WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2010


KLMNO A quartet of lion cubs at National Zoo


‘We’re stoked,’ curator says of closely watched newborn litter


by Michael E. Ruane The keepers of the African


lions at the National Zoo were taking no chances with four new- born cubs this week. They reviewed the kind of hay


they used in May when a cub in- haled a “seed head,” caught pneumonia and died. They con- sidered other types of bedding. They thought about picking out all the hayseeds. Then, col- leagues at a zoo facility in rural Virginia offered a crop called or- chard grass and suggested har- vesting it before it sprouted seeds. The result was that when 5- year-old Shera delivered her first litter between 10:30 p.m. Mon- day and about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday,


the newborns landed in what one curator called “the fluffiest, soft- est hay with no seed heads that I ever saw in my life.” Time will tell the effect of their foresight, but, on Tuesday, zoo of- ficials were elated and optimistic about the arrival of the four fra- gile cubs. “We’re stoked,” said Craig Saf- foe, interim curator of great cats and bears. “We couldn’t be hap- pier right now.” The father is Luke, 4. The zoo has another female, Nababiep, 6, who is Shera’s sister and the mother of the cub that died. A litter of four cubs is at the upper end of average, Saffoe said, noting that lions generally have from one to four cubs at a time. A lion’s gestation period is about 110 days. He said the births, which took place in the lion enclosure, were observed via a video camera that keepers had been monitoring be- cause, among other indicators, the female looked pregnant and had become restless.


Rhee helps, harms Fenty election bid


rhee from B1


we’re making.” Rhee’s problematic image might be one reason the Fenty campaign has yet to take her up on the offer she said she made this summer to walk city neighbor- hoods and knock on doors. The poll depicts the deeply di-


vergent views of progress in the 45,000-student public school sys- tem, long regarded as one of the nation’s weakest. Rhee also has failed to win over the city’s Afri- can American Democrats. That is notable for a school system in which black students account for three-fourths of enrollment, and suggests a challenge no matter how long her tenure lasts. Her standing in the black com-


munity has collapsed over the past two years alongside the may- or’s. In a January 2008 Post poll, 50 percent of black residents ap- proved of her performance, a fig- ure that has dwindled to 27 per- cent. Among white Democrats, 68 percent said Rhee is a reason to support Fenty. Fifty-four per- cent of black Democrats cite her as a reason to vote against the mayor. Fifty-nine percent of white vot-


ers say D.C. public schools have improved over the past four years, compared with 7 percent who say they have worsened. Among Afri- can American voters, sentiment is more fragmented. Thirty-four percent say that schools are bet- ter, 30 percent that they are worse and 26 percent that there has been no change. In the African American com-


munity, goodwill generated by im- proved test scores, higher gradua- tion rates and renovated schools has been eroded by other issues under Rhee. Last fall’s teacher lay- offs, for what she said was a budg- et crunch (an assertion that has been challenged in court by the Washington Teachers’ Union), and the closure and consolidation of more than two dozen underen- rolled schools resonate with poll


respondents. Kevin Hall, 28, a Ward 6 resi- dent whose son attends J.O. Wil- son Elementary, said classes have been more crowded since the lay- offs. “It’s taking away from the children’s education,” he said. “I think Gray will put money back into the schools.” Others said that Rhee’s person-


al style seems cold and disdainful, damaging her ability to be effec- tive. After last fall’s layoffs, she left the impression in an interview with a business magazine that an unspecified number of the termi- nated teachers had sexually abused students. Later, she said that just one of the laid-off in- structors had been under a sex- ual-misconduct investigation. “There’s something about her I


don’t like. Can’t put my finger on it,” said Clarise Whitfield, 68, a Ward 7 resident who supports Gray. “She doesn’t know how to express herself with people.” White Democrats see Rhee as someone who has taken encour- aging steps to turn the system around. But they are concerned that she won’t continue the prog- ress that has been made because she has strongly hinted that a Gray victory would prompt her departure. Rhee has raised doubts about Gray’s ability to withstand the criticism that comes with making difficult decisions. “If Fenty doesn’t get four more


years, I have to move out to the suburbs and commute,” said Amy Weiser, 43, who has a child in kin- dergarten at Key Elementary in Northwest Washington. Gray, she said, strikes her as someone who is “going to hold hearings and hem and haw and nothing’s going to get done.” Even among some white Demo-


crats who support Fenty, there are doubts about how Rhee treats people. “I have mixed feelings about Michelle Rhee. I don’t nec- essarily like her style or ap- proach,” said Debbie, a Ward 4 poll respondent and Fenty sup- porter who spoke on the condi-


