pileofcrapola

WASHINGTON — Jose Cuervo is a bundle of joy, energy, and enthusiasm.

This 1-year-old Jack Russell Terrier mix is very playful and enjoys his toys and a good game of tug. Jose Cuervo adores everyone he meets and also likes playing with other dogs.

He would love to find a home where he is kept active and can continue his training. Looking for a go-getter young dog? Then stop by the Washington Animal Rescue League and meet Jose Cuervo!

About WARL: Founded in 1914, the Washington Animal Rescue League is the oldest animal shelter in Washington D.C. Its mission includes rescuing, rehabilitating and finding homes for animals who have no where else to go. The League also supports animals through affordable veterinary care, community outreach and education. Learn more about the Washington Animal Rescue League at www.warl.org.

If you are thinking of adding a furry friend to your family, check out these other great shelters in the area:

Maryland

Humane Society of Charles County
(301) 645-8181
71 Industrial Park Dr. PO Box 1015 Waldorf, Md. 20604
Humane Society of Charles County offers a low cost spay/neuter program to the public. Please call or visit our website for more information. The shelter is also looking for more foster parents to help its animals.

Lab Rescue of L.R.C.P.
(301) 299-6756
4808 Moorland Ln, Rockville, MD 20850
Lab Rescue of the LRCP is a volunteer driven, nonprofit organization that rescues, fosters and places homeless, abused, and/or abandoned Labrador retrievers.

Prince George’s County Humane Society
(301) 262-5625
P.O. Box 925 Bowie, Md. 20718
Prince George’s County Humane Society is also looking for foster parents. For more information, contact the organization.

PAW — Partnership for Animal Welfare
(301) 572-4729
P.O. Box 1074 Greenbelt, Md. 20768

Paws Animal Kingdom
(301) 920-2318
P.O. Box 11531 Takoma Park, Md. 20912

Montgomery County Humane Society
(240) 252-2555
601 South Stonestreet Ave. Rockville, Md. 20850

The Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County
(301) 740-2511
12 Park Ave. Gaithersburg, Md. 20877

D.C.

Washington Humane Society
(202) 576-6664
1201 New York Ave. NE 20002

ASAP — Alliance for Stray Animals and People
(202) 331-1330
P.O. Box 65438 Washington, D.C. 20035-5438

Metropolitan Guinea Pig Rescue
(202) 575-2210
Approved applicants may attend monthly adoption meets that are usually held at the house of a volunteer in either Northern Virginia or Southern Maryland.

Northern Virginia

Lucky Dog Animal Rescue
(202) 741-5428
5159 Lee Highway Arlington, Va. 22207
Lucky Dog is a foster home organization and does not run a dedicated housing facility.

A Forever Home
(703) 961-8690
P.O. Box 222801 Chantilly, VA 20153-2801
A Forever-Home is a nonprofit dog rescue group that operates in the Northern Virginia/Washington Metropolitan area.

FOHA — Friends of Homeless Animals
(703) 385-0224
39710 Goodpuppy Ln, Aldie, Va. 20105
All visitors must speak to a Friends representative before receiving directions to their shelter location.

SPCA of Northern Virginia
703-799-9390
P.O. Box 100220 Arlington, Va. 22210-3220

Animal Welfare League of Alexandria
(703) 746-4774
4101 Eisenhower Ave. Alexandria, Va. 22304

Animal Welfare League of Arlington
(703) 931-9241
2650 S. Arlington Mill Dr. Arlington, Va.

Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation
(703) 295-3647
P.O. Box 223953 Chantilly, Va. 20153

HART — Homeless Animal Rescue Team
(703) 691-HART
P.O. Box 7261 Fairfax Station, Va. 22039-7261

King Street Cats Rescue and Adoption
(703) 231-7199
25 Dove St. Alexandria, Va. 22314

Virginia German Shepherd Rescue
(703) 435-2840
P.O. Box 126 Sterling, Va. 20167

The post Pet of the Week: Jose Cuervo appeared first on WTOP.

The Virginia Dept. of Motor Vehicles office at 4150 S. Four Mile Run Drive in Arlington is slated to close next year and move to Fairfax County.

The DMV office will move to the Barcroft Plaza shopping center, at 6345 Columbia Pike in the Falls Church section of Fairfax County, about four miles away from its current location.

