‘Genevieve Clark (LOC)’
courtesy of ‘The Library of Congress’

Sunday night Reuters reported that DC is suing AT&T over phone card balances. In essence, for all of those pre-paid phone cards out there in the world, some of them have balances that are never spent. DC is using a piece of law called Escheat that dates back well into feudal England. The concept is easy: If there is property, it must be owned by someone. If you abandon property long enough, it devolves back to someone after a period of time, usually the state.

Thus, as with dormant or abandoned bank accounts, AG Nickles wants to see the same done with phone cards. In specific, he’d like any card abandoned by someone with a billing address in the District, for more than three years, to devolve back to the City, and inserted into the General Fund. Sounds shady, but it turns out to have a lengthy history in the law. Got any old phone cards? Might want to use them all the way up. Call your mom, she hasn’t heard from you in a while.

‘Well oiled civil rights.’
courtesy of ‘Kevitivity’

Gilbert Arenas released a statement this afternoon through his lawyer after meeting with the US Attorneys’ Office and MPD. Apparently Arenas moved the weapons as he was concerned about his children’s safety. Perhaps Mr. Arenas had not heard of gun safes before, which is entirely possible for someone trying badly to imitate Plaxico Burress.

While I’m pleased to hear the gun was not drawn in anger, that it was drawn at all suggests a lack of respect for the weapon, for his teammate, for the City of DC, and to the fans of the Wizards. While I would not like to see Mr. Arenas thrown into irons for this one, perhaps a little bit of extra community service and a hefty fine would be excellent reparations. Right after the Wizards terminate his contract.

‘Police Car near White House’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

The Washington Post has learned that there was a third party crasher at the State Dinner in November. The crasher, whose name has not been released, came in as part of the Indian Delegation, and it’s not clear what charges they are facing. They are, however, facing criminal charges and that’s why the privacy.

It would be a travesty if the Salahis went free and this was the dude that got arrested.

‘Peeking Through’
courtesy of ‘M.V. Jantzen’

In 2010, DC will require owners of buildings with more than 200,000 square feet of office space to track their energy efficiency to be made part of a publicly available database of energy efficiency information. DC will be the first to require that this information be made publicly available starting in 2012. All office buildings of that size will be given Energy Star ratings that will be available to potential tenants and others.