IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"Sullivan to Nickles: 'You're Playing Games With The Wrong Judge'"; "Ximena Hartsock Headed to Youth Trust?"; "Pershing Park Case: Patterson Hopes District Has Learned Its Lesson"; tweets galore!

Greetings all. A congressional report connects Michelle Rhee to unsavory personal accusations involving her now-fiance, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. KJ has been accused of sexual misconduct with young women, and Examiner columnist Byron York writes that Rhee, while serving on the board of Johnson's St. Hope nonprofit, 'learned of the allegations and played the role of a fixer, doing "damage control"' for Johnson. A former St. Hope employee says 'that Rhee told her that "she was making this her number one priority, and she would take care of the situation." A short time later, the employee learned that the girl who had complained about Johnson had received a visit from Johnson's personal attorney.' Allegations against Johnson and St. Hope were first leveled by AmeriCorps' inspector general, who referred the matter to federal prosecutors in California. The L.A. Times reports that Rhee had 'several conversations' with the IG 'in which she made the case for Johnson and the school he ran in Sacramento...[saying] he was "a good guy."' As part of a settlement with St. Hope, the sexual misconduct allegations were not addressed, and the IG was fired by the Obama administration in June. The LAT story notes that Rhee's 'role in the incident may have repercussions among city officials in Washington, where she has developed the profile of a contentious and controversial schools chief.'

AFTER THE JUMP---WaPo ed board calls for probe of Gray allegations; ex-official's name appears in court docs filed in taxi bribery case; Fenty's swim habits spark Wilson pool controversy; council, Catholics explore compromise; DISB changes birth-control policy for insurers; Fenty airplane pitch leads to possible move for Bethesda company; report says UDC should spin off community college

The WaPo editorial board digs into Vincent Gray's recent bad press, saying that an 'independent look' into allegations of improper fundraising and questionable home repairs 'would serve the interests of both Mr. Gray and the city.' With regard to his home, 'questions remain,' they write. 'Was it appropriate for a company that gets millions of dollars in D.C. government business to get involved in a project of this nature? Was there any connection between Mr. Gray's payment and the inquiries by' a WaTimes reporter? 'Mr. Gray suggested that politics...is what's at play. He would do better to clear up any questions by insisting that the city's inspector general, or some other independent body, review the transaction. Likewise, the revelations about Comcast---which Mr. Gray acknowledged should have been handled differently---make it increasingly clear that either the Office of the Attorney General or the Office of Campaign Finance needs to get to the bottom of how the D.C. Democratic State Party handled its funds and fundraising last year.'

INCIDENTALLY---Peter Nickles says he sees nothing untoward about Gray's home renovations, done by a subsidiary of William C. Smith & Co., the megadeveloper: 'There's no indication of quid pro quo, except innuendo....It's just a bunch of isolated facts put together.'

At long last, the name of former Taxicab Commission chair Causton Toney surfaces in court documents, Del Wilber reports in WaPo, as part of an affidavit filed in support of a warrant to search his house. According to prosecutors' allegations, Toney 'participated in a long-running bribery scheme that sought his influence to obtain lucrative taxi licenses,' though he has not yet been charged and his lawyer denies any wrongdoing. The FBI has phone calls where Toney appears to have knowledge of and participate in the scheme whereby cab company owner Yitbarek Syume attempted to bribe current DCTC chair Leon Swain to obtain company licenses ahead of an anticipated moratorium. At one point, Swain asks Toney where his bribe money is. Replies Toney: 'Okay...I didn't know what was going on. I didn't even know that was going on at all....I'll just tell him to get his act together.' Toney's name had earlier appeared on FBI audiotapes played in court.

ALSO---More on Ted Loza's alleged misdealings: Warrants indicate he was pulled into the investigation through 'intercepted conversations' with Abdulaziz Kamus, whom he is alleged to have taken bribes from. 'In a November 2007 phone call, Loza asked Kamus whether he could "raise a little money for us to go on this trip" to El Salvador. The next day, Kamus handed Loza $500 for the trip, the FBI alleged. By the next year, the FBI said, Kamus had arranged for Loza to accept about $3,500 for a trip to Ethiopia from an undercover FBI agent posing as a taxi investor, the court papers say....In the court papers, an agent wrote that a District-based advertising firm, Prisma Communications, paid for Graham to fly to El Salvador last year. Graham said that he knew a company had financed the trip but that it had no business with the city. He has denied any wrongdoing. "I am not a target of this investigation," he said Thursday.'

Another exercise-related controversy for Mayor Adrian M. Fenty: Per the reporting of WRC-TV's Tom Sherwood, users of the spanking-new Wilson Aquatic Center (particularly Wilson HS swim team parents) are 'grousing that the pool too often is not configured for the team's 25-meter practices and contests. Instead, there are only eight lanes that each are 50 meters. The parents say that the longer lanes were there because Mayor Adrian Fenty---a triathlete---wanted the long lanes for his training and those of other triathletes.' Fenty 'didn't directly answer whether he wanted the long lanes [but] said the pool is big enough for compromise so all swimmers can be accommodated during any week.' DPR is coming up with a new lane schedule.

Speaking of the Democratic State Committee and handling of its funds, D.C. Wire airs more evidence of the internal dissension that's plagued the party organ for months. Jeff Richardson, Stein Club president and DCDSC member, sent an e-mail yesterday to Lenwood Johnson and Philip Pannell asking them to cool their ongoing requests for federal investigations into DCDSC finances. He wrote: 'In light of today's press in the Post and the CityPaper and given the direction this investigation is going with the intense response by the D.C. Republican Party, I am personally requesting that you both consider delaying your action to allow DCDSC members to hear your specific concerns with the hopes of outlining a plan of action to address your specific concerns without further public embarrassment to the D.C. Democratic Party and D.C. Democrats.' Johnson said he already sent a letter to the U.S. attorney; Pannell sent the e-mail to the press.

Petula Dvorak writes in her WaPo column that while the retail opportunities may have changed, some things in Columbia Heights have stayed the same. Such as the violence that recently claimed 9-year-old Oscar Fuentes. 'The kids standing around with tattoo girl rolled their eyes and laughed at me when I asked whether they were surprised by the shooting and whether it's made them more frightened to be out. "Where are you gonna hide? Kid got shot in his place. With his family right there," a teenage boy with peach fuzz on his chin said....They are pretty blind to the optimism that a billion-dollar commercial development along this stretch brought to adults.' WUSA-TV explores similar themes.

ALSO---'On Thursday, as Oscar's family was preparing his funeral arrangements and kids stayed away from the playground, the Prince of Petworth blog posted a reader's complaints about the neighborhood...."I ordered latté and it was a disaster...."'

Has a new spirit of compromise come to city legislators and local Catholic leaders? Tim Craig reports in WaPo that councilmembers and Eleanor Holmes Norton are 'reaching out to the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington to see whether they can find a compromise so the Church will not end its social services contracts.' Church leaders have met with Vincent Gray, and Norton has spoken with Archbishop Donald Wuerl. One possible compromise broached by the council is to extend health benefits to another member of an employee's household without specifying 'spouse' or other such language; similiar arrangements are used by Georgetown University and in San Francisco. ADW spox Susan Gibbs says 'archdiocese officials were happy that city leaders were "finally responding," but she said she was not sure the proposal alleviates the Church's concerns.'

WBJ's Jonathan O'Connell identifies the business that the Fenty administration wants to hand a major tax break: It's CoStar, 'a global leader in commercial real estate data.' The deal went down this way, according to its CEO: 'Fenty, sitting next to him on a flight back from a shopping center convention in Las Vegas last May, gave Florance a sterling pitch to move the company's offices from Bethesda. When Florance brought up the difference in taxes, the mayor said, "We could try to solve that problem for you." Fenty kept his word. In October, he proposed a tax abatement for CoStar worth an estimated $7 million over a 10-year period, provided the company sign a five-year lease in D.C. and maintain at least 250 employees there.' A complication is that the CoStar tax abatement is intertwined with a Urban Institute tax deal that's now on hold.

In another WBJ report, O'Connell looks at the $5M TIF deal that brought a West Elm furniture store to the Woodies building in 2007. The revenues from that deal are reportedly not meeting expectations. 'Many retailers, particularly those linked to home sales, have not fared well in the housing bust and long recession, which could be hurting the 37,500-square-foot store.' In the big picture, things are fine, CFO says: 'In fiscal 2008, the city took in $30.2 million from TIF-related sales and property tax revenue and is required to spend only about $9.7 million meeting the associated obligations.'

ALSO IN WBJ---DDOT's Gabe Klein talks streetcars and more; hotel investments start to rebound; coverage of whether 2050 regional plan is realistic; WaPo online workers unionize.

New report urges UDC's new community college to go it alone in order to 'be embraced as "credible and legitimate" by a business community that has lost faith in UDC,' Daniel de Vise reports in WaPo. The report, commissioned by D.C. Appleseed and the Brookings Institution, essentially argues that the community college should 'focus on remediation, needed by more than 70 percent of students who entered the old UDC' so that the 'university, largely pruned of remedial students, can focus on raising the graduation rate.' UDC leaders aren't buying that total separation is necessary: 'What's more important, they said, is to produce results that will win over skeptics.' They 'endorse a separate administration for the community college, but not necessarily an independent board.'

Faced with uproar, Metro decides to delay SmartBenefits changes for a year. 'The revisions were supposed to take effect Jan. 1. But Metro officials said Thursday that after hearing from commuters and employers, who also complained that the proposed changes were confusing and announced too late, they decided to push back implementation to give employers more time to figure out how they will administer the plan,' Lena Sun writes in WaPo. 'Metro officials said Thursday that the one-year delay might allow them to speed up the timetable for other SmarTrip improvements that have been repeatedly postponed.' Also Examiner.

ALSO---Metro opens its arm to Tri-State Oversight Board's track inspectors, WaPo reports, requiring 'all agency employees Thursday to cooperate fully with the transit system's safety oversight body and executives to notify the board before denying a request from the group.' The board also 'called on the localities that fund Metro to provide more resources for the Tri-State Oversight Committee and urged the federal government to institute "robust" safety regulation and oversight of transit.' Also Examiner, WTOP.

Harry Jaffe is glad to report that a federal jury has 'absolved' MPD Detective Kevin McConnell 'of violating the rights of a man he shot in self-defense, in the line of duty' as part of a civil case concerning a 2007 scuffle outside a Skyland carryout. 'The question is, will the victory in federal court persuade D.C.'s police department to stop trying to kick him off the force?...McConnell was scheduled to come before the MPD's Trial Board this week to defend himself against termination. The federal case forced a postponement. McConnell deserves a medal, not a slap-down. "Maybe," he says, "somebody will do the right thing." Somebody, like Chief Cathy Lanier.' (Incidentally: Jaffe, in his story, refers to the good detective as 'Mike McConnell' even after he properly called him Kevin McConnell in a June story.)

Arrest made in the cold-blooded killing of Petworth shopkeeper Rufina Hernandez. Police yesterday afternoon apprehended Andres Lopez, 45, near Fourth and Kennedy Streets NW. WaPo reports that Police Chief Cathy Lanier 'said Lopez had been arrested previously in the area near the store. She declined to say whether Lopez was the suspected shooter or whether the gun used in the slaying was found. The search for a second suspect continues, and Lanier sought further help from neighborhood residents.' Also NC8, WRC-TV, WTTG-TV.

Blogger reports that Insurance Commissioner Gennet Purcell has ruled that coverage of birth control by health insurers is no longer mandatory. 'Under Purcell's watch, private insurance companies operating in Washington DC are now allowed to opt out of covering contraception in individual plans. This coverage is considered "non-mandatory" by the insurance commissioner and some women are finding their birth control coverage suddenly dropped.' An online petition has been started.

HERE WE GO AGAIN?---Jonetta Rose Barras reports in her online column that Jack Evans is pledging to reintroduce civil gang injunction legislation after the Fuentes murder. '"I intend to introduce it as stand alone legislation," Evans said, adding that he also is working with the Office of the U.S. Attorney on another bill. He declined to provide details, however. Evans said the spate of murders in the city demand the council take strong and immediate action.'

Bill Turque with a D.C. Wire post on the cognitive dissonance between Rhee's recent comments to a WSJ panel ('collaboration and consensus building are quite frankly overrated in my mind') and her inclusion in a Tom Brokaw-hosted 'Characters Unite National Town Hall'---'a national town hall to search for common ground on complex social issues.' Turque adds: 'To be completely fair, her point is that too much collaboration and consensus building can lead to paralysis when trying to transform troubled institutions such as DCPS.'