The new DMV is expected to open “by late spring,” at which time the Four Mile Run location will close, said DMV spokeswoman Brandy Brubaker.

Arlington County will retain its DMV Select office at the county government building in Courthouse (2100 Clarendon Blvd). The DMV Select office offers various vehicle titling and registration services, but does not issue driver’s licenses, learners permits or ID cards.

Photo via Commonwealth of Virginia

The post Arlington DMV Office to Close Next Year appeared first on WTOP.

Going online for your Black Friday sales fix is now just as popular as trudging out to the mall to shop, according to a new survey from the National Retail Federation.

According to the survey results [PDF], more Americans did their shopping online than in stores each day of the holiday weekend.

This includes Black Friday, the most-hyped in-store shopping day of the year. The survey says that 72.8% of respondents did in-store shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, a hair shy of the 73.1% who shopped online.

That was by far the narrowest margin between the two shopping methods. Online also beat out bricks-and-mortar on Thanksgiving (39.8% vs. 34%), and on Saturday (49% vs. 45.9%) and Sunday (32.9% vs. 19.1%).

The huge disparity on Sunday’s numbers seems to indicate that consumers get exhausted with the physical process of shopping — driving, parking, browsing, waiting in line — but they still want to look for good deals while they’re available.

According to the survey, slightly more than half of the in-store shoppers said they couldn’t pass up the savings. This seems to indicate that price is the key factor in their decision. Meanwhile, only 31.2% said they hit the stores because it’s a tradition. Those people will continue to show up every year, but you can expect online shopping to only grow more popular as the savings-oriented consumers realize they can get most, if not all, the in-store deals from the comfort of their home.

The NRF survey does give credence to some retailers’ insistence on opening their doors Thanksgiving evening. When breaking down the hourly in-store visits on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the single biggest time for shopping was not Black Friday morning, but 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving — the hour when several major retailers opened for business.

More than 13% of people who shopped in stores this weekend showed up at that time, significantly more than other popular hours like midnight (4%) and 6 a.m. (5%), or 9 a.m. (7.8%) on Friday.

Menus at New York City’s chain eateries will be getting a makeover this week, as the city’s rule requiring warning labels for particularly salty menu items goes into effect.

The rule is the first of its kind, and will mean that chain restaurants have to include a salt-shaker emblem on any offering that contains more than the recommended daily limit of 2,300 milligrams — around a teaspoon — of sodium. Here’s the warning label:

This is the latest move in NYC’s nutritional mission, in an effort to get residents to cut down on salt. Health experts say most people consume too much sodium — on average, about 3,400 mg per day — which could lead to high blood pressure and heart problems.

Many folks might not realize how much salt they’re eating, health advocates say: for example, Applebee’s Chicken Fajitas Rollup clocks in at 3,600 mg of sodium; Chili’s Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad has 3,470 mg and Olive Garden’s Tour of Italy entrée packs in 3,830 mg of salt per serving.

“With the high sodium warning label, New Yorkers will have easily accessible information that can affect their health,” city Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said in September, when the Board of Health approved the new warning.

Some restaurateurs are against the salt labels, saying that new federal menu labeling guidelines will be taking effect in 2016, which could require them to revamp their menus twice.

“This is just the latest in a long litany of superfluous hoops that restaurants here in New York must jump through. Every one of these cumbersome new laws makes it tougher and tougher for restaurants to find success,” Melissa Fleischut, President and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association, said when the salt initiative passed in September.

Though restaurants are supposed to comply as of Tuesday, NYC won’t begin collecting fines until March 1.

If you’re in the market for a new home, you could surely find something for $250,000 — heck, why settle for looking for a house when you could just buy an entire ghost town? An abandoned South Dakota town that was on the market for $400,000 back in 2014 is still up for grabs, and now at a bargain price.

Swett, S.D. is still on the market after 16 months, reports The Rapid City Journal. The unincorporated hamlet about two hours from Rapid City comes with a bar (currently closed), a single house, workshop, three trailers and 6.16 acres of land.

The real estate agent in charge of the listing says she fielded an avalanche of phone calls and emails from people interested in buying the town when the news first hit, many of them with quite… unique plans for the property.

She tells the Rapid City Journal that the weirdest idea came “from a guy out of Nebraska who wanted to bring in 2,000 women from Russia, and 600 men who were felons, and he was going to build acrylic houses and run cameras 24 hours a day,” she said. “I told him he needed to call the state because I couldn’t deal with the permits for anything like that.”

