The Taxi Link: Are drivers at National Harbor being pushed out? Should Alexandria drivers choose their own company?

Posted on May 19, 2013 by pete
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Taxi leader Fisshea Tesfaye speaks with Pete Tucker in the parking garage opposite Gaylord National

The Taxi Link airs Sat. 7-8 pm on WUST 1120 AM. Listen here (imperfect audio in first minute): 

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Just over the District line at National Harbor, the upscale mini-city and resort on the Potomac River, Prince George’s County taxi drivers say they’re being pushed aside to make way for Veolia, the French transportation giant.

Drivers say they’ve been informed that beginning June 1 they’ll no longer be able to pay a monthly fee to park at National Harbor. Unable to afford the high $3 an hour parking meter rates, drivers say they’ll effectively be cut off from accessing National Harbor hotel guests. “I believe they are trying to get rid of us,” National Harbor taxi leader Fisshea Tessfaye told The Taxi Link.  Continue reading →

Posted in Northern Virginia, Prince George's County, Taxicab | Comments Off

The Taxi Link: AFL-CIO looks to organize DC drivers; credit card mandate passes; Philly driver killed; Jon Liss on NoVa’s taxi struggles

Posted on May 12, 2013 by pete
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Stained glass mural of Philly taxi leaders

The Taxi Link airs Sat. 7-8 pm on WUST 1120 AM. Listen here: 

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The National Taxi Workers Alliance, which became the 57th national union of the AFL-CIO less than two years ago, is looking to work with The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers to organize cabbies in the nation’s capital. “If it was done in a city like New York, if it was done in a city like Philadelphia, it can damn sure done in Washington, D.C.,” Philly taxi leader and NTWA vice president Ron Blount told The Taxi Link.  Continue reading →

Posted in District of Columbia, Labor/Jobs, Taxicab | Comments Off

The Taxi Link: Fairfax driver assaulted; Commissioner Stanley Tapscott; DC drivers accused of racism

Posted on May 6, 2013 by pete
Mohamed Salim, left, talks with reporters. Photo courtesy of the Council on America-Islamic Relations

Mohamed Salim, left, talks with reporters. Photo courtesy of the Council on America-Islamic Relations

Listen to The Taxi Link: 

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An aviation executive’s racist remarks and assault of a Fairfax taxi driver have caused an outcry. The driver, Mohamed Salim, recorded the conversation with his late-night passenger, Ed Dahlberg, president of Manassas-based Emerald Aviation. “If you’re a f—-ing Muslim, flying jets into the World Trade Center, then f—- you! I will slice your f—-ing throat right now!” Dahlberg told Salim.  Continue reading →

Posted in District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, Taxicab | Comments Off

The Taxi Link: Alexandria drivers protest; D.C. drivers testify

Posted on April 28, 2013 by pete
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Daniel Berhane and fellow drivers protest outside Alexandria city hall

Listen to the Taxi Link here:

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In Alexandria, taxicab drivers associated with Tenants and Workers United protested outside city hall this past week to call on the council to ensure drivers’ right to select their own credit card processors as the city moves to mandate credit card acceptance. “[Drivers] have been ripped off of our independent contractor role in this city and we’re trying to take that back,” said taxi leader Daniel Berhane, who told his fellow protesters their efforts had pushed back the council’s vote, now scheduled for May 14.  Continue reading →

Posted in District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, Taxicab | Comments Off

The Taxi Link: Will smart meters end up in court, again?

