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Priya Anand

is The Hatchet's editor in chief. A junior, Priya began working for the news section her freshman year and has covered academics, crime, politics and the Foggy Bottom community as the assistant and then metro news editor. Her rulebook says transparency and a lot of coffee can make anything happen.
panand@gwhatchet.com · @priyasideas
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 10:12 p.m.

City creates smartphone app to report local concerns

by Priya Anand

Mayor Vincent Gray's 311Online smartphone app is available for free on iPhones and Androids. Hatchet File Photo

Mayor Vincent Gray launched a free smartphone app Wednesday for city residents to log their grievances related to quality of life issues.

The 311Online app offers an outlet to lay out local concerns ranging from potholes and graffiti to snow that has yet to be shoveled, according to a news release.

Available on iPhones and Androids, the 311Online app is meant for non-emergency problems.

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Monday, April 9, 2012 5:42 p.m.

National Mall design competition whittles down to finalists

by Priya Anand

Hatchet File Photo

Visitors may one day ice skate at the National Mall’s pond or dine at a glassy restaurant overlooking the water and greenery, plans from finalists in a competition to revamp the park revealed Monday.

Twelve drawings by architects who made it to the final round of a design competition by the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall were revealed Monday, offering a glimpse into the future of one of the country’s most visited parks.

The conceptual sketches to overhaul Constitution Gardens, near Constitution Avenue and 17th Street, the Washington Monument Grounds and Union Square will remain on display for the public at the Smithsonian Castle and the National Museum of American History until April 15.

Judges sifted through more than 32 teams to select the 12 finalists, according to the Associated Press, and the nonprofit trust hopes to raise $350 million to aid the redevelopment. It plans to complete at least one project by 2016.

You can check out the 12 designs that made it to the finals here.

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Wednesday, April 4, 2012 3:41 p.m.

University conducts asbestos abatement at Gelman Library

by Priya Anand

The University conducted an asbestos abatement in Gelman Library's basement Tuesday and Wednesday. Hatchet File Photo

The University conducted an abatement in the basement of Gelman Library this week after discovering asbestos.

GW found the asbestos in insulation in room B02 of Gelman while surveying the building as part of office shifts for renovations to the library’s second floor, Director of the Office of Health and Safety William Flint said. The abatement took place Tuesday and Wednesday.

Exposure to asbestos – a fiber commonly used in building materials – can cause severe health problems including lung and gastrointestinal cancer if it is disturbed and then inhaled or ingested.

The District Department of Environment and the Environmental Protection Agency outline guidelines for proper asbestos abatement and construction in areas that might have been built with materials that contain asbestos.

“There will be no exposure to any member of the GW community during this abatement project,” Flint said. “Abatement projects are designed to contain all asbestos, filter all air, and clean all surfaces in and around the area of operation.”

He added that areas affected by library renovations are all being checked to ensure asbestos is not being disturbed during renovations.

DDOE environmental specialist Keith Keemer said asbestos materials are common throughout hundreds of buildings across the city and only become a problem when the fibers are disturbed.

“It’s common for asbestos to be in buildings. It’s common for abatements to be going on every day,” he said.

DDOE public information officer Donna Henry said GW was issued a permit March 27 to conduct the Gelman abatement.

Other abatement locations this academic year include Rice Hall, the Marvin Center and the Law Learning Center and Garage site, Flint said.

This post was updated on April 5, 2012 to reflect the following:
The Hatchet originally posted an unrelated photo with this blog. It was removed.

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Wednesday, April 4, 2012 12:13 a.m.

Alumnus loses D.C. Council bid, Evans glides to sixth term

by Priya Anand

Ward 2 D.C. Council member Jack Evans, who was first elected to the body in 1991, won the city's primary elections Tuesday facing no opponent. Hatchet File Photo

Ward 2 D.C. Council member Jack Evans sailed to victory in an unopposed primary race Tuesday, while an alumnus was trounced by his incumbent opponent for the Ward 4 seat.

Evans, 58, is slated for a sixth term to represent the ward covering neighborhoods including Foggy Bottom, the West End, Dupont Circle and Georgetown. Alumnus Max Skolnik, who graduated from GW in 2002, garnered slightly more than 9 percent of the vote while Muriel Bowser skated to a Ward 4 victory with 65.8 percent of the vote.

Skolnik – whose campaign students bolstered in the days leading up to the primary with increased canvassing and phone banking efforts – received just 967 votes.

Voter turnout for the election totaled 58,210, according to D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics data. Evans, who ran unopposed, nabbed 80 percent of the vote.

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Tuesday, April 3, 2012 3:23 p.m.

Metro kicks off anti-sexual harassment campaign

by Priya Anand
Metro

Metro launched an anti-sexual harassment campaign Monday, offering riders a website and e-mail address to report incidents. Hatchet File Photo

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority launched a new anti-sexual harassment campaign Monday with an online portal for riders to report cases to the rail’s police.

Metro Transit Police will follow up on reports submitted on the website. Passengers can also send photo or video evidence to harassment@wmata.com.

“This purpose of this outreach is to let people know that it’s not okay to sexually harass people on Metro,” Metro General Manager and chief executive officer Richard Sarles said in a news release. “We are encouraging anyone who may be harassed to report the incident to Metro Transit Police, and we appreciate the support of the advocacy groups in getting our message out into the communities we serve.”

The effort is modeled after a program used on the Boston T and follows activist testimony before the D.C. Council in February that sexual harassment was a problem on the Metro.

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Thursday, March 22, 2012 7:50 p.m.