Three written offers fell through for various reasons, but the agent says she’s still getting phone calls, and is surprised that the town hasn’t sold yet. The bank has now cleaned up the land, hauling away three decaying mobile homes and other paraphernalia, and has deeply discounted the price in the hopes of finally finding a buyer.

“They even installed shiny new town signs for Swett,” the agent said. “The old ones had bullet holes in them.”

Did you enjoy this story? We’re a non-profit! You can get more stories like this in our twice weekly ad-free newsletter! Click here to sign up.

FOR SALE: An entire South Dakota town [The Rapid City Journal]

Savvy holiday shoppers who didn’t want to fight the crowds on Black Friday may still be battling congested online traffic in order to obtain the plethora of Cyber Monday deals today. That’s especially true if you’re trying to score some goodies from Target, as the retailer’s website crashed this morning. 

The Washington Post reports that at about 10:20 a.m. ET today, Target’s homepage, and the pages for many of its products, stopped shoppers in their online tracks with the explanation that “high traffic’s causing delays.”

Target tells the Post that it is working to restore full functionality to the website. Until then, however, the company will regulate the flow of traffic on its site.

By noon ET Monday, some shoppers were able to access the site. However, our attempts to reach the Target.com homepage from computers in Pennsylvania and New York both turned up “Access Denied” error messages.

The retailer’s online woes are likely a result of its Cyber Week promotion which offers 15% off “virtually everything online.”

“Both traffic and order volumes are exceeding Target’s Thursday Black Friday event, which was our biggest day ever for online sales,” the company said in a statement Monday. “To help manage the volume, we have been metering traffic to the site.”

A spokesperson for the company apologized for the inconvenience on Monday, “we appreciate their patience, and encourage them to try again in a few minutes by refreshing their browser.”

Consumerist reader G. had issues making purchases online Monday, albeit of a different kind. Instead of being unable to access the retailer’s website, he was unable to put merchandise in his card because of lines.

“I hate shopping at Target stores, since they usually have as few registers open as possible, with long lines and wait times,” he tells Consumerist. “Now it seems the long lines have expanded to… shopping on their website?  I can’t add the items I want to my cart, this message just keeps popping up.”

The message reads: “There’s a line for this item. So sorry for the delay, but you can save your place in line by staying on this page & trying again to add the item to your card. Thank you for your patience!”

G. says the site “simply got more and more broken” as he tried periodically to add the item to his cart. Eventually, he gave up.

This, of course, isn’t Target’s first run-in with heavy traffic wreaking havoc on its website. Over the summer, the retailer’s site crashed during the debut of its limited-time collaborative Lilly Pulitzer line.

The company said at the time that the site didn’t technically “crash,” but that Target did make the strategic decision to limit some customers’ access to certain parts of Target.com. The site was also made inaccessible for several minutes to avoid a crash.

In 2011, the company suffered a months-long glitchy mess with Target.com. The most high-profile problem occurred in mid-September when the rush to purchase items from the new Missoni for Target line crashed the site. Problems continued after that, including further crashes, missing items and mysterious debit card charges… and re-charges… and re-charges.

Target’s Web site is experiencing delays on Cyber Monday [The Washington Post]

If you’ve always dreamed of walking in the pink-bunny-suit clad footsteps of Ralphie from A Christmas Story, now is your chance — well, rather, tomorrow is that’s when bidding opens for the opportunity to stay for a weekend at the Cleveland home featured in the 1983 movie.

Starting Dec. 1 at 5:30 p.m. EST, fans of the movie can place their bids for the opportunity to stay at the house for two days and two nights with three guests, an experience that’s only available for one winner every year.

It’s a “VIP experience,” with $800 of themed gifts up for grabs, including a Major Award Leg Lamp, tickets to Great Lakes Science Center, some kind of BB gun involvement (careful, lest you shoot your eye out), decoder pins, “and much more,” says the A Christmas Story House Foundation on the auction’s website.

All proceeds from the auction will go toward maintaining and restoring the historic neighborhood around the landmark house. The foundation provides grants to qualified residents for home restoration projects.

Many restaurants use a layer of butcher paper on your table to make cleanup easy (and to give the kids something to scribble on.) You can use this same idea to contain messy meals—or messy eaters—in your own home.

