The woman that Marion Barry is alleged to have stalked, leading to his arrest last night, has been identified as Donna Watts, 40, a friend and companion of Barry’s for several years.

Watts was identified in an afternoon press conference by Barry spokesperson Natalie Williams; Barry himself did not attend, Williams said, because he was attending services at his church, Temple of Praise. Watts, a former campaign volunteer, has been seen with Barry on numerous occasions, including at April federal court hearing on his ongoing tax troubles. Less than two weeks later, the Washington Post reported that Barry had bought Watts a lavish fur coat at a charity event, outbidding CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

Williams described Watts as a “confidante” and “close friend” of Barry’s, then went on to describe her as a troubled person whom he had been helping for some time, having “lended his friendship and his support…through her many stages of instability.” That includes gifts of money.

Read More “Marion Barry on Arrest: Friend Donna Watts “Betrayed” Me” »

UPDATED 4:15 A.M.

Ward 8 Councilmember and former mayor Marion Barry was arrested Saturday night by a U.S. Park Police officer and charged with misdemeanor stalking.

According to Park Police spokesperson Sgt. David Schlosser, the incident leading to the arrest took place at around 8:45 p.m. An officer on patrol in Anacostia Park noticed a pair of cars in close proximity; the driver of one of the cars attempted to get the officer’s attention, and the officer subsequently pulled both cars over near the intersection of Anacostia Drive and Good Hope Road SE. The officer spoke first to the driver who had made the summons, an unidentified woman, and “she indicated there was some sort of discussion, dispute, angst,” Schlosser says.

Read More “Marion Barry Arrested by Park Police; Charged With Stalking” »

Independence Day, 1998

 

Just in time for holiday cookouts, the Washington Post has a story about uproar over watering down the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s organic label.

It chronicles questions about the purity of the USDA Organic stamp that can be found on everything from t-shirts, cosmetics and pet food to the hamburgers and corn on the cob enjoyed at the typical All-American Independence Day bash. The Post story inquires: Has the country’s preeminent organic label become tainted by the influences of factory farmers and food processing giants? Do products bearing the stamp no longer meet national standards? 

Pressing as those questions may be they are hardly the only controversies surrounding “healthy� and “green� claims used to sell products that have swept into our supermarkets and discount stores in the last couple of years.

TerraChoice, an environmental marketing firm, has published a review of 2,219 consumer product claims. It found that 98 percent of the items had false or misleading advertisements on their labels. 

Read More “This Independence Day: Is Your Organic Hamburger Up to Snuff?” »

As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. And get LL Daily sent straight to your inbox every morning!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—”Taking a DMV Driver Test? Prepare to Bring Your Own Car“; “These D.C. Summer Jobs Are Smokin’ (Marijuana)”

Morning all. The federal government has the day off. The District government has the day off. But LLD is still here! And LL will, of course, be on the job tomorrow for the annual Palisades 4th of July Parade. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, when he gets back in town for that event, will be greeted by this unwelcome WaPo A1 headline: ‘Missteps in Crash’s Aftermath Dull Fenty’s Luster.’ Prime among those missteps is blowing off all but one of the Metro crash victim funerals, and not even bothering to send a proxy. Come on, why not deploy some of these best-and-brightest types you’ve hired and whom you’re always crowing about? Then you wouldn’t have read stuff about how ‘the mayor and his staff were noticeably absent from a string of memorials, funerals and wakes’ and how ‘Fenty showed up at services for train operator Jeanice McMillan, but he was an hour late and was wearing a light-colored summer suit that some said was inappropriate.’ Oof…even Terry Lynch gets in on the beatdown!

LL SEZ—Is this as bad as Marion Barry dallying at the 1987 Super Bowl during a massive snowstorm? Well, the ‘optics,’ as they say, are nearly as bad. Fenty was right here during the crash—the most important local disaster since 9/11—and he simply could have canceled his vacay, or sent the wife and kids on their way while he tended to some pretty standard mayoral duties. But he didn’t, neglecting one of the basic rules of local politics: Fruit baskets and ‘parking logistics’ are nice, but showing up matters. And, that no subordinates were detailed in his stead demonstrates either that (a) he’s insanely tone-deaf or (b) his need to be at the center of all public happenings in his administration is pathological.

AFTER THE JUMP—MoCo cops raid D.C. home—for ‘Prison Wives’; FEMS flack gloriously sells out his soon-to-be-former boss; meet Gabe Klein; and no more Reagan for National Airport?

Read More “Adrian Fenty, the No-Show: Loose Lips Daily” »

1200 Block of K Street SE,  July 2

The District government’s belt-tightening has now extended into its vehicular policies.

