9.16.2009

Briefly noted, once, twice, three times a negligent driver Wednesday;

Kudos to the Washington Post for staying on the story about the September 3 Metrobus accident in Dupont Circle. If you recall, an empty bus struck a jogger at the intersection of Connecticut and Florida Avenues, NW, at around 8:30 AM. We had learned about the jogger, 30-year-old Amanda Mahnke, a House communications director. Today we learn about the bus driver, 43-year-old Carla Proctor of Southeast. As it turns out, the 9/3 incident was Proctor's third on-the-job accident. Previously she had let an empty bus roll down a hill, causing a minor pile-up. In another incident, she struck a parked car in Georgetown, injuring a passenger on her bus. Off-duty, she has been involved in traffic accidents as well, including one where her car drove into a Wendy's. She is currently awaiting trial for driving an unregistered car with no insurance. I don't even know what to say. From the Post article, WMATA doesn't really know what to say either. I hope Mahnke, who is still in critical condition, has a good lawyer.

Arianna Huffington to attempt primetime series about DC. Yup. I'm sure this will end well. Via Gawker, the show will center on three freshman Members of Congress as they blaze their trail of glory in DC. It'll be like all those other DC shows (Blond Charity Mafia, etc.), but with even more wonkiness, perhaps. It's amazing how the best DC show that ever existed (the West Wing) was popular when DC was not at all trendy. Now that DC is cool again, there appears to be no need for fictionalized drama. Man, remember that show The District? It had that guy from Coach? I'd take Craig T. Nelson over Chief Lanier any day of the week.

Greenpets to go out of business as well as Big Monkey Comics. I'm surprised the comic book shop survived this long, but it looks like high rent and the recession is claiming the pet product store on 14th Street as well. The best reason to read this post from 14th & You is for the last part, which says a "sex ed entity" called "Hole" may be moving into the 2nd floor space. How does that mesh with the whole ARTS overlay? No source on that info, though.

Redskins trademark case might go to SCOTUS. I've briefly discussed this topic before, in the context of blogs doing ridiculous things. However, in the realm of serious business, Native American groups are hoping the Supreme Court will hear their case to have the Redskins trademark invalidated. In the past, courts have said the Native American groups were correct that the name was offensive, but said too much time had passed to complain. It's unclear if the Court will take this case, though the groups petitioning cite a decision by Justice Alito (when he was on the 3rd Circuit) that supports their cause. The Redskins name is definitely offensive, the decision that needs to be made is whether or not our society finds that acceptable.

5 comments:

  1. Ooh, another attempted series about DC! Wonder if this will last longer than James Carville's "K Street," wherein we found that not even creative scriptwriting could make lobbyists interesting.

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  2. very inaccurate paragraph on the redskins. In the past, courts have never ruled on whether the name redskins is actually offensive. it's highly unlikely the supreme court will take this case, not unclear. the redskins name is not definitely offensive, if it were there would be a lot more than just 7 people filing suit.

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  3. from what i understand:
    the courts determined that the trademark would be considered invalid due to it being disparaging... but the trademark was not invalidated because a sort of statute of limitations had expired.

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  4. you did not understand correctly. a patent board considered the trademark to be disparaging, no court of law ever did.

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  5. Hmm, I suppose, my original statement meant to convey that the courts had never said their argument had no merit, merely that too much time had passed. The courts did not say the patent board was wrong (or right).

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