WASHINGTON, DC BRIEFING February 2005

News this month

Setting priorities

Local military facilities should be flush under the new proposed budget, which George Bush unveiled in February. In 2006, defence spending is scheduled to rise by 5% and homeland security spending by 3% while other programmes are to be cut by 1%. The president touted his new budget as the “most disciplined proposal since Ronald Reagan.” It includes cuts to 150 federal programmes.

Fiscal responsibility is in order, given the swollen budget deficit (and the president's desire to maintain and extend the tax cuts). Local programmes will feel the burn. The new budget cuts the $5m Congress spent last year to help DC school libraries, and it swipes $19m from efforts to clean the Chesapeake Bay. But the local military will enjoy an extra $165m for new Maryland facilities, and $7m towards a new forensic and anti-bioterrorism laboratory.

Perhaps a renaissance

The federal government is considering handing over some of its many DC-area land holdings to the city. As part of the president's new budget, the federal government will eschew cash subsidies to the city in favour of letting the district government control new local sites. This is good news for local officials, who have long complained that the city's tax base is crippled by federal ownership of city property (federal lands cannot be taxed). A city spokesman told the Washington Post that the resulting tax windfall could mean tens of millions of dollars in new tax revenue over a decade. Some say this could spark urban renewal.

The government owns parks, waterfront property and a host of other facilities in the area. The federal Office of Management and Budget would review these, looking for properties that could be redeveloped by the district. But one site which city officials have pined for, the 182-acre St Elizabeth's Hospital facility, has been earmarked for a new Coast Guard headquarters.

A little extra

Drivers on the Dulles Toll Road may see tolls raised as much as 25 cents under a new measure to help finance an expansion of the DC Metro. It would be the first toll increase for the road, which stretches west of Washington from inside the beltway past Dulles International Airport to Leesburg, Virginia. More than 200,000 vehicles each day use the road, which leads along the “Dulles corridor” of high-tech firms that have recently sprung up alongside it.

The toll increase would raise a portion of the approximately $3.5 billion needed for the Dulles rail project, which would extend the Metro’s orange line 23 miles west by 2015, adding stops at Dulles and suburbs such as Herndon and Loudon County, in Virginia. The federal government would pay half the costs.

Getting better

The National Zoo, run by the Smithsonian, improved its animal care in 2004 but still needs work, according to a year-long study sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences. Deaths of several animals—including a lion after an operation, two red pandas that ate rat poison and two zebras that starved to death—had prompted Congress in 2003 to ask for review of the zoo's practises. An interim report released in February 2004 found deficiencies in animal care and management. Record keeping was also seriously flawed, making it sometimes impossible to track the animal care or pest control.

The final report, issued in January, noted improvements to record-keeping and in preventative care, where a six-month backlog was eliminated. The problems that remain include an undertrained staff and a management scheme that lacks clear roles and accountability. In February, the zoo showed off a new litter of cheetahs, the first ever to be born there.

Won't happen again

In January, the city settled a lawsuit filed by seven people who were jailed during protests against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in 2002. The city will pay a total of $425,000 to five protestors and two bystanders who were rounded up with roughly 400 others in Pershing Park, a small patch near the White House.

DC has hosted countless demonstrations, but local authorities have taken sterner measures against them in recent years. In the 2002 incident, protesters were charged with failing to obey the police, and held for as long as 36 hours. But later investigations showed that no order to disband had been given, so there was nothing to obey. The settlement mandates that in future a police commander must tell protesters to disband before they can be arrested. In addition, Charles Ramsey, DC's police chief, must send a personal letter of apology to all seven plaintiffs.

Mas profits?

For years, WHFS was the Washington area’s alternative-rock radio station. But last month it ceased broadcasts and re-imagined itself as a Latin pop and Spanish-language station, under the name “El Zol”. The new tagline is “siempre de fiesta”—always partying. Found at 99.1 FM since the 1960s, the station had hosted “alternative music”—an outmoded rubric for rock and pop slightly removed from mainstream acts. But it lagged in ratings behind DC101 (at 101.1 FM), the region’s main rock station.

Spanish-language radio, meanwhile, is the fastest-growing format in the nation. WHFS is owned by Infinity Broadcasting, while DC101 is owned by its rival, Clear Channel Communications. The two media giants are scrambling hard for market share. Another less-noted switch took place on the AM band, where WWRC (at 1260) ditched sports-talk in favour of liberal talk radio. Now the station is part of the Air America network, a fledgling left-wing talk-radio station featuring Al Franken, a humorist, and Janeane Garofalo, an actress.

Catch if you can

February 2005

Rembrandt: Late Religious Portraits

Until May 1st 2005

The brooding quality of Rembrandt's portraits is double-edged, depending on whether his subject is secular or sacred. The melancholy air of his plebes and royals elevates them; their enlightenment makes them seem not entirely of this world. But moodiness in his religious portraits tends to make his subjects more accessible: even Christ seems somehow familiar.

This show brings together 17 pictures and two dozen of his religious etchings. In the portraits, apostles, saints, monks, the Virgin and Christ are each captured during some decisive moment. Some of the best insinuate you into their heavy thoughts. One shows Paul, busily scratching out a new letter to the Corinthians. Another portrait of him is actually a self-portrait of the artist, with a familiar look of mild disapproval and dissatisfaction.

The National Gallery, on the National Mall, West building. Entry: Free. Open: Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 11am-6pm. For more information, visit the museum’s website.