“The worst thing we can do is stress this cat out,” he said. “This is like the most stressful event that any animal can have, short of being chased as prey. We stay as far away as we possibly can.” Once the first cub was spotted


wiggling in the hay, “at that point everything is up in the air,” Saffoe said. “For a first-time mom, you


don’t know how she’s going to re- act,” he said. “There’s always a chance that she could cannibal- ize the cubs.” In such an event, he said, “you couldn’t do a thing.” But Shera was attentive. “Al- most immediately after [the first cub] was born she started grooming it,” he said. “She’s been more attentive than we could have asked for. Things look really good right now.” Saffoe said he and the other


keepers felt great relief. “There’s this huge weight that


gets lifted off your shoulders when you see . . . the cubs are born alive,” he said. Saffoe said keepers will keep a


poll Rhee, in black and white


Overall approval of Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is little changed from January, but views of her performance continue to be driven by race.


Q:


Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Michelle Rhee is handling her job as chancellor of the D.C. public schools?


All D.C. residents Registered voters


Registered Democrats African Americans* Whites*


*Among registered voters. Q:


In deciding your vote for mayor, how much of a factor will Rhee’s performance as chancellor be?


IMPORTANT Registered Democrats


African Americans Whites


Q:


55% NET


55 54


EXTREMELY


27 30 28%


NOT IMPORTANT NOT TOO


23% 25


21 NET


44 41 42%


Would you say Rhee's performance as chancellor is more of a reason to vote for Fenty in the upcoming election, or more of a reason to vote against him?


Registered Democrats African Americans Whites


REASON FOR REASON AGAINST 41%


40% 25 68 19 54


Neither 12% 13 8


44% NET


30 45 47


74 44


APPROVE DISAPPROVE STRONGLY


23% 25 24 13 8


STRONGLY 26%


30 32 46


NET 38%


58 45 42


18 COURTESY OF SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL ZOO


The litter is the first for Shera, 5, and was fathered by Luke, 4. The zoo thinks another lion might give birth this month.


close eye on the mother and her cubs for the next few weeks. The cubs will get a physical exam in about two weeks, at which time the first official photos might be taken. The cubs could go on pub- lic display this fall, he said. By that time, there could be


even more lion cubs. The zoo thinks Nababiep is pregnant, Saf- foe said, and could be due in late September.


ruanem@washpost.com


S


B5


D.C. candidate’s old fundraising probed


Council fight has Brown detailing his use of accounts to city officials


by Ann E. Marimow The District’s campaign finance


watchdogs are looking into irreg- ularities in D.C. Council member Kwame R. Brown’s fundraising re- ports from two previous elections. The review by the Office of Campaign Finance, made public Tuesday, comes as former council member Vincent Orange — Brown’s rival in the Sept. 14 Dem- ocratic primary to succeed coun- cil Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) —is calling for a formal investiga- tion into what he says are trou- bling inaccuracies in Brown’s re- porting. In a pair of letters Monday ad- dressed to officials with Brown’s campaigns, the Office of Cam- paign Finance sought informa- tion about why Brown (D-At Large) was raising money for and making payments from a 2008 ac- count this spring, two years after the election, and why a separate account he controls from his 2004 campaign owed money to the In- ternal Revenue Service. Reports filed in July for the 2008 account show Brown fund- raising and making payments in 2010 for expenses related to print- ing, consultants, an office alarm system and a credit-card ma- chine. Rules require candidates to close out debt-free accounts six months after an election and to contribute any surplus to non- profit groups or political parties. Orange, an accountant, held a


news conference Tuesday outside the city’s campaign finance office on 14th Street NW to call atten- tion to Brown’s reports, display- ing the numbers on a series of oversize poster boards. “There’s something amiss


here,” said Orange, who left the council in 2006 after two terms to run for mayor. “Where is the mon- ey?”


Brown downplayed Orange’s


assertions, saying: “Mr. Orange has tried to be Mr. Super CPA and tried to find something that doesn’t look right. This issue is a nonissue.” He called the move “just desperate, to try to get some traction with voters.”


opinion


5 7


Washington Post poll of 1,277 D.C. residents, including 780 registered Democrats, conducted Aug. 19-26 in English and Spanish and on conventional and cellular telephone. Results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for full sample, four percentage points for registered voters and five for likely voters. Fieldwork by Abt SRBI of New York.


