Preview: 2011 Capital Fringe Festival (DCist): “The Capital Fringe Festival starts its sixth year this Thursday with over one hundred productions being performed at venues all over the city. Fringe is an opportunity for actors and production companies to get a moment in the limelight — whether they’re unknowns or big players doing some experimenting — and for arts-goers to see lots of theater for relatively little money.” Not sure where to start with your arts-going? Capital Fringe’s website has a great tool for searching all shows by location, date, time, and genre. (Among others, Catalogue-nonprofits CHAW and Woolly Mammoth are serving as Fringe venues these next few weeks!)

DC advocates, police agree more reporting needed on bias-related incidents (Washington Post Local): “… the number of reports they have taken has come under scrutiny [ ...] Police and leaders in the city’s gay, lesbian and transgender community agree that the number of reports should be significantly higher, but they offer different explanations for the statistics. Activists say residents already hesitant to report incidents are less likely to do so if police are believed to be unsympathetic; police cite low awareness of the policy within their ranks.” What do you think? How can we ensure that bias crimes are indeed reported — and that those reports lead to further action? No matter the reason for them, statistics that do not accurately reflect the reality of bias crimes in DC are damaging to all.

Ethics Office Moves to Let Federal Employees Serve on Nonprofit Boards (New York Times): “The Office of Government Ethics has taken the first step toward allowing federal employees to serve on the boards of nonprofit organizations, potentially ending a 15-year ban that advocacy groups say was misguided [...] Advocacy groups applauded the rule change today, calling it another step in ensuring transparency and collaboration in scientific research.” As the article points out, many high-caliber scientists and researchers, who could do a great deal of good and add a great deal of knowledge by joining non-profit boards, could encounter far fewer obstacles to doing just that. But the article does not address precisely why the DOJ “interpreted an ethics regulation as prohibiting an employee from serving in an official capacity as an officer, director or trustee.” Thoughts?