Gray faces federal scrutiny for ‘shadow campaign’

by Priya Anand
Vincent Gray, mayor

Alumnus and Mayor Vincent Gray is under fire for allegedly running a "shadow campaign" operation that was kept under the rug and went unreported in campaign finance records. Hatchet File Photo

Alumnus and Mayor Vincent Gray is in hot water with federal investigators for allegedly running an unreported “shadow campaign” during the 2010 campaign season that included organizing and financing a get-out-the-vote operation that were kept under wraps.

The alleged shadow campaign began to put a little more cash in Gray’s campaign pockets when he was an underdog in the race against former Mayor Adrian Fenty, The Washington Post reported Thursday. The post anonymously cited former campaign staffers. D.C. Office of Campaign Finance guidelines require candidates to report all spending related to city campaigns and candidates.

They claimed former field organizer Vernon E. Hawkins organized that operation.

“Hawkins did not return calls seeking comment, and Gray said it was his understanding that Hawkins was a campaign volunteer. Gray declined to answer specific questions about the campaign allegations, citing the ongoing investigation,” The Post reported.

The story follows a federal investigation into Gray’s campaign irregularities, and a slew of charges surrounding his bid the city’s top executive seat. A federal probe dismissed an allegation by ex-candidate Sulaimon Brown that the alumnus’ staff bribed him to bash Fenty during the race in exchange for a city job.

Gray, who has been slammed with ethical inquiries into his campaign since he took office, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

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Tuesday, March 20, 2012 12:44 p.m.

Metro releases new map with rush hour service changes

by Priya Anand

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit unveiled a new map Monday and announced service changes to ease rush hour traffic on the rail line. Photo courtesy of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit released an updated map for the rail network Monday, tweaking some station names and indicating rush hour service changes in an effort to alleviate congestion.

The new map, designed by Lance Wyman – who created the original version in 1976 – shortens a handful of lengthy station names and lists Metro’s operating hours. It also adds dashed lines to each route slated to run an increased number of trains during rush hour.

Rush+, the new service expansion, will add six trains per hour to the Orange Line and 18 trains to the Green and Yellow lines during peak hours. Rush hour is from 6:30 to 9 a.m. and 3:30 to 6 p.m., and the changes will take effect June 18, according to a news release from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

The service shifts will increase Orange Line train capacity by about 18 percent and cut wait times to a maximum of six minutes for customers who travel on the Blue Line from Arlington Cemetery.

The station name changes reflect revisions the transit agency’s board approved in November. Stops near hospitals will be marked with the letter “H” and the Green Line “Waterfront – SEU” station will drop “SEU” from its name. Southeastern University closed up in 2009.

“Navy Yard,” among the stations that will see a name change, will become “Navy Yard – Ballpark” to highlight Nationals Park.

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Thursday, March 15, 2012 7:14 p.m.

Candidate for D.C. senate seat asks for jail time

by Priya Anand
Pete Ross

Pete Ross. Photo courtesy of Pete Ross.

A candidate for the District’s shadow senate seat was sentenced today by the D.C. Superior Court to one day in prison as a result of a December arrest during a voting rights demonstration.

Pete Ross will spend the night in prison – instead of serving out the typical low-level punishment of probation and a fine – after pressing for a stricter sentence to draw attention to the District’s lack of voting rights, according to DCist.

The December protest called for full representation for the District in Congress. D.C.’s delegate in the House of Representatives, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, can serve on and vote in committees and introduce bills but lacks the power to vote on legislation on the House floor.

Ross, who has spent more than $200,000 out of his own pockets in an effort to win the April 3 election, was also convicted in 2007 for failing to pay federal employment taxes, according to The Washington Post.

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Thursday, March 15, 2012 6:40 p.m.

Land slightly sinking near Washington Monument

by Priya Anand

An engineer scaled the Washington Monument in September as part of a project to inspect the damages the monument incurred during a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that sent tremors through the city in August. Hatchet File Photo

A patch of land near the Washington Monument appears to have sunk by more than expected levels, leaving the obelisk standing slightly shorter.

The two millimeter slump into the ground, discovered through preliminary land survey work, could be a result of the earthquake that rattled the District and damaged the monument in August, The Washington Post reported.

“If confirmed, it would not be much of a drop — .08 inch, or about the thickness of a wedding band. But it’s a further illustration of the relatively soft, reclaimed ground, dredged from the Potomac River in the 1880s and ’90s, on which the western half of the Mall rests,” the Post reported.

The sinking is more than National Geodetic Survey officials anticipated, and while individual subsidence rates are small-scale, “over time they can add up and be significant,” David Doyle, the agency’s chief geodetic surveyor, told The Post.

The 555-foot monument commemorating the nation’s first president has been closed since the Aug. 23 earthquake, which left the structure damaged. Engineers rappelled down its sides a month later for inspections.

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Wednesday, March 14, 2012 5:55 p.m.

Footage uncovered from decade-old protests near campus

by Priya Anand
IMF

The annual World Bank-International Monetary Fund meetings typically cause minor disturbances, but in 2002 it became the site of mass demonstrations leading to hundreds of arrests. Hatchet File Photo

Photos and video frames have surfaced documenting the city’s response to mass protests that saw hundreds of arrests on the edge of the Foggy Bottom Campus in September 2002.

The footage of a weekend of demonstrations against the annual World Bank-International Monetary Fund meetings that year has become evidence in a lawsuit against the District and the Metropolitan Police Department, who arrested about 400 protesters – including a handful of former students who are still battling the case, according to The Washington Post.

The former students, whose case a decade later is still in legal limbo, are looking to change how police respond to large-scale demonstrations, according to The Post. The discovery of new video frames follow claims by city officials that documentation beyond limited surveillance recordings did not exist. Some of the plaintiffs are former Hatchet employees.

“Lawyers for the plaintiffs hope the photographs can bolster their argument that police and government officials have a pattern of making dishonest and contradictory statements about evidence in the case,” according to The Post.

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