Also from Turque: Watkins Security, which was kicked out of D.C. schools 'after an inspector general's report found that it was overpriced, underqualified, ineffective and employed some guards with criminal records,' is back at DCPS schools as a subcontractor for U.S. Security Associates, one of the firms hired to take over from Hawk One. Says Watkins exec: 'I don't want to get into opening old wounds....I don't need any adverse publicity. I want to go about my business.'

More unconfirmed rumblings from Candi Peterson that DCPS continues to hire teachers. She writes: 'I have received emails confirming sightings of new 'teacher hires' beginning the second week of November, only a month after the notices of layoffs were given to 388 DC teachers and school staff.'

WaPo's Ian Shapira examines the burdens of being a liberal trust-funder in this town, including a look at some who gather for 'a kind of group therapy session about their families' wealth....They are young people who have inherited or stand to inherit big money, and they are spending their post-college years living modestly and working to address the needs of the poor, hungry and politically disadvantaged. But the privilege they grew up with and the money coming their way nag at them in ways few people not in their position can fathom.'

THE BLADE REBORN---The D.C. Agenda, successor publication to the Washington Blade, is now live on the Web. Writes editor Kevin Naff: 'The former staff of the Washington Blade remains united and DC Agenda represents our effort at continuing the important mission and work of the Blade. It will grow and evolve to include a much larger and more diverse group of voices. But the core of the Washington Blade's work remains unchanged. We will cover Congress, the White House, the LGBT rights movement, the D.C. marriage fight, local hate crimes and other political issues important to the LGBT residents of the city.'

WAMU-FM's Kavitha Cardoza covers city's cuts to child-care subsidies for low-income D.C. parents. 'Fahim Shabazz says he has a four and five year old who attend St. Philip's Child Care Center in South East D.C. He says his costs jumped from less than 10 dollars a week to more than 110 dollars for each child. And Shabazz says he doesn't know what to do. "Should the day care bills be paid or should the house bills be paid?"' Also NC8.

Mother says her 9-year-old quadriplegic daughter was stabbed on DCPS school bus en route to St. Coletta's School, NC8 reports. 'Her mother says the bus driver called her and told her what happened. "She said the little girl that cut Nadja is 17 years old and they attend the same school," said Rowe.' St. Coletta's says she cut herself; she remains hospitalized.

The new clerk for the District's federal court will be Angela Caesar. WaPo's Del Wilber reports that she 'will oversee a staff of 84 and an annual budget of about $10 million. She has worked in the office for 19 years and was deputy for administration before being given the top job.' ALSO IN WAPO BRIEFS---Saturday is adoption day for dozens of city foster children.

Want to know more about Georgetown U.'s 10-year campus plan? The Voice can help.

WaPo letter writer has kudos for city health officials for the H1N1 clinics. 'I want to commend the D.C. Department of Health for the planning, organization and human resources that went into this successful effort....Though most doctors and pharmacies in Washington have yet to receive their allotments of the H1N1 vaccine, I am pleased to say that the Health Department clinic offered a painless option for those who wish to be vaccinated now.' WUSA-TV reports that the clinics, now at rec centers rather than schools, are still quite crowded.

Urn filled with veteran's ashes still not found.

D.C.'s office vacancy rates likely to hit 15 percent before stabilizing, says Jones Lang LaSalle. 'Expected boosts in the federal budget will continue to cushion the D.C. office market and shift absorption back into positive territory in 2010. But the continued delivery of speculative construction projects in the area is expected to force vacancy rates further upward and keep leverage squarely with tenants, said JLL.'

D.C. Health Care Finance Agency cuts staff, WBJ reports: 'During the realignment, which took place Aug. 31, 79 separation letters were issued and 62 new positions were posted online for which its employees could apply. Of those 79, 47 were hired into new positions, seven retired, nine did not apply for any positions, and 16 applied and were not hired back, according to the department...."As the Department completed its transformation to a cabinet level agency, it was imperative for our organizational structure to mirror our mission," the department said in a statement.'

14th & R condo deal moves ahead.

To reduce backlog, D.C. Court of Appeals tries shortening oral arguments from 30 minutes a side to 15 minutes a side. ALSO in Legal Times: Lobbyist accuses NYT reporter Ian Urbina of conflict because his father is federal judge Ricardo Urbina, who ruled on case involving lobbyist's client.

WRC-TV covers Ray's the Steaks move to Ward 7 as part of Donatelli development at Minnesota and Benning. And organic market headed east of the river, to Pennsylvania Avenue development. ALSO: Attention Kelo activists: 'Mayor Adrian Fenty has proposed legislation that would allow the use of eminent domain to acquire property on the 2200-2500 blocks of Pennsylvania Ave. and the 2200-2400 blocks of Minnesota Ave. According to the legislation, on which the D.C. Council had a hearing today, eminent domain is needed because vacant buildings there are "obsolete, dilapidated, and deteriorated to the point of being nuisances to the community" and they "must be redeveloped in order to improve the safety and quality of life in the area and to attract businesses that are desired by nearby residents."'

Superior Court Judge William Jackson, who presides over the family division, gets 3-Minute Interviewed by Examiner.

'Spotlight On: Michelle Fenty'

Read Alice Rivlin's testimony in support of District budget autonomy.

WTOP's Mark Segraves tags along on Coast Guard training mission.

Tommy Wells and residents ponder how to make ballpark area livable-walkable. Also: Ward 6 to get 'new bike racks, wayfinding signs, large map kiosks at Metro stations, a heritage trail connecting Barracks Row and the ballpark neighborhood.'

Cyber-bullying at charter school!

Video of Jack Evans on a bike (plus Fenty and Klein), courtesy of WRC-TV. Borderstan has more.

D.C. COUNCIL TODAY---10 a.m.: Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary hearing on 'Hate Crimes in the District of Columbia and Police Response to Reports of Hate Crimes,' JAWB 500; 11:30 a.m.: Committee of the Whole roundtable on 'Implementation of an Independent Community College in the District of Columbia,' JAWB 412; 1:30 p.m.: Committee on Public Services and Consumer Affairs roundtable on PR18-579 ('People's Counsel Vicky Beasley Confirmation Resolution of 2009'), JAWB 120; 2 p.m.: Committee on Health roundtable on 'The Performance of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Administration,' JAWB 123.

ADRIAN FENTY TODAY---10:45 a.m.: remarks, Eastern SHS modernization groundbreaking, 1700 East Capitol St. NE.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"The Vincent Gray Home Improvement Invoices"; "Vincent Gray Calls Misconduct Allegations 'Clearly Political'"; "Affidavit: Ramsey Ordered Pershing Park Arrests"; "Jim Graham's New Logo Embraces Sartorial Trademark"; tweets galore!

IN LL WEEKLY---All Bets Are Off: The lottery contract saga goes on. Also: Fired DPR employees claim the stats were juked to force layoff.

Greetings all. LL realizes the drip-drip-drip of recent news related to the 2002 Pershing Park arrests must be making his readers' eyes glaze over at this point, but a rather momentous allegation surfaced yesterday in federal court: A D.C. cop has said in a sworn statement that he heard then Police Chief Charles Ramsey order the illegal arrests, saying, 'We're going to lock them up and teach them a lesson.' WCP's Jason Cherkis notes that Ramsey 'repeatedly stated in depositions that he had not ordered the mass arrest of approximately 400 people during the Sept. 27, 2002, World Bank/IMF protests.' The cop, Detective Paul Hustler, 'states in his affidavit that officers were ordered to funnel people into the park' and that he 'was standing near Ramsey and various police officials at the time' that the order was given. As troubling here is the cover-up: The city has sought to bar Hustler from giving a deposition; federal Judge Emmet Sullivan has ordered it to go forward, with U.S. Marshals or a magistrate judge in the room to make sure city lawyers don't unduly interfere. Also Jordan Weissmann at Legal Times and Del Wilber in WaPo, Scott McCabe in Examiner, and AP. Ramsey's lawyer, Mark Tuohey, says 'Hustler's comments might not be accurate and prove only that the detective overheard a conversation.'

AFTER THE JUMP---Vince Gray starts answering questions about home renos, DNC fundraising; Chaffetz asks city honchos about feuding; Fenty tries to sneak in People's Counsel nominee; Examiner editorial board not Fenty fans; Rhee gets WSJ ink; JBG lawsuit persists

Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray spent yesterday playing defense after a pair of newspaper stories raised questions about his ethical judgment. Gray addressed the allegations on NewsChannel 8, answering host Bruce DePuyt's questions defensively but frankly; LL summarized his remarks. WJLA-TV, WRC-TV, WUSA-TV, and WTTG-TV all picked up the reports. And now, the second-day stories: Jeffrey Anderson follows up on his WaTimes scoop with more on how the work done on Gray's house was 'outside the normal scope of practice' for William C. Smith & Co.'s construction subsidiary. A company spokesperson 'was unable to point to any other examples of construction management jobs for single-family homeowners that involved minor repairs' and declined to confirm, as Gray claimed, that the small repairs were incidental to a larger renovation. And WaPo joins the story, with a report from Nikita Stewart and Tim Craig saying that the deal 'raised questions about whether Gray had used his influence to get the repairs from a developer that usually does not perform work on single-family residences' though the WCS spokesperson said her company 'has performed work on other private residences.' The WaPo article also briefly explores the political ramifications, noting that '[i]n recent weeks, Gray supporters have said he could fashion a campaign around questions about Fenty's ethical standards.' Also see Jonathan O'Connell's WBJ reporting on the matter; LL has posted the invoices for the work. Meanwhile, in today's Examiner, Michael Neibauer looks at the Democratic National Convention fundraising letter Gray sent to Comcast on council letterhead. In his NewsTalk appearance, Gray admitted that using the official stationery was a bad idea.

City leaders appeared yesterday morning before a House subcommittee in order to stump for legislative and budgetary autonomy for the District---an Eleanor Holmes Norton-sponsored bill that would effectively remove congressional review of local government actions. In WaPo, Tim Craig frames things this way: Fenty and Gray 'put aside their political differences Wednesday to support an effort on Capitol Hill to give the District more control over its budget and laws.' Said Fenty to the lawmakers: 'The District government of today is not the District government of the 1990s....We have come a long way, and we are not going back.' The Democrats on the panel are cool; the Repubs, not so much. That includes our old friend Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah. His take: 'The District of Columbia is not a state, and it should be treated differently.' Also NC8, Reuters, WAMU-FM, which notes that 'District resident Nikolas Schiller wore colonial garb to today's hearing, a protest that D.C. still has no representation. But Capitol police ordered him to remove his tri-cornered hat.'

GREAT---'At one point, Chaffetz tested the unity of Gray and Fenty, who have been feuding all year over a variety of issues, including tickets to Nationals baseball games and the handling of city contracts. "If things are going so well, what sort of grade would you give the mayor?" Chaffetz asked. "This legislation is not about the mayor," Gray replied.'

As expected, pushers of a marriage initiative have filed suit in Superior Court seeking to overturn the elections board's rejection of the measure. And they have turned to a novel legal argument to do so, WaPo reports: 'In the 15-page filing, [Bishop Harry Jackson] and his seven co-petitioners argue that the city's ordinances gives residents the same lawmaking power as the council, except for appropriations...."The people of D.C. have a right to vote on the definition of marriage," said Austin R. Nimocks, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, the conservative legal group representing Jackson. "The D.C. Charter guarantees the people the right to vote, and the council cannot amend the charter for any reason, much less to deny citizens the right to vote."' Funny, because the right to initiative/referendum is nowhere in the charter. Also Metro Weekly.

ALSO---Chaffetz weighed in on gay marriage at autonomy hearing: 'I'm disappointed the people are not getting an opportunity to vote on this issue,' he told Fenty. Hizzoner 'responded that he stands by the board's opinion..."The voters of the District of Columbia have elected a fabulous council to make those decisions."' And Rep. Brian P. Bilbray of California asked Fenty what he should tell his constituents about the District's decision not to follow in his home state's footsteps and allow a vote. Said Fenty: 'What you can say is the people of the District of Columbia have a different set of laws.' Snap!

GOOD NEWS---'Chaffetz said Wednesday that he does not see how same-sex marriage opponents will be able to derail the bill in Congress. "Democrats have the House and the Senate and the presidency," Chaffetz said. "I'm going to try to fight back, but procedurally, they've got us pretty well wrapped up."'

