoy Elementary School in Southeast on Sat., Sept. 17. A 2011 graduate of Ballou High School in Southeast, he wanted to make sure that his vote counted when it came to who should run the Ward 8 Democrats for the next two years. ”I am here to vote for Joyce Scott, Sandy Allen and Darryl Ross,” Schuler, 19, said. “I believe that they can make things happen. I really want Markus Batchelor to win because he has good qualities and I like the fact that he put himself out there to be a candidate.” Shuler got his wish. The slate led by Scott won all of their races in a higher than expected turnout. Scott, a long time resident of Ward 8 and the first vice president of the Ward 8 Democrats, defeated ward newcomer Natalie Williams for the presidency, 203-130, with a handful of votes going to a minor candidate. Batchelor won his position, first vice president, with a commanding 206 votes and former D.C. Council member Sandy Allen, a candidate for second vice president, received 250.
Davis Wins Special Election
(Washington Post) — Early support from Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III and several other county leaders helped Derrick Leon Davis win the Democratic nomination for the vacant District 6 seat on the County Council. With all 26 of the district’s precincts reporting, Davis received 3,570 votes, or 55 percent of ballots cast. Arthur A. Turner Jr., with 1,254 votes, or 19 percent, was a distant second among the primary’s 14 candidates. In the predominantly Democratic county, Davis, a former school system official and the current chairman of the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund, becomes the strong favorite to succeed Leslie Johnson, who resigned in disgrace this year.
Council Hikes Income Tax on High Earners
(Washington Examiner) — The D.C. Council narrowly approved an income tax increase on high-earning residents even as the city’s top financial adviser says the District will end the year with an $89 million budget surplus. In a 7-6 vote Tuesday, officials approved an 8.95 percent income tax on residents who earn more than $350,000 annually, up from 8.5 percent. The new rate, one of the highest in the nation, affects roughly 6,000 residents in the city and will expire in four years unless officials move to extend it. The tax was instituted in place of applying a new tax on purchases of out-of-state municipal bonds to current bondholders.
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District's Credit Outlook Downgraded
(Washington Examiner) — Wall Street delivered a warning shot to the District on Tuesday by downgrading the city’s financial outlook. Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings cut the city’s credit outlook from stable to negative, meaning that if the city’s finances don’t start improving, its credit rating could be downgraded next year. A credit downgrade would make it more expensive for the city to borrow money and taxpayers would likely carry that burden.
Friends of Accused Bowie State Student Express Shock
(Washington Post) — Alexis Simpson had been distressed to leave Clark Atlanta University, where she attended last year as a freshman, friends said. And the 19-year-old wasn’t easily settling into a new life at Bowie State University, where she was randomly housed in a suite with three other students. “She said she hadn’t been comfortable with her roommate,” Simpson’s friend, BreYonna Conrad, 18, said on Saturday. “She said they had argued and it almost turned into a fight. She said the roommate would target her. She was thinking about leaving the dorm and just living at home because she didn’t want to deal with it anymore.” But her friends never imagined those tensions would turn deadly. Simpson is charged with murder in the Thursday night fatal stabbing of one of her suite mates, Dominique Frazier, 18, of Northeast Washington. She is expected to appear in court Monday.
