Results tagged “capitolhill”

Some Capitol Hill offices received letters claiming responsibility for this morning's bombing in Times Square. WNBC reports that the letters, which arrived today, included a photo of the Army recruiting center "before it was bombed and...the words 'We did it.'"

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt, who has completely covered her house in mosaic tiles.

While New York has it own maybe-political scandal brewing, the new political hot potato scandal is Florida Representative Mark Foley's graphic emails and instant messaging conversations with underage Congressional pages (you can read them here at ABC News), which has lead to Foley's resignation and subsequent check-in to an alcohol rehab clinic. The bigger question is whether Republican leaders knew about Foley's inclination to pursue high school age male pages, and, if they did, why didn't they stop it? And in a (western) NY connection, people are wondering if Representative Tom Reynolds did too little to stop Foley.

Mayor Bloomberg called the Department of Homeland Security "short-sighted" and "dysfunctional" while testifying to the House Committee on Homeland Security yesterday about the Department of Homeland Security anti-terror funding cuts to NYC. Bloomberg, joined by Police Commissioner Kelly, emphasized the importance of "human intelligence" in stopping potential terrorist attacks. He even had to say, "The world is not what you see on 'CSI.' The real ways that you stop the bad guys is by having well-motivated, highly trained people." (He was explaining that gadgets won't do the leg work of stopping terrorists.) Now, we realize it's the most-watched drama these days, but that just seems, well, bizarre, because CSI isn't even about pre-emptively "stopping bad guys." Anyway.

Once you get past the budget deficit, the war in Iraq and the fact that McDonald’s stops serving McGriddles after 11am, you’ll find that there is a lot to be proud of when it comes to this country. However our wines may not be the first thing to come to mind.

The U.S. House of Representatives Canon House Building was evcacuated when Capitol Hill security noticed the outline of a gun on the X-ray machine's monitors. SWAT teams were brought into to secure the area as well as find two suspects, a man and a woman. A little less than two hours later, Representative John Shimkus of Illinois called the police to tell them that the suspects they were looking for were two female staffers with Halloween costumes that included toy guns; SWAT teams were "disgusted." Capitol Hill Police Chief Gainer said, "I don't think anybody was trying to trick anybody. I think it was just an unusual set of Halloween circumstances that unfolded on us." Yes, an ill-planned Mischief Night during the day at the Capitol.