Dorothy Brizill raises questions in themail about an upcoming hearing for People's Counsel designee Vicky Beasley. Muriel Bowser, she writes, 'has gone to great lengths to limit citizen participation in the hearing....[There was] no notice of the hearing published or posted on the council's online calendar, not was a written notice of the hearing available at the council's Office of Legislative Services....It clearly appears that Bowser, working in collaboration with the Executive Office of the Mayor, fabricated a tight time frame for council review and public scrutiny of Beasley so that the council will be forced to vote on her nomination at its next legislative meeting, on December 1.' LL also notes that Fenty has not held a press conference to announce Beasley's nomination.

MORE ON BEASLEY---'Beasley's nomination by Fenty is at the behest of her mentor at Patton Boggs, Matthew Cutts, a Fenty pal who was selected by the mayor in 2007 to head the Sports and Entertainment Commission. Apparently, Cutts discussed with Beasley several possible positions in the Fenty administration, and she selected the People's Counsel office, even though she is not a litigator and the People's Counsel is a litigating position. The most important duty of the People's Counsel is to protect the citizens from unjustified and unnecessary rate increases by utilities, and Noel's success at that has led to Fenty's displeasure with her. When Beasley met with some citizens who asked her what her priorities would be for the office, she didn't mention rate regulation at all; instead, she said her top three priorities would be "smart metering, smart grid, and submetering." These priorities should please landlords and utility companies, but they are peripheral to the real job of the office — representing citizens in the regulating process and protecting them from the rapacious utilities that are Fenty's primary concern in making this nomination.'

A local editorial board says it's 'Time to stand up to Fenty'! No, silly, not that one---the Examiner editorial board! The jumping-off point for the righty opinionists is the parks contracting scandal. 'Deputy Mayor Valerie Santos' claim that "there was no intent to sidestep the council" is ludicrous. And if Fenty didn't think [Ximena Hartsock] was capable of managing his parks projects, why did he nominate her to run the entire department? Because he knew she'd keep her mouth shut?' The editoral dredges up other old Fenty nuggets, concluding: 'The unspoken message is that the criteria for getting a top-level appointment or a lucrative government contract is not who's the best qualified or who can do the highest quality work for the least cost, but who has the closest ties to the Fentys. This kind of cronyism inevitably leads to widespread government corruption. If the mayor's friends are first in line at DPR, there's a good chance the same thing is happening in other departments.'

WSJ covers Michelle Rhee's campaign against teacher tenure, writing that the 'Obama administration says it wants to remake public education around the principle that the best teachers should be promoted and rewarded, regardless of seniority. And a brawl over just that idea is now playing out in the shadow of the White House.' The story quotes Arne Duncan on DCPS teacher contract negotiations: 'We generally don't weigh in on local labor disputes, but this has gone on too long and they need to bring it to closure....There are a lot of good ideas on the table and this agreement could be a national model'

And PBS's NewsHour delivers its latest report about DCPS under Rhee. This time, John Merrow looks at the teacher layoffs: 'Rhee has been no stranger to controversy since she took control of D.C.'s public schools over two years ago. She's closed 25 schools, replaced almost half her principals, and battled the teachers union over a new contract. But some believe Rhee's latest actions pose a threat to her larger reform effort. When we spoke with Rhee back in July, she didn't see money trouble on the horizon. According to her, the budget was strong.'

ALSO---DCPCSB member Will Marshall praises Rhee as an 'undiplomatic' woman. Check short video of Rhee remarks at Arkansas college. And DCPS is doing a recruiting event Dec. 2 at the CityVista Busboys.

Councilmembers want to establish 50-foot-radius 'safety zones' around all city transit stops, Neibauer reports in Examiner, inside of which criminals would be subject to enhanced penalties. 'The measure seeks to deter crimes "where we know people are proven to be targets," said Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas Jr., who co-introduced the bill Tuesday with at-large Councilman Michael Brown. Criminals "prey on these persons who go back and forth using our public transportation system," he said....A person who commits a serious crime, like assault, robbery or rape, within the zone faces 1.5 times the maximum fine for that act and 50 percent more jail time.'

And Tommy Wells wants to reduce the number of unexcused absences that D.C. public schoolkids can accumulate for authorities investigate, Kavitha Cardoza reports for WAMU-FM. 'Children in D.C. public schools can have 20 total days of unexcused absences within a school year before a referral is made to Child and Family services. At least seven council members support changes to the District's truancy regulations; they want children between the ages of five and 13 to have just 10 unexcused absences within a school year before authorities are contacted.'

From Tom Sherwood's Notebook: Yvette Alexander wasn't invited to Fenty's bag-tax press conference in Ward 7 earlier this week. '"Things were good at one point," she said of her relationship with the mayor, "but now it seems we've taken a turn for the worse." Alexander did not just support the bag-tax bill. She pointed out that she was a willing proponent who combated those who claimed the bill would affect low-income and seniors unfairly....Not inviting ward council members to events is nothing new for the mayor. But if he or his staff thinks they're making political points, they might rethink the policy. What good does it do to irritate more than half the council on such things?.'

Metro board today will vote on approval for an executive's 12-day, $14,000 trip to the Czech Republic, Kytja Weir reports in Examiner, even though said executive left on the trip 10 days ago. 'The transit agency is asking for permission to approve sending Damon Cannon, a project manager, to oversee the shipment of three D.C.-owned streetcars that have been in storage...for more than a year. The board is required to approve all international travel---though such approval is supposed to happen in advance. Yet his trip began Nov. 9, according to agenda materials.'

ALSO---Metro employee allegedly used Farragut West station PA to ask riders to sign pro-union petition, WTOP reports.

Jim Graham has officially launched his re-election campaign, complete with nifty new Web site and logo. Jonetta Rose Barras, meanwhile, isn't so high on Graham, writing: 'If there were a "Chutzpah of the Year" award, D.C. Councilman and Metro Board Chairman Jim Graham would win hands down. The man is amazing.' This, she says, because Graham embraced the idea of federal transit oversight while failing to exercise any meaningful oversight in his role as WMATA board chair. '[H]e has been adept at covering his flank, protecting his board colleagues and his main man Catoe during this season of intense scrutiny. What Graham hasn't done, however, is adequately perform his oversight duties, guaranteeing a well managed, cost efficient, and safe mass transit system.'

Developer JBG's lawsuit against the city over the convention center hotel deal has survived a motion to dismiss, Melissa Castro reports in WBJ. At an Oct. 29 hearing, Superior Court Judge Natalia Combs Greene 'expressed deep skepticism toward the city's jurisdiction argument, and her written decision reaffirmed the points she made in the courtroom. If neither the Contract Appeals Board nor the court had jurisdiction to second-guess the city, "then no governmental authority could prevent the District of Columbia's executive and judicial branch from colluding to violate its own laws," she wrote.' Meanwhile, hotel construction is stalled: 'Construction was slated to start in October or November, but no bonds have been issued to finance the project.'

Gruesome details emerge in the murder of 55-year-old Rosa May Fludd-Ross. She was beaten to death with a vase by her husband, Keith Alexander reports in WaPo. Fludd-Ross, he writes, 'was found Sunday on the living room floor in her home in the 3100 block of 35th Street NE. She had been beaten, and an autopsy showed that she might have been dead since Friday or Saturday....Blood was splattered on the living and dining room walls and ceilings, according to the documents. The living room furniture, including the coffee table, was covered in blood.' Her husband, Kenneth L. Ross, had been arrested twice before on domestic violence charges.

Emmanuel Johnson, 19, is wanted in the Oct. 30 murder of Deuante Ray, Examiner reports. 'Johnson is described as a black male, 6-foot-1, weighing 157 pounds with medium length braided hair. Johnson is known to hang out between Minnesota Avenue NE and 49th Place NE. He may be staying with family or friends in Northeast Washington or Prince George's County.'

Pedestrian struck and killed near National Cathedral identified as Donald Skelley, 78.

Metro Weekly covers GLLU changes.

Five GWU students arrested in raid of Foggy Bottom townhouse. 'During the raid - which occurred the evening of Oct. 30 at a townhouse at 26th and I streets - police seized $1,171 in cash, three plastic bags of a substance that tested positive for cocaine, about 160 grams of marijuana, a scale, and plastic baggies, according to police reports and court documents.'

Allegro Apartments in Columbia Heights auctioned for $77.5M. The buyer, WBJ reports, is Georgetown's Federal Capital Partners.

View 14 developer explains to Housing Complex why he deserved a $5.7M tax subsidy.

Speaking of tax breaks, D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute notes that, under mayoral-introduced council bill, 'high technology commercial real estate database and service providers' stand to 'get up to $700,000 in annual property tax breaks for 10 years — a $7 million subsidy. Considering that the District is already anticipating a $300 million budget shortfall for FY 2011 now seems to be an especially bad time to be giving up precious tax dollars.' Who would this benefit? 'No companies are named in the legislation, but in testimony before the DC Council a representative from the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development testified that they are actively recruiting one company, which was not named.'

Seminar teaches clergy how to develop affordable housing.

122,000 free reusable bags offered to seniors.

WCP's Sexist explains what kind of discrimination would be allowed on your gay wedding day under the D.C. marriage bill: 'The legislation says any "religious society, or a nonprofit organization which is operated, supervised, or controlled by or in conjunction with a religious society" may deny same-sex couples any "services, accommodations, facilities, or goods for a purpose related to the solemnization or celebration of a same-sex marriage." So just what sort of "services, accommodations, facilities, or goods" can be safely withheld here? The following is your guide to Legal Same-Sex Wedding Day Discrimination.'

Watch lengthy CNN piece on Catholics vs. gay marriage; Mary Cheh does some talking head.

GLAA's Rick Rosendall writes WaPo about gay marriage editorial: 'The editorial concerns a threat by Catholic Charities to stop providing social services for the city unless the bill is amended to grant the church a broader exemption to discriminate. The Post talks about self-righteous D.C. Council members while ignoring the self-righteous intransigence of the archdiocese.'

Georgetown Voice's Will Sommer asks LL, Sherwood, and Mark Plotkin for their 2010 political predictions.

Lotsa vacant office space. WRC-TV also covers spate of foreclosures, mentioning Senate Square and Allegro.

WaPo covers culinary competition featuring Rhee, Jack Evans plus kids.

In WaPo letter, a call to make the 15th Street NW bike lane two-way.

Center for American Progress debunks Harry Jackson.

City H1N1 clinics today and Saturday.

We're No. 1 in STDs (versus states, natch)!

Public Enemy---yes, both Check D and Flava Flav---stop at Sasha Bruce Youthworks house, then do mobile concert through Foggy Bottom. WAMU-FM, NC8, WTTG-TV.

D.C. COUNCIL TODAY---10 a.m.: Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary and Committee on Health joint hearing on B18-71 ('Uniform Emergency Volunteer Health Practitioners Act of 2009'), JAWB 412; Committee of Finance and Revenue hearing on PR18-544 ('The River School Revenue Bonds Project Approval Resolution of 2009'), PR18-564 ('AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School Construction Revenue Bonds Project Approval Resolution of 2009'), PR18-565 ('Qualified Zone Academy Revenue Bonds Project Approval Resolution of 2009'), PR18-566 ('Hyde Leadership Public Charter School of Washington, D.C. Inc. Qualified School Construction Revenue Bonds Project Approval Resolution of 2009'), and PR18-567 ('E.L. Haynes Public Charter School Qualified School Construction Revenue Bonds Project Approval Resolution of 2009'), JAWB 120; 11 a.m.: Committee on Economic Development hearing on B18-497 ('Washington Convention and Sports Authority Alcoholic Beverage Sales Amendment Act of 2009'); B18-399 ('Pennsylvania Avenue-Minnesota Avenue S.E. Eminent Domain Authorization Act of 2009'), and B18-457 ('Small Business Stabilization and Job Creation Strategy Act of 2009'), JAWB 123; 2 p.m.: Committee on Government Operations and the Environment meeting (scheduled), JAWB 120; 6 p.m.: Committee on Aging and Community Affairs hearing on B18-324 ('Advisory Neighborhood Commission Vacancy Amendment Act of 2009'), JAWB 412.

ADRIAN FENTY TODAY---11 a.m.: remarks, 15th Street bike lane ribbon-cutting, 15th and Caroline Streets NW.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"Elections Board Rejects D.C. Gay Marriage Initiative"; "Traci Hughes Is Out As Police Spokesperson"; "Gay Marriage Debate: Another Reason to Ditch Employer-Based Health Care!"; tweets galore!

