2012

For the DC Urban Moms (and Dads), as well as my fellow suburban parents, here is a list of suggested Washington area summer activities from A to Z.

I hope you and your family enjoy these 26+ outings as much as my family and I have!

AMF Free Summer Bowling and Regal Cinema $1 Movies – Summer is a great time for freebies from kid-oriented businesses, such as AMF’s program of two free games per kid per day in summer (shoe rental extra) and Regal Cinema’s Summer Express $1 movie matinees

I have noticed many posts about wills, trusts, guardians, how to select an attorney and whether an attorney is even needed. As an estate attorney, I hope this post will help begin the process of answering some of those questions. Please use this post as a resource. Generally, the questions have asked the following:

1. Why bother with the expense of an attorney. Can't you just use Legalzoom, Nolo or one of the many online/software tools to create your will?

Answer: Sure, using this software and putting something into place is much better than not having a will at all. It is better than not having anything in place. Any piece of software designed to write a will can do so and will always be cheaper than using an attorney. However, when you hire an attorney, you are not hiring that person to just create form documents. You are hiring that person for the advice that will be provided to you and for the experience gained from school and from working with people similar to you. When you use a piece of software, it cannot advise you as to the ramifications of what you have written. When you use a piece of software can you be sure that it has been tailored to your state's rules? Also, there are little things that the software designer may have overlooked that could cost your estate hundreds to maybe thousands of dollars. The software will not update your will when the law changes.

On November 6, District of Columbia voters will have the opportunity to vote to fill two At-Large DC Council seats. Council Members Vincent Orange, a Democrat, and Michael A Brown, an independent will attempt to retain the seats they now hold. Ann Wilcox of the DC Statehood Green Party and Republican Mary Brooks Beatty will be challenging them. In addition, David Grosso, an independent is vying for one of the two slots. I had the opportunity to sit down with Grosso and discuss his campaign.

My first reaction upon meeting Grosso is that he was not at all what I expected. If it is possible to be both laid back and passionate at the same time, Grosso manages the feat. I was a bit bewildered by this until he reveled that after finishing high school, he had spent time working as a bartender and following the Grateful Dead. I could easily see him in both roles. But, how does one go from a tie-dyed shirt and slinging beers to running for an At-Large seat on the DC Council? That is a transformation for which Grosso credits a number of women.

I'd like to say that when I endorsed Sekou Biddle on February 2 for an At Large seat on the DC Council, I started a trend. Since that date, Biddle has collected a list of endorsements that spans the DC political spectrum. However, that trend had already been started weeks earlier when Bryan Weaver had offered his endorsement for Biddle. While I can't lay claim to being a trend-setter, I can brag about having been correct in at least one respect. I described Biddle as the one candidate capable of uniting disparate factions of District residents. The subsequent endorsements have certainly borne that out.

The breadth of Biddle's support is most evident in his newspaper endorsements. The establishment Washington Post, the alternative Washington City Paper, and the staid Current Newspapers have all given Biddle the nod. Harry Jaffe of the Washington Examiner has also offered Biddle his endorsement. Jaffe writes, "He's smart, daring, energetic and can start changing the game."

Just over a year ago, I responded to a series of tweets promoting the At Large Council Member candidacy of Bryan Weaver by tweeting, "What, if anything, does Weaver propose to do about corporate contributions? It's the LLCs that really distort things." I believed then, as I continue to believe now, that the tactic of individuals contributing multiple maximum campaign contributions through corporate entities under their control undermines the District of Columbia's campaign contribution limit. In response to my tweet, I learned that Weaver held a position almost identical to my own. Weaver has now gone beyond simply making corporate contributions a campaign issue and formed an organization called D.C. Public Trust which has organized a voter initiative to ban direct political donations from corporations to local candidates, constituent services funds, transition and inaugural committees, and legal defense funds.

At Large City Council Member Vincent Orange has admitted that campaign contributions linked to a city contractor currently under federal investigation are "suspicious and questionable." Orange's ties to Jeffrey E. Thompson have been under the spotlight since federal agents raided Thompson's home and office on March 2. Several of Orange's campaign contributions linked to Thompson were in the form of money orders. Now, Orange's admission strengthens suspicions that the money orders -- many for the maximum donation of $1,000 -- were utilized in order to circumvent DC's contribution limits.

In the movie "Trading Places", Randolph and Mortimer Duke attempt to make huge financial gains by purchasing orange juice futures. Similarly, over the past few years, deep-pocketed businessmen in the District of Columbia have purchased Orange futures. Vincent Orange futures, that is. While the Duke Brothers were imaginary characters in a comedy movie, those buying Vincent Orange futures are all too real, and the result is not the least bit funny.

As previously reported on this blog, local gas station monopolist Joe Mamo contributed $9,000 via companies he controls to Vincent Orange's At Large Council re-election campaign. That purchase of Orange futures paid off when Orange was the deciding vote to defeat a bill that would have lowered gas prices and ended the gas station monopoly in DC.

"The current Council has a corporate-driven agenda," Skolnik told me over a cup of tea at The Highlands cafe. "Decisions are made behind closed doors" in a top-down process. To a large extent, Skolnik argues, this is a result of corporate money in the election process. Skolnik favors community-driven solutions in which regular citizens have more input into the decisions that affect their lives.

Skolnik is the founder of Kid Power, Inc., "a civics-based organization that provides academic, artistic, nutritional, and service-learning opportunities for youth in underserved neighborhoods" of the District. He and his wife Erica, along with their 1-year-old son Julian, live in Ward 4's Petworth neighborhood. Given their demographic as young urban parents, it is no surprise that Max and Erica are DCUM users. While Skolnik concedes that his involvement with DCUM has been limited, he describes Erica as "an addict."

On April 3, the District of Columbia will hold its primary election. In addition to Democratic and Republican candidates for President, DC voters will select candidates for a number of local offices. One of the most important seats being contested is the At-Large DC Council seat currently held by Vincent Orange. Orange is opposed by Sekou Biddle, who briefly held the seat last year, and Peter Shapiro, a former member of the Prince George’s County Council. Two of these candidates are committed to true governmental ethics reform and accountability. Similarly, two of the candidates have the experience in DC politics necessary to challenge entrenched interests. But, only one of the candidates has both experience in DC politics and a commitment to bringing the highest ethical standards to the DC Council. That candidate is Sekou Biddle, who is the best choice to move the city forward.

At this time last year I confronted my inability to think of new topics about which to write for this blog. Despite my dislike of end-of-year lists, I decided to write about the most popular DCUM Forum topics of the year. An end-of-year list is the perfect solution for a blogger facing writer's block, but still able to query the forum's database.

The first list is the 10 topics started in 2011 with the most views:

10. "Nurse-in at Hirshhorn on 2/12 from 10-12" — 17,508 views. Of course breastfeeding, like politics and religion, is a topic you should never discuss with friends unless you want to make them enemies. But, since nobody on DCUM has any friends to begin with, we discuss the topic endlessly. That's even more true when the issue is not simply the benefit of breastfeeding, but the appropriateness of doing it in the middle of an art museum.