In March, longtime politico A. Scott Bolden asked an old family friend, Enjoli Timmons, to help out with his bid for an at-large D.C. Council seat. “I took a bite [on the pay], but I was helping him out,” says Timmons.

Shortly after she started, she says, Bolden—a partner in the Reed Smith law firm—approached her and told her that his credit was maxed out and that he needed her to purchase two BlackBerrys for the campaign. The arrangement worked out fine for a while, but a few weeks before Bolden's Sept. 12 landslide loss to incumbent Phil Mendelson, the BlackBerry bills went unpaid, and Timmons was hit with a disconnection notice.

A number of vendors are still waiting for payment from the Bolden campaign, Timmons says, but she feels her situation should take precedence. “I was not to be treated as an ordinary vendor. I did this as a friend.” At least one person wasn't treated as an ordinary vendor: A. Scott Bolden's campaign has been plenty efficient when it comes to paying A. Scott Bolden. During the last four months of the campaign, his committee paid him $33,470.46 to reimburse him for various expenses, including $5,000 for “Printing” on June 11, $10,000 for “Campaign Materials” on Aug. 12, and a May 19 payment of $3,550 labeled “Consultant.”

Bolden referred questions to campaign treasurer Kim Alfonso, who didn't return repeated calls.

On Monday, Oct. 2, after a reporter made inquiries, Timmons got an e-mail from Alfonso asking her to specify exactly how much she was owed. Timmons did, and Alfonso replied, “Thank you. Did you call the city paper?” A check for the overdue balance—about half the total—was put under Timmons’ doormat later that day, and Alfonso assured her the rest of the balance would be paid before the service was cut off.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, we run down what's going on in local Internet discussion groups.

tenleytown
Should Tenleytown strive to be the next Germantown? Bethesda? Georgetown? Logan Circle? Competing comparisons battle it out using parking as the point of contention. John throws out an argument counterintuitive enough it would impress New Republic editors: Developers should be obligated to provide fewer parking spaces per unit, rather than more, thus luring more walkers to the neighborhood. The outside-the-box thinking is met with sarcasm from Richard. “Great idea John.…Not everyone lives on the Metro line, nor works close to Metro.”

Petworth
With mayoral shoo-in Adrian Fenty soon to vacate his council seat, Ward 4 residents will soon need a new rump to fill it. Rob hopes that backside will belong to Joe Martin. “You really seem to have the balance between outrage and patience,” he coos in a pleading post. “I've just got the outrage, which makes me a hothead.” Joe's not having it. “I am not interested and discussing this will not change my mind at all,” he retorts. “I will not run. I am not at all interested. I will not be persuaded otherwise.”

MPD-5D
Kate’s new to Ward 5, she says, and after hearing a few gunshots has a query for the group. “[W]hat can I do to stay out of gang-related crimes? Are they as violent to non-gang members and are we as likely to be shot at as someone they have a grudge against?” City Desk is gonna go out on a limb and say the guy they have the grudge against ought to watch his back a little more than Kate. Lt. Craig doesn't have anything better for her, but does suggest people put a decal on the back of their car that allows cops to pull it over without cause “during extreme (like 1AM to 5AM) hours.” Craig concedes that his advice is a “little off the subject but very important.”

When operating a large apartment building under the city's radar, it's probably best to stay out of court-bound squabbles with tenants. So when married couple Ciprian and Daniela Berghea asked their landlord, June Layne, to repair a rotted bedroom floor, the smart move would have been to do it quickly and quietly. Instead of prompt repairs, they got an eviction notice.

Researching for the hearing, the Bergheas discovered that their 33-unit building in Columbia Heights has no business license and is not registered as an apartment building with the city. The couple won the hearing, but a day later someone slipped a rent increase under the Bergheas’ door, printed on Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs letterhead that, according to one city housing inspector, was forged. When they called to report further code violations and notify the city that the building was itself illegal, the Bergheas say they were told by a DCRA official that because Layne didn't have a business license, the building was not a business that the agency could regulate, and so it couldn't send an inspector out.

“That is not department policy,” says DCRA spokesperson Karyn-Siobhan Robinson, who suggests that the Bergheas might have been confused by the complexity of DCRA's mandate. As a result of the inquiry, she says, the agency has opened an investigation. Reached by phone, Layne immediately hung up on a reporter.

