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Articles by Tom Howell Jr.

A man passes by a fallen tree on 14th Street SW on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, the day after Hurricane Sandy slammed into the region. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

D.C. gets federal aid for Sandy clean up

President Obama has signed a disaster declaration that will help the District defray $4 million in clean-up and recovery costs after Hurricane Sandy swept through the northeast United States at the end of October, closing schools and government offices in the nation's capital.

December 6, 2012
Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican, and Democratic Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s nonvoting member of Congress, have been working for the past 18 months on a legislative route to D.C. budget autonomy. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

D.C. moves forward on budget autonomy

While Congress keeps its daggers drawn over the best way to avert the "fiscal cliff," city lawmakers are forging ahead with a novel plan to divorce their local spending from budgetary stalemates on Capitol Hill — despite warnings about its legal validity from the D.C. mayor and a powerful House member.

December 5, 2012
Rep. Ted Poe, Texas Republican, has found a new place for a National World War I Memorial, leaving undisturbed the District’s own memorial on the Mall. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Bill authorizing WWI memorial advances in House

A House committee approved a bill on Wednesday to establish a World War I memorial in the District — a plan that has faced controversy despite its noble goal of honoring those who served in the Great War.

December 5, 2012

Former D.C. Council chairman’s brother charged with bank fraud

The brother of former D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown has been charged with bank fraud — the same offense that brought down the erstwhile lawmaker — on accusations he submitted documents to a mortgage company to make it look as if he earned $35,000 in income he never actually received.

December 5, 2012
D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray says the city should 'double down' on its gun laws in the wake of the school shooting in Newton, Conn. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

D.C. Council moves to lower fines for speeding, most by $50

D.C. lawmakers on Tuesday signaled they will lower fines for speeders and other scofflaws caught by traffic cameras even as the city expands the program across the city — a trade-off that reflects the fragile business of letting machines issue tickets instead of live officers.

December 4, 2012
D.C. Police Chief Cathy L Lanier, with Mayor Vincent C. Gray, discusses an initiative for phone-service carriers to disable stolen smartphones as soon as the theft is reported. Chief Lanier is a leading advocate of the FCC-coordinated program. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

Smartphone thieves lose connection

Smartphones can hail a cab, stream football games and take high-quality photos, so the wireless industry's latest trick may seem as out of place as it was long in coming — rendering the phone as useless as a plastic brick.

December 3, 2012
Marion Barry

Barry: ‘It is wrong’ to deny ex-cons jobs

Former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry has joined a chorus of lawmakers across the country pushing legislation that prohibits employers from discriminating against applicants with a criminal record unless there is a significant nexus between the crime and the job.

December 2, 2012
The D.C. Council is calling for a ban on the sale of synthetic cannabinoids — sold as incense under names including Spice, K2 and Yucatan Fire — because of their easy availability and danger. (Associated Press)

D.C. joins states on synthetic drug ban

The nation's capital has joined more than 40 states in calling for a ban on synthetic marijuana and bath salts, a pair of drug genres that have raised eyebrows among law enforcement, parents and antidrug advocates alike because of their off-the-shelf accessibility and frightening effects.

November 29, 2012
The Metropolitan Police Department's Asian Liaison Unit is scheduled to be relocated from it's current office on H Street NW, in the heart of Chinatown, in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

Police take liaison unit away from Chinatown

The Metropolitan Police Department is moving a liaison unit that works with the city's Asian community from its longtime home in Chinatown, a quiet change that ignited fears the police chief plans to tinker with another specialized crew despite vows that little will change except where the officers store their gear.

November 28, 2012
During his biweekly press briefing Wednesday, D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray and state schools superintendent Hosanna Mahaley talk about how a 4-year-old special-needs student was left alone on a school bus for several hours Tuesday. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

Driver, aide fired after 4-year-old is left on school bus

A D.C. school bus driver and attendant who left a student with special needs alone on their vehicle for hours on Tuesday ignored set protocols — including disengaging a safety buzzer with an off switch at the back of the bus — and overlooked the 4-year-old boy, who stayed on the bus between the morning and afternoon runs, city officials said.

November 28, 2012
THE WASHINGTON TIMES FILE School buses.

Driver, attendant fired after leaving special needs student on bus

A D.C. school bus driver and attendant who left a student with special needs alone on their vehicle for hours on Tuesday ignored set protocols — including disengaging a safety buzzer with an off switch at the back of the bus — and overlooked the 4-year-old boy who stayed on the bus between the morning and afternoon runs, city officials said.

November 28, 2012
Bill Bregenzer of Flemington, N.J., shows off his winnings while standing in line for a cashier near the gambling floor last week in Parx Casino, near Philadelphia. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Inaction on Hill seen as jackpot for states with online gambling

Months after D.C. lawmakers repealed a measure that would have allowed first-in-the-nation online gambling on home computers and at select sites in the shadow of Capitol Hill, several states are forging ahead with online games of chance while a harried Congress remains unlikely to pass a federal bill that would regulate the practice.

November 27, 2012
Actor Daniel Day-Lewis, portraying President Abraham Lincoln, looks across a battlefield in the aftermath of a terrible siege in a scene from director Steven Spielberg’s biopic “Lincoln.” (Dreamworks/Twentieth Century Fox)

Missing out on ‘Lincoln’ film costly to D.C.

Abraham Lincoln took on bloodshed among the states and the shame of slavery during his four years in the White House, thwarting plans of the Confederacy headquartered 90 miles to the south in Richmond.

November 26, 2012
Michael A. Brown

D.C. statehood project put on hold

An uphill initiative to promote D.C. statehood in handpicked pockets of the country is in limbo as state lawmakers gear up for sessions in their respective capitals.

November 22, 2012
Charles J. Willoughby

Audit cites ex-D.C. Council member in ticket-fixing scheme

The D.C. office of the inspector general says a former council member tried to get 10 traffic tickets voided last year by leveraging a law that exempts legislators from parking rules while on official business -- a common political perk that has led to confusion and abuse across the country.

November 21, 2012
Committee on Government Operations Chairman Muriel Bowser, Ward 4 Democrat, asks a question of D.C. Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan on ways to improve campaign finance rules during a meeting Tuesday with other D.C. Council members. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

Crafting D.C. ethics bill proving difficult

When D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson got up Tuesday to leave a meeting on campaign finance reform with city Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan, colleagues at the conference table joked he was running out to raise money before the proposed legislation kicks in.

November 20, 2012

Decision upheld keeping Wilson out of Turkey Bowl

The D.C. State Athletic Association on Tuesday upheld a decision to bar Woodrow Wilson High School's football team from the Turkey Bowl on Thursday for using an ineligible player in the run-up to the public school system's championship game, citing evidence the student used Metro to commute to school from Maryland and held a driver's license from the Old Line State.

November 20, 2012
Among those listening to Kaya Henderson and Mayor Vincent C. Gray at Monday’s luncheon at the Verizon Center is Anacostia High School’s Markel Woods (left, in dark suit). (Craig Bisacre/The Washington Times)

Residency fraud still plagues D.C. schools

D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson stood before a room of high school athletes in a swanky Verizon Center dining room Monday and reminded them of their hard work, good grades and effort to "do what was good and right" in the run-up to their showdown in the annual Turkey Bowl.

November 19, 2012