Posted on April 21, 2013 by pete

Taxi-StandListen to The Taxi Link:

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The D.C. Taxicab Commission is moving full steam ahead with implementing a so-called “Modern Taxi System” (MTS). Yet in several areas MTS resembles the commission’s push last year to install one company’s credit card processors and screens in the back of all cabs, which ultimately failed when the D.C. Court of Appeals overturned the city’s $35 million contract with Verifone because of irregularities in the procurement process. Nevertheless, at last week’s standing-room-only commission hearing on MTS, D.C. taxi chair Ron Linton expressed a willingness to once again take an act-now-ask-questions-later approach.  Continue reading →

Posted in District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, Taxicab | Comments Off

Pacifica’s leadership crisis: Summer Reese shouldn’t hold both of the foundation’s top spots

Posted on April 18, 2013 by pete

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The Pacifica Foundation is in trouble and the problem starts at the top. The listener-sponsored, progressive, anti-war radio network – which operates five stations in as many major markets and has more than 100 affiliates – is experiencing widespread upheaval. Up to this point I’ve kept my concerns about Pacifica interim executive director Summer Reese to myself, but after what I witnessed in D.C. Superior Court last week, I must speak out.

Continue reading →

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The Taxi Link returns to the air

Posted on April 16, 2013 by admin

Listen to The Taxi Link here:

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Taxi leader Haimanot Bizuayehu speaks at a protest in front of the D.C. Council last year

The Taxi Link – which is sponsored by The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers (SBA) and hosted by TheFightBack’s Pete Tucker and D.C. advisory neighborhood commission member Tony Norman – returned to the air Saturday on WUST 1120 AM.

Appearing on the program, SBA board member Haimanot Bizuayehu discussed the taxi commission’s upcoming hearing (see below for details) on the Modern Taximeter System, which appears to be a scaled down version of the controversial $35 million Verifone contract that was overturned by the Contract Appeals Board last year. “The proposed rulemakings have many provisions that [won’t] be fair to the drivers, especially when it comes to the tracking device,” said Bizuayehu.  Continue reading →

Posted in District of Columbia, Taxicab | Comments Off

WPFW needs a home, not scare tactics about a corporate takeover

Posted on March 27, 2013 by pete
Pacifica Radio's WPFW 89.3 FM

Pacifica Radio’s WPFW 89.3 FM

“Clear Channel is not going to interfere with this station.” - Tony Norman

Pacifica Radio’s WPFW 89.3 FM has called D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood home for the past 15 years, but it’s not likely to much longer. The City Paper building, which houses the station, is being demolished in order to make way for a taxpayer subsidized luxury hotel. Forced to move, and having looked at several properties in D.C.’s hot real estate market, the station has settled on an affordable space just outside the District in downtown Silver Spring on top of a Metro stop.

Even though the new location would provide the station – which is listener-sponsored, commercial-free and near-broke – with huge savings, some programmers and their allies have launched a campaign to stop the move. They’ve taken to the airwaves to drum up fear, telling listeners that there will be a corporate takeover if WPFW signs a sublease, landlord-tenant agreement with Metro Networks Communications, which is a part of Total Traffic Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel, the media conglomerate. This effort comes on the heels of a nearly two-year-long campaign by the same programmers to fire the general manager, John Hughes, who removed some of their shows.  Continue reading →

Posted in District of Columbia, Media | Comments Off

A discussion on censorship in the age of the Internet and a debate net neutrality

Posted on March 24, 2013 by admin
Steven Titch, Robert Corn-Revere and Pete Tucker

Steven Titch, Robert Corn-Revere and Pete Tucker at Reason

(Video at bottom)

Last week, noted First Amendment attorney Robert Corn-Revere gave a talk on censorship in the age of the Internet. Directly following the talk at Reason magazine’s D.C. office, TheFightBack’s Pete Tucker joined Corn-Revere for a wide-ranging discussion on threats to an open internet.

The two also debated the issue of net neutrality, the principal which calls for all web content to be governed by the same set of rules, preventing the powerful from receiving special treatment, including faster download times for their sites.   Continue reading →

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Voices of the 99% Radio examines local D.C. politics and news coverage

Posted on February 19, 2013 by pete

Listen to Bullet Points with Navid Nasr on Voices of 99%: 

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TheFightBack’s Pete Tucker joined Bullet Points with Navid Nasr on Voices of the 99% for a discussion on the Washington Post’s selective scrutinizing of politicians, as well as the paper’s education business interests.

Continue reading →

Posted in District of Columbia, Gentrification, Media, School Reform | Comments Off