Read more...

It’s time to start prepping your Thanksgiving dinner, and if you need a few last-minute ideas, these New York chefs have some great tips to share.

Read more...

We’ve talked about other ways to get rid of household smells, but who would have guessed you could add fresh onion to your odor-fighting arsenal?

Read more...

Prince William County community calendar Washington Post Bird Walk The guided tour will include a variety of habitats. Bring binoculars and cameras. 8 a.m. Merrimac Farm Stone House Visitor Center, North Parking Lot, 15014 Deepwood Lane, Nokesville. 703-499-4954. alliance@pwconserve.org. Free. Dale City ... and more »

Learning to cook for yourself at home is a valuable skill that can save you money and make others happy. The learning process can be daunting, but getting better just means doing it, not cooking the best meal of your life every time.

Read more...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Mike London resigned Sunday after failing to guide Virginia to a winning season in five of his six seasons as coach.

Athletic director Craig Littlepage said in a release from the school that he met with London on Sunday morning and both agreed that a change was in the best interest of the program. The move comes less than 24 hours after Virginia (4-8, 3-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) lost 23-20 to state rival Virginia Tech, its 12th consecutive loss in the series. It left London with a 27-46 record at the school.

“During his tenure, Mike created a positive culture for our student-athletes to develop as young men, who improved each year in the classroom and represented us very well in the community,” Littlepage said in the statement. “Mike was a tremendous mentor for his players and many of our coaches. His ability to inspire others helped our program establish great relationships among the high school football coaches in the state and he has been a tremendous ambassador for the University.”

London, who was 11-29 against ACC opponents, seemed resigned to his fate after the loss to the Hokies.

“I don’t make those decisions but I’m mature enough to know this is the profession we live in,” he said when asked about his future. “I’d love to be the head coach of this team if the opportunity is afforded. But I feel proud about what goes on with this program, what I’ve done. And I hope that character and integrity means a lot. I know W’s do as well. But I’m peace with myself right now.”

The Cavaliers finished this year with a road losing streak that has reached 15 games.

Twice an assistant at Virginia under his predecessor, Al Groh, London returned to coach the Cavaliers after two seasons at Richmond, where he led the Spiders to the 2008 FCS national championship in his first season. He was 24-5 with the Spiders, his first head coaching job.

The Cavaliers appeared to be on the road to improvement five years ago, finishing 8-5 and with a loss in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, but failed to follow that up despite gains in recruiting in the ensuing seasons. Part of that was a schedule that routinely had Virginia playing against some of the strongest teams in the nation, but questionable in-game decisions, penalties and quarterback controversies also contributed.

Against the Hokies, Virginia was penalized nine times for 65 yards, and called for a fake punt on a fourth-and-16 play from their own 34 yard-line. Punter Nicholas Conte kept the ball and ran, but was stopped a yard short of the first down, leading to a Hokies field goal.

London also was forced to makeover his staff after his third season, but the new group went just 11-25 over the past three seasons.

Littlepage did not specify a time-frame for naming a successor, noting that some candidates could be involved in postseason play.

“In our search, we will look for a coach who’s demonstrated the ability to implement his system and achieved a consistent level of success,” Littlepage said. “The coach will have experience recruiting and developing student-athletes who fit his profile for success on the field and in the classroom. We expect our football program to compete for the Coastal Division title on an annual basis, which puts us in a position to win the ACC championship and be competitive nationally. This is consistent with the expectations for each of our sport programs.”

Despite a 5-7 record in football last season, Virginia won men’s national championships is soccer, tennis and baseball last season, and for the first time won the Capital One Cup awarded to the athletic program with the best cumulative record across all men’s programs.

London’s contract runs through 2016. He will be paid approximately $2.7 million through next season.

—

Follow Hank on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hankkurzjr

—

The AP’s college football page: www.collegefootball.ap.org

The post Virginia’s Mike London resigns after 6th season as coach appeared first on WTOP.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A statewide test of Virginia’s public records law shows that many officials are refusing to hand over documents they’re required to provide.

Thirteen Virginia newspapers tested the state’s Freedom of Information Act to find out whether officials are actually disclosing documents they’re supposed to by law.

The Daily Press reports (http://bit.ly/1jrucBD ) that the newspapers found that more than half of the police or sheriff’s departments wouldn’t provide information about felony incidents, which the law considers public records.