Every political career has to start somewhere. Why not start the easy way—by winning an uncontested race for advisory neighborhood commissioner? The job doesn't pay and requires the ability to sit through the meetings, but it can be quite a little power trip, if that's what you're into.

As of 9 a.m. today, there were still 41 single-member districts that are wide open. No potential candidates have picked up the petition forms needed to get on the November ballot. If you're not in one of the empty guys, there's still hope: 164 of the 286 districts have only one candidate running.

Opportunity's knocking, but there's not much time to get the door. Twenty-five signatures from within your district must be handed in to the ANC office in the Wilson Building Board of Elections and Ethics office at 441 4th St. NW by 4:59:59, says ANC coordinator Gottlieb Simon. “If you haven't gotten in, the door will be locked at five.”

Bikes for the World has a problem: Its bikes are too nice. The nonprofit's mission is to collect donated bikes here and ship them over to Africa. It's already sent more than 7,000 this year, says director Keith Oberg. The organization prefers to send mountain bikes, he says, considering that many roads in Africa make your average District streets look as smooth as a runway. Top-shelf road bikes, then, aren't appropriate. Why send a thousand-dollar set of wheels across the Atlantic where it'll just get trashed in a few weeks?

So the organization figured it would sell its best road bikes and use the cash to buy mountain bikes, parts, and whatnot to support its operation. Problem is, the lease it has for its free digs in the Waterside Mall doesn't allow for retail.

The big sale was scheduled for Aug. 22. By 6:30 p.m., about a dozen people had already arrived to snap up a cheap bike, responding to a Craigslist posting. But then some customers got lost on the way and called mall security for directions. And that was it for the bike sale—security came by and shut down the fundraiser. Mall management could not be immediately reached for comment.

“This was gonna be an informal thing, but a lot of people showed up,” says Oberg. “I totally blew it. I hope I didn't blow our lease.”

ADDENDUM, 5:03 P.M.: Oberg says that the management company called him to say there was no problem and that his lease is not in jeopardy. "Things are real cool," he says. Management spokesperson Mara Olguin confirms that all is cool.

On Saturday, Colbert I. King took to the Washington Post opinion page in another attempt to wrest D.C. politics from the grip of modernity. This time, he lashed out at the trend of candidates and/or their supporters doing personal opposition research. The lament was brought about by the anonymous deliverance to King of a 146-page dossier on mayoral candidate Adrian Fenty. It was given to him, he writes, by “a longtime supporter of council chairman and mayoral hopeful Linda Cropp.”

While some of his ire is directed at the Cropp campaign and others that might muck up the D.C. political scene, he reserves his real scorn for members of the media that play along. And not just any media: King, it turns out, was largely referring to his own paper's reporters.

Here's the shot across the bow of the Metro desk:

I don't know whether copies of the “research” have been slipped to other journalists or whether contents of the dossier have been parceled out to individual reporters as “tips.”

Between now and Election Day, other anti-Fenty stories may turn up in the media. It's a good bet that some of them will be based on information in the dossier. The only question is whether news organizations, if they use the information, will disclose to the public that the source is a Fenty opponent. Or will they pretend they dug it up on their own? Never mind, I'm not the ombudsman or a news editor.

King wouldn't have to wait long for his question to be answered. The same day that the column ran, the Metro section fronted a story by Yolanda Woodlee that looked like it could have come from the opposition dossier—with no explanation of where the info originated.

King, deputy editor of the Post editorial page, says he didn't know it was coming out the same day but was aware that Metro reporters were working on the story and probably wouldn't follow his advice. “They said they wouldn't discuss their sources with me, and, I assume, in the paper as well,” he says. A Post source says that Woodlee's story did not originate from the dossier, but from a tip (or is that “tip”?) that led her to search civil records in Montgomery County. Woodlee wouldn't comment about the chastising.

Just as King knew the story was in the works, King says the reporters also knew their knuckle-rapping was around the corner. “I told them what the thrust of my column would be,” he says. “Fair warning is fair play.”

Residents of the Park East building in Adams Morgan, managed by Carmel Partners, came home yesterday evening to find an area in front of the building strewn with the belongings of now-former tenants. Residents say U.S. Marshals emptied at least three units. Diane Coates, who has lived in the building since 1984, said this was the first such eviction she could remember. “I haven’t seen this before, with all the stuff piled up,” she said.

