Luke_Wilbur

- President George W. Bush

- James S. Brady

Article II, Sec. 3, U.S. Constitution

President Bush prepares to layout his ambitious social security agenda.

- President George W. Bush State of the Union

With thundering claps from the Congressional Floor President George W. Bush renewed his duty to the Nation. The President has caught the attention of the world on his every statement.

I am looking to start a venture group in the Washington DC (District of Columbia) that works together to develop one business idea. © 2005 DC VENTURE GROUP Feel free to contact me if you are interested in joining the group

Looks like its the Birds All the Way

Here is the latest photo of 'The Exporer' being tugged safely to port.

This message is to my Spring 1993 Semester at Sea shipmates

What do you think about the Washington Redskins forcing you to use their credit card to purchase tickets?

How is it able to stay in orbit?

Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi today released the District of Columbia government’s fiscal year 2004 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). The financial statements, which received an unqualified, “clean” audit opinion from independent auditors, show that the District ended FY 2004 with a local fund surplus of $230.5 million. The CAFR also reflects that the District ended the year with a cumulative general fund balance of $1.2 billion, exceeding the billion dollar mark for the first time ever. “The District of Columbia is in the strongest financial shape it has ever been,” said Dr. Gandhi. “The mayor and the council continue to make sound financial management a top priority, and these results reflect that effort.” The District’s general fund balance consists primarily of bond escrow and other reserved and restricted use funds. It also includes $285.4 million in congressionally mandated cash reserves. This cash reserve requirement, which totals 7 percent of the operating budget, is among the highest for government jurisdictions nationwide. Mayor Anthony A. Williams said, “As a result of the District’s fiscal strength, we can continue to focus on the goals that are most important to our citizens – strong schools, safe streets, affordable housing, and improved health care; and, we can continue to spread the District’s financial success to all of our neighborhoods.” Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp said, “Those of us in Washington should be proud of our fiscal progress – the latest evidence of which is the strong results of FY04. It is important to remember that our progress has been accomplished within the constraints of a structural deficit.” Councilmember Jack Evans, chair of the Council’s Committee on Finance and Revenue, added, “The fiscal year 2004 CAFR highlights the turnaround the District has made going from junk bond status and a Financial Control Board to reestablishing fiscal responsibility and a bond rating that is the envy of most cities and states. Through the exercise of responsible government, the District of Columbia has once again become a good place to do business. The challenge that we continue to face is ensuring that the prosperity reaches all people, in all communities of our city. I am committed to meeting that challenge.” Even though the District was able to close fiscal year 2004 successfully and has a five-year balanced budget plan, Dr. Gandhi foresees fiscal challenges in the long-term. The District must find remedies to its inherent structural imbalance, which prevents it from addressing pressing infrastructure needs and requires it to maintain higher than average tax rates. In May 2003, the US General Accounting Office confirmed that the District of Columbia government has a structural imbalance estimated at between $470 million and $1.1 billion. This large, long-term imbalance is caused by the District’s large percentage of tax-exempt real property, its inability to tax non-resident income generated within its borders, and the state-like functions that it must support. KPMG LLP, under the auspices of the District’s Inspector General, served as the independent auditor for this year’s CAFR.

The Government of the District of Columbia is beginning the process to acquire the land needed to build the ballpark for the District's major league baseball team. Small, disadvantaged, minority-owned businesses located in the District of Columbia metropolitan area providing any of the services listed below are encouraged to register with the District's Office of Contracting and Procurement and apply for certification as a local, small, or disadvantaged business with the District's Office of Local Business Development. Real Estate Appraisal Services Real Estate Title Services Real Estate Brokerage and Relocation Services Land Acquisition Related Investigation Services Demolition Services Environmental Testing and Remediation Private Investigation