The newspaper says that about 1/4 of local government and school board officers surveyed wouldn’t release the salaries and allowances of administrators, as required by the law.

The survey also found that many officials are requiring people to put their request for documents in writing, even though it’s not required by the law.

___

Information from: Daily Press, http://www.dailypress.com/

The post Survey: Virginia officials often ignore public records law appeared first on WTOP.

Washington Post

What you missed at the Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz show at Echostage in DC Washington Post While most remained paralyzed by post-Thanksgiving food comas on Friday, D.C.'s Smilers donned their sparkliest and shiniest for a sold-out Miley Cyrus show at Echostage in Northeast Washington. This was not to be the naked concert that's been rumored, ... and more »

Let’s kick off the holiday shopping season with news of a data breach that may involve some toys you’ll be wrapping in the coming weeks. Popular children’s electric toy maker VTech has announced that customer information fell into the wrong hands earlier this month. 

VTech announced Friday that on Nov. 14, an “unauthorized party” accessed customer data housed in its Learning Lodge app store, which allows customers to download apps, games, e-books and other content for VTech products.

While the company assured users that the Learning Lodge does not store credit card information or Social Security numbers, the database does include data like names, e-mail addresses, encrypted passwords, IP addresses, mailing addresses, download histories, and answers to password-retrieval questions.

“Upon discovering the unauthorized access we immediately conducted a thorough investigation, which involved a comprehensive check of the affected site and implementation of measures to defend against any further attacks,” VTech said in a statement.

The company didn’t specify how many users may have been affected by the breach, but it currently provides services to people in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg, Latin America, Hong Kong, China, Australia, and New Zealand.

Motherboard reports that the compromised information may include data for nearly 5 million adults who have purchased VTech products and the first names, genders, and birthdays of more than 200,000 children.

“The investigation continues as we look at additional ways to strengthen our Learning Lodge database security,” said VTech. “We are committed to protecting our customer information and their privacy, to ensure against any such incidents in the future. Our Privacy Statement can be found on our website here.”

[via Motherboard]

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — No one can resist the allure of a cute kitten or a fluffy dog.

Even the strongest and toughest of Marines.

That notion is apparent in “Creature Comforts,” an exhibit at the Eastport Yacht Club that tells the history of maritime pets in the military.

On loan from the CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum in British Columbia, the exhibit, which features animals aboard military ships from World War I through the Korean War, is being facilitated by the Museum of Maritime Pets.

“Cats and dogs were traditional mascots but during the wars, countries traded animals,” said Patricia Sullivan, CEO of the museum, which doesn’t yet have a permanent home.

This included creatures as small as rabbits and parrots to animals as large as reindeer.

“Parrots were known to be favorite maritime pets because they’re amusing and they pick up words, but monkeys were also very popular,” Sullivan said.

Even a bear and two lion cubs got their turn aboard a wartime vessel.

In addition to their roles as companions, the animals also helped with pest control and communication.

“People think of pets as pets, but especially hundreds of years ago, before we had modern ways of communicating, animals were important,” Sullivan said.

Carrier pigeons were used to deliver messages that were too risky to transmit by radio and a change in behavior among cats aboard the ships would let the sailors know that a storm was on the way, she said.

A rabbit named Handy Built was the mascot for the crew of the HCMS Haida and was renowned for his instinct of detecting nearby submarines. He would jump around in his cage when sonar contact occurred with an enemy submarine.

Some animals were awarded medals as a thank-you for the services they provided.

Others got different treats.

Wriggles, a bear who tagged along with the crew of the HMCS Thiepval after their trip to Hokkaido, Japan, in 1924, was so well-loved that sailors built him a treehouse at their base and even brought him along to the bar.

Sinbad, a mixed breed puppy smuggled aboard the Coast Guard cutter Campbell in 1938, went down in Coast Guard history. He served onboard the Campbell for 11 years and even drank whiskey and beer with the sailors on liberty. He had a biography written about him.

The exhibit, which opened to the public Nov. 22 and ends in January, includes pictures of several different animals and books on their adventures.

“It’s kind of heartwarming to just walk through this and see how important animals were in our lives and the lives of our military,” said Carey Kirk, past Yacht Club commodore.

“You don’t even have to be a pet owner. It’s fascinating to look at these photos and see how critical the roles were that the animals served.”

Sullivan pointed out a similarity among the sailors in the photos.