Morning all. Two ugly headlines today for Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray. For one, he's been pulled into the D.C. Democratic State Committee's financial mess: Tim Craig reports in WaPo that Gray, on council stationery, sent a fundraising appeal to Comcast for last year's Democratioc National Convention. He asked government affair rep Kathy Etemad Hollinger for $20,000 to finance 'voting rights' activities. Local Democrats ended up getting $10K from Comcast, plus $5K from a cable PAC. (Hollinger, incidentally, is now Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's chief of film and TV development.) Gray tells Craig that he was just 'trying to be helpful.' More serious are the Ted Stevens-esque allegations in WaTimes by reporter Jeffrey Anderson that megadeveloper William C. Smith & Co. did work on Gray's Hillcrest home. 'In an interview in his city hall office Monday, Mr. Gray at first denied that the company did any work for him, aside from arranging for an architect to design a renovation that he said has yet to commence. Later in the day, a spokeswoman called back to say that the company repaired a door to the roof of Mr. Gray's 2,800-square-foot home and installed a lock on his iron gate and exterior floodlights.' The company, which typically doesn't do home renovations, was paid more than $10,000---but only 'after The Washington Times began asking employees of William C. Smith & Co. about the work, and a month after the paper filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking permits on the property.' No permits were issued, either. Gray's explanation: 'I have known Chris Smith a long time, I know the quality of the work....I don't want to sound holier than thou, but I take my integrity very seriously.'

AFTER THE JUMP---BOEE tells marriage initiative supporters to tell it to the judge; Harry Jackson gets the WaPo Style treatment; L.A. Times' editorial board more supportive of D.C. lawmakers than WaPo's; accused child murderer was called 'psychopath'; CSX tunnel work brings out Hill NIMBYs; Durso leaving Hotel Association; Santos is a big boxing fan

As expected, the Board of Elections and Ethics has rejected a ballot initiative seeking to prohibit same-sex marriages. 'The board cited the city Human Rights Act, which bans discrimination against gay men and lesbians...[noting] that some gay couples in the District are already legally married,' Craig notes in WaPo, meaning a Dec. 1 first-reading vote on gay marriage is likely. Bishop Harry Jackson deems the ruling "outrageous and a slap in the face of every resident of the District of Columbia" and vows to pursue court appeals. Incidentally, the council marriage bill will officially see a first-reading vote on Dec. 1. Also Examiner, WaTimes, WAMU-FM, AP, Christian Post, American Prospect.

Speaking of Harry Jackson, Wil Haygood gives the good bishop a full-blown WaPo Style profile today, examining his Cincinnati football-star and corporate-sales background. 'Setbacks seem only to embolden him. "All over the country, it's evident that the strategy of the radical gay movement is to work the courts and legislatures," Jackson says. "It's gonna be a knock-down, drag-out legal situation." His neck is thick---nearly stretching the clerical collar---and his voice is smooth as molasses. "I just feel like I'm on a mission," he says. "It's not a mission of hate. It's a mission to protect godly boundaries."...He found the pulpit, just as a cause found him. "Some of the smartest people I knew in college were gay," he says. "Some black students I knew who were gay were off-the-charts smart." But gay marriage is wrong, he says. "I don't know of anybody black who says, 'I hate gay people.' We're more accepting generally. But you overlap that---homosexuality and gay marriage---with broken families, and we don't know how to put it back together."'

THE TRIALS OF HARRY JACKSON---'More than once, police have stopped by his Southeast Washington apartment to check on his safety....Someone slipped a note under his door at his apartment. "Bishop Jackson, 50% of the people in this building are gay!" "I was in line someplace recently," Jackson says, "and a woman who obviously opposes what I'm doing looked at me and said, 'You better go back to Maryland.'"'

Catholic bishops weigh in on marriage debate with 'pastoral letter,' Michelle Boorstein reports in WaPo. 'The campaign initially was meant to highlight the divine in everyday aspects of marriage. It has turned recently to more political concerns, such as the creation of a committee to lobby against same-sex marriage bills such as the one pending in the District....The D.C. measure was not addressed directly in the pastoral letter, although it was a topic of discussion in the halls at the annual bishops' meeting at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel.'

ALSO---The archbishop himself weighs in. Donald Wuerl writes in a WaPo op-ed: 'Catholic Charities and the Archdiocese of Washington are committed to continuing to serve the people of the District as we have for many decades. That includes partnerships such as St. Martin's. Unfortunately, the D.C. Council is considering legislation that could end these kinds of partnerships....It doesn't need to be that way. While we do not agree with the council on redefining marriage, we recognize that it is firmly committed to opening marriage to homosexual couples. We are asking that new language be developed that more fairly balances different interests — those of the city to redefine marriage and those of faith groups so that they can continue to provide services without compromising their deeply held religious teachings and beliefs.' The Episcopal archbishop, for the record, disagrees.

The L.A. Times, however, applauds the D.C. Council for standing up to the Archdiocese. 'So far, the District of Columbia Council is showing more backbone on this issue than the Obama administration. Barack Obama promised during his presidential campaign that he would end the practice of allowing faith-based groups receiving federal money to discriminate in hiring---for example, by not employing people who hold other religious beliefs. But he has backed off from that vow. In contrast, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray said the city would find another contractor if the Catholic Church severed its ties. That was the right response, and we hope it rang loud enough for Obama to hear.'

The police checkpoint program is finished. Following federal appeals court loss, the District has decided not to pursue a Supreme Court appeal. AP reports that '[i]n a court filing Monday, D.C. Attorney General Peter J. Nickles said D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier has canceled the special order authorizing the Neighborhood Safety Zone program.'

WTTG-TV's Karen Gray Houston says the parks contracting questions have halted work on all projects in questions, except one: 'The former Gage-Eckington School in LeDroit Park has been demolished, and a work crew was at the scene doing site preparation work for a three-acre community park. That, while the D.C. Council and the Fenty administration try to resolve what happens next.'

More from WaPo's Paul Duggan on the shooting of 9-year-old Oscar Fuentes: 'Maritza Fuentes had gone to a baby shower Saturday with others in her family. She returned to the apartment about 9:30 p.m. and was inside with her 54-year-old mother, Oscar and an older son when the trouble began outside....Tenants have long complained about the cracked and warped door, which has no knob or lock. "He came in behind us," Alicia Fuentes said. "When we were walking up the stairs, he said he wanted money."...She said she and the others hurried up the stairs to the apartment where Maritza Fuentes has lived for three years. "I was the last person into the apartment," she said. "He was coming to the door, and I told him to leave. I closed the door and put the chain on the door."...While the grownups talked about what had just happened, Oscar walked to the door and looked out the peephole, Alicia Fuentes said. Then came the shot, the bullet piercing the gray door.' Also WAMU-FM, WTOP, WaTimes, NC8, WUSA-TV.

MORE ON THE SUSPECT---Examiner's Scott McCabe reports that the the suspect, originally reported to be named 'Josue Pena,' is actually named Jose Diaz. 'Chief Cathy Lanier said Diaz, of the District, was not a full-fledged gang member, but he was "associated with" MS-13. Witnesses said the shooter was known as "Sicopata," or Psychopath....Police searched a home of a relative of Diaz on the 700 block of Kenyon Street NW on Tuesday, where they found a nine-shot .22-caliber revolver with a long barrel. The pistol was found hidden between a mattress and a box spring, and contained seven live rounds, with one spent round still in the chamber. Police said Diaz denied robbing anyone but said the pistol was in his waistband when it accidentally went off while he was walking up the stairs at the apartment building. Police said the bullet hole in the door was inconsistent with a bullet fired from the defendant's waistband.' Also NC8, WRC-TV, WUSA-TV, WTTG-TV.

The city's GLBT news will hit the streets Friday, ex-Blade staffers promise, but in what format and under what name is unknown. Meanwhile, it turns out that at least two offers to buy the Blade prior to liquidation---one from employees, one from Falls Church News-Press publisher Nicholas F. Benton---were rejected. And here's the WaPo editorial board on the death of the Blade: 'The Blade's importance to our area cannot be overstated. From the HIV/AIDS epidemic to hate crimes to the drive for marriage equality, the paper reported stories that the mainstream press initially didn't or wouldn't cover. And in the quest for fairness, it held people accountable---gay and straight, elected officials and community leaders....[Editor Kevin Naff] told us that there will be a new paper. The intention is to have it hit the streets this Friday. The name will be different from the one they labored for. Our hope is that its mission to inform and enlighten will be the same.'

Harry Jaffe puts his civil libertarian hat on in examining the legal battles of drug kingpin Antoine Jones, who was convicted through evidence that included an unwarranted GPS device placed on his car by federal agents. 'Defense lawyers said the evidence was not admissible, the judge disagreed, they appealed. The government argued in its briefs that Jones "had no reasonable expectation of privacy" because he was traveling on public streets; the ACLU said: "Without a warrant requirement, an individual's every movement could be subject to remote monitoring" at the whim of a police officer.' Also Legal Times.

Jonathan O'Connell looks in WBJ at Eastbanc's second bite at the West End redevelopment project: 'Rather than sue the city, something other developers are happy to do, [Anthony Lanier] waited patiently and raised some campaign funds for the mayor. After the dust settled, Fenty, with Councilman Jack Evans at his side, announced that the properties would be open to competitive bidding. Lanier, with his knowledge of the small West End community and only one, out-of-town competitor, has to be considered the favorite.'

WRC-TV's Tom Sherwood looks at concerns from Capitol Hill residents---particularly owners of pricey Capitol Quarter townhomes---that CSX's three-year $160M Virginia Avenue tunnel construction project will make their lives miserable. One says 'We're just very fearing that we're going to be living through what they say is going to be a three-year issue. I think it's going to be more than that.'

Man, in his 70s, is struck by a car and killed while crossing Cleveland Avenue NW near the east end of the National Cathedral yesterday evening. WaPo reports that police 'are seeking help in identifying him. They said he had white hair and wore blue pants and brown New Balance athletic shoes. Interviews with residents Tuesday night did not find anyone who knew him.' The accident follows a deadly pedestrian collision Sunday on the Mall.

District man, 29-year-old Eugene A. Jackson, charged with first-degree murder in Charles County killing. The victim, WaPo reports, 'had tried to rob Jackson of drugs and money in the parking lot of Mattawoman Seafood on Nov. 7, and Jackson pulled out a gun and open fire, police said.'

New city streetcars have left the Czech Republic! WBJ has pictures, via DDOT. 'According to agency spokesman John Lisle, the city will store the vehicles at a yard at the Greenbelt Metro station, to be maintained by Metro on D.C.'s dime. "Having them local will also allow us to familiarize ourselves with the cars," Lisle said.'

Filipino paper covers DMPED Valerie Santos. She's Manny Pacquiao big fan: '"We would love boxing to come here in the District," she tells ABS-CBN News, as she pondered on the feasibility of a Pacquiao bout here. She revealed she has already been talking with boxing promoters but the biggest obstacle was the venue. The city has three major-league stadiums but nothing that can host a major fight like those in Las Vegas.'

Examiner FOIAs for employee salary data, runs into problems.

Emily Durso is leaving the presidency of the Hotel Association sometime next year, WBJ reports. Says Durso: 'My 20th year is coming up in January, and I've been thinking about it, and thinking about facing another labor negotiation season and all the politics, and I just didn't want to do it anymore....I am looking at many things; some are very different, others are more traditional. I want to do something of value that means something, but that's not so-all encompassing.'

More WaTimes 'CITIZEN JOURNALISM': D.C. Public Library board chair John Hill talks up library improvements, does no small amount of self-congratulating: 'Strong leadership, well-defined priorities and a renewed commitment by many have transformed a system that once was considered an embarrassment to one that is thriving and relevant....Though we still have a long way to go and a lot more work to do, we have a transforming library system that is fiscally responsible, well-managed and supported and used by residents.'

Michelle Rhee speaks to WSJ's 'CEO Council.' Lots of the old chestnuts: '"Collaboration and consensus-building are quite frankly overrated in my mind," she said. "None of you CEOs run your companies by committee, so why should we run a school district by committee?"'

WTOP covers STD testing for high school students.

WAMU-FM covers changes to the MPD's gay and lesbian liaison unit.

WRC-TV with more on the death of restaurateur Nori Amaya. Brother tells of his discovery of her body.

Move Khalid Sheik Mohammed terror trial to D.C.? Blogger makes the case.

USDA to move into Trammell Crow's Patriots Plaza III building in Southwest. And FERC is signed as tenant at Tishman Speyer's 1100 First St. NE building in NoMa.

Verizon to cut 1,000 local jobs.

Let the turkey giveaways begin!

Public meeting on NY Avenue projects tonight at McKinley Tech.

ON THE HILL---Congressional hearing on District budget/legislative autonomy. Scheduled to appear: Fenty, Gray, Natwar Gandhi.

