Seeking to Close the Book on a Bad Law- May 23, 2007 For Arthur Burnett, a senior D.C. Superior Court judge, few drug cases have tested his judicial temperament like those involving crack cocaine. What infuriates Burnett most is not the users but the law itself: a five-year mandatory minimum prison sentence for possessing five grams of crack cocaine -- about as much as two packets of sugar.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/22/AR2007052201502.html?nav=r... Disappointing by Any Name- May 16, 2007 When it comes to historic estates in Prince George's County, the name Oxon Hill doesn't exactly have that aristocratic ring. Shortened from "Oxford on the Hill" by plantation owners in the colonial era, the name is more likely to conjure up images of an ox on a hill than the countryside around Oxford, England, that the land was said to resemble.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051502334.html?nav=r... No Return of the Queen for SE Neighborhood- May 9, 2007 Queen Elizabeth II did not take a stroll along Queen Stroll Place SE this time. And that's too bad. She'd surely have raised a royal eyebrow at the changes on the D.C. street since she toured it in 1991.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/08/AR2007050801794.html?nav=r... A Fire That Could Have Been Foretold- May 2, 2007 The fiery destruction of Eastern Market, our long-neglected, trash-strewn, rodent-infested "local treasure," hit us when we least expected it. Sure, the 19th-century Capitol Hill structure had no sprinkler system; the electrical wiring was faulty; the opaque plexiglass windows were set in rotted wood frames. But who could have guessed that those things might constitute a fire hazardhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/01/AR2007050101713.html?nav=r... |