Possessions of evicted tenants line the area in front of 1845 Summit Place NW yesterday evening. Photo by anonymous.

One of the evictees, who declined to give her name, pleaded with two District police officers to help her carry off her microwave, photo album, toaster, desk, mattresses, and the rest of her pile. She argued that the cops have the resources to help. “I’ve seen those paddy wagons,” she said.

“They’re specifically for people to sit in when we transport them to jail,” said an officer. The woman then switched tactics and asked the officers to return with their personal vehicles when they were off duty. They declined and she walked away.

“I have a damn Ford Escort,” said one cop to the other.

Carmel Partners regional manager Carlyle Swafford says his company had no say in the all-at-once timing of the evictions. Though some Park East residents sympathized with the homeless tenants, they were also concerned that the area around their building might resemble a landfill. “What’s funny is they did all this landscaping last week. It must have cost them a couple grand and then they dump all this shit on it,” said Pete Mason, surveying the scene. “They knew this was coming down—bureaucracy at its finest.”

By a unanimous vote yesterday, the D.C. Council passed emergency legislation introduced by Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham that will quicken the date that rent control will be tightened. The reform passed June 6 will now go into effect August 4.

Two weeks ago, we reported that Graham was considering such a move because tenants were seeing an increasing number of rent hikes as landlords moved to jack up rents while they still could.

Graham says those hikes were part of his decision. “In fact, there was an impact on tenants occurring. We've reduced the time for that impact,” he says. The colonial nature of District governance contributed, too. Had Congress not taken an extra day of recess over the 4th of July, says Graham, the legislation would have become active around Aug. 4. But because of the long recess, it wouldn't have gone into effect until the end of September or early October.

“We know we have a 30-day layover requirement, but when it becomes 60 days, I think we have to act on an emergency basis,” he says. “It's an example of the burden that the congressional review process places on the D.C. legislature.”

Slain community activist Chris Crowder was the final witness at a March 31 hearing of the D.C. Council Committee on Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

Introduced by Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham only as “Brother Chris,” Crowder, in one of his final public statements, showed a glimpse of the spunk that once pissed off the likes of Bill Cosby but made him a memorable presence in neighborhood debates.

Spoke Brother Chris: “I'm gonna overlook that I heard there were threats to certain people if they organize in tenant groups, because I know we do have some tough guys in this city who can help some of you citizens if you are being threatened. So I'm not even gonna pretend I heard some of that tonight. I end saying thank you, thank you, and thank you.”

Every Tuesday and Thursday, we run down what's going on in local Internet discussion groups.

MPD-1D
In a post headlined “Leering Officer on Segway,” mjwilson99 gets right to the point: “Perhaps the white, middle-aged officer who was riding the Segway down Pennsylvania Avenue last week could seek counseling so as to be able to resist his urge to turn around not once, not twice, but three times, to ogle an attractive female pedestrian wearing a short skirt.” Shut your whining mouth, replied Danielle: “That is the most ridiculous complaint I have heard yet!…These cops risk their lives day in and day out for probably not enough pay, there could be a number of reasons the cop was looking around, perhaps he saw someone else that may pose a threat to the individual, perhaps he was watching traffic or just looking over his shoulder. Even if he was looking at the girl, who cares???” Several posters agreed with Danielle, before bigfishindc finished off the debate by saying, “just because this listserv makes it easy to complain about each and every aspect of police behavior, doesn't mean its productive to complain about each aspect of police behavior.”

Brookland
Fred’s dog had a rough night in Brookland. “During the late afternoon on Sunday July 2nd, my dog Patrick got out of the gate from my backyard and was gone for about 20 minutes. Patrick was scared from the thunder and this caused him to “bolt” though he came back pretty quickly. When he returned, he seemed a bit freaked out and I attributed this to the storm that was coming in. When I got up this morning, my dog was limping from both hind legs. I was concerned that possibly he had been hit by a car during his absence yesterday (or something else)? A half day of worry and an expensive vet bill later, I now know that my dog was shot in the hind with a bb gun. The pellet is still lodged there (and will probably have to stay).” Thoughtful notes arrived for Patrick that night. “Thanks for all the well wishes,” Fred wrote. “Patrick is okay, still limping and such. He is on painkillers and a little bit out of it.”