MUST SEE TV---Gray will appear this afternoon on NewsTalk with Bruce DePuyt, 4 p.m. on NewsChannel 8.

D.C. COUNCIL TODAY---2 p.m.: Committee on Human Services meeting (scheduled), JAWB 123.

ADRIAN FENTY TODAY---9:45 a.m.: testimony, Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia legislative hearing, Rayburn HOB Room 2154.

Like locusts swarming from above, a new (pink) cupcake truck and New York-based Crumbs Bake Shop are showering the District with more overpriced, nauseatingly cute cupcakes. Does this mean we have to suffer through another dreadful Washington Post war? Matt, commenting on Prince of Petworth, says: “I see sub-prime cupcake crisis coming! Cupcake bailout?”

Undoubtedly the result of the massive cupcake crisis, WTOP reports that federal and retail positions are being inundated with an unprecedented number of job applications—some federal positions that previously attracted 25 applicants are now getting up to 400. Accompanying the article is a photo of a handsome, sneering man who is clearly thinking: “You won't even get a job at a cupcake place! Have fun decorating your cardboard box, intern.”

The city is distributing more than 122,000 plastic reusable bags to low-income residents to prepare them for the 5-cent bag fee that goes into effect Jan. 1. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty says it’s for the “Skip the Bag, Save the River” campaign, but really it’s due to the massive cupcake shortage! Start stockpiling those crumbs!

Americans are rediscovering frugality and spending money only on life’s staples: specifically, canned beans and Sarah Palin's memoir, which was officially released yesterday. Clearly, the cupcake-crazed are already going rogue.

And finally, the New York Daily News offers evidence that Clint Eastwood is not very impressed by the rogue cupcake crisis: He lamented to GQ that “it seems like our country is in kind of a morbid mood because of the recession or whatever…we have a bunch of teenage twits.”

Photo by Bev, Creative Commons Attribution License

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"Nickles Attempts To Prevent Detective From Testifying"; "Blade Staff to Launch New Publication"; tweets galore---including live coverage of yesterday's council hearings

Morning all. The Washington Blade, what legendary activist Frank Kameny calls 'the voice of record for the gay community,' is closed---temporarily, all hope. The paper's owner, Window Media, succumbed to crushing debt, and then yesterday 'nearly two-dozen employees arrived at their downtown offices Monday to start a new workweek, only to be ordered to clear out their desks by midafternoon,' according to Paul Schwartzman's WaPo A1 requiem. He adds: 'The Blade's closing comes at a moment of extraordinary optimism for many gays in Washington. The big story [Lou Chibbaro Jr.] and the paper's other writers have been covering is the bill supported by nearly all of the D.C. Council's members that would legalize same-sex marriage in the city.' But Blade writers, as WCP reports, are planning a new venture. And hey: Eleanor Holmes Norton, calling the Blade a 'weekly must-read,' pledges her support to any successor publication. Also WaTimes, WBJ, WTOP, WRC-TV, WUSA-TV.

AFTER THE JUMP---Man arrested in 9-year-old's murder; another council contracts hearing, another round of executive no-shows; Catania threatens DOH officials with weekly HIV/AIDS hearings; remembering Oscar; man, in apparent suicide, becomes year's 22nd Metro death; the bag tax is almost here---Safeway and CVS have free reusable bags for you!

BREAKING---Police have arrested a 26-year-old man, identified as Josue Pena, early this morning in Hyattsville for the murder of Oscar Fuentes. Press conference at 10 a.m.

At vigil yesterday, family, friends, and neighbors remembered the slain 9-year-old. They 'gathered on the steps of his apartment building, lighting candles, singing songs and pondering how a boy so young could meet such a violent end,' Matt Zapotosky writes in WaPo. 'Oscar's relatives sobbed during the vigil, and his mom's cousin, Rufino Fuentes, said it was too difficult for immediate family members to return to the scene. Oscar's grandmother Antonia Fuentes appeared at the vigil but did not speak. At one point, a cousin of Oscar's collapsed and had to be taken away on a stretcher.' Said Fenty: 'We are in a lot of pain in the city right now....Everyone has a loved one. There is no good way to lose someone, especially so young.' Also NC8, WRC-TV, WTTG-TV.

THE INVESTIGATION---'Family members told of the slaying by others offered differing accounts of what happened. David Fuentes said that he was told a group of people, including Oscar's aunt, were walking home from a baby shower when they were approached by someone outside asking for money. They ignored the request, David Fuentes said, and hustled into the second-floor apartment as Oscar let them in. As Oscar looked through the peephole, a shot came through the door, David Fuentes said....Rufino Fuentes gave an account that excluded the man asking for money, and he said he was not sure whether the family members were being followed into their home. He did say that family members told Oscar to move away from the door.' Also Examiner, NC8, WUSA-TV, WTTG-TV ('Somebody heard like a firecracker in the hallway. They saw the little boy crying saying mom, mom look what they did to me. He was holding his back with his hand covered with blood. Then he collapsed'), and WAMU-FM covers a sweep of the Columbia Road property by housing inspectors.

More on the alleged murderer of George Rawlings: Police arrest 17-year-old Jeffrey Britt on first-degree murder charge, Keith Alexander reports in WaPo. Britt, like Rawlings, had attended the funeral of Ashton Hunter at a Maryland Avenue mortuary. 'At the funeral, several witness allegedly overheard Britt and others say that George Rawlings was involved in Hunter's killing. One of the witnesses heard Britt say he "should kill" Rawlings as Rawlings entered the funeral home, according to the documents. After the funeral, Britt and two other individuals followed Rawlings as he left.' Rawlings was murdered as he boarded a bus blocks away.

WaPo editorial board holds forth on the violence that claimed Fuentes, Rawlings and Kenyetta Nicholson-Stanley: 'The loss of these lives in the past five weeks is a sorrowful reminder that -- even as the District homicide rate declines -- violence maintains its pernicious grip on troubled neighborhoods....That a little boy dies under such circumstances, that a family loses two sons to street violence and that no one steps forward to help police find a murderer should jolt the city out of any complacency about its declining murder rate.'

Another day of D.C. Council hearings on the fishy parks contracts. The big revelation yesterday, according to Michael Neibauer in Examiner, is that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty chose to break ground on projects when funding to finish them is far from assured. CMs called the parks projects a 'bill of goods' and a 'dog and pony show.' Appearing before the council were DMPED Valerie Santos and soon-to-be-ex-DPR chief Ximena Hartsock. Not appearing, after a pair of recesses, were DMPED employees David Jannarone and Jacqui Glover, who played integral roles in the contracting and could not be summoned to the JAWB 412 for the proceedings, according to Nikita Stewart's D.C. Wire reporting and David Lipscomb's WaTimes reporting and WTTG-TV, WTOP, and DCist, too. Expect subpoenas for Jannarone and Glover---maybe Clark Ray and Omar Karim, too.

At yesterday's other big council hearing, David Catania demanded that health department officials comply promptly and completely with HUD's requests for information on HIV/AIDS housing programs. And, until public trust in AIDS funding is restored, Catania said he's dragging them into hearings every Friday. Writes Darryl Fears in WaPo: '"I am not happy," Catania said to Health Department Director Pierre Vigilance and AIDS Administration Director Shannon Hader...."It does not seem to me that it should be that difficult to provide them with information they asked for when they asked for it," Catania said....Vigilance and Hader agreed to comply and work with Catania to overcome the city's reputation as a poor manager of AIDS funds.'

Man throws himself in front of Blue Line train at McPherson Square, killing himself after the evening rush hour. His was the 22nd Metro death this year, Examiner notes.

Husband is charged with murder and assault in wife's beating death Sunday morning. Kenneth L. Ross, 52, allegedly murdered Rosa May Fludd-Ross, 55, and seriously injured another victim, WaPo reports.

Police did not disclose any motive for the attack, nor would they disclose the age or gender of the other victim, who they said is hospitalized in critical condition.

At February hearings on June Metro crash, NTSB plans to bring in state transit regulators from across America to share best practices, Kytja Weir reports in Examiner. 'NTSB Chairwoman Debbie Hersman said Monday during a speech at the National Press Club that the outside groups could provide guidance on how federal officials could make safety oversight more "robust."'

Fenty kicks off bag-fee awareness campaign, complete with reusable bags donated by Safeway and CVS. The tax goes into effect Jan. 1, Jonathan O'Connell reports in WBJ, but '[b]efore the new law goes into effect, the D.C. Department of the Environment will distribute at least 122,000 free, reusable bags to D.C. residents. The city is producing 100,000 beige and blue bags with the slogan “Skip the Bag, Save the River” printed on them. CVS is producing 12,000 similar bags with the chain’s logo on the flip side while Safeway will produce 10,000 bags of unknown design. The city is planning an advertising campaign to promote the reusable bags, which it will finance using the fees it collects.' Also WaPo, WRC-TV.

Also from O'Connell: Bids are in to redevelop West End parcel. Eastbanc, beneficiary of original sole-source deal, has bid, as has famed McMansioneers Toll Brothers.

Contract Appeals Board has rejected a bid protest by furniture distributor Configuration Inc., Melissa Castro reports in WBJ. The company 'had contested the award of a multi-million dollar contract to Baltimore-based M.O.I....to furnish the city’s new offices at Waterfront Station in Southwest D.C....The bid protest arose just as the business community is increasingly asking questions about the way D.C. doles out its contracts ­— Mayor Adrian Fenty has taken heavy criticism for steering parks contracts to allies while circumventing contracting officials and the city council, and business owners are lining up against a proposed bill that would give the contracting office wider latitude to award longer-term contracts and to remove some purchasing categories from competition requirements altogether....Certain council members...expressed interest in investigating the furniture bid.'

More on a possible visit from the Giro d'Italia, from VeloNation and cyclingnews.com: 'The United States' capital city wants to hold a prologue and circuit race, both passing many national monuments. "The course promises to be one of the most spectacular prologues ever used in a Grand Tour. It seems very appropriate that the prologue for the first US start be held in the heart of the nation's capital," said Mark Sommers, race director of DC's Capital Criterium [and BOEE chair nominee].'

Children's Hospital has been dealing with a 'unheard-of number' of flu cases, Donna St. George reports in WaPo. 'With a daily caseload that has surged as much as 80 percent, the emergency room at Children's National Medical Center allowed a glimpse on two recent days inside the deluge, at a time when lab-coated doctors and scrubs-clad nurses tend the flu-stricken, round-the-clock....The sick tend to arrive in waves -- in the morning, after school, after work -- bleary-eyed mothers and fathers and grandparents with toddlers in arms, with infants in strollers, with stuffy-nosed school-age children....The peak came Oct. 26, a Monday that brought in 429 patients, including 232 with flulike symptoms.' None have died since spring.

Mouhamed Diop, 32, of Suitland dies from wounds suffered in Nov. 11 car shooting at 42nd and Meade Streets NE. Another victim, Babacar Ndiaye, 37, of Oxon Hill, died soon after the shooting.

Ex-WASA employee sues over firing after double-lung transplant, NC8 reports. Tania Little, who had sarcoidosis of the lungs, returned to work, but 'WASA wanted her back full-time but doctors wrote that she needed to start off part-time for two weeks in order to "reacclimate." WASA wrote back because of her inability to work at "full capacity," she was terminated, saying "I wish you well."'

WaPo letter writer stands up for Hardy MS principal Patrick Pope. Plus: More letters on Catholics and gay marriage.

DCmud with the latest on Morton Bender's N Street boutique hotel plans: 'Bender, his N Street Follies Ltd. (NSF) and their latest architect, Andrulis Janezich Architects, go before the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) this week for review of the newest site plan....For the first time since the property was purchased in 1988, it looks like NSF will be able to secure HPRB approval for a conceptual design with the support of the Dupont Circle Conservancy and the ANC.'

District Chronicles covers opposition to gay marriage: 'Rev. Anthony Evans, executive director for the D.C. Black Church Initiative [says] "There is significant support for the Board of Elections to approve a ballot initiative," Evans said. "If we fail, we will have a movement to impeach the mayor of D.C., Adrian Fenty; D.C. Chairman At-Large Phil Mendelson, and Councilman Kwame Brown."' And from Brian Brown's National Org. for Marriage: 'Beating Down the Beatitudes in DC?...Since our nation’s founding, America in particular has benefited from the fact that churches have united together to feed the poor, clothe the naked, care for the fatherless and motherless, and comfort the sorrowful. But right now, in our nation’s capital, the City Council is poised to beat down the church’s ability to fully embrace and act out its Gospel message. Astonishingly, members of the City Council of the District of Columbia, led by Chair Vincent Gray and David Catania, are pushing a same-sex marriage bill that will force the Catholic Church (and other churches) out of providing for the least of these.'