In an memo issued June 23, Attorney General Peter Nickles addressed two issues: the use of city-owned cars in Department of Motor Vehicles driver tests, and the use of city employees’ own private cars while on government business.

Regarding the former, the memo [PDF] notes that as of Aug. 1, DMV “will no longer use government vehicles for its driver’s tests.” That, Nickles writes, is due to “weak indemnification language” in the waivers the test-takers have to sign—those require the driver to take responsibility for any damage to the cars, unless they are “not financially capable of doing so.” Such a policy, Nickles writes, “makes it virtually impossible for the District to successfully obtain reimbursement” in the case of an accident.

This, of course, poses the question: How are unlicensed drivers supposed to find a car to take their test in? And, even if they can, how are they supposed to get the car to the test site?

Read More “Taking a DMV Driver Test? Prepare to Bring Your Own Car” »

With your talent, that is, not with fireworks. Unless your talent is singing and dancing with explosives.

To promote the remake/redo/reimagining of 1980’s Fame (out Sept. ‘09), MGM is hosting a virtual competition for U.S. residents 14 and older to show off their stuff. (Tastefully.)

It apparently doesn’t matter what you do — a flier claims that possibilities include “singing, dancing, acting, or surprise us!” — nor how many folks you do it with. (Again, tasteful, people.) Read More “Light Up the Sky Like a Flame!” »

Politico hit it hard with the story of how the Washington Post was hoping to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars by charging influence peddlers to attend exclusive meals with Post people and decision-makers.

Now come a flurry of memos in the wake of the crisis. Here are a couple of them:

Read More “Washington Post “Salon” Scandal: The Memo Trail” »

DCist is reporting that the Real World DC cast may be arriving right friggin now. Has anybody been this excited by the arrival of more d-bags into D.C.? DCist writes:

“A tipster just texted that the D.C. Real World cast appears to be arriving as we speak — she reports seeing a blonde girl with a suitcase walking through Dupont Circle, looking clueless and being trailed by a camera crew.”

Of course, we’ve been doing our own serious blogging on the subject over at Housing Complex. The Anti-Real World DC blog has pictures (see above) capturing the apparent awkward move in.

“Hi. I’m Ethan. I will be playing the drunken frat boy in cargo shorts.”

“Hi. I’m Zoe. I will be playing the drunken ditz who hooks up with you in the second episode.”

There’s more after the jump!

Read More “Real World D.C. Cast Arriving Now! Really?” »

George W. Bush spent his last couple years in office saying that history will show that attacking Iraq wasn’t an error.

Crazy talk, you say? Well, not if the official scorekeepers working the Nats/Marlins series in Miami are historians.

Read More “A Lot of Revisionist History Going On!” »

The big media story of the day is that the Washington Post wants to sponsor “Salons” that bring political superstars and health care lobbyists together. The idea stems from an initiative piloted by Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth, who wants to build a conference-hosting biz under the Post’s roof.

Here’s how it’d work: Lobbyists would pay big money to the Post for the chance to hobnob with Washington players in a given area—you know, government officials and Washington Post reporters.

In other words, pay to play, or exactly the sort of business that the Post itself has slammed in one investigative feature after another. Media types and subscribers are busy right now voicing their outrage over the proposed scheme, the first installment of which has been canceled. The Post newsroom, too, is up in arms about the get-togethers, and there’s some disagreement as to whether editors were adequately briefed on this biz-side program.

Sure, it looks bad. But whenever these conflict-of-interest brouhahas pop up, I wonder why media watchdog types ignore it when a newspaper’s sports department is involved. Pretty much every sports department at every newspaper plays the game.

Read More “For Newspapers, Conflicts of Interest Have Always Been a Sporting Proposition” »

Fresh from DDOT:

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) is advising motorists that the 2600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, NW is closed to eastbound traffic because of a sinkhole. A square hole, approximately 4 feet by 4 feet, and 5 feet deep, has developed in the roadway near the bridge over Rock Creek (see attached photo).

DDOT crews are on the scene to make repairs. They are also working with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to try and reopen a lane for eastbound traffic, but delays are likely and motorists are advised to take alternate routes if possible

Any readers got pics?

UPDATE, 5:35 P.M.: WUSA-TV has a photo.

Gotta love the Summer Youth Employment Program: Nothing like a hard day’s work to teach kids a thing or two about holding a job and personal responsibility and keep them away from things like gangs, violence, and illicit substances.

Well, gangs and violence, anyway.

A City Desk reader captured this sight with a cell phone cam yesterday morning, around 10:30 a.m., on the 1500 block of Marion Street NW:

Read More “These D.C. Summer Jobs Are Smokin’ (Marijuana)” »