claudia_coffey's Blog

As i am writing this blog, I am told that power has ben restored as of 351 am after people were without power for most of Tuesday.

The outage left parts of NE and SE without power ..and on such a hot day .. it was brutal for so many and forced residents outdoors to seek relief.

Pepco is blaming a substation problem on Benning Road.  This is the latest in some high profile and problematic outages.  The last on June 13th left most of downtown, pepco headquarters and the White House without power.  That issue prompted hearings earlier this month on the outage issue.

There's got to be a bigger problem here.... is it the heat... old infrastructure or what?

I COVERED DAY ONE OF THE OPEN APPLICATION  PROCESS OF APPLYING FOR A PERMIT TO CARRY A HANDGUN IN DC.  POLICE SET UP A GATE TO HANDLE THE LONG LINES OF FOLKS THAT MGHT SHOW UP. INSIDE THERE WAS AN AREA WHERE YOU COULD HANDIN YOUR GUN UNDER THE AMNESTY PROGRAM AND GET IT REGISTERED. THEN YOU ARE ESCORTED TO A BACK OFFICE TO BEGIN THE PROCESS.  YOU FILL OUT AN APPLICATION, YOU MUST BE A RESIDENT, GO THRU BACKGROUND CHECK, FINGERPRINTS, YADA YADA YADA .

iN THE SIX HOURS I WAS THERE .. TWO PEOPLE SHOWED UP ..ONE WAS A REPORTER PROBABLY DOING A STORY.

DICK HELLER SHOWED UP TOO. HE'S THE DC GUY WHO FILED SUIT AGAINST THE DISTRICT AND WON IN THE SUPREME COURT.  HE CAME WITHOUT HIS WEAPON WHICH WAS APPARENTLY A FAUX PAS .  HE HAS IT STORED IN MARYLAND AND SINCE THERE IS NOT A GUN DISTRIBUTOR IN DC ..YOU CAN;T LEGALLY BRING IT INTO THE AREA YET.BUT HE COULD NOT GET A PERMIT WITHOUT THE WEAPON.IS ANYBODY ELSE CONFUSED YET? 

HELLER WILL BE BACK TOMORROW WITH THE GUN AND TO GET A PERMIT.  WE'LL SEE IF MORE PEOPLE SHOW UP TOMORROW.

HELLER ALSO SAID HE WOULD FILE ANOTHER LAWSUIT IF THE EMERGENCY LEGISLATION IS OT CHANGED WITHIN THE 90 DAY TEMP WINDOW.  HE ALSO TOLD ME HE'S CONSIDERING RUNNING FOR CONGRESS AGAINST NORTON IN THE DISTRICT.

THAT'S IT FROM MICROWAVE TRUCK 80 .. WE'LL BE BACK HERE TOMORROW MORNING LIVE AT 5!

I COVERED DAY ONE OF THE OPEN APPLICATION  PROCESS OF APPLYING FOR A PERMIT TO CARRY A HANDGUN IN DC.  POLICE SET UP A GATE TO HANDLE THE LONG LINES OF FOLKS THAT MGHT SHOW UP. INSIDE THERE WAS AN AREA WHERE YOU COULD HANDIN YOUR GUN UNDER THE AMNESTY PROGRAM AND GET IT REGISTERED. THEN YOU ARE ESCORTED TO A BACK OFFICE TO BEGIN THE PROCESS.  YOU FILL OUT AN APPLICATION, YOU MUST BE A RESIDENT, GO THRU BACKGROUND CHECK, FINGERPRINTS, YADA YADA YADA .

iN THE SIX HOURS I WAS THERE .. TWO PEOPLE SHOWED UP ..ONE WAS A REPORTER PROBABLY DOING A STORY.

DICK HELLER SHOWED UP TOO. HE'S THE DC GUY WHO FILED SUIT AGAINST THE DISTRICT AND WON IN THE SUPREME COURT.  HE CAME WITHOUT HIS WEAPON WHICH WAS APPARENTLY A FAUX PAS .  HE HAS IT STORED IN MARYLAND AND SINCE THERE IS NOT A GUN DISTRIBUTOR IN DC ..YOU CAN;T LEGALLY BRING IT INTO THE AREA YET.BUT HE COULD NOT GET A PERMIT WITHOUT THE WEAPON.IS ANYBODY ELSE CONFUSED YET? 

HELLER WILL BE BACK TOMORROW WITH THE GUN AND TO GET A PERMIT.  WE'LL SEE IF MORE PEOPLE SHOW UP TOMORROW.

HELLER ALSO SAID HE WOULD FILE ANOTHER LAWSUIT IF THE EMERGENCY LEGISLATION IS OT CHANGED WITHIN THE 90 DAY TEMP WINDOW.  HE ALSO TOLD ME HE'S CONSIDERING RUNNING FOR CONGRESS AGAINST NORTON IN THE DISTRICT.