DupontCircleParents
A recent City Paper article that focused heavily on the DupontCircleParents listserv drew the ire of said listserv. One poster, Noreen, was so perplexed by the story that she looked far and wide for the reporter's motivation. “I am still trying to figure out why it was a story, what was the point? It just seemed so mean spirited all around. A Post reporter told me that his theory was that it was an attempt to score off from someone at the Washington Post where Ross has gotten so much positive press, and the newspaper staff come over through “Everybody Wins” to read at lunch with our students. The Graham foundation also granted us $25,000 for our playground, so there are definitely Post supporters here. Another person on my son's Stoddert Soccer team suggested it was just a general anti-gentrification article. But since when is being committed to your local community gentrification anyway?...Anyway, the story didn't originate from Ross, and everyone (just everyone) I talked to was sick about it.”

On June 2, we wrote about how Street Sense was having trouble booking its second annual benefit concert. The Black Cat felt the lineup that the homeless-produced newspaper suggested wouldn't draw the numbers needed to cover expenses; Street Sense argued it could do the advertising and would fill the room.

In the story, a Street Sense volunteer said that he hoped somebody would call him up and offer to sponsor the event. Three days later, Yaniv Gelnik, an owner of Keller Williams Capital Properties, called us up and asked how. We Googled Street Sense and gave him its number.

After some negotiations with the Black Cat and the paper, the residential and commercial brokerage will sponsor the show by renting out the club on Aug. 19. The club says it typically does not rent out its space but made an exception for—and gave a major discount to—the nonprofit magazine. The cost for the evening is $2,000—more than last year's benefit netted Street Sense.

The agreement shows that there's no bad blood, says Laura Osuri, the paper's executive director. “The article made it seem like there was a much bigger fight between Street Sense and the Black Cat, but they were looking out for their interests and we were looking out for ours,” she says. “It's great everything worked out.”

Talent has yet to be lined up for the show, but Gelnik says that Keller Williams has no plans of springing for the artist that shares its name. “Keller Williams performs at the 9:30 Club, not the Black Cat,” says Gelnik. “He wants like 30 grand for a night.”

There are two ways that drug use gets covered by the American media. They either take a thoughtful approach to a complex problem or foster hysteria supported by quotes from cops and Drug Enforcement Administration officials.

This morning's Washington Post takes both routes. In the front section, David Brown offers a well-documented examination of Baltimore's massive reduction in drug addiction and overdose deaths. The recipe for this success, writes Brown, was the mixture of education, treatment, a needle-exchange program, and even training for addicts and their families in CPR and how to use naloxone, an injected medicine that can stave off an overdose death, à la Pulp Fiction. (Brown reports 194 total deaths have been avoided by the injection.)

Funding for these efforts, reports Brown, comes from Republican bogeyman George Soros. The kingpin has pumped $50 million into Baltimore in the last eight years.

Or you can just scare the shit out of people. A story on the front page of the Metro section by Michael E. Ruane and Paul Duggan liberally quotes a DEA spokesperson and Len Bias’ mother to tell readers that the Maryland basketball star's 1986 death is the reason that cocaine use declined in subsequent years—and if we can just remind kids how dangerous coke is they won't touch it. The words “treatment” and “education” do not appear.

Ruane didn't immediately return a phone call, and Duggan won't comment, but Brown says the two sections didn't communicate before the stories ran. But just because they were different, he says, doesn't mean one was right and one was wrong. “I thought [Ruane and Duggan's article] was a touching story about a very serious problem,” he says. “They're two completely different stories; one is about scientific research on an entire population, and the other one is about essentially 100 pieces of anecdotal evidence of what happens when someone loses control of drug use.”

ADDENDUM, 7:05 P.M.: Former CP editor Jack Shafer points out that we called bullshit on the "legacy of grown-up children born to crack-addicted mothers, called crack babies," years ago. Almost 15 years ago, in fact.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, we run down what's going on in local Internet discussion groups.