Mayor Anthony A. Williams announced activities taking place during “Re-Entry Week” to bring attention to the more than 2,000 men and women who each year return from prison to our city’s neighborhoods. "I am proud of our work with CSOSA—the federal Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency—to provide these individuals with services to help them re-establish their lives as productive citizens," said Mayor Williams. "Many of you joined me last summer at the opening of the District’s Re-Entry Service Center on H Street, NE, where we demonstrated in a very concrete way how District agencies and the community are helping ex-offenders facing the challenges of re-entry. I invite you to join me at any one of the events scheduled for Re-Entry Week, which are detailed in the schedule we’re handing out." Re-Entry Week 2005 Events Saturday, January 29: Previously Incarcerated Persons Community Forum DC Youth Facility 1000 Mt. Olivet Road, NE 9 am – 1 pm Sunday, January 30: Re-entry Worship Services (Christian) The Holy Christian Missionary Baptist Church for All People Reverend Stephen E. Young Sr. 5110 Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue, NE Noon Monday, January 31: Open House, DC Re-entry Service Center 609 H Street, NE 10 am – 2 pm Tuesday, February 1: Employment Open House, Bellevue Center 4415 S. Capitol Street, SW 1 pm – 4 pm Wednesday, February 2: Winter Cookout for Mentors, Mentees and Community Supervision Officers 633 Indiana Avenue, NW 2 pm – 5 pm Thursday, February 3: Project Empowerment Plus Graduation, Kellogg Center Gaulledet College Campus 800 Florida Avenue, NE Noon Citywide Assembly, St. Luke Center, 4923 East Capitol Street, SE 6 pm – 9 pm Friday, February 4: Reentry Worship Services (Muslim) Howard University Blackburn Center 1:15 pm

The Government Accounting Office released this information that might be of interest to all the men and women serving in the United States Armed forces.

Very well written Ron. Thanks for sharing with our community.

Now you are going to make me want to purchase a pair of glasses

Here is an article I just read from the Northeast Intelligence Network. This is pretty scarry stuff if any of it is true.

Luke is not in that album, but he is in the gallery : ) We just added another 100 photos people

Hey everyone, I just put up some of our photos in the image gallery. http://dcpages.com/gallery/view_album.php?...al-Inauguration More will be up on Monday. Please feel free to comment.

Under a Maryland law enacted in May 2002, it is illegal to send a commercial e-mail message that uses a third party's domain name without permission; that contains false or missing routing information; or with a false or misleading subject line. The law applies if a message is sent from within Maryland; if the sender knows that the recipient is a Maryland resident; or if the registrant of the domain name contained in the recipient's address will confirm upon request that the recipient is a Maryland resident. MARYLAND COMMERCIAL LAW CODE TITLE 14. MISCELLANEOUS CONSUMER PROTECTION PROVISIONS SUBTITLE 30. COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL (Enacted in 2002) § 14-3001. (a) In this subtitle the following words have the meanings indicated. ( (1) "Commercial electronic mail" means electronic mail that advertises real property, goods, or services for sale or lease. (2) "Commercial electronic mail" does not include electronic mail to which an interactive computer service provider has attached an advertisement in exchange for free use of an electronic mail account. © (1) "Interactive computer service provider" means an information service, system, or access software provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer service. (2) "Interactive computer service provider" includes a service or system that provides access to the internet and systems operated or services offered by a library or educational institution. § 14-3002. (a) This section does not apply to an interactive computer service provider or a telecommunication utility to the extent that the interactive computer service provider or the telecommunication utility merely handles, retransmits, or carries a transmission of commercial electronic mail. ( A person may not initiate the transmission, conspire with another person to initiate the transmission, or assist in the transmission of commercial electronic mail that: (1) is from a computer in the state or is sent to an electronic mail address that the sender knows or should have known is held by a resident of the state; and (2) (i) uses a third party's internet domain name or electronic mail address without the permission of the third party; (ii) contains false or misleading information about the origin or the transmission path of the commercial electronic mail; or (iii) contains false or misleading information in the subject line that has the capacity, tendency, or effect of deceiving the recipient. © a person is presumed to know that the intended recipient of commercial electronic mail is a resident of the state if the information is available on request from the registrant of the internet domain name contained in the recipient's electronic mail address. (d) an interactive computer service provider: (1) may block the receipt or transmission through its interactive computer service of commercial electronic mail that it reasonably believes is or will be sent in apparent violation of this section; and (2) may not be held liable for an action under item (1) of this subsection that is voluntarily taken in good faith. § 14-3003. A person who violates this subtitle is liable for reasonable attorney's fees and for damages: (1) to the recipient of commercial electronic mail, in an amount equal to the greater of $500 or the recipient's actual damages; (2) to the third party without whose permission the third party's internet domain name or electronic mail address was used, in an amount equal to the greater of $500 or the third party's actual damages; and (3) to an interactive computer service provider, in an amount equal to the greater of $1,000 or the interactive computer service provider's actual damages.

