Odd deal sends D.C. fire truck, ambulance to Dominican town

IT'S A BIT puzzling that the fiscally strapped D.C. government would want to give away fire equipment. Or that it would pick a beach town in the Dominican Republic as the recipient. Or that it would use a nonprofit group that works with troubled teens to facilitate the transaction. Or that top fire department officials would claim to know nothing about such a gift. Puzzling as they may be, however, these circumstances all appear to be true.
The D.C. government has agreed to donate a firetruck and ambulance worth nearly $350,000 to a Dominican Republic beach town,...The firetruck, valued at $270,000, and the ambulance, valued at $70,000, will be turned over to the anti-youth-violence organization Peaceoholics, which will then turn the vehicles over to Sosúa, a small beach resort town on the north coast of the Dominican Republic.