A Tacky Response To Tragedy.

I just finished watching a live news conference concerning yesterday's tragic Metro train crash in Washington, hosted by D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty. What an exercise in frustration!


Nearly half a dozen people spoke, from Fenty to Metro's General Manager, to the Chairman of Metro's Board of Directors and DC's Fire Chief. Between those four, there was very, very little new information released. We did learn that Metro has set aside $250,000 to help bury the dead, and we did learn the names of some of the people who died in the crash, but for the first half-hour, we mostly heard either old information - stuff we had heard in the hours after the crash - or we heard Fenty and others thanking each other for the hard work they had put in for the previous 24 hours. Essentially, these public servants were kissing each others asses for doing what they are being paid to do - their JOBS.


This is not a new complaint of mine. It's been a pet peeve of mine ever since I was a cub reporter covering deadly boring hearings on Capitol Hill... Hearings that largely consisted of Senators thanking their esteemed colleagues from South Carolina for having the courage and fortitude to hold hearings on whatever subject the hearing happened to be about.


But back to the rant at hand... The worst part of this news conference is that there WAS real news to be reported, but it came from the last speaker - Debbie Hersman, the National Transportation Safety Board member overseeing the investigation into the crash. She had real and new and compelling information, including that the striking train was operating under automatic control when the crash took place, and that the operator apparently DID try to use the emergency brake.


In the news business, this is what we call burying the lead. The NTSB board member should have gone first, not last. She had, by far, the most important information to present. However, if she had gone first, the TV stations carrying the 5:30 pm news conference in the middle of their newscasts might not have stuck around to hear Mayor Fenty and others kissing the backsides of their colleagues. So instead, the politicos kept us all waiting around so they could make their political points before mucking up the news conference with real NEWS.


So tacky and so sad.

Here's Proof We haven't Learned A Thing...

As the federal stimulus money starts to pour out of the government's coffers into state and regional agencies, the decision-makers at the local levels are getting to decide how to best spend the money. The idea (at least as far as I understand it) is to use that dough to create jobs by fixing infrastructure - preferably in projects that will take a good long time to complete. The hope is that by the time these projects are completed, the economy will be in good enough shape to sustain the workers who will be benefitting now from the stimulus program.

So can anyone explain to me why Metro is planning to spend a huge chunk of its stimulus money - not on capital projects - but to keep the current system going? Metro has a 30 million dollar budget hole, and was looking at cutting service to close the gap until board chairman Jim Graham stepped in with a plan to use stimulus money instead.

Critics say using stimulus money to balance Metro's budget this year will only move the problems to next year, when no new stimulus money will be forthcoming. But Graham told us at WMAL today he's optimistic the economy will recover enough by next year so that Metro won't have the same budget problems it has now.

Isn't this how America got into the trouble it's in today? By spending money NOW and worrying about how to pay our bills later? Using optimism as some sort of credit plan is not the smartest idea I've heard, either, Mr. Graham!

Metro loses money with every person who rides a train. For every dollar you spend to ride Metro, some government (MD or VA or DC or the Feds) is paying another dollar to subsidize your trip. By failing to cut service, Metro is hoping to keep people riding. That is all well and good from a public policy standpoint. But the more people ride, the more it costs taxpayers to keep them riding. Financially, it could very well make sense to cut some of the lower-volume train and bus service.

Montgomery County, which I have railed on regularly in this blog, will release its budget plan this week, and County Executive Ike Leggett is promising he will not use a single stimulus dollar to balance the county's books. I have a lot of problems with how Montgomery County conducts its business, but I am with Mr. Leggett on this point.

If your credit cards are at their spending limit and you find a wad of cash in the street, you don't go buy yourself a new car... you pay down your debt.

It's called being fiscally responsible. Montgomery County (at least in this case) is.

Metro is NOT.

Just When You Think The Sh** Has Hit The Fan...

It's incredible being at work at WMAL this week (Right now, it's incredible to be at work anywhere, but I digress... ) and see all of the different stories coming out with different economic angles... all of them BAD. Here's just a short list from today that are particularly fascinating...

