Get ready to relive your favorite day of Elementary School… at a whole new level!
Join DC Fray and Events DC for the second annual DC Field Day. There will be classic games with an adult twist plus beer, food, swag and a full day of fun with new or old friends.
Ready to prove once and for all that you’re the playground GOAT? Learn more at retrofieldday.com and join the fun!
By New Jersey Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Attorney Carroll of Garden State Bankruptcy.
Suniva, the solar manufacturer with headquarters in Georgia, is headed to bankruptcy court. The solar company influenced the Trump administration to levy tariffs on solar panel imports worldwide using Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974, instigating the trade war that is now being played out in the geopolitical arena.
However, the company has been in bankruptcy since March 2017; it saw the 30 percent tariffs as the way to save jobs in the solar manufacturing industry — 260,000 people — and eliminate the threat from China and their cheap imports.
The solar industry, led by SEIA, the Solar Energy Industries Association, fought Suniva’s proposal, believing just the opposite would happen, that higher prices on imports would cause job losses.
In fact, although there have been many project cancellations, the job losses have not been severe. Suniva has not been active and manufacturing at its U.S. factories has been stalled for a year while in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and looking for a buyer.
To get around the US tariffs, JinkoSolar, a Chinese solar company, announced in March that it would spend $50 million to build a plant in Jacksonville, Florida. Suniva’s assessment of the tariffs’ impact was correct and the manufacturing industry is picking up.
In April, SunPower Corp, the largest US solar company, said it would acquire SolarWorld Americas, another manufacturer who also favored the tariffs. And First Solar Inc. also announced in April that it will open a new plant in Ohio.
However, Suniva’s fate has not turned around. Its largest creditor, SQN Capital Management, asked the bankruptcy court to allow it to sell assets it held as collateral on loans totaling $57 million at manufacturing plants in Saginaw, Michigan and Norcross, Georgia; these assets consist of the contents of the factories: printers, ovens, diffusers, conveyers and laminators as well as its patents and trademarks.
Wanxiang America Corp., a Chinese company that holds other assets, including much of Suniva’s equipment, joined SQN Capital Management in the late May auction.
“Chapter 11 is an option companies might pursue to hold off creditors while they draft a business plan to get out of bankruptcy,” said an attorney with Garden State Bankruptcy. “If a business cannot reorganize within a reasonable time period, this might be the best course of action. If they continue missing deadlines, auctioning off the company’s property, including equipment as well as intellectual property such as patents and trademarks in Chapter 7 can result, which will dissolve the company.”
If no reasonable offer is made at auction, Suniva’s creditors could buy the assets and own the company themselves, which is what happened — last week, SQN announced that it has released Suniva from bankruptcy and will restart operations soon.
Real Estate Fresh Finds is a weekly selection of newly-listed properties in the District, brought to you by Real Living At Home.
Whether you’re looking for an 8-bedroom or a 0-bedroom, a condo or a mansion, there’s just about everything on the market this week with over 230 new listings in DC. Take a look at our suggested Fresh Finds below for some of our favorites:
By Virginia criminal defense lawyer Steve Duckett, with Price Benowitz, LLP.
Body cameras have entered the public consciousness over the last two years due to the high-profile killings of unarmed black men across the United States.
In many of those instances, it was initially the word of the officer against the word of eyewitnesses. Law enforcement and members of the public have identified the need for consistent reporting of civilian interaction with members of law enforcement.
With today’s wireless connectivity and technology, small, wearable cameras that can constantly upload and store data are available to provide contemporaneous documentary evidence of these interactions.
“Body cameras are incredible tools that all law enforcement should take advantage of,” said Steve Duckett, a Manassas criminal law attorney. “They provide in-the-moment documentation of police interaction with the public, suspects, and arrestees. This evidence is crucial for not only law enforcement, but for the public and defense attorneys as well. Additionally, the cameras encourage accountability and make officers more aware of how they interact with the public.”
The Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD) has initiated a pilot program to study the benefits of department-wide body cameras and will work with American University researchers to provide a report on those benefits.
The goal of the pilot program is to determine whether investment in body cameras across the department will provide the type of benefits to justify incurring the roughly $4 million per year necessary to maintain the program.
However, any program like this has drawbacks, and one of the most commonly cited drawbacks is how police records of interactions will be used, and what sort of affect that will have on privacy. Duckett thinks that the proper limitations on when the cameras will record and when the evidence can be used are being discussed in relation to this pilot program. “Having reviewed the policy adopted by the FCPD, I think they are taking the right steps to ensure that individual privacy rights are protected,” Duckett said.
The FCPD policy, which was drafted with input from both law enforcement and public stakeholders, indicates that body cameras should be turned off upon the request of citizens when responding to a call at someone’s home, or when someone is reporting a crime and desires anonymity. Additionally, cameras should be turned off when in court, hospitals, or mental health facilities, unless the officer suspects that the use of force may be necessary.
The presence of cameras may make people uncomfortable about interacting with law enforcement. The important thing to remember is that those cameras are there to protect all parties, and as long as the proper practices are in place to restrict when those cameras are on and when their recordings can be introduced as evidence, they should add positively to the interactions of police and the public.