Complete data from the poll can be found at www.washingtonpost.com/local. THE WASHINGTON POST


tion of anonymity because her husband is a political consultant. “I think you have to take bold ac- tion. But I don’t know necessarily that insulting people is the way.” There is not a wealth of polling


data on urban school leaders, but what’s available shows that they are rarely wildly popular. Support in New York for city schools Chan- cellor Joel I. Klein — a mentor of Rhee’s who recommended her to Fenty — has never been higher


than 46 percent in the Quinnipiac University poll. The mayor who has employed him since 2002, Mi- chael R. Bloomberg (I), has had approval ratings in the 60s. Last year, when Bloomberg won a third term, Klein’s approval rating was 37 percent. turqueb@washpost.com


Polling director Jon Cohen and assistant polling analyst Kyle Dropp contributed to this report.


Lawsuits seek to restore ballot petitions montgomery from B1


and despite many individual ad- monitions to voters to sign their name the way the state wants them to, even if it feels cum- bersome and unnatural — habit and human nature appear to have won the day. Activists were left without the signatures they need- ed, despite months of effort and the scrawled names of thousands, or tens of thousands, of residents.


‘More than 20 times’ Longtime GOP activist and


County Council candidate Robin Ficker has been gathering signa- tures outside supermarkets and getting referendums on the ballot in Montgomery for decades. Sometimes the questions have been voted down, and sometimes — as was the case with a measure two years ago making it harder to raise taxes — they’ve succeeded at the ballot box. But getting enough valid signatures to even have the questions heard hasn’t been a problem for him, until now. “I have done this more than 20 times before, always in Mont- gomery County, always in front of the food stores. You’ve had the same person collecting signa- tures from the same people in the same place since 1964,” Ficker said. “There never has been any hint of fraud whatsoever, and I’ve


never had more than 25 percent of my signatures ruled invalid. Never. Not once. This time, they ruled 80 percent of my signatures invalid. “They are not even letting peo-


ple have the chance to vote. It’s the antithesis of a democracy. It’s what they would do in, like, Zim- babwe.” Ficker’s term-limit drive need- ed 10,000 signatures to make it to the ballot. He submitted 16,000 just to be sure. Election officials said 2,478 were valid. What changed was a ruling from Maryland’s Court of Ap- peals. In late 2008, in a case springing from a dispute over a transgender anti-discrimination law passed in Montgomery, the court ruled that state law calling for specifics such as middle ini- tials to be included in many cases was not merely a suggestion, as some had argued, but an ironclad requirement. Election officials are also re- quiring that signatures be legible, which many people’s aren’t, said John T. Bentivoglio, who filed the ambulance-fee lawsuit on behalf of the Montgomery County Vol- unteer Fire-Rescue Association. The group is concerned that the fee could dissuade some people from calling 911; fee supporters say that hasn’t happened else- where.


Ficker said his own signature was thrown out. He signs his name Robin K. Ficker. But his full name is Robin Keith Annesley Ficker. He was dinged for the missing A.


High court ruling The Court of Appeals said that


getting the names right shouldn’t be too difficult and that state leg- islators were seeking to prevent fraud. “The mandatory signature re- quirements . . . are not unduly burdensome, requiring a signer to provide only a surname, one full given name, the initials of any other names, the signer’s address and the date of signing,” accord- ing to the majority decision, which dismissed as “unconvinc- ing” arguments made in 2008 by the county election board that mandatory compliance “would lead to absurd results” and “would inhibit the ability to seek referendum.” But that is exactly what has happened, according to Bentivo- glio, a volunteer firefighter whose day job is working as a health- care and white-collar defense lawyer. The fire-rescue associa- tion needed about 30,000 signa- tures and submitted more than 52,000. Election officials threw thousands out and said the group’s measure didn’t make the


ballot. “It’s almost Kafkaesque, the re- quirement,” Bentivoglio said. He contends that the law vio-


lates Maryland’s constitution, which says citizens have the right to petition to put referendums before their fellow citizens. And he said the way the rules are be- ing interpreted is more likely to increase fraud than decrease it. In many cases, the government is telling citizens that they can’t use their normal signature, but must slide in their initials or use better handwriting, Bentivoglio said. “We think a person’s legal sig-


nature should be sufficient,” Ben- tivoglio said.