“They’re all smiling,” she said. “You can tell, they’re just so happy with the animals.”

When you go

What: “Creature Comforts”

Where: Eastport Yacht Club, 317 First St., Annapolis

When: 5 to 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; noon to 4 p.m. Sundays, from this Sunday through Jan. 3

More information: www.eastportyc.org

___

Information from: The Capital, http://www.capitalgazette.com/

The post Exhibit about maritime pets cruises into Annapolis appeared first on WTOP.

Driving laws in the United States can vary from state to state, and it’s tough to be sure if it’s legal to, for example, drive with a dog on your lap or with earbuds in (not that either are a good idea,) drive for Uber, or too slowly as well as too fast. This map shows you all of those, and more.

Read more...

Doing laundry is one of those tasks we do so often we don’t really question how we might be doing it ineffectively. It’s just habit. This video explains some of the most common ways we do laundry wrong.

Read more...

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — Officials in Maryland say a 30-pound dog rescued from a storm drain had been missing for over a year.

Rescue crews got the dog out of the drain on Friday after a man walking his own dog spotted the other pup in the storm drain. It took crews two hours to get the Wheaten Terrier out of the drain.

The 1-year-old dog named Cookie had reportedly been missing since October 2014. Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service spokesman Pete Piringer says the dog’s owner has been located and will pick the dog up. Piringer says it’s believed Cookie got into the drain through a pipe at a nearby construction site.

The post Missing dog found in storm drain in Maryland appeared first on WTOP.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles City Hall proposal to send “john letters” to the owners of cars seen in areas known for prostitution has drawn criticism from a California civil liberties group.

The City Council voted Wednesday to have the city attorney’s office analyze the proposal to use license numbers to determine who owns the vehicles.

The letters would be written to discourage those who were soliciting prostitutes from returning to the area while posing no harm to those who were there for legitimate reasons, Councilwoman Nury Martinez said.

“If you aren’t soliciting, you have no reason to worry about finding one of these letters in your mailbox,” she said.

The collection of license plate data is opposed by the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Los Angeles Daily News reported (http://bit.ly/1R8w0Ns ).

The San Francisco-based foundation has an ongoing lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department over the issue.

“What happens if you have legitimate reason to be in a neighborhood?” asked Dave Mass, an investigative researcher with foundation.

Some other cities have used “john letters” to combat prostitution. In some communities, residents are encouraged to jot down the license numbers of cars they see engaging in suspicious activity and provide it to police.

The “john letters” are typically written in a cordial tone and make it clear that police do not assume the owner of the vehicle was the person driving it.

“It is a common myth that prostitution is a ‘victimless crime’ or that it is ‘an act between two consenting adults,'” one sample letter used by a police agency in Florida states. “Prostitution is a crime which is linked to drugs (use and sale), acts of violence toward prostitutes and their customers, and in the worst case, human trafficking in juveniles for the sex trade.”

The letters also warn about potential exposure to sexually transmitted diseases.

Some business owners praised the proposal in Los Angeles.

“Let’s say that letter comes in and your wife, your girlfriend or mother gets it,” said Cindy Sower, a Sun Valley business owner who applauded the proposal. “Maybe it’s a wake-up call.”

The post Los Angeles considers ‘john letters’ to fight prostitution appeared first on WTOP.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Administrators at a Portland, Oregon, high school have canceled an upcoming winter dance because of concerns about dirty dancing.

A Portland Public Schools official says dancing has made some students feel unsafe.

“This is way worse than dirty dancing. It’s over the top, sexual in nature,” district spokeswoman Christine Miles told KGW-TV (http://bit.ly/1R9qgDh).

Not everyone agrees the dance should be canceled.

“We do have some families that think this isn’t a big enough issue to cancel the dance,” Miles said. “But if we have some kids who don’t feel safe at their own high school dance, it’s not OK.”

Several students told KGW that they shouldn’t be punished for the actions of a few classmates.

It’s unclear if there will be other dances later in the school year.

___

Information from: KGW-TV, http://www.kgw.com/

The post Oregon school cancels dance over dirty dancing concerns appeared first on WTOP.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Wildlife rehabilitation workers say a great horned owl that was tangled in fishing line is resting after being rescued by Oregon firefighters.