Superior Court Judge Robert R. Rigsby is back from mideast tour as military judge, WTOP reports. 'During his six-month deployment, the 48-year-old Army Reserve colonel heard about 30 cases involving a variety of charges, including involuntary manslaughter and drug charges.' WTTG-TV, too.

Only a matter of time before Skins logo bites the dust?

Air America blogger: Arne Duncan's 'politically-balanced approach runs counter to the zero-sum combat of, say, DC Schools Chancellor Rhee, who has spent the better part of her two years as schools chief facing-off against teachers, principals and the DC Council.'

MEA CULPA---LL flubbed the link to Cary Silverman's anti-Mendo screed yesterday. Here's a good one!

D.C. COUNCIL TODAY---10 a.m.: Committee of the Whole meeting, JAWB 500.

ADRIAN FENTY TODAY---No public events scheduled.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"D.C. Democrats Not Off the Hook, Say Finance Officials"; "The Friday Limerick Review"; tweets galore!

FLASH---The Washington Blade is reported to have closed. Check City Desk for updates!

Morning all. This weekend saw the year's penultimate All Hands on Deck for city police---a program that continues in spite of an arbitrator's ruling ending it, as Theola Labbé-DeBose reported Saturday in WaPo. Sadly, the enhanced deployment of officers failed to stop the violence in city neighborhoods. On Saturday night, a bullet ripped through the door of a Columbia Heights apartment and killed 9-year-old Oscar Fuentes. Just before 10 p.m., WaPo reports, 'the boy's family had rushed into the apartment to avoid an attempted robbery. The assailant, the sources said, fired through the door hitting the boy.' Says one neighbor in today's WaPo followup, 'We have a chronic problem in the neighborhood with these gangs. It's not okay for them to just come in and shoot people.' The building at 1433 Columbia Road NW, Examiner reports, 'reeks of urine and lacks a lock on the front door and even a doorknob, letting all types of problems inside. On Sunday afternoon, no one answered the door at Oscar's apartment. A hole less than a centimeter in diameter was visible in the door. It cut cleanly through at an angle, about a foot above the doorknob. The hallway showed no other signs that a crime had occurred. A Happy Birthday sign hung above the door of the apartment next door.' May the 'assailant'---much too kind of a term---be brought to justice swiftly. Also NC8, WRC-TV, WUSA-TV, WTTG-TV.

AFTER THE JUMP---Rhee says she's to blame if Fenty can't get re-elected; WaTimes does the full foundering-Fenty treatment; neighborhoods still want their parks, contracts be damned; FBI's Persichini calls it quits; feds get serious about regulating transit; lots more on Catholic gay marriage conflict

ALSO---In the first killing of this All Hands of Deck weekend, Frederick Darnell Ard, 42, was found shot multiple times on the 2000 block of 16th Street SE early on Saturday. In the third, Rosa May Fludd-Ross, 55, was found beaten to death Sunday morning on the 3900 block of 35th Street NE.

In Sunday WaTimes, David A. Lipscomb chronicles the transformation of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty from populist world-beater to vulnerable incumbent. 'The 38-year-old mayor won all 143 precincts in the city's Democratic primary three years ago after a populist campaign largely based on a record of fulfilling constituent service requests as a council member. But since spring he increasingly has come under fire for what some describe as a heavy-handed, authoritarian style of governing. Now, despite gains in test scores among D.C. students, a dramatic decrease in crime and relative financial stability in a down economy, the mayor's leadership style and some questionable choices about how he has used the privileges of his office could endanger a re-election campaign that a year ago seemed virtually certain. And potential opponents who seemed like long shots now are emerging as contenders.'

And what if Fenty were to lose? He has a scapegoat already volunteering! Michelle Rhee was asked at a Friday Newseum event 'how responsible' she'd feel if Fenty weren't re-elected, Bill Turque reports at D.C. Wire. Her reply: 'Very responsible....When he hired me he told me this was his No. 1 priority and that he was willing to risk his entire political career in the pursuit of trying to fix the schools. The decisions we have made...were not always things that would guarantee harmony among adults.' She also recounted his response to the realization that Fenty was 'losing the PR battle' over the teacher RIF: 'It doesn't matter if we lose the PR battle. And, in fact, it doesn't even matter if we lose the re-election as long as we are operating with the endgame in mind. And for us, that is improving the schools. We're not going to compromise any step of the way in that. And if I'm not re-elected then we'll go down in history as the only administration that made every decision in what we believed to be the best interests of children instead of what was in the best interests of getting re-elected.'

As the D.C. Council takes Fenty to task over millions in surreptitiously awarded parks contracts, Nikita Stewart reports in WaPo on 'a chorus of community activists and parks advocates throughout the District who say they fear that long-awaited parks and recreation facilities will be delayed or stopped' by the tussle. The threatened facilities include Fort Stanton Recreation Center, French Street Park, and Rosedale Recreation Center. One Rosedale supporter tells the council: 'We would appreciate them not putting our concerns between a political fight with the mayor.' And Ward 7 ANC Willie Ross, concerned about the Kenilworth-Parkside Rec Center, says 'the contracts must be investigated, but the council should have been more vigilant about its initial oversight...."I'm not speaking on the mayor's behalf. I'm not speaking on the council's behalf," he said. "They've made all these promises. They showed us state-of-the-art designs. Right now, the people just want the community center opened."' Hearings on the parks contracts continue this morning.

About those parks contracts: On Friday, Vincent Gray posted a letter to Fenty saying he's 'deeply concerned about the growing controversy involving contracting that does not comply with the law' and asking Hizzoner to 'personally step in and send all unlawful contracts to the Council.' Michael Neibauer reports in Examiner that the letter was problem by a recently discovered memo from AG Peter Nickles, written last January, that 'directed city contracting officers to stop submitting contract options to the council. That memo was not sent to the legislative branch.' Nickles says he's 'completely stunned' by Gray's position. Also WaPo.

At Friday hearing, Gray took OSSE to the woodshed over delays in pre-kindergarten implementation, Leah Fabel reports in Examiner. 'This [law] has little to nothing to show for it,' said Gray of one of his signature legislative initiatives, adding complaints about 'a lack of communication and progress from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education.' Some charters have opened new slots, but few private providers have been brought in the fold. Here's your signature anecdote: 'A [private] facility designed for about 60 infants and toddlers has stood vacant since its opening in 2006.' Superintendent Kerri Briggs 'laid out progress made during her 8 months on the job, including the establishment of early-learning standards, the awarding of nearly 30 grants, and continued efforts to bring together interested parties.'

A pair of momentous retirements in the realm of federal justice: Joe Persichini, head of the FBI's Washington Field Office since 2006, is calling it a career as of Dec. 25, Del Wilber reports in WaPo. 'In a brief phone interview, Persichini said he chose Dec. 25 as his final day on the job as a "Christmas gift for my wife."' And Nancy Mayer-Whittington, clerk of the U.S. District Court since 1991 who 'spent her career pushing the court to improve its technology and services,' retired Friday.

An arrest has been made in the Wednesday daytime killing of George Rawlings, WaPo reports, though details are sketchy: 'Based on information from one investigative source, the arrest came either late Friday or early Saturday. It was not clear what charge had been placed in the incident, and investigators gave no information about a possible motive in the killing.' WRC-TV, WTTG-TV report that the suspect is a 17-year-old.

On the issue of gay marriage and Catholic Charities, WaPo editorial board sees compromise where councilmembers do not: 'The clash raises tough questions. But they strike us as solvable, if council members shelve the self-righteousness and look for solutions....The city can ill afford to lose Catholic Charities' services at homeless shelters and in health care. It's the largest nongovernmental provider of social services in the District and certainly among the most competent. That's why we're somewhat mystified by the complacency reflected in comments such as those of council members Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), who dismissed Catholic Charities' concerns as "somewhat childish," and David A. Catania (I-At Large), who said that the city would simply find another partner. Given the District's dismal track record with other nonprofit providers of social services---see, for example, recent Post reports about the misspending of HIV/AIDS housing money---we wonder at his confidence.'

Jonetta Rose Barras, too, argues that the church 'should keep the faith' on gay marriage concerns. 'Catholic Charities is a well-managed operation. It provides high-quality services and kicks in its own money....The money from the District is substantial, but so is the money contributed by Catholic Charities---$10 million in any year can do a lot of good. The archdiocese and executives at Catholic Charities could consider using this moment as an opportunity to launch a declaration of conscience campaign.'

ALSO---More perspectives on the gay marriage/Catholic Charities story from Blade, AMERICAblog, Harry Jackson, Raw Story, Living Church, Eric Sheptock, Timothy Carney

The WaPo ed board today lauds Fenty & Co. for finally offering an unused DCPS school, Draper ES, to charter schools as an 'incubator.' 'There are six incubator sites in the city. Three are former schools that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty agreed to make available. We hope that's a sign of a new willingness by the city to make sure surplus schools are used for public education by allowing charters to buy or lease them.' And Harry Jaffe goes a step further and calls the opening of the Acheivement Preparatory Academy at Draper reason 'to start thinking about public education in Washington D.C. in a new light.' His take: 'Change is afoot, and the prospects for students of all ages and places are brighter---much brighter....[S]tudents from the city's roughest neighborhoods can hope for a decent, even stellar, education.'

NOTA BENE---On Friday, 'Mayor Adrian Fenty showed up to cut the ribbon on a charter school. It was the first time he had given such attention to a charter.'

Obama administration, citing Metro Red Line crash, announces plan to regulate transit systems, pointing to 'haphazard and ineffective oversight by state agencies,' WaPo writes. 'Under the proposal, the U.S. Department of Transportation would do for transit what it does for airlines and Amtrak: set and enforce federal regulations to ensure that millions of passengers get to their destinations safely. Administration officials said the plan will be presented in coming weeks to Congress, which must approve a change in the law. The proposal would affect every subway and light-rail system in the country.' Says Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood: 'After the [Metro] train crash, we were all sitting around here scratching our heads, saying, 'Hey, we've got to do something about this'....And we discovered that there's not much we could do, because the law wouldn't allow us to do it."' Metro says it welcomes the plan 'with open arms.' Also Examiner, NC8.

The federal announcement follows a Saturday WaPo story by Joe Stephens and Lena Sun on a Metro oversight innovation. To wit, the system's safety officer, Alexa Dupigny-Samuels, will have to consult with Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn before taking any substantive action. This comes after it was revealed that Dupigny-Samuels was complicit in the decision to keep oversight inspectors off Metro tracks. 'Asked whether Dupigny-Samuels had been demoted, [board chair Jim Graham] replied: "I would consider this a reorganization of her responsibilities in recognition of events."'

ALSO---Turns out Metro's labor wrangling is expensive. Who knew? WMATA and the transit workers' union are paying $60K for arbitration in their pay-raise dispute, Kytja Weir reports in WaPo. That's in addition to tens of thousands more in legal fees.

D.C. school officials have kicked off a program to serve breakfast to schoolkids in their classrooms, Bill Turque reports in WaPo. 'Educators and health experts have long stressed the link between breakfast and academic performance, reduced obesity rates and other benefits....Educators say that a classroom breakfast helps minimize two traditional obstacles to getting more kids to eat. Many students from low-income families who eat free and reduced-price lunches underwritten by the federal government don't take advantage of breakfast. It often requires them to go early to the school cafeteria, and it can carry the stigma of a government program, experts say.' Eight charters, plus Garfield ES, are giving it a shot.

Dorothy Brizill, in themail, raises concerns about People's Counsel designee Vicky Beasley: 'Beasley is currently a corporate attorney with the law firm of Patton Boggs and has no knowledge or expertise in administrative law, utility regulation, or consumer issues....on Saturday, the Office of the People's Counsel and the DC Department of the Environment held an Energy Expo at the Convention Center. Beasley attended, but would only speak with the exhibiting vendors. She refused Noel's offer to introduce her to the OPC staff, and she refused to speak with me regarding her nomination.' Also: Gary Imhoff points out a big problem with the District's new Hatch Act.

City lawyers are still defending D.C. cop Kevin McConnell, who shot a perp dead in 2007 in what was later judged to be an unjustified shooting, Scott McCabe reports in Examiner. 'The family's attorney points to a internal affairs report that determined the shooting was not justified and to a disciplinary review that is seeking to fire McConnell over the incident. The District is trying to prevent that evidence from being heard, arguing that the findings don't address the issues that will be presented at trial, court filings said. "Now, in the civil case, the District is trying to say he did nothing wrong," said family attorney Gregory Lattimer.' No comment from Nickles.

