No Step Too Small in Mayor's Race

Nader was calling the tax man because the office had rejected his tax return for reasons unspecified in the form letter that accompanied the returned, um, return. Given the enormous effort required to figure out what the problem was, Nader figures most people would simply "drop the phone in quiet desperation."

But "I am not one of those people," he said. So he dialed a different number, calling Mayor Anthony A. Williams to remind him of his 1998 campaign pledge to make government more accountable.

A real person actually answered the phone in the mayor's call center. Alas, when Nader asked to speak with the mayor, that person politely told him to contact Williams via e-mail.

Nader said his tax experience is not the first time he has been frustrated by the D.C. bureaucracy. In 1998, he complained about a nasty pothole at 19th and R streets NW. It took the Department of Public Works six months to get back to him.

It's Janey Calling

It's hardly ever good news when the principal calls. So imagine how some 13,000 D.C. public school parents felt last weekend when they picked up the phone and heard the voice of Superintendent Clifford B. Janey .

"Hello, parents and families," Janey said in an unusual recorded message welcoming parents and students back to what he and his team hope will be a new and improved public school system.

"During the course of this school year, I will send you personalized messages and important school-related information," Janey promised. "Thank you for choosing DCPS. It's our goal to regain the respect and admiration we once had as a high-performing school district."

In an interview, Janey said the call was a test run for a new telecommunications system aimed at keeping parents in the loop on snow days and during other emergencies, such as the one that occurred last winter when a mercury spill closed Cardozo Senior High School.

Staff writer V. Dion Haynes contributed to this report.