Just when you think the sh** has really hit the fan, we hear that...

Metro is considering allowing ads selling alcohol in its stations, and on buses and trains, breaking a four decade prohibition (so to speak). This would bring in an extra half-million dollars a year. I say bring on the ads... And if they want to make the buses look like giant bottles of Absolut, I say go for it!







On a possibly related note, substance abuse is on the rise. The emergency room at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital is reporting a 30 percent increase in drug overdose cases in the past year, and treatment centers are filled to the brim. With unemployment on the rise, people have more time on their hands - time they are spending getting hammered, apparently!








The Washington Post saw its fourth quarter earnings drop 77 percent. A large part of that drop is due to costs incurred by the newspaper buying out as much of its veteran news staff as possible as a long-term cost savings measure... But really. How much "long-term" do you think the Washington Post has left if it's let most of its talent go? And when was the last time most of you read a dead-tree newspaper?

If fewer people are shopping these days, why keep the malls open so long? Westfield, which operates Montgomery Mall, Annapolis Mall and Wheaton Plaza, is now opening a half hour later during the week and closing a half-hour earlier every night except Sunday. While I have no particular problem with this personally, my wife will likely wear black over this.



Surely, it can't get any worse than this can it? Well...

There's always tomorrow!

Hump Day Stuff!

I have a few odds and ends to discuss today... My schedule is a little whack because I'm working the full week, which really screws with my routine of writing for free! Therefore, just a few quick thoughts...

• It's a good thing President Obama banked a whole lot of positive love during the inauguration, because he's looking positively human this week! Obama is taking his punishment for picking top job nominees with shady tax problems like a man, but when he says "I screwed up", he's not merely falling on a sword. This mess IS his mess.


• Loudoun County is spending 250, 000 dollars over two years for the right to call itself the official home of the Washington Redskins. I love the Redskins, but if I lived in Loudoun, I'd be calling my lawmakers and demanding an eviction! Nothing against the team... but do you really think any local jurisdiction has that kind of $$$ to throw around these days?


• I gotta figure out a way to get a Metro to give ME money! Read this:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department has settled a lawsuit accusing Washington's transit agency of religious discrimination.

The complaint filed in federal court accused Metro of discriminating against a woman of the Apostolic Pentecostal faith because she was unable to comply with Metro's uniform policy.

Gloria Jones said she wasn't hired as a bus driver because her religious beliefs prohibit her from wearing pants, which are part of the uniform.The Justice Department announced Tuesday that Metro has agreed to pay more than $47,000 to Jones and $2,500 each to two others who say Metro didn't accommodate their beliefs.

• And finally, Wells Fargo Bank has reluctantly cancelled a 12-night junket for its top employees in Las Vegas after lawmakers on Capitol Hill howled to the moon about it. Wells Fargo lost 2.3 billion dollars in the last quarter, but the funniest thing to me is that the bank tried initially to KEEP the trip. "Recognition events are still part of our culture," spokeswoman Melissa Murray said Tuesday afternoon. "It's really important that our team members are still valued and recognized."In previous years, top Wells Fargo loan officers were treated to performances by Cher, Jay Leno and Huey Lewis. One year, the company provided fortune tellers and offered camel rides, said Debra Rickard, a former Wells Fargo mortgage employee from Colorado who attended the events regularly until she left the company in 2004. Every night when employees returned to their rooms, there was a new gift on their pillows, she said. "I was amazed with just how lavish it was," Rickard said. "We stayed in top hotels, the entertainment was just unbelievable, and there were awards - you got plaques or trophies." Kevin Waetke, another spokesman for Wells Fargo, said the Las Vegas trip provided a "unique opportunity" for employees of Wells Fargo and newly acquired bank Wachovia Corp. "to focus on continuing to do all we can for U.S. homeowners."

I have an idea. I think I'm going to sue my Dad for failing to push me into the banking business when I was a child. How the heck did I miss out on this? Dad - expect to hear from my lawyer!