Posts about Religion

The warriors may serve: Sikhs may now wear turbans and beards on the job as police officers in MPD. It is the first police department in the US to allow adherents of the faith to do so. (AP via WSJ) (Comment)

Zoning & 1st Amendment collide: A rural Virginia woman is suing Grayson County for denying her request to build a spiritual retreat center. The county initially approved it, but flipped in the face of religious opposition. (Examiner) (Comment)

Holy water denied: A Prince George's County Council committee opposes a water permit for construction of a 900-seat church in Laurel. They say it will excessively disturb the land; the pastor alleges religious discrimination. (Post) (Comment)

And...: The Federal Protective Service has reminded officers that it really is legal to photograph the outsides of federal facilities (NYT) ... Arlington's central library in Ballston will be getting solar panels on its roof (TBD) ... Matter-of-right zoning has overcome religious bigotry in California for an Islamic center. (Post) ... Someone created a fake Twitter account for Mayor Vince Gray. (Comment)

And...: Over the weekend DDOT converted the 15th Street cycle track to two-way. (BeyondDC) ... A long abandoned building on H Street in downtown DC will remain empty for the foreseeable future because the Secret Service supposedly can't afford to renovate it. (DCmud) ... Since Vancouver only allows helmet-less cycling if wearing one interferes with religious practices, local activists founded the Church of Sit-up Cycling. (District Citizen Cycling) (Comment)

Montgomery's eruvim: The Capital Beltway, along with other borrowed and built architecture and landscapes, forms part of two eruvim, symbolic enclosures that relax of Sabbath rules on carrying for Orthodox Jews. (Historian for Hire) (Comment)

Transit

All except Mendelson introduce overhead wire bill

by David Alpert • June 1, 2010 11:22 am

12 of the 13 members of the DC Council, all except for Phil Mendelson, introduced a bill today to permit overhead wires for streetcars along H Street and Benning Road, NE.

12 signatures, one blank space.

The bill, written by Councilmember Tommy Wells, re-establishes the federal ban on overhead wires as a local law, using the same authority DC has used to modify other laws about the District of Columbia that precede home rule. There's more on the legal basis in Saturday's article.

Overhead wires will continue to be prohibited inside the L'Enfant City (and Georgetown) except for the H Street-Benning Road corridor. To expand beyond that area, DDOT will have to present a citywide plan and gain Council approval. Finally, by 2014, DDOT has to present a report to the Council on "the feasibility of converting to non-aerial power" any existing overhead wire streetcar lines.

Mary Cheh, David Catania, and Jack Evans also introduced a bill, cosponsored by Jim Graham and Tommy Wells, to allow people besides religious ministers and DC judges to solemnize marriages. When Greater Greater Wife and I were getting married, we found it very odd that we couldn't get a friend, teacher, or other non-religious official certified to perform our non-religious marriage if we had wanted to.

We ended up using a nondenominational "minister" celebrant, but DC, unlike most states, sets some complex hurdles for people not part of a major religion to be certified to perform marriages, and some religious affiliation is still required. That's inappropriate, if not unconstitutional since, as Cheh noted, many DC residents are not religious yet still want to have weddings outside of a courthouse.