Martin Austermuhle

UNION FIGHT: In January the D.C. Public Employee Relations Board ordered a new union election for employees of the D.C. Department of Corrections to choose whether they wanted to join AFGE or FOP. AFGE claimed FOP broke electioneering rules during the first election last year.

One more thing: The judges that tossed out D.C.'s ban on magazines that can hold more than 10 bullets didn't engage in whether the city's entire gun licensing law is constitutional or not. But it has been a target for gun owners over the years.

The court's entire ruling is here: www.dccourts.gov/sites/defaul...

Now I'm curious if the D.C. Council decides to write a law banning magazines with a much larger number of bullets.

High-capacity gun magazines are illegal in D.C. Trump no longer wants to prosecute violators. City officials say high-capacity magazines can be particularly deadly.

This entire case is additionally interesting because last year the Trump administration said it believed that D.C.'s ban on large magazines was unconstitutional, reversing what the Biden administration has believed. I reported on that here: 51st.news/high-capacit...

Blackburne-Rigsby makes a point D.C. was making: If popularity is a standard to consider whether something can be banned or not, then gun manufacturers can rush a dangerous weapon to market and then say it can never be regulated because it's suddenly popular.

Now, there was a dissent from Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby. She argues that regulating large magazines is within the U.S.'s historical tradition, and that the majority mistakenly says they can't be regulated because they are popular.

Interestingly, the two judges didn't rule out that D.C. could simply ban magazines that hold a very large number of bullets, say 30 or 50 or 100, and that might pass constitutional muster. But they said that was unrelated to D.C.'s impermissible law banning 10+ magazines.

The two D.C. judges that ruled in his favor, tossing out the city's ban on magazines that can hold more than 10 bullets, made somewhat clear that their hands were tied by Supreme Court rulings that make it much harder to justify many restrictions on guns.

The ruling arises from an arrest a few years ago of a D.C. man who was found with an unregistered gun and a magazine capable of holding more than 30 bullets. He challenged his conviction on Second Amendment grounds.

Interesting: The D.C. Court of Appeals that ruled that the city's ban on gun magazines that can hold more than 10 bullets is unconstitutional. A majority of the three-judge panel said the magazines are common and used for self defense, and there's no history of such blanket bans.

Cheh’s endorsement pretty clearly shows what McDuffie’s main selling point will be: he was a councilmember for a long time and got things done. Experience can also be a vulnerability, though; he can be seen as part of the problems people say they’re having.

Interesting: Former Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh is endorsing Kenyan McDuffie for mayor, saying that he has proven “he can get things done” while opponent @janeese4dc.bsky.social has a record that “is essentially barren.” Cheh’s endorsement is helpful in vote-rich Ward 3.

The Story Behind Those Expensive Exxon Gas Stations Wolf Blitzer Loves To Tweet About | DCist CNN’s Wolf Blitzer loves to tweet about the expensive Exxon gas stations closest to him, setting off heated debates about the state of the national economy. But in most cases, they’re abnormally expen...

Since gas prices seem to be increasing, a reminder for people who want to make a political point in D.C.: That Exxon station not far from Union Station and the Senate always has way higher gas prices than almost any other station in town. dcist.com/story/21/11/...

Yikes, the D.C. Court of Appeals decision is pretty withering in its assessment of the Public Service Commission's decision not to have a trial-like evidentiary process on Pepco's multi-year rate increase.

Pepco's multi-year rate increase isn't dead yet, it's just getting sent back for another hearing in the Public Service Commission. And the hearing has to be like a full trial.

BIG PEPCO NEWS: If you're angry about high electricity bills, the D.C. Court of Appeals just tossed out the Public Service Commission's last two-year rate increase (for years 2024-2026) for Pepco on procedural grounds.

BUT: I'm told no immediate bill changes for D.C. customers.

DC tax payers can now file, despite Trump tax cut drama No pause or delayed deadlines are now expected.

Go forth and file your tax returns, D.C. residents. The city's CFO says there won't be any interruptions in tax-filing season this year, amidst a confusing fight with Congress over local tax law: 51st.news/time-to-file...

I appreciate that the CFO has brought certainty for District taxpayers. Residents should continue to file their taxes for tax year 2025 as usual.

All of these initiatives, if they get the required signatures, would appear on the November ballot. The rent-freeze one, though, could be pushed into next year because of ongoing delays and challenges. Realtors and developers are going to fight this one tooth and nail.

Finally, the third proposed initiative would increase the minimum wage in D.C. to $25 by 2030, and again phase out the tipped wage. That one was cleared today for access to the ballot. It still has to get through another hoop or two before proponents can collect signatures.

Interestingly, the D.C. attorney general opined that the proposed ballot initiative was legally sound to be on the ballot. But today the elections board asked for additional legal briefing on the constitutional issues raised by opponents. So that's on hold.

Realtors, building owners, and developers are very much opposed to the rent freeze, and say that imposing one via a ballot initiative would amount to an unconstitutional taking. Ballot initiatives can't do anything that violates the U.S. Constitution.

The second proposed initiative, sponsored by @dcaffordability.bsky.social, would impose a two-year rent freeze, and a few other things. That one is earlier in the process; proponents are trying to get the elections board to give it the legal go-ahead. But it's facing stiff opposition.

The proposed ballot initiative to ban the sale of foie gras is furthest along. It has cleared the legal hurdles, and next the elections board will finalize the language. Once that's done, proponents can start collecting the roughly 25,000 signatures to get it on the Nov. ballot.

BALLOT INITIATIVE 🧵: Today the D.C. Board of Elections held a hearing on three different proposed ballot initiatives: One that would ban the sale of foie gras in D.C., another that would impose a two-year rent freeze, and a third to raise the minimum wage to $25.

Whether kids went to school was based on plenty of factors, including how passable roads and sidewalks were. But distance of course matters. At Janney, 88% of students live in-boundary. At Beers, it's 33%.

Take Janney Elementary in Tenleytown. On January 29, the Thursday after the storm, 90% of the school's 720 kids attended. But over at Beers Elementary in Ward 7, attendance was 16% of the school's 364 students.

Remember when D.C. was first to reopen its public schools to students after the January snowstorm? School officials said more than half of DCPS students attended school those first days, which is true. But data I got shows extremely wide variation in attendance rates.

Now, there's still an internal political fight between Lee on one side and Bowser and the council on the other. Lee says he's not going to release the revenue that would be produced by decoupling, which has angered the mayor and council.

It's also quite unprecedented. D.C. has never really defied Congress like this, if defiance is the right word. (You could say D.C. found a legal loophole to ignore Congress.)