AdamsMorgan
James, of Friends of Marie Reed, wrote to wax poetic about the elementary school's sixth-grade-graduation festivities, followed up with a plea for donations. “Graduation day has always been very special at Marie Reed. For the sixth graders it is the proudest day of their young lives, and if you've ever witnessed the tears of joy, the bubbling excitement, the looks on the faces of their parents and teachers, you would agree there is no moment like this. It is our community at its very best!” Ed wasn't buying it. “I thought a graduation ceremony was a reward for having obtained a degree or rreached a goal. 6th grade? get real,” he replied.

cleveland-park
Things remain as highbrow as ever in Cleveland Park. John’s looking for someone to edify him on a couple of hot-button physics concepts. “I'm seeking an expert on Maxwell's equations and entropy who might give me some personal guidance. I'm not a student and don't have a course I need to pass, just a dilettante lawyer trying to clarify my internal disorder. I hope I don't have to pay too much but I'm more than willing to make their time spent worthwhile in some creative way.”

Palisades
Meanwhile, they went lowbrow in Palisades, with a spirited dog-shit debate. Patrick lead off: “I stepped in dog poop in my grass this morning on my way to work. I don't own a dog. It's a bit annoying. So could those of you with dogs please scoop your poop.” Aglue told Patrick to get over it. “I've stepped in plenty of poop before. Sucks. Finding a twig to dig out the poop from your shoe is the worst. Somehow though, I don't think posting a message to this board will be effective in keeping poop off your shoe. As long as there are dogs in the world there will be owners that don't scoop up after them…it's a fact of life. I think I'll pioneer a designer colostomy bag surgery for dogs. There's a fortune to be made in that market.”

In last week's paper, we wrote about a loophole that has been allowing developers to convert buildings to condos while avoiding a hefty 5 percent conversion fee. They vacate a building, or at least claim it's vacant, and then apply for a “vacancy exemption” from the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA). It may be, though, that this dodge is too clever by half. Declaring a property vacant, though, should mean the owner has to pay a special vacant-property tax rate, which is more than five times the standard fee.

Last week, Matthew Forman, federal real-estate attorney and vice president of the Kalorama Citizens Association, e-mailed Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, alerting him of the contradiction. “Would you please investigate how, if the owner of 1342 Vermont is claiming the property to be vacant, they were not charged the $5/100 real property tax rate for vacant properties? The property isn't paying the vacant tax rate and in fact is still receiving the homestead exemption, giving them a further, significant reduction in their property taxes.…In this case, it would appear that the property owner needs to be sent a bill for either the conversion fee or the back taxes - they can't have it both ways,” he wrote. Besides the City Paper, he cc'ed Eric Goulet in Councilmember Jack Evans’ office and Thomas Branham, the District's chief assessor.

Graham forwarded the e-mail back to Branham asking for an opinion.

“In the future,” Forman writes, “you need to make sure that the branch of DCRA that is accepting filings stating that properties are vacant is passing this information on to [the Office of Tax and Revenue] to make sure that the property is paying the full vacant tax rate.”

Forman says he has been working with the council trying to increase collection of the full vacancy tax rate, and the contradiction in the latest loophole jumped out at him. Either the property's vacant, he says, or it's not. “It's just the total, perfect irony,” he says.

The paltry American flag that flew pitifully atop a Sprint cell-phone tower planted in Eugene A. Clark Elementary School's front yard has been replaced. The new flag, which teachers at the Petworth school say began waving a couple of weeks ago, appears to be at least 25 feet long and 10 feet tall—in keeping with American Legion standards for the 100-foot staff. “We make a joke about it—that we have the biggest flag in the nation,” says a teacher who asked to remain anonymous.

But the size of the banner hasn't mollified teachers opposed to the cell-phone tower. “The size of the flag wasn't our issue—it was that we were never approached or informed about the whole missile structure,” says the teacher. “As far as the explanation of where the money went—nada….It could be at Sam's Club.”

D.C. Public Schools spokesperson Roxanne Evans, who didn't return calls for this story, previously said that the school received about $5,000 under an April 2005 deal between the school system and Sprint. Sprint pays the school system $27,600 annually for use of the flagpole. Similar arrangements have been made at Burroughs Elementary in Brookland.

The giant flag and pole, though, do have supporters in the school community. Siblings Benjamin, 7, and Benjamina Coleman, 9, both give the structure a thumbs-up. “I think it's cool. It's the right size,” says Benjamin. “It's taller than the school,” points out Benjamina.

Photograph by Rachel Beckman