Lindstrom, known as Dick to his friends, signed the ambulance fee petition as Richard Lind- strom, leaving out his middle ini- tial, M. His signature was thrown out. “The gentleman didn’t sign his name as is required by the statute as it’s currently written and has been interpreted by the Court of Appeals,” said Kevin Karpinski, counsel to Montgomery’s Board of Elections, which follows state guidelines in judging signatures. “I acknowledge that people are unhappy with the heightened standard, sure. If they’re unhap- py, they could contact their legis- lators and see if they’ll modify it.” larism@washpost.com


7% No


Accounting errors cited


Brown formally responded within hours to finance officials’ request, blaming the confusion on accounting mistakes and saying that the campaign had found the problem and discussed it with the office. The campaign incorrectly reported a surplus in the 2008 ac- count, Brown’s treasurer wrote in response. With outstanding debts and bills, the letter said, the cam- paign could legally keep open the account, raise money and pay bills.


Concerning the 2004 account,


Brown’s treasurer wrote that the campaign’s previous accountant incorrectly reported taxable in- come to the IRS as if the cam- paign account were a business. The accountant died before he could resolve the issue, according to the letter.


Brown said in an interview that he reported and paid the un- resolved $13,800 tax claim last month although he is continuing to seek reimbursement because he does not believe that the com- mittee owed taxes. Federal law prohibits the IRS from commenting on individual cases. In general, a campaign committee with political activity that is limited to collecting contri- butions and making expenditures would not be required to pay in- come tax.


Requests for information from the District’s Office of Campaign Finance are not the equivalent of a full-blown investigation. They are issued when officials come across questionable line items in reports. In general, spokesman Wesley Williams said, campaign finance officials do not usually come across accounts that owe money to the IRS. “I’m not going to say it’s never happened, but it’s not the norm.”


Old vendor bills In his news conference Tues-


day, Orange also questioned Brown’s 2010 payments to cam- paign vendors from the 2008 ac- count. Brown said the payments were appropriate because they covered expenses from his last campaign. In that contest, Brown said he hired Banner Consulting Services of Upper Marlboro to handle a range of campaign responsibili- ties. When the company went out of business, he said, the campaign had to settle with its subcontrac- tors. Brown said that it took some time to collect and verify invoices but that the vendors have been paid. The campaign is prepared to close out the 2008 account and has requested a meeting for Fri- day to start the process, Brown’s treasurer said in her letter. In the final two weeks of the campaign, a new Washington Post poll released this week showed Orange trailing Brown by double digits among likely Democratic voters. Brown has the backing of all but one of his council col- leagues and a long list of endorse- ments from major labor, business and community organizations. Orange sought to use questions about Brown’s campaign accounts Tuesday to revive earlier reports of his opponent’s personal finan- cial troubles and to challenge Brown’s fitness to oversee the city’s budget.


Brown has been sued for non-


payment by three credit-card companies and estimates that his personal debt totals $700,000, which includes the mortgage on his Hillcrest home. “If you can’t handle your per-


sonal finances and you can’t han- dle your campaign finances, how can you handle a $10 billion budget?” Orange asked. In response, Brown pointed to his endorsements from the busi- ness community and his work as chairman of the council’s eco- nomic development committee and said his personal affairs would not affect his work. “It’s important for me to run a positive campaign instead of get- ting in the mud with VO,” he said, using his rival’s nickname. marimowa@washpost.com


Three D.C. judges to retire


by Keith L. Alexander Three D.C. Superior Court


judges have announced their re- tirements, setting off a race among District lawyers and mag- istrate judges hoping to fill the slots. The Judicial Nomination Com- mission on Tuesday said Brook Hedge, Kaye K. Christian and Ju- dith E. Retchin plan to retire in December. All three judges have served since the early 1990s. Hedge, who has been on the bench since 1992, sits in the court’s civil division. She is the judge overseeing the $20 million civil suit filed by the family of Robert Wone, the Washington lawyer who was stabbed to death in the D.C. home of three men in 2006. Hedge, who has overseen the early stages of the suit, set a June 2011 trial date.


Christian, a Lynchburg, Va., na- tive who graduated from Dunbar Senior High School in Northwest Washington, was appointed to the bench by President George H.W. Bush in 1990. Retchin was appointed by Bush in 1992. The native of West Babylon, N.Y., was a former pros- ecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in the District. The judges can apply to the commission for part-time senior status, although it was unclear whether any of them intend to. Other Superior Court judges will take over their court calendars af- ter they retire. Individuals wishing to apply for the positions should visit www.jnc.dc.gov or contact Kim W. Whatley, executive director of the Judicial Nomination Commit- tee, at 515 5th St. NW, Suite 235, Washington, D.C. 20001. alexanderk@washpost.com


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