Another OCTOgate plea is finalized: Farrukh Awan, 37, admitted Friday to taking some $50K in kickbacks for steering city technology contracts. He faces up to 30 months in federal prison; sentencing is on Feb. 12. Only Yusuf Acar and Sushil Bansal are yet to plead out.

Report says language is an ongoing problem at city health care facilities, Neibauer writes in Examiner. 'Of the 72 limited-English-speaking community members surveyed by the D.C. Language Access Coalition, about half of whom were uninsured, many told stories of trouble accessing medical services....The study's subjects struggled to communicate their concerns and understand the instructions of their providers. They spoke of having appointments canceled because no interpreter was available, of being "left for last" while waiting for care, of struggling to have questions answered over the phone, and of not having access to important forms and documents in their native language.'

Fire, ruled accidental, destroys one DCPS school bus, damages two others at New York Avenue lot. Also: Saturday house fire injures three on the 1900 block of Kearney Street NE in Brookland. Two of the injured were burned firefighters.

Guns, cash, drugs seized by police from Shaw home, Examiner reports: 'The district's third patrol unit executed a search warrant for a house on the 1800 block of Vermont Avenue NW. Roy Rosa, 35, was charged with the intent to distribute drugs while armed.'

International cocaine trafficker Gregory Joel Sitzmann is sitting in D.C. Jail awaiting trial, and will remain sitting there, Examiner reports. 'Sitzmann's attorneys argued that he should be allowed out on bail so he could receive proper care for an injured shoulder. His lack of passport will keep him from running, they said...."The defendant's claim that he is not a flight risk is ludicrous," prosecutors wrote. The judge agreed.'

WaPo gives the 15th Street 'contraflow' bike lane the full treatment. 'In an attempt to minimize the conflicts, the invisible line that separates drivers and cyclists on most busy urban streets has been defined by more than a half-mile of yellow posts on 15th Street NW, in the District's first attempt at walling off a bike lane from cars,' Ashley Halsey writes. 'Following the lead of Paris, New York, Montreal and dozens of other cities, Washington and its bicycling mayor are reclaiming a piece of the road for people who travel on two wheels instead of four.'

On Sunday, rider tells Dr. Gridlock that he's not sold on the bike lane: 'I have had too many close calls with left-turning cars. If it was on a two-way street, where left turners might fear an oncoming car, it would make sense. I'm guessing the least anticipated problem is the oak trees above the lane. Because the city can't get a street cleaner down the lane, it is covered in acorns, which play havoc with my tires. All this being said, I really have to say thank you to the city for at least thinking of trying something different.'

ALSO---City bike chief Jim Sebastian says 'the city hopes to develop dedicated bike lanes on at least four streets, two running north-south and two running east-west. He mentioned M and L streets as possible candidates.'

Joe Biden served the lunch crowd Friday at St. Aloysius Church's Father McKenna Center. The veep's presence, Daryl Fears reports in WaPo, 'startled some of the 80 men who stood stiffly as the vice president's entourage rushed past the dining area. Biden, casually dressed in a black baseball cap, black V-neck sweater, khaki trousers, rubber gloves and a worn brown apron, took his place behind a folding table and a tray of fish sticks. The vice president said he served the men because "you've got to remind yourself that but for the grace of God there go I. Sometimes you forget that this is real."'

Bill requiring health insurers to cover child autism to be unveiled today by Muriel Bowser and Tommy Wells.

WAMU-FM covers DCPS 'master educators' program. Rhee, Kavitha Cardoza reports, has 'hired 30 former successful teachers to coach and evaluate D.C.'s teachers in their subject area. Rhee hopes the coaching will improve the good teachers and that the master teachers' critical eye will help get rid of the bad ones.'

Rhee appeared in a brief videotaped segment on this week's Meet the Press, providing conversational fodder for Arne Duncan, Newt Gingrich, and Al Sharpton.

Jack Evans and Cary Silverman are together on one issue: Hating Phil Mendelson's crime positions.

WRC-TV's Joe Krebs covers the story of two brothers, murdered months apart on D.C. streets.

Cold case: Two-year-old murder of Chinese restaurant deliveryman Hong Zhi Wang, 29.

VotH on efforts to create H Street historic district.

Rundown of Thursday's Healthy D.C. hearing.

District bard Edward P. Jones is profiled by Neely Tucker in WaPo mag. A good long read for lunchtime.

City woos nonprofits for Walter Reed site, WBJ reports.

The case against parking tickets, from GGW.

After nearly four years of construction, the Minnesota Avenue Metro parking garage is open. Also: The Black Rooster reopens today!

MWCOG is in on Prince William ferry plan.

Washington Gas had a very good year.

The Redskins will keep on being the 'Redskins.'

D.C. COUNCIL TODAY---10 a.m.: Committee on Economic Development hearing on B18-497 ('Washington Convention and Sports Authority Alcoholic Beverage Sales Amendment Act of 2009'), B18-399 ('Pennsylvania Avenue-Minnesota Avenue S.E. Eminent Domain Authorization Act of 2009'), and B18-457 ('Small Business Stabilization and Job Creation Strategy Act of 2009'), JAWB 412; joint public oversight roundtable on 'The Contracting Process Related to Parks and Recreation Projects,' JAWB 412; 11 a.m.: Committee on Aging and Community Affairs roundtable on PR18-543 ('Commission on Aging Eugene Coffey Confirmation Resolution of 2009'), JAWB 123; 1 p.m.: Committee on Health roundtable on 'The Performance of the HIV/AIDS, STD, and Tuberculosis Administration,' JAWB 500.

ADRIAN FENTY TODAY---10:30 a.m.: remarks, launch of Anacostia River education campaign, Anacostia Avenue and Blaine Street NE.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"Pershing Park Case: Council Hearings Unlikely"; "David Catania Smacks Down Anti-Gay-Marriage Law Prof"; "WTOP's Mark Segraves to Get TV Show"; "Is Adrian Fenty Exercising Too Much?"; tweets galore!

Morning all. The Archdiocese of Washington is playing hardball, holding that the District's gay marriage bill, as currently written, threatens to end their involvement in various city services. And the D.C. Council has swung right back. In second-day story, WaPo reporters write that councilmembers are 'hardening their opposition' to the archdiocese, 'setting up a political showdown between the city and one of its largest social service providers.' Says Tommy Wells: 'It's a dangerous thing when the Catholic Church starts writing and determining the legislation and the laws of the District of Columbia.' No CM is acting conciliatory at the moment, and the archdiocese is trying to draw a semantic distinction: that the District is 'giving the ultimatum,' not the church. But WaPo columnist Petula Dvorak isn't buying it: 'By trying to play political hardball with the District, no matter how carefully they word their objection to the bill, officials at the Archdiocese of Washington and Catholic Charities are telling our city's most vulnerable people---homeless families, sick children, low-income mothers---that they are willing to throw them on the table as a bargaining chip. What the Church is doing is an uncharitable and cruel maneuver.' Still yet to enter the debate: Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl. Also Examiner, NYT, WaPo blog, WaPo chat, WaTimes, LAT blog, NC8, WRC-TV, WTTG-TV, World mag, Atlantic, TPM, lots more.

AFTER THE JUMP---More on the fate of Hardy MS; Harold Brazil sues tattoo shop whose floor he soiled; movie tax pondered to fund arts groups; murdered Rawlings brother said to be implicated in Halloween killing; D.C. Jail to join federal immigration-check program

WHAT'S AT STAKE---From WaPo: 'Among the programs [Catholic Charities head Ed Orzechowski] said were vulnerable: A medical clinic at the Spanish Catholic Center serving 3,000 people, which gets 60 percent of its budget from the District, much of it in reimbursements from the city-run HealthCare Alliance insurance coverage....Tutors for people preparing to take GED tests under a program in which the city subsidizes more than 35 percent of the cost....Foster care and adoption placements for about 100 children a year, none of them to same-sex couples, more than 90 percent funded by the city....In addition, Catholic Charities gets city funds to offer mental health services, to operate nine homeless shelters and, during the winter months, to run several hypothermia shelters.'

IN CASE YOU'RE WONDERING---Yvette Alexander, Muriel Bowser, Vincent Gray, and Harry Thomas Jr. are Catholic.

Bill Turque follows up in WaPo on the Hardy Middle School story first reported by Jonetta Rose Barras. 'An emerging debate over [Hardy's] future illuminates one of Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's greatest challenges: to increase the diversity of the school system by drawing in more white, middle-class families without compromising the interests of its predominantly poor and minority student population. With most middle-class children leaving the system after the fourth or fifth grade, Rhee must sell D.C.'s middle schools as an attractive option.' But does the school need to 'turn,' as she told a Georgetown civic meeting? 'In an interview Thursday, Rhee would not disclose her plans for the school, but she said the "turn" she described had nothing to do with its racial composition. "What that implies is that what is good for one group of kids is not good enough for another," she said. "I think that's not only false but incredibly harmful." What needs to turn, she said, is the attitude of the school's leadership, which she said has not always been welcoming to neighborhood families...."We need to do a lot of clarifying," she said. "Hardy has an arts component, but you don't have to think you have the next Whitney Houston on your hands to send your kids to this school."' From LL's reading, it doesn't look like well-respected principal Patrick Pope is long for his job.

THE NUMBERS---'Of the 135 fifth-graders who completed Stoddert, Key, Hyde and Eaton last spring, 49 are enrolled in Hardy's 177-student sixth-grade class this fall. Most of the rest come from public schools outside Hardy's attendance area, according to school data. But with completion of a $48 million renovation last year and, perhaps, the effects of the recession, community interest has increased. And so has discussion of changes in Hardy's program.'

You can jump on a man, and he can urinate on your floor, but you can't keep him down! Harold Brazil is suing the tattoo parlor where he was arrested for assault last October, Melissa Castro reports in WBJ. He was convicted of the offense in May, though he is appealing. 'Brazil wouldn't talk much about his suit, other than to say he's appealing the conviction and he questions "the true motive...behind the prosecution and the unfairness of prosecuting a former politician for no articulable reason."'

ALSO IN WBJ---Sarah Krouse on efforts to beautify city gateways; Jonathan O'Connell on how the council killed a tax abatement deal for the Pew Chritable Trusts; O'Connell on Harriet Tregoning's temporary uses for stalled construction sites (Southwest waterfront beach?); O'Connell on funding arts groups that lost earmarks (new tax on movie tickets/rentals?); and a profile of GGW's David Alpert.

An interesting WaPo editorial on the city's decision to settle its receivership suit against Individual Development Inc., the operator of group homes run by a cabal of politically connected lawyers. 'Given the group's track record of unkept promises, it's understandable for skeptics to question the decision---and to wonder whether the political prominence of IDI officials David W. Wilmot, A. Scott Bolden and Frederick D. Cooke Jr. was a factor.' Peter Nickles, of course, 'denies any political considerations,' arguing that 'the settlement is the better outcome for residents of the homes,' as it would bring change faster, covers all 11 of the company's homes, and carries stiff penalties. Says WaPo: 'These are persuasive arguments. But the District was remiss in not acting sooner, so the onus is on Mr. Nickles and the mayor to ensure that the settlement leads to rapid improvements in the homes or tangible consequences for their operator.'

NOTE---The piece says that 'Mr. Wilmot recently helped host a fundraiser for Mayor Adrian F. Fenty (D).' No, his middle initial isn't F, and, yes, the case was settled mere days after that fundraiser.

The D.C. Jail will start participating in federal program 'whose ultimate aim is to check the immigration status of every person booked,' N.C. Aizenman reports in WaPo. 'The program, known as Secure Communities, matches inmates' fingerprints against a federal database so that federal authorities can identify and possibly remove deportable illegal immigrants before they are released from custody. Similar checks are done at all 1,200 federal and state prisons. But authorities have lacked the ability to do them across the nation's 3,100 local jails.' About 1,900 have been deported nationwide under the program, but 'advocates have expressed concern that Secure Communities will ensnare many illegal immigrants who are convicted only of minor crimes or of nothing at all.' Also Examiner. Expect to hear a lot more about this.

The caped columnist, Harry Jaffe, recounts a lot of anecdotes about rising violent crime, along with a few well-selected statistics, and warns that D.C. Council cuts to the MPD officer corps threaten more violence. '[T]he city council's actions might make the streets even less safe. Last year the city council ordered the police to bring its force up to 4,200. Last month the same council approved a hiring freeze---at 4,060 cops. With no hiring and normal attrition of 20 officers a month, the force will drop below 3,800 by next year. "At that number, we cannot to do our job," says Kristopher Baumann, police union president. "Officers will be racing from radio call to radio call. Everyone will be less safe." And we can expect more candlelight vigils.'