The Grants Pass Daily Courier reports (http://bit.ly/1Ng6EvC ) that a resident in Shady Cove saw the adult male owl flapping its wings erratically while high up a tree on Sunday.

Jackson County Fire District No. 4 Captain Rick Mendenhall says the owl was “stuck big time.”

Firefighters were able to rescue the bird, which had fishing line wrapped tightly around one wing. They removed the line and put the bird on the ground, but it was too tired to fly.

So they wrapped the owl in a blanket and took it to rehabilitation center Wildlife Images.

Marketing coordinator Devan Ferrell says the owl will be released if and when it regains its wing strength.

___

Information from: Daily Courier, http://www.thedailycourier.com

The post Oregon firefighters rescue owl tangled in fishing line appeared first on WTOP.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Cleo Pablo married her longtime partner when gay weddings became legal in Arizona and looked forward to the day when her wife and their children could move into her home in the small Native American community outside Phoenix where she grew up.

That day never came. The Ak-Chin Indian Community doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages and has a law that prohibits unmarried couples from living together. So Pablo voluntarily gave up her tribal home and now is suing the tribe in tribal court to have her marriage validated.

“I want equal opportunity,” Pablo said. “I want what every married couple has.”

Pablo’s situation reflects an overlooked story line following the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic decision this year that legalized gay marriages nationwide: American Indian reservations are not bound by the decision and many continue to forbid gay marriages and deny insurance and other benefits.

The reasons vary and to some extent depend on cultural recognition of gender identification and roles, and the influence of outside religions, legal experts say. Other issues like high unemployment, alcoholism and suicides on reservations also could be higher on the priority list, said Ann Tweedy, an associate professor at the Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, who has studied tribes’ marriage laws.

Advocacy groups largely have stayed away from pushing tribes for change, recognizing that tribes have the inherent right to regulate domestic relations within their boundaries.

“Tribal sovereignty is very important to tribes,” Tweedy said. “They don’t want to just adopt what the U.S. does.”

Pablo follows in the footsteps of a handful of other tribal members in Oregon, Washington state and Michigan who lobbied their governments for marriage equality.

The Navajo Nation is one of a few of the country’s 567 federally recognized tribes that have outright bans on gay marriage. Some tribes expressly allow it, while others tie marriage laws to those of states or have gender-neutral laws that typically create confusion for gay couples on whether they can marry.

The mish-mash occurs because tribes are sovereign lands where the U.S. Constitution does not apply.

But Pablo argues in her lawsuit that members of the Tribal Council are violating the Ak-Chin constitution by denying her equal protection and due process — rights also guaranteed under the federal Indian Civil Rights Act. Her lawyer, Sonia Martinez, said tribal members could have a persuasive argument against gay-marriage bans if their tribe incorporated federal constitutional rights into tribal laws, which she says is the case on the Ak-Chin reservation.

The Ak-Chin Indian Community wouldn’t comment directly on Pablo’s lawsuit but said marriage laws are a matter for the tribe to decide, not the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Whether our current law stays the same or needs to change, it must still be addressed in a manner that best promotes and protects the community’s sovereignty and right of self-governance, and best reflects the culture, tradition, and morals of the community and all of its members within the confines of our laws,” read a statement provided to The Associated Press.

Change for some tribes came easily.

The Central Council Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska enacted a marriage statute in March to expand court services. Chief Justice Debra O’Gara said leaders talked more about whether to allow members of the same clan to marry than members of the same sex.

“There was very little controversy over the same gender aspect because everybody believed it should be open,” she said. “Whoever our citizens are should have the same rights as everyone else.”

Navajo Nation lawmaker Otto Tso said he would expect a heated debate on the tribe’s marriage laws that likely will be brought forth by tribal members. One of them, Alray Nelson, has been outspoken about the Navajo Nation’s ban on gay marriage, but he knows he doesn’t have support from enough lawmakers to get it overturned.

“They’re going to get our attention, and I’m all about listening, hearing them out, hear the concerns,” Tso said.

Fred Urbina, general counsel for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe in southern Arizona, said he suspects the tribe’s laws that are silent on gay marriage will be questioned in the context of benefits and insurance for employee spouses.

Pablo and her son moved in with Tara Roy-Pablo and her children in Phoenix after she discovered the tribe wouldn’t provide insurance to her entire family and she risked arrest if they stayed in her tribal home.