THAT'S IT FROM MICROWAVE TRUCK 80 .. WE'LL BE BACK HERE TOMORROW MORNING LIVE AT 5!

First let's keep in our thoughts and prayers today with the family of Corporal Richard Findley.  Today is his viewing and the funeral is tomorrow.  He was a ten year veteran of the force. He was a married father of two.  If you have any thoughts to share with the family , I am asking our web department to creat a separate area for that.  I am concerned as this story continues that we need to remember that we have lost a police officer in the line of duty and I don't want that mixed in or confused with the talk and discussion ( which is heated ) over the Ronnie White situation.  Anybody for splitting up the blogs?

With that said .... here's the latest developments in this case today.

The investigation continues into the death of Corporal Richard Findley.. the state's atty general Glenn Ivey is heading that up .

Re; Ronnie White.... Sources tell us that all those guards that had contact with White have been questioned. Some have cooperated and others have not . All have attornies.

Another key piece of info could be that surveillance camera of the cell block .. it could reveal who last had access to White. 

Let me begin by saying...thank you so much for the very intense discussion on this matter yesterday.  Look forward to the same today. 

I am currently in front of the PG County Courthouse awaiting a press conference by the family of the late Ronnie White and their attorney. let's put two and two together and assume that a lawsuit will be filed. I'll keep you posted. 

Today's big news .... An autopsy reveals that Ronnie White was strangled. He died of asphyxiation and two small bones in his neck were broken.  The FBI has now launched a civil rights probe and the Maryland State Police has taken over the investigation. 

Due to White's high profile crime, he was secluded from the rest of the prison population..that's according to the Prince George's County Police.  he was in a jail cell alone..no bedsheets or ropes.  PG County officials also state that two correctional officers were assigned to White.  But in all , seven guards and an unspecficied number of supervisors had access to him.  The last recorded time a guard checked on him was 10:30 am ..15 minutes later he was found dead.

Is this a strange coincidence?  Ronnie White mysteriously died just after being charged with in a Prince George's County Police Officer. White's body showed no signs of a beating or a  hanging..he had no known medical problems . So how did he die?

He was arrested in the death of PG County Police Officer CRPL Richard Findley.  White was driving a stolen pickup truck when he ran down Corporal Findley then dragging him to his death on Friday.   

Prices across the nation are well over 4 dollars a gallon.  Now President Bush is weighing in on the debate by pushing Congress to apporve offshore oil drilling.  Oil Analysts say that would do little to relieve our problem immediately plus it would push companies to the edge that are already dealing with worker shortages. 

Democrats agree saying it wouldn't give consumers relief at the pump right now.  Instead they want to tax big oil or make oil companies tap 68 million acres under lease.

What do you think? Why is the President weighing in on the matter now .. isn't this too litttle too late? Why didn't he enter the debate earlier? Do the Dems have a better plan?

interesting article below from New Hampshire Newspaper....offers another perspective on taxing big oil.... what do you think ? Do you buy this arguement????

"Gouging Big Oil means gouging you"


WHAT IS a "reasonable" corporate profiit? Is it 8 percent, 16 percent, 25 percent? What profit is unreasonable? Don't know? The Democratic majority in Congress thinks it does. And that should scare everyone.

Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a windfall profits tax proposal that would tax any "unreasonable" profit made by big oil companies. Yes, that word is actually in the bill. How is Congress to determine what level of profit is unreasonable? Well, that's the scary part. Would you let Congress determine what level of profit your business should make, and then confiscate the rest?
Editorial logo

Of course you wouldn't. But "Big Oil" is the bogeyman of the day, blamed by Democrats for high gas prices (when they aren't blaming Republicans in general and President Bush in particular). So the Democrats consider it fair game for unfair and unreasonable punishment by the government.

The truth, however, is that the case for this new tax is nonexistent.

First, oil company profits are not "unreasonable," however one might define that term. Oil and gas companies earn an average of 8.3 cents per dollar of revenue, compared to 7.8 cents for the Dow Jones average, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in April. And those huge oil company profits are big in dollar, but not percentage, terms.

Exxon-Mobil has earned more money than any other American company in the past five years. But last year, it's most profitable ever, its profit was only 10.9 percent of revenues, Fortune magazine reported last month. Bank of America's profits were 12.6 percent, Pfizer's were 16.8 percent, Coca-Cola's were 20.7 percent, Google's were 25.3 perccent, and Microsoft's were 27.5 percent. Whose profits are "unreasonable"?

