The New Year

A belated Happy New Year.

 

I had a chance to check out Mayor Fenty’s Inaugural ball for all of forty five minutes, in between Nine News Now Newscasts Saturday night…got a scoop! The New Mayor’s school takeover plan may be going to referendum after all. Fenty says the voters spoke, endorsing a takeover of the troubled public schools, when they elected him by wide margins in every Ward; but the same voters also elected a new school board that included former City Administrator Robert Bobb as President. At the Mayor’s party Saturday, someone sympathetic to the Board of Education slipped me a copy of the “District of Columbia Public Education Reform Amendment”. The referendum receipt confirms that the Elections Board has already accepted an application from Robert Vinson Brannum, a substitute teacher and former school board candidate. If the Elections Board approves the measure, Brannum said by phone Saturday night that Fenty’s takeover bill would appear as a referendum on a future ballot for voter’s approval.

 

They say fifteen thousand turned out for the Mayor’s ball…many had to stand in line outside the Convention Center waiting for the chance to get in…and then some had to be escorted to an overflow room above the ball, downstairs…

Complaints were many…ran out of food, long lines for food and drinks…couldn’t hear the music on stage and lots of people with tired feet couldn’t find a place to sit….

 

Word was lots of the Mayor’s associates were holed up at the nearby 777 restaurant…