Cleo Pablo said she’s never felt unwelcome in the tribal community where she works as a probation officer but doesn’t believe she should be treated differently under the law.

“As Native people in the community, we’re taught to stand in the background, not create waves,” she said. “I’ve done the opposite. People know who I am, who I was. I wouldn’t rock the boat. It gets to the point if you don’t say anything, nothing is going to change.”

The post Gay marriage is legal but not on tribal lands appeared first on WTOP.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia authorities say they have noticed a rise in people trying to steal underwear in order to earn money to buy drugs.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch (http://goo.gl/49mPJs ) reports that criminals are lured to the underwear because the clothing is easy to conceal and it can be re-sold for a good price.

In July, authorities say Dorene D. Rainey and an accomplice got away with more than $1,500 in underwear from a western Henrico County Macy’s. Rainey was sentenced to three years in prison, with all but six months suspended, plus restitution.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert J. Windle says he has seen five or more similar cases of underwear shoplifting in the past few years. He says the thefts were all drug-related and the thieves have tended to be heroin addicts.

___

Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch, http://www.timesdispatch.com

The post Brief bandits: drug-related underwear thefts on the rise appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON — Montgomery County Animal Services’ rescue crews worked for hours to get a 30-pound dog out of a storm drain Friday, and their hard work paid off.

A neighbor was walking his dog, a Great Dane named Leonardo, Friday around 2 p.m. when the dog stopped to check out a storm drain on Lonesome Pine Lane in Bethesda, Maryland. That’s when the dog and its owner spotted another pup in the storm drain.

The dog, a 1-year-old Wheaton Terrier named Cookie, was trapped in the drain.

It took Montgomery County Fire & Rescue teams two hours to remove the bars from the storm drain, throw a net over the panicked pooch and pluck him from the drain.

Officer Lavonia Byrd with Montgomery County Animal Services lifted the dog out.

“It was very rewarding because if they hadn’t called, who knows how long he would have survived down there,” she said.

Animal Services evaluated the dog, who checked out OK, and gave him a microchip.

Cookie had been missing since October 2014. The owner has been located, identified and will pick up the dog, says Pete Piringer, Montgomery County Fire & Rescue spokesman.

Piringer says it is believed the dog entered the storm drain through a pipe at a nearby construction site.

Watch videos from the scene in the gallery above.

WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report.

The post Crews rescue dog stuck in Montgomery Co. storm drain appeared first on WTOP.

Virginia Connection Newspapers

Weekend in Burke, Fairfax, Fairfax Station, Clifton, Lorton, Springfield Virginia Connection Newspapers Chanticleer, hailed as “the world's reigning male chorus,” performs at George Mason's Center for the Arts on Saturday, Nov. 28. Photo contributed. Friday, November 27, 2015 · Sign in to favorite this; Discuss Comment, Blog about; Share this Email ... and more »

Washington Post

Popular National Museum of the Marine Corps to temporarily close Washington Post Move over! Two new and big aircraft are expected to go on display at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in the Triangle area of Virginia, as the museum is undergoing an expansion. That means the museum will have to close for three months starting ... Marine museum to close for huge renovation projectMarine Corps Times all 2 news articles »

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — A man in Williamsburg is renting mobile shower units for churches that host homeless people during the winter.

The Daily Press (http://bit.ly/1MUK4oO ) reports Jim Clayton has recently completed a four-unit shower trailer as part of his No Sweat Shower Service business.

Clayton says most churches have a kitchen, a fellowship hall and sleeping spots, but few provide a shower. So he says his business was created to fill that gap.

The mobile shower unit uses a propane-fired system to heat water from a standard garden hose. Each unit also has a bench for sitting and changing clothes.

Clayton says he has invited churches to check out the service to decide if they want to use it. He says a church group in Williamsburg is considering it.

___

Information from: Daily Press, http://www.dailypress.com/

The post Man creates mobile shower service for homeless during winter appeared first on WTOP.

Washington Times

Marine Corps Museum near Quantico, Virginia, to close for 3 months Washington Times Recruiting video for Marine Corps Officer Helicopter Pilots to apply for HMX-1 out of Quantico, Va. (Video: White House Communications Agency) ** FILE ** more >. By - Associated Press - Thursday, November 26, 2015. DUMFRIES, Va. (AP) — The National ... Marine Corps Museum near Quantico to close for 3 monthsMarine Corps Times all 40 news articles »