czarek's blog

After last year's release of the right-to-wrong erasures on the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System tests triggered doubt as to their credibility, reporters asked for the 2011 data under D.C. FOIA. Assuming that information would be released as the 2010 data were, reporters were surprised to see a Dec. 23 announcement that D.C. was looking to hire a private consultant to study the results to ensure their validity. This would likely set release back by months, if not years, writes Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews. The 2010 data, which also prompted a D.C. Read more »

Two reporters were led away from a meeting of the D.C. Taxicab Commission in handcuffs and a third was barred from entry, a Washington Post columnist reported. The June 22 meeting of the commission -- a public body -- was the sort of meeting covered by the new D.C. Open Meetings Act. According to the article, attendees assert the commissioners violated the law by having the reporters removed by U.S. Park Police.

District employees saw Council Chairman Kwame Brown's request for a Lincoln Navigator to be "waste and abuse" of taxpayer dollars, according to e-mail messages released through the D.C. Freedom of Information Act. The Washington City Paper reported on last fall's messages that detailed the chairman's reported requests for the luxury SUV, including some between Department of Public Works employees indicating concern over the issue.

Charlie Sheen's newsmaking police escort for his District of Columbia show last month was one of many instances where District police have provided escorts for high-profile visitors, according to records released to the Associated Press under the D.C. Freedom of Information Act. The AP reports these escorts -- for college and professional sports teams as well as some celebrities -- have ranged in cost from hundreds of dollars to $30,000. The article says the department has generally been reimbursed for these expenses.

Documents released through the DC Freedom of Information Act show that no performance measures were detailed in a contract between the Fenty administration and the Peaceoholics, which received $100,000 grant to run a program intended to keep kids out of trouble in 2008. Measures were provided by Fenty's office to the police department, but did not make it into the contract between the District and the non-profit group that works with at-risk youths, the documents reqeusted by The Washington Examiner show.