Not long for this world

HoyaTalk was abuzz last week when The Washington Times announced it was cutting its local news, sports, and feature content, and shifting to a free distribution model. For Georgetown fans on the site, this meant that the arguably best source of off-campus Hoya basketball coverage was on the chopping block.

Sadly, Barker Davis (CAS ’94), who has covered the Hoyas in the Times for twelve of the last fifteen seasons in addition to other sports, confirmed for Vox that he will indeed be out of the college basketball business by early next year.

“As of Feb. 2 at the absolute latest, the Times won’t be covering ANY local sports, not Redskins, Caps, Terps, Hoyas — NADA,” he wrote in an e-mail. “They are blowing up the sports department and I understand nearly half of all editorial staff and content. I’m already looking at how much more education I need to teach English Lit and coach hoops in public HS.”

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It’s never too early to invest in your dream house!

If dorm living’s got you down and you’ve heard the horror stories about local landlords, the Washington Times has a new solution for you: go buy a house (or, more precisely, go get your parents to buy one for you).

The Times ran a whole feature story on the new trend of parents buying homes for their college-age kids to live in while they’re at school.  While buying a house seems like a drastic step, the article explains that with the rent and dorm prices rising and the housing market in shambles, buying a house and selling it off or renting it out to other students after graduation often makes financial sense.

While the phenomenon is most widespread in the Midwest where real estate is the cheapest, but it’s also gaining ground here in D.C.  The article features one real estate agent who sells as many as eight houses per year to Georgetown and GW students.  The piece also profiles recent Georgetown Law grad Jim Pyle, whose mother bought him a house on Capitol Hill which they sold for about $200,000 more than they paid.

This weekend the Washington Times ran a lengthy feature about the myriad of problems college students are facing in the rough economy (hey, I wonder why no one else has thought of running that…).

The article is pretty broad, hitting on everything from excessive student loan debt and poor employment prospects to skyrocketing tuition costs and the pressure students feel to avoid low-paying careers in the nonprofit and public service sectors.

What sets the Washington Times‘ woe-is-the-college-student piece apart from the rest, though? The fact that it features none other than Nick Troiano (COL ’11), GUSA rabble-rouser extraordinaire!

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Economic hardship: not just for the common folk anymore!

This weekend the Washington Times reported that the poor economy is having and impact on everyone—even chic Georgetown boutiques! Disbelievingly, they tell tales of outrageous, unprecedented retail behavior, like sales starting in July rather than the end of August and napkins retailing for a mere $35 rather than $125. The horrors!

They have some sad stories from Nakita McLelland, the owner of The Dutch Lady, a linen store on M Street, who has seen her “sophisticated” loyal customers stop coming in because they’ve lost so much money in the stock market, as well as some quotes from consumers bragging about all the good deals they’re getting.

The most absurd quote of the article, though, comes from Sharon Amar, the manager of Celine de Paris, a boutique on M Street:

“I am normally against sales. Americans go crazy for them, though. I have always felt that if a woman waits until a product is on sale to buy it, she has lost months where she could be wearing it and loving it,” said Mr. Amar, a native of France.

Photo by Flickr user ehpien, used under a Creative Commons license.

Get thee to a nunnery!

Earlier this week, we clucked our tongues as conservative-as-knee-socks Washington Times editor Julia Duin (creepily pictured above) balked at the fact that President DeGioia was forcing local Protestant leaders to host events with the LGBTQ Center:

“Four evangelical Protestant chaplains, all of whom are from ministries that believe homosexual activity is sinful, confirmed they got this mandate from the Rev. Constance C. Wheeler, the lead Protestant chaplain, who was passing along instructions from the president of Georgetown University, John J. DeGioia.”

Or should we say pseudo-fact. Fr. Patrick Rogers, Georgetown’s Roman Catholic Chaplain, denied that anyone forced anything in an email:

“Georgetown Protestant Ministries (including our Affiliated Ministry partners)  has never been instructed to hold any event in particular with the LGBTQ Center.  We were simply asked to engage in a conversation about how Protestant Ministries on Campus might engage the LGBTQ Center with respect to each ministries theological and religious traditions.”

He also denied Duin’s allegation that other chaplaincies at the University are exempt from events and conversations:

“This question is being asked of every chaplaincy in Campus Ministry and the conversations are just beginning … All of the faith traditions in Campus Ministry have begun conversations about how they might support the LGBTQ center.”

Julia Duin, the religion editor for the ultra-Conservative, Unification Church-owned Washington Times, reports that Georgetown Protestant groups are being strong-armed into meeting and hosting an event with the the new LGBTQ center by none other than President DeGioia—despite their theological and moral objections to the sinful, sinful lifestyle it promotes so shamelessly.

And if that’s not enough controversy for you, the Protestant chaplains thought the acknowledgment of the sodomy-supporting, sin-mongerers at the LGBTQ center was required for all religious groups, but Muslim and Jewish chaplains are apparently exempted. Are the Protestants being singled out? Duin certainly seems to think so:

“Six of these ministries — all evangelical — are the same groups that were kicked off campus two years ago after being told all Protestant ministries were being “restructured.” After much bad publicity, Georgetown eventually readmitted them.

Now they’re being asked to welcome a group some have serious philosophical objections to.”

Sounds like the Thirty Years’ War redux to me…

Via Creative Minority Report.