While Exxon-Mobil was earning 10.9 percent profit last year, it paid 44 percent of its revenues in taxes, The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch reported on Tuesday. Forty-four percent! The government took four times as much from Exxon-Mobil's revenues as shareholders did. "Big Oil" isn't paying its fair share? Hogwash.

You might also be interested to know that 52 percent of Exxon-Mobil's stock is owned by fund investors such as mutual and pension funds. That means you. If it is slapped with a windfall profits tax, your retirement plan might be the one paying the price.

And if all that weren't enough, there is the evidence from the 1980s. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter advocated and Congress imposed a windfall profits tax on oil companies. Guess what happened? Domestic oil exploration dropped, and the promised tax revenues did not materialize. It actually made us more dependent on foreign oil. Isn't that what Congress wants to prevent?

In their push to tax oil companies even more for the sole reasons that they have made record profits lately and the public wrongly suspects those profits of being responsible for high gas prices, Sen. Barack Obama and his Democratic Party are trying to move us back to the failed thinking of the late 1970s. That would be economically harmful, not helpful.

The idea that imposing confiscatory taxes on oil companies will somehow reduce the price of oil has no basis in fact. It shows the flawed economic thinking of a party that still assumes, despite all evidence to the contrary, that high taxes help the country, low taxes hurt, and the government can make everything better by asserting greater control

Just when you thought you'd seen the worst ... Another spike in gas prices . .

But the sticker shock at the pump wasn't enough to greenlight a senate measure designed to tax big oil's big time profit.

 Maryland democratic senator ben cardin co sponsored the bill. On fox five this morning ... He pointed the finger at republicans who he says blocked efforts to get back some of the money that are pouring into oil company coffers

The energy package contained a mixed bag of proposals .. inlcuding the tax on profits, it would roll back 17 billion in oil industry tax breaks and impose federal penalties for price gouging. But senate democrats didnt get too far.. The measure failed , largely along party lines. Republcans argue that the measure was more hype than short term relief and would actually cost consumers even more.  While the fuel fight continues to idle congress .. consumers are taking matters into their own hands...

And its those decisions that's maybe having the real impact.... There is mounting evidence that u-s oil demand is falling and that lower prices may soon follow.

 What are you doing to cut back at home to pay for high gas and energy prices?

It's beginning to get tougher and tougher for Sen Hillary Clinton to clinch her party's nomination.  Despite her landslide victory in Puerto Rico, she still doesn't have enough delegates to claim the crown. and tomorrow 's final primaries won;t give her the lead she needs either because only 31 delagates are stake.

So this all comes down to the 200 undecided superdelegates.. Many are expected to go to Obama but Clinton says they can change their minds.  I dont think that is likely.

But Hillary does make a good point.  She would stand a better shot at John McACain in the fall.  she's won the big critical swing states, and she has more of the popular votes.  Not sure why the party does not see that .  And to add insult to inury the party's handling of the Florida and Michigan was downright embarassing.  You cant take delates away from Clinton and they clearly did,

I dont think she should concede, I think she should appeal it to credential commnitteeand keep fightihng,

Just one day after her suicide .. the conspiracy theorists are busy spinning tales.

Deborah Jeane Palfrey was found dead in a shed outside her mother's Florida home yesterday.  She was convicted just two weeks ago on charges related to running a prostitution ring. He ring allegedy catered to washington's power brokers ..... The Palfrey case also contributed to Randall L. Tobias' resignation from a position at the State Department after a news report identified him as a client.  When Palfrey released a list of client phoe numbers .... Sen. David Vitter, R-La., was among those numbers in Palfrey's client list.   Vitter apologized in July 2007 for his name appearing on Palfrey's list, saying, "This was a very serious sin." The senator never explained his relationship to Palfrey's business.

Palfrey, who had served time in California, was quoted as saying she would kill herself if she ever had to go back to jail.  But just 2 weeks ago - she said - 'i wont let them do to me, what they did to brandy.

She was referring to brandy britton, who was one of palfrey's escorts who hanged herself while facing prostitution charges in howard county.

And of course , Hustler's Larry Flynt , is now weighing in .

Hustler magazine publisher and free-speech advocate Larry Flynt -- one of Palfrey's staunchest advocates -- was the strongest voice forwarding the notion that Palfrey's death was not by her own hands.

"I think the media should be very cautious in treating this as a suicide," Flynt told FOXNews.com in a telephone interview from his Beverly Hills office.

Asked if he believed Palfrey was murdered, Flynt responded: "I personally believe that's what happened, but I have no proof."

But she also was an intelligent woman, he said.

"She did not have the demeanor of the type of person that would carry certain signs of suicide, like being withdrawn or depressed," Flynt said. "You know, those are the kinds of signs that you look for. She didn't display any of those traits. ... She was very friendly. ... Very bright. She was by no means a dummy. She knew what she was doing."

