DCentric

Good morning, DCentric readers! Here are your breakfast links:

Beyond Bread: We Need City Council to Take Action, Make the Better Choice “Mayor Fenty has proposed another round of cuts as part of this year’s city budget. Utility assistance, child care, TANF, job training, disability assistance, affordable housing, legal services, and more are on the chopping block. I’ve been through my share of hard times: an abusive relationship, losing my home, getting harassed by landlords, and health issues…My daughter hasn’t had a new coat for three years, and right now we’re wearing our coats in the house because I can’t turn the heat on. I don’t want to run the bills up and then have my utilities cut off. That’s grounds to lose my housing voucher, and I can’t take that chance.” (breadforthecity.blogspot.com)

Advocates Urge Gray To Vote Against Homeless Bill “Remember that homeless bill that the New York Times editorial board slammed as inhumane? The one that every nonprofit in the District condemned? The residency-requirement bill that the city’s CFO stated would produce zero cost savings? Tomorrow, Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells is going to put it up for a vote. Just in time for hypothermia season. Today, Mayor-Elect Vincent Gray got a letter urging that he vote against the bill…Wells may want to reach out to these folks if he wants to keep his progressive membership card.” (Washington City Paper)

Breaking: Gray DOES NOT cut streetcars “Gray’s proposal does make a few changes from the Fenty proposal, including a 4-day furlough for “nonessential” DC government personnel, and restores funding to the Healthy Schools Act, low-income energy assistance, and the Main Streets programs, including the funds to pick up trash in neighborhood commercial corridors. A bit over 6 months ago, we shut down the phones in Gray’s office to ask him to pull back the streetcar cuts. Let’s thank him now.” (Greater Greater Washington)

Wal-Mart Gets Top U.S. Court Review in Sex-Bias Case “The U.S. Supreme Court, heeding calls from companies to consider curbing class actions, agreed to decide whether Wal-Mart Stores Inc. must face a gender-bias suit on behalf of potentially 1 million of its workers. The justices today said they will review a federal appeals court decision that approved a single suit to cover women who worked at the retailer’s 4,400 Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores since 2001. Wal-Mart, facing billions of dollars in potential liability, contends the lower court made it too easy for workers with different job histories to band together in a single case.” (bloomberg.com)

DHS: Secretary Napolitano Announces Expansion of “If You See Something, Say Something” Campaign to Walmart Stores Across the Nation “Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced the expansion of the Department’s national “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign to hundreds of Walmart stores across the country – launching a new partnership between DHS and Walmart to help the American public play an active role in ensuring the safety and security of our nation….”I applaud Walmart for joining the ‘If You See Something, Say Something’ campaign. This partnership will help millions of shoppers across the nation identify and report indicators of terrorism, crime and other threats to law enforcement authorities.” (Department of Homeland Security)

The District Curmudgeon: “There’s a killer on your block” “Things have been quiet on the block since the night that Kwan was arrested for these two homicides. News spread from neighbor to neighbor, and we’ve assumed that everyone nearby knows what has happened. Apparently, though, someone wanted to make sure that we were fully aware of the situation. This arrived in the mail today…It’s an envelope with no return address (and no recipient name, just our address), containing a photocopied printout of this Washington Post article. As you can see, a note was added in large, bold print, alerting us that the accused lives on our block.” (distcurm.blogspot.com)