June 9, 2011 | 10:33 AM | By

Tasty Morning Bytes — Fried Chicken Cinema, Frustrated Mayor and Highly-Skilled Immigrants

Have you cooled off from your sticky morning commute yet? Excellent. Now check out these links:

Young, Scripted, and Black: Regi Allen’s Quest to Make FunkTV the First Urban Alternative Network Mount Pleasant resident Regi Allen pitched a smart and weird show to BET, Fried Chicken Cinema, which Marcus J. Moore of the City Paper describes as “an update of Mystery Science Theater 3000 for lovers of Blaxploitation films.” And then BET rejected it. Now Allen is aiming to start his own television network to appeal to the “young, quirky, well-educated black audience.” Will Comcast fund the project? Suspense! (Washington City Paper)

D.C. Scandals Take Their Toll On City Hall A series of political scandals involving D.C. Councilmembers and the Mayor may scare away Wall Street investors and give little impetus for Congress to give the District more autonomy. Also, Mayor Vincent Gray blasts members of the D.C. media for not “reporting about some of the good things we are doing,” causing his staff to erupt in applause. (WAMU)

Azi’s gets a new owner Beloved Azi has sold her Shaw coffee shop. “Those of you who have been in [the] neighborhood longer than a couple of years will remember Azi’s as one of the businesses that contributed towards changing perceptions of Shaw.” The shop will remain open under new ownership. (14th & You)

Minority youth spend more than half their day consuming media If you want to reach young people, get a Twitter account. And minority youth spend even more time using media than their white counterparts. Black and Latino youth use media for about 4.5 hours more a day than white youth, regardless of class. (poynter.org)

Report documents dramatic shift in immigrant workforce’s skill level While much of the national immigration debate has been centered around low-skilled workers, there’s been a sharp increase in the number of highly-skilled immigrants — and D.C. is one hub for them. Also, many of these highly-skilled new arrivals end up being over-qualified for the jobs they do get. (The Washington Post)

  • DC Elected official

    I was just trying to think of something positive that this mayor has done after reading the article on wamu.  I’m drawing a blank.   I imagine there must be SOMETHING positive he’s done for the city, right?  I voted for him and I’m really disgusted by DC local politics right now.