Yesterday was the longest day of the year for the summer solstice, which means it’s officially summer and you have extra time to go house hunting. There’s 275+ open houses across the district this weekend, with 116 of them new to the market.
Get to looking before the days get too short and to see the entire DC Open House List, click here.
Indulge in some self-care: Washington Improv Theater’s Summer Escape provides relief from 100% humidity and grueling daily headlines. Make WIT part of your night out on 14th Street with our series of improvised shows running through August 5.
Use the code POPVILLE to get two tickets for just $25. What’s in store?
Summer Escape can save you from your daily summer struggles with pesky tour groups, pit stains and Metro delays. Get out of your world and step into ours.
Want to escape even further into improv? You can always sign up for a free two-hour workshop or one of our life-changing eight-week classes (no experience required).
By Washington D.C. criminal defense attorney Glenn Ivey with Price Benowitz, LLP.
One of the biggest challenges to anyone seeking a new job or to improve their lot in life is the existence of a criminal record. Most employers and landlords conduct criminal background checks prior to hiring individuals or entering into leases, and the existence of a criminal record can severely limit both employment and housing opportunities.
The District of Columbia is proposing more opportunities for individuals to have their records of certain non-violent misdemeanors and felonies expunged, as well as proposing that other records be eligible to be sealed or even permanently deleted.
The changes, which are supported by a majority of the city’s council members and which take the form of two separate proposals, have supporters and detractors.
Supporters say, as noted above, that many criminal convictions cause unnecessary long-term damage to the offenders and their ability to move forward with their lives. Additionally, certain stigmas associated with charges — such as prostitution — can limit an individual’s ability to reintegrate into society.
However, news outlets — including The Washington Post — and other open government and press groups, oppose this legislation.
The reason, these groups argue, is that allowing the press to have access to the full criminal background of individuals ensure that proper reporting can be done and that the histories and pasts of individuals are available for public review in the event an individual seeks public office.
Victim advocates and attorneys also oppose these changes, arguing that the previous charges and convictions of individuals are necessary in establishing a record of violence in order to protect victims of spousal or child abuse.
“There are most certainly situations where expungements or deletion of records are inappropriate,” said Glenn Ivey, a D.C. Expungement Attorney with the law firm of Price Benowitz, LLP. However, he continued, “increasing the number of opportunities for reasonable expungement can greatly improve an individual’s ability to fully rehabilitate and contribute to society.”
Under current law, an individual’s criminal record can be sealed or expunged if it can be proved that the individual was innocent of the crime of which they were convicted, or if the crime committed is eligible for record sealing — mostly low-level misdemeanors and nonviolent crimes for which there was no injured individual.
However, there are many other requirements that must be satisfied before an individual is eligible to request that their record be sealed, and hiring a qualified attorney is a person’s best bet for having their record sealed.
Real Estate Fresh Finds is a weekly selection of newly-listed properties in the District, brought to you by Real Living At Home.
It’s another Wednesday and another week of 200+ new listings on the market which is good because we’re so short on inventory. Sit back and avoid doing some real work by checking out our suggested Fresh Finds below:
By Henrico County criminal defense attorney Nicholas Braswell with Price Benowitz, LLP.
States across the Union are looking at ways to improve the services they provide while lowering the cost to provide those services.
Whether it is property mapping, emergency response, disaster services, or police pursuit, states are attempting to identify any avenues where technology may be underutilized.
Virginia, along with California, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Montana and Utah, have identified drones (small, unmanned aerial vehicles) as a method for improving and delivering services and have issued a national request for proposals for pricing out the use of drones in delivery of these services.
At the initial pre-proposal meeting, over 50 drone operators were in attendance.
“Drones have proven to be viable vehicles in numerous areas and, as their uses continue to grow, so do the privacy concerns that come along with them,” said Nicholas Braswell, a Virginia Criminal Surveillance Attorney with the law firm of Price Benowitz, LLP.
One of the primary concerns related to the use of drones is the possibility that their use may violate the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures.
This portion of the Constitution limits the manner in which law enforcement may surveil you or your home and the case law surrounding it has come to set forth the requirements that must be met before a search warrant will be issued allowing other types of surveillance.
Drones, due to their small size and nearly noiseless operation, can present many opportunities for surreptitious observation by their operators. The concern held by many is that the introduction of drones into law enforcement will increase the number of unconstitutional searches and seizures and lead to charges and arrests that have to be challenged as unconstitutional to be overturned.
It is up to law enforcement to abide by the Constitution and its requirements, and each individual department will be responsible for ensuring the proper operation of its drone or drones.
Drones have many obvious benefits: low-cost mapping, surveying of disaster areas that are unreachable by vehicle, search and rescue operations. However, the risk that use of these aircraft may violate constitutional rights is real and it is serious.
Law enforcement agencies will have to be vigilant regarding their use, and citizens will have to vigilant that technology creep does not end up making them numb to drones floating outside their windows.
The Caps have won, Capital Pride Parade is over and most of the area kids are out of school. Now that a lot of our pre-summer activities are over, it’s time to get some sun and relax, basking in the lighter traffic or enjoying the monuments with less field trip buses around.
Don’t forget to keep that home search going and to see the entire DC Open House List, click here.