Metro Roundup: Bullets and blunders

D.C.: No jail time for Arenas handgun folly

Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas was spared jail time Friday for his D.C. Verizon Center locker room antics in which he pretended to shoot teammates while in possession of multiple handguns, a violation of the district’s strict gun regulations.

Arenas was sentenced to 30 days in a halfway house, two years of probation and community service, “not to be served in basketball clinics,” according to Superior Court Judge Robert Morin. His season-long NBA suspension remains, however, and there are no indications from the beleaguered Wizards if he will rejoin the team once the suspension ends.

Despite the seriousness of the charges he faced and alleged attempted cover-up, some are eager to see him get back to the game and let both him and the Wizards move on from the blistering press that the episode has garnered.

From the National Post: “No prison time sends the message that the rich and famous can skate away when they break the law. But that doesn’t mean I wanted him to go to jail. I admit to rooting for Arenas, despite his juvenile taste in pranks, his immaturity, his stubbornness, his recklessness. I root for him because there are so few genuine characters left in sports as the whole edifice balloons into ever-greater corporatism. As Arenas put it in court yesterday, “I like to make people laugh. I like to make people smile.”

Or, if you’re still unconvinced, you can weigh in on the severity of his punishment on a poll from the Los Angeles times.

Virginia: Bullet fired at Cantor’s office more incidental than incident

In an impromptu press briefing Thursday aimed at criticizing Democrats for discussing recent threats following the passing of landmark health care legislation, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) dropped a bomb:

“Just recently, I have been directly threatened… A bullet was shot through the window of my campaign office in Richmond this week, and I have received threatening e-mails. But I will not release them because I believe such actions will only encourage more to be sent.” (via NYTimes.com)

Suddenly the scope of threats and violence on health care had widened. But why? With the GOP firmly opposing the legislation, Cantor seemed like an odd target. Theories about “Rovian” tactics from the left took off but, in the end, an investigation by the Richmond police showed the bullet was likely fired randomly into the air.

The AP reports that “Richmond police said in a news release that the bullet had been fired into the air around 1 a.m. Tuesday. It finished its random arc back to earth at a sharp downward trajectory, breaking a window pane on the bottom floor of the two-story brick building where Cantor’s campaign leases the top floor.”

In fact, the bullet was moving so lethargically that it posed almost no threat. “The round struck with enough force to break the windowpane but did not penetrate the window blinds,” Richmond police said.

Reposted from the American Observer

Walking the line in Mt. Pleasant

Flanked on one side by an alley and by a crumbling antiques store façade on another, Dos Gringos Café has become a stable mainstay in a changing and sometimes troubled neighborhood. After nearly 9 years of serving the Mt. Pleasant community of Washington, D.C., however, it faces even more challenges than in the past.

Dos Gringos serves a diverse menu to an even more varied clientele. Doctors, laborers, young non-profit workers and local shop owners all find a meal in the café’s corner perch. But even as it approaches a decade in age, its beginning remains the same.

“I was living in the neighborhood and I wanted a bagel with cream cheese and tomato,” said Alex Kramer, co-founder and sole current owner of Dos Gringos. “It was the most expensive bagel with cream cheese and tomato I’ve ever had.”

For Kramer, the decision to open a restaurant with her former partner also meant examining what its role would be in a community that has undergone tremendous shits in demographics and fortune over the past fifty years.

Fotoweek Brings Pulitzer Winners Together

Photographers discuss the experiences behind iconic images

Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalists from The Washington Post convened this Saturday to discuss the sometimes quirky and often wrenching stories behind their award-winning photographs.

Speaking at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. for a recording of Inside Media, 25 year veteran photojournalist Matthew Lewis talked about the difficulty of capturing political figures.

'You have 25 seconds'

"I decided I would put two cameras around my neck, one with color, one with black and white," Lewis said about his brief photo shoot with Ron Ziegler, Press Secretary to President Richard Nixon. "He walked in and said, 'You have 25 seconds.'"

"I don't think any photographer goes out thinking they're going to win," Lewis went on to say about his haphazard experience.

Winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Kosovo War along with Carol Guzy, Michael Williamson talked about covering the aftermath of battles in a civil war.

"I was literally going to the towns where I heard there were the most atrocities," Williamson said about how he found a man sitting on a bucket containing the charred remnants of a relative's body in a bucket. "He was waiting for the U.N…. he thought I was with them so he stopped me."

In front of their cameras

Carol Guzy and Michel duCille won their first Pulitzer in 1986 for their coverage of mudslides in Colombia following the Nevado del Ruiz eruption.

Talking about his photo of Omayra Sanchez, the young girl who became trapped in a pool of water and who died from exposure after a three day, Internationally-viewed saga, duCille said, "you can't believe she's right there… I left before she died."

The Newseum held the event as part of FotoWeek/DC series of events. FotoWeek's declared purpose is to, "attract those who make a living practicing the art, science, business, education, and craft of photography." Events for FotoWeek concluded Saturday.