Flynt said he believes that in her quest to avoid prison time -- her sentencing hearing had been scheduled for July -- Palfrey was prepared to release one or two final names connected to her case.

"She had a lot of names, and I know she was holding on to them for a reason," Flynt said. He said he knew some of the clients' names, and they include big-hitters in the political and media worlds. None of those names came to light, though, because they didn't fit the mold that Flynt was pushing for: politicians who said one thing and did another. Only Vitter, Flynt said, appeared to match that description.

But Flynt hinted at much juicier material to be unearthed.

"Let me put it this way, there were more Democrats on it than Republicans," he said, supporting his theory that the only reason this case was of interest was because of the number of Democrats who could be targeted by the Bush administration.

So.. suicide or conspiracy?

THIS BILLION DOLLAR PROJECT WENT FROM DEAD IN THE WATER IN JANUARY TO FULL STEAM AHEAD TODAY.  THE WASHINGTON POST IS REPORTING THAT THE PROJECT IS INDEED BACK ON TRACK.. THIS IS GREAT NEWS FOR VIRGINIANS AND GREAT NEWS-- FOR THAT MATTER-- FOR ANYBODY STUCK IN TRAFFIC EVERYDAY. 

FEDERAL TRANSPORTATION OFFICALS SAY THE 5 BILLION DOLLAR PROJECT NOW MEETS THE THE FTA'S STANDARD FOR COST EFFICIENCY, CONSTRUCTION AND EXPECTED DESIGN.

MY QUESTION...HOW IN THE WORLD DID THIS TURN AROUND SO FAST.  WE ALL KNOW THE WHEELS OF GOVERNMENT DON'T MOVE TOO FAST.

DID SOMEONE GREASE A FEW PALMS OR IS THIS POLTICAL POSTURING? VIRGINIANS ARE KEY SWING VOTERS IN THE FALL..... AND THEY WANT THIS RAIL PROJECT BIG TIME AND WOULD BLAME THE REPUBLICANS IN THE FALL.

MAYBE WE'LL NEVER KNOW .. BUT THE BOTTOM LINE .. IT'S GOOD NEWS FOR COMMUTERS.

HUNDREDS OF TRUCKERS FROM ALL CORNERS OF THE NATION ARE ASSEMBLING TODAY IN THE NATION'S CAPITOL TO PROTEST THE RISING COST OF GAS AND HOW ITS AFFECTING THEIR LIVELIHOOD.  THE PRICE OF DIESEL HAS TRIPLED FOR TRUCKERS IN THE PAST YEAR ALONE.  tHEY ARGUE THAT THE MORE THEY PAY AT THE PUMP THE MORE YOU PAY FOR THE GOODS THEY TRANSPORT. THEY HOPE TO SEND A MESSAGE TO CONGRESS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

I SPOKE THIS MORNING TO ONE TRUCK ON HIS WAY DOWN FROM HARRISBURG, PA.  HE SAYS HE DOESN''T BUY ALL THIS POLITICAL TALK THAT HIGH PRICES ARE A RESULT OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND.  ALL HE SEES ARE THESE RICH OIL EXECUTIVE GETTER RICHER AND EVERYDAY FOLK GETTING SQUEEZED FOR EVERY DIME AT THE PUMP.  HE SAYS CONGRESS CAN AND SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.  AND I TEND TO AGREE WITH HIM!

But is that enough? 

First, Here's what happenened.  Following yesterday's Mass at Nationals Park, Pope Benedict met privately with five victims of the clergy sex abuse scandal that rocked the Boston Archidiocese.  Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley was also in attendence. The Pope called the crisis a cause of "deep shame" and pledged to keep pedophiles out of the priesthood.  He said he would pray for them, their families and all victims of the church sex abuse scandal.  It's the fourth time the Pope addressed the issue during his US trip. 

The group SNAP, Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests, sent out a statement saying that it was a long overdue step forward.

I say , He's taken a good first step. It was a good idea to meet with the victims and I am happy he addressed the matter several times during his visit in the US.

What do you think?  Did the Pope handle this matter appropriately..did he give it the attention it deserves?

Pope Benedict made headlines before even arriving in the U-S.  While traveling from Italy, the Holy Father spoke to reporters about the clergy  sex abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church here in America.  He said that he was "deeply ashamed" of the sex abuse scandal and that he would do everything he could to keep pedophiles out of the priesthood. 

The Pope will address the issue once again when he speaks Wednesday evening to a group of US Bishops at the Basilica of the National Shrine. 

He will not meet with victims and this is expected to be the extent of his comments on the issue.

Do you think Pope Benedict has said enough about the scandal and should he have met with victims?