Topping the list is the United States, which produces 42.11 percent of the spam being sent worldwide.

If you've heard of Bittorrent, the latest download rage, you're probably have your whole hard drive filled with free movies, songs, and software. For those who haven't, it's sophisticated peer-to-peer software that speeds up the process of distributing very large files and it is probably the currently most popular method for swapping video files. Torrent sites host links to trackers – computers that manage connections for a particular file. These also do not necessarily host illegal copies of copyrighted material but they point to "seeds" – computers with whole copies of the file being distributed. The would-be downloader clicks on a tracker link, and downloads a tiny file that communicates with the tracker, kicking off the process of connecting you to peers you can download from. Bittorrent is not particularly protective of privacy: it's easy enough to view (and log) all the IP addresses of the multiple folks you're downloading from at any one time. But it can be mercilessly efficient. Using it, I picked up Microsoft's Windows XP Service Pack 2 in an hour or two (until Microsoft sent in its attack dogs to stop the site from offering the file), and you can download friday night's episode of Battlestar Galactica in as little as half an hour if you have a good connection. The popularity of a file has a lot to do with its download speed; the opposite of traditional downloading systems like FTP, with Bittorrent the more people who are downloading a particular file the faster you get it – because they are also uploading it. Something that's not in as hot immediate demand, say an 8.5Gb entire season of Queer Eye for the Straight Girl, can take as long as a week to download – but if you have broadband, what do you care? You can see why Bittorrent quickly became popular among people wanting to swap digital copies of TV shows, movies, and games. These types of files are huge compared to those itty-bitty (3-4Mb) MP3s music-lovers bat around. Long-term, the demonstration of what it can do for mass distribution of popular material (as in the XPSP2 demonstration) is the more significant thing about it – the technology unquestionably does have substantial non-infringing uses. In the last few weeks, some of the most significant TV/film Torrent sites have disappeared, notably Suprnova. These sites were not, of course, hosting copyrighted material, as noted above, though it's not clear how far that argument will get them in the current legal climate. Only one Bittorrent site so far, Lokitorrent, seems to be fighting back, raising funds to mount a defense. This follows last summer's jihad against eDonkey, which significantly slowed down that P2P network. The obvious comparisons aside, TV and film swapping is really not the same as music-swapping. Music file-sharing really took off among US college students who had hot and cold running ethernet in their dorm rooms. Video-swapping, in my experience, skews more heavily towards Europeans. The key is time-shifting. Do you want to wait six months to see the latest episode of your favorite American show with the commercial breaks in all the wrong places? Or do you want to see it the day after broadcast? Neatly edited, without commercials?

Infinity Broadcasting announced today the launch of a new Spanish-language radio station in Washington, D.C. “El Zol” 99.1 WHFS-FM will play a current hit blend of Caribbean and Central American dance music and is targeted to adults 25-54. The station launched today at 12:00 Noon. Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc. served as a consultant to and advised Infinity on the reformatting of the station. Infinity previously announced a joint strategic alliance with SBS in October 2004 which included an equity interest in the largest Hispanic-controlled radio broadcasting company in the United States. “We have made clear our desire to expand into this burgeoning market and believe this move marks an important step in our commitment to Spanish radio,” said Joel Hollander, President and Chief Operating Officer, Infinity Broadcasting. “There exists a tremendous opportunity for Infinity to launch a Spanish-language format in Washington, D.C. where almost 10% of the population is not being directly served. El Zol will be the most powerful Spanish radio station in the area and will provide listeners with the music, entertainment and information relevant to the many segments of the Latino culture.” The Hispanic population in Washington, D.C. has grown more than 25% in the last four years to an excess of 400,000, and is expected to continue to be the fastest growing segment of the metro area in the coming years. During the station’s initial launch phase, El Zol will play hits from such artists as Juan Luis Guerra, Marc Anthony, Hermanos Rosario, Monchy Y Alexandra, and Victor Manuelle, among others. On-air personalities will be announced at a later date. Infinity is one of the largest major-market radio operators in the United States, with stations covering the news, modern rock, oldies, country, FM talk, classic rock and urban formats, among others. A division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIAB), Infinity operates 183 radio stations, the majority of which are in the nation’s top 50 markets and reach more than 70 million listeners a week. Additionally, Infinity is home to 29 of the country’s leading sports franchises amongst MLB, the NFL, the NBA and the NHL.