When NASA's twin spacecraft Ebb and Flow crashed into the moon last year, scientists did not count on seeing the aftermath.
The District's automated traffic enforcement program increased its revenue by more than 100 percent from 2011 to 2012, jumping from $42.9 million to $95.6 million, according to figures released Thursday by the city.
D.C. Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan took the unusual step this week of opining on the dismissal of a speed-camera citation issued to a Metropolitan Police Department sergeant who captured widespread attention last month from the public, consumer advocates and the media when he successfully appealed a Third Street Tunnel ticket to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Speed-camera salesmen are finding it tougher to get away with the usual platitudes about the reliability of their products.
The efforts of a D.C. police sergeant to force a refund of $1.8 million in allegedly invalid speed-camera tickets represent just one aspect of what he says is ailing the District's automated speed-enforcement program.
If justice prevails, Washington will have to refund all $1,814,150 collected on the 14,167 defective citations issued in the Third Street Tunnel, as highlighted by Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Mark Robinson ("Shot with own speed camera, D.C. cop fires back," Web, Tuesday). If justice truly prevails, the city will have to refund more than $10 million collected on more than 100,000 defective citations due to other errors that invalidate the citations.
Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Mark Robinson tried for months to persuade D.C. traffic officials to rescind more than 100,000 defective citations he said were a result of unreliable speed cameras, but when he got caught by one of them himself in the Third Street Tunnel, he took a different course.
A veteran Metropolitan Police sergeant says higher-ups at the department and the city council chairman are protecting a manager accused of misusing department funds, failing to rescind defective speed-camera citations and improperly voiding legitimate tickets.
If Mitt Romney hopes to go toe-to-toe this fall with President Obama, the former Massachusetts governor needs to show he can fish for small-dollar donors as well as reeling in the big-cash catch.
