MARYLAND

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70 near Baltimore. But the materials failed to conform to state-approved specications, according to a federal investigation. Some structures contained the wrong amounts and types of steel rebar, while others had unapproved wire mesh as the foundation for the concrete instead of stronger steel rebar. All of them were materially weaker than if they had been produced according to design, according to the Inspector Generals Ofce. On numerous occasions, Rivas had signed off on shipping tickets containing concrete that hadnt been tested or had failed to meet strength standards. The problems were found in 2007 when a precast structure on Interstate 70 cracked open, according to court records. It had only two layers of rebar instead of the required three. Maryland highway ofcials then checked all projects to nd other pieces provided by the company. All of their materials have been replaced at the companys expense, said Maryland State Highway Administration spokesman David Buck. It never in any shape or form affected the integrity of the bridge, he said.
kweir@washingtonexaminer.com

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Man ned $131k, given home detention for subpar concrete in Wilson Bridge
By Kytja Weir
Examiner Staff Writer

A Maryland construction manager was ned more than $131,000 and sentenced to a year of home detention in connection to a case of providing subpar concrete for the building of Woodrow Wilson Bridge and another massive federally funded project. Santos Eliazar Rivas was sentenced last week to 12 months of home detention and 24 months of probation in Baltimores U.S. District Court, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector Generals Ofce. As an undocumented immigrant, he is expected to be deported at the end of his sentence. The sentence was far less than he could have gotten, though. Rivas pleaded guilty in September to three counts of making false statements about the highway project materials. Under the plea deal, he could have served as much ve years behind bars and paid up to $250,000, court documents show. Under the circumstances, we are grateful that the judge made the decision he did, his attorney David Irwin said in a statement Tuesday. It was real justice in a difcult situation. Rivas had been the director of quality control for Pennsylvania-

COURTESY E-CHANNEL

The E-Channel is a blog of dialogue between award-winning authors E. Ethelbert Miller and Charles Johnson that replicates the power and intimacy of print.

AP FILE

Santos Eliazar Rivas was sentenced to one year of home detention in connection to a case of providing subpar concrete for the building of Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

based Frederick Precast Concrete, Inc., which produced precast concrete drainage structures for building projects such as the Wilson Bridge project and Interstate

Del. Norton joins call for Union Station audit

By Aubrey Whelan
Examiner Staff Writer

As Union Station undergoes 10 months of repairs following the Aug. 23 earthquake, two members of Congress are calling for what they say is the rst-ever federal audit of the stations Redevelopment Corporation. District Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and Rep. Nick Rahall, D.-W. Va., are asking the Department of Transportations Inspector General to investigate Union Stations management and nances as the station prepares to undergo major changes in addition to repairing earthquake damage including expanded Metrorail access and renovations in Columbus Circle. Norton says she became concerned about Union Station during a series of congressional hearings between 2008 and 2010. Those hearings, the rst of their kind, revealed that Union Station didnt have a master plan to coordinate renovations and expansions, she said. The

stations nancial status, she said, was also unclear. What was perhaps clearest [in the hearings] was what we did not know about Union Station and its development corporation, she said. The large changes underway at Union Station make us want to know about management as well as its nances can it manage these changes? The Union Station Redevelopment Corporation, a non-prot creNorton ated by the federal government to help redevelop Union Station in the 1980s, releases nancial statements every year. But Norton wants more, specically a full-edged audit of the stations nances, which would allow Congress to protect the signicant federal investment in the station, she wrote in a letter to the Department of Transportation.

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Truly, it is preposterous to think theres a great big question mark around a federal facility like this, she said. A DOT spokesman said he hadnt heard of the request from Norton and Rahall and couldnt comment on the proposed audit. Union Station representatives did not return a call for comment.
awhelan@washingtonexaminer.com

here was a moment while reading the E-Channel, an exchange between award-winning authors E. Ethelbert Miller and Charles Johnson, when I forgot I was on the Internet. Their words had an intimacy and a spirituality I hadnt experienced before online. I wanted to change the literary landscape using technology, Miller, author of 11 books of poetry and non-ction and director of Howard Universitys Afro-American Resource Center, explained during breakfast at Busboys and Poets on 14 St. NW. As I look back it is something unique in literary culture, Johnson, a 1998 MacArthur fellow who has published extensively four novels, three short story collections, screenplays and numerous essays told me during a telephone interview from his home in Washington state. Miller and Johnson have earned my annual Civic Salute for creating literary art for electronic consumption that expertly replicates the power and intimacy of print. While print has been translated to technology e-books, for example those works often havent retained their intensity and authority. E-Channel (ethelbert-miller. blogspot.com) was inspired, somewhat, by Oprah Winfrey, who, Miller said, often provided online space to guests after their television appearances. But his project featured only Johnson in a year-long interview. Millers questions about Buddhism, fatherhood, black public intellectualism, the disappearance of the protest novel, the craft of writing, the importance of silence and education etc. were exquisite. Johnsons answers were equally superb. His rumination about the Talented Tenth, for example, has forced me to reconsider what AfricanAmerican civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois actually meant and whether that concept was unintentionally misdirected. Johnson never knew the questions Miller would ask. It was as close to releasing rst draft material

Literature in the time of apps JONETTA ROSE BARRAS

T H E WA S H I N G T O N E X A M I N E R

that I ever get, he told me, noting with busy schedules they were mostly catching this on the run. I laughed, trying to imagine producing such rich, nearly poetic prose on the y. I wanted to keep the writing tight concise and brief, more than diaristic and more than memoir with a strong kernel of intellectual content, Johnson said. The exchange has caught the attention of academia: University professors, students, librarians and others have excerpted some of the essays. Miller seemed happy E-Channel has gained attention. In fact, Johnson said his editor at Scribner publishing has been reviewing the work. The dialogue is much more sustainable than what you might see with Tavis [Smileys show]. Its richer intellectually; it is not like Cornel West showing up at some Occupy event, said Miller. There is an epistolary feeling: writers talking thoughtfully and passionately with each other about their work and other things of importance to them. That, said Johnson, is because he and Miller share the same historical and cultural moment. We were talking as two baby boomer black male writers. One of the 403 questions Miller asked that Johnson didnt answer was Is print dead? For me, it isnt. But for those who have already buried it, Miller and Johnson have provided a more than satisfying alternative.
Jonetta Rose Barrass column appears on Monday and Wednesday. She can be reached at jonetta@ jonettarosebarras.com.