Contradicting an anonymous police account yesterday, Scott McCabe reports in Examiner that George Rawlings, murdered Wednesday morning on H Street NE, was indeed involved in the Halloween killing of Ashton Hunter---whose funeral he had just attended. Polices sources say 'Rawlings was being looked at as the getaway driver or the provider of the sport utility vehicle used' in Hunter's murder. The suspected triggerman, Darrell Calvin Lee, is already in custody. 'All three men were associated with the Kennedy Dog Pound, or KDP crew, that operates in the vicinity of Seventh and O streets NW in the Shaw neighborhood, according to police and court documents. Their was an internal beef within KDP and the crew appeared to be "cleaning house."' Also WRC-TV.

Did police shoot the wrong guy at a Benning Road gas station in August? A witness tells WTTG-TV that the man killed by police, 25-year-old Salvador Buruca 'was no threat to police' and 'did not have a gun and was raising his hands when an officer shot him multiple times.' The witness, Paul Christmas, 'says he doesn't understand why police didn't go after two men he saw running from the station.' Buruca's family is considering a lawsuit.

Metro has been charged with criminal violations of federal clean-water laws, WaPo reports, for 'releasing hazardous chemicals into the sewer system over a six-day period in 2003.' Such a criminal suit, write Maria Glod and Meg Smith 'is extremely unusual, and a search of federal and state court records revealed no other such cases.' Records from federal court in Greenbelt say that 'polluted water left over after Metro cars were washed at the New Carrollton and Branch Avenue rail yards was released into sewer pipes without being properly treated. A contractor hired in the mid-1980s to clean the cars used chemicals including hydrofluoric acid, "an extremely corrosive and hazardous chemical know for its ability to dissolve metal oxides," prosecutors wrote.' A plea agreement has been reached.

ALSO---'Federal prosecutors had asked that the case remain sealed, writing that "avoiding unnecessary publicity prior to the date of the plea hearing is in the interest of the parties and the public." U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus denied the request. "This court's business is public business, and that is especially so when the defendant before it is a public agency."' Good for him!

WaPo, following Examiner scoop, covers upcoming NTSB hearings on Metro crash, pegging the dates as Feb. 23 and 24. 'A public hearing into the Red Line crash had been widely expected by transit safety experts. The board uses the hearings to supplement facts gathered at the scene and during its follow-up investigation....The hearing will be chaired by NTSB board member Robert L. Sumwalt, who, along with investigators, will hear testimony on the adequacy of Metro's actions to address safety issues; the adequacy of state safety oversight of rail transit systems, including the Tri-State Oversight Committee that oversees Metro; and the adequacy of federal safety oversight of rail transit systems, among other issues.' Examiner's Kytja Weir adds that a House subcommittee will hold a Dec. 8 hearing on 'the federal role in transit safety.' featuring Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff.

Can AIDS be eliminated by aggressively treating HIV? That's the question to be tested by a new joint program of the National Institutes of Health and the D.C. health department, Darryl Fears reports in WaPo. AIDS expert Anthony Fauci tells him, 'The purpose is to get the...level [of HIV in the blood] down so that people will not infect anyone because their viral load is so low.' It's unclear 'how much money and other resources would be devoted to the study before the project begins next month,' as well as where the study will take place. 'The study, scheduled to be launched by the White House on or around World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, has major challenges. Researchers must first determine whether testing every adult for HIV is feasible. Then they must determine whether people who test positive will opt for treatment.'

Three are slashed in embassy knife attack, after Togo native Kokou Bocco, 31, walked into that country's chancery on the 2200 block of Massachusetts Avenue NW. Paul Duggan reports in WaPo: 'Bocco "became agitated" while speaking with embassy workers, then pulled out a knife and attacked them. By the time other employees subdued him, three workers and Bocco had been injured....[T]he workers and Bocco were taken to George Washington University Hospital. None of the wounds is considered life-threatening, officials said.' Also WRC-TV, WUSA-TV, WTTG-TV.

The ashes of Col. Norbert Otto Schmidt, set to be interred today at Arlington National Cemetery, have disappeared in an apparent theft, WaPo reports. 'The incident began after family members finalized arrangements at Arlington and drove the 12-seater van to the National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall about 3 p.m. Thursday. When the relatives returned to the parked van, in the 300 block of Jefferson Avenue SW, about an hour later, the lock on its door was broken, they said. The brass urn had been inside a turquoise bag. Also missing were a computer, jewelry and electronic equipment, along with Schmidt's Army discharge papers and his death certificate.' There's a $1,000 no-questions-asked reward for the urn's return.

Which World War I memorial should be the official one? Michael Neibauer reports in Examiner that the Senate will have to decide whether the D.C. WWI memorial on the Mall will be rededicated as a national memorial, or will the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City will get the honors?

Jonathan O'Connell reports at WBJ on tensions between developers and city planners on parking requirements for new projects at Brookland and Fort Totten Metro stations. 'The last thing D.C. wants is more pricey, underused garages like we have at DC-USA, which is why it is rewriting its zoning to rules to replace parking minimums with parking maximums. Some developers don't like the idea.' Both Jim Abdo and the Cafritz Foundation say their condo dwellers want parking spaces!

AND UH-OH---Washington Convention Center loses major meeting to National Harbor, O'Connell reports. A spokesperson for the International Council of Shopping Centers 'offered no reason for the switch.'

House repos are down, WaPo reports: 'In the District, the number of real estate-owned properties---when a bank has taken possession of a home and evicted the borrower---fell by half to 46 in October compared with 102 in September. In Maryland, bank repossessions fell to 786 from 865 the previous month. Virginia also saw a decrease in bank repossessions, 1,845 in October compared with 2,028 in September....This year, 590 homes have been repossessed in the District, down slightly from the same period last year.'

It's official: John Solomon is out as top editor of WaTimes. He will be missed by LL. Reports WaPo: 'Solomon, who made a mission of boosting the newspaper's fairness while trying to expand its reach, concluded that he could no longer be effective after a shakeup that ousted the Times' publisher, say staffers who declined to be identified discussing personnel matters.' In Examiner, Neibauer notes: 'Security has been beefed up at the paper's New York Avenue NE headquarters, and the gates to the parking lot are being kept closed.'

Just a huge amount of Jack Evans news today. First, WTOP's Mark Segraves reports that the Ward 2 CM has bought himself $2,000 worth of bobbleheads with campaign funds. 'Evans' bobblehead has him sporting a black suit and a black and white striped tie. The likeness is pretty good, although the bobblehead has more hair and fewer wrinkles than the real Evans.' And WAMU-FM's Kavitha Cardoza reports that Evans participated in a cookoff against Michelle Rhee. 'Their teams had to serve up a three course meal and signature drink in 35 minutes. Rhee cooks a mean lasagna while Evans serves up perfect pancakes. But in this high pressure kitchen cook-off, it wasn't clear if those skills were enough.' Their kids helped out; Rhee's team took the win with 'a shrimp and tofu salad, a steak and asparagus pasta and a mango lassi with melted gummy bears.'

Blade's Amy Cavanaugh kicks off two-parter about GLBT climate at Georgetown U. after bias-related incidents. And Lou Chibbaro Jr. previews the first-reading marriage vote, set for Dec. 1.

Michelle Rhee: a 'true public innovator.' Also, someone's hero!

Ground is broken on Petworth CVS, Housing Complex notes.

Tree falls on vehicle in Northeast.

Unclog your storm drains!

Five arrested for 'stealing tons of reusable containers and plastic pallets from area companies, which were then sold to recyclers at a per-pound price.'

Examiner, WAMU-FM, WTOP cover new wheelchair-friendly taxicabs.

Yvette Alexander hosting citywide gathering of ANC commissioners, on Nov. 21. Agency heads have been invited; let's see if they show.

D.C. COUNCIL TODAY---10 a.m.: Committee of the Whole hearing on 'Progress in the Implementation of the Pre-K Enhancement and Expansion Act,' JAWB 412; 1 p.m.: Committee on Health roundtable on 'Pharmaceutical Issues in the District of Columbia,' JAWB 500.

ADRIAN FENTY TODAY---10:30 a.m.: remarks, Minnesota/Benning parking facility ribbon-cutting, 4000 block of Minnesota Avenue NE; 1:30 p.m.: remarks, kickoff of All Hands On Deck Phase VII, 7th and Kennedy Streets NE [there is no such intersection---LL thinks it must be NW].

Actually, it means other things, too: You will not read in today's issue about Chuck Lane, how good an idea it is to legalize marijuana (complete list of links too long to provide here), or cheese dip. There also will be no chanting of USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! for any reason. There is no need for that anymore. Freedom is dead.

Do you really think it's a coincidence that the first day without Freedom Friday is Friday the 13th?

Speaking of Friday the 13th, Donald Dossey, founder of the Stress Management Center/Phobia Institute in Asheville, N.C., says that between 17 and 21 million individuals alter their routine in some way on this day because of superstitions. Irrational fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia (actually, Dossey made this term up). "For some people it's just mild anxiety,'' says Dossey. "Some people stay in bed all day." (Should we call and check on Riggs?)

I'm no clinician, but Franklin Delano Roosevelt seems like he might have been a classic case of someone suffering from that long word. Thomas "Dr. 13" Fernsler, a mathematician at the University of Delaware who got that nickname from his extensive study of that number, notes that FDR refused to leave on a train trip on the 13th. But that's not even the crazy part: He died in April 1945 on Thursday the 12th! He was so scared of Friday the 13th, he died!

There is a poem about paraskevidekatriaphobia, but I don't really recommend it, as one of the stanzas is "I think back to my mother/her winter boots capsized w/blood/& my tiny fists lit from within."

A "quirk" of the calendar means there have already been two Friday the 13ths this year. And on one of them, Congress passed the stimulus package! Coincidence?

One last thing: I have a black cat.

Be scared! And follow me on Twitter!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"Cathy Lanier: The True Victim Of Fenty's Latest Scandal"; "Archdiocese Threatens To Cut Services Over Same-Sex Marriage Bill"; tweets galore!

IN LL WEEKLY---Is Fenty's Exercise Regimen Clouding His Judgment? Plus: Ron Moten may be retiring, but he isn't going anywhere.

Morning all. Jonetta Rose Barras with a very nice column about racial/educational politics in the western wards. The dispute centers on the Ellington School for the Arts and newly renovated Hardy Middle School. 'No one cared much that they have substantial African American populations, although their surrounding communities are predominantly white. The education reform movement and construction of new buildings changed that. Now, parents in Wards 2 and 3 have begun pushing for fewer slots for out-of-boundary students and more traditional academic programs.' Barras discusses a possible plan to move Ellington and convert the former Western High building back to a general-enrollment high school, as well as plans to change the academic program at Hardy to lure more in-boundary (read: white) parents. Michelle Rhee, she reports, 'told the Citizens Association of Georgetown to expect a "major announcement" next month. "[Hardy's] not going to turn overnight, but I think the plan we're moving forward on is one that is really going to boost [it as an] option."' The comments have black parents with kids enrolled out-of-boundary at Hardy upset: '"What's that suppose to mean?" asked Keenan Kellar, Ward 1 resident and Hardy parent. "African-American parents have a great sensitivity to that kind of coded language."'

AFTER THE JUMP---Fenty: 'Going forward, I'm not going to use a motorcyle anymore'; archdiocese lays down an ultimatum; HUD threatens to keep AIDS money from District; 21-year-old shot on H Street NE in broad daylight is brother of DeOnte Rawlings; NTSB wants Metro crash hearings; rock-throwing kids terrorize Hill East

The Archdiocese of Washington plays hardball on gay marriage, telling District legislators that the gay marriage bill as currently written could mean the end of Catholic Charities in D.C.---'a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care,' Tim Craig and Michelle Boorstein report in WaPo. 'Fearful that they could be forced, among other things, to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples, church officials said they would have no choice but to abandon their contracts with the city. "If the city requires this, we can't do it," Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said Wednesday. "The city is saying in order to provide social services, you need to be secular. For us, that's really a problem."' But some lawmakers appear ready to call what they consider a bluff: 'Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) referred to the church as "somewhat childish." Another council member, David A. Catania (I-At Large), said he would rather end the city's relationship with the church than give in to its demands. "They don't represent, in my mind, an indispensable component of our social services infrastructure," said Catania....Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairman of the judiciary committee, said the council "will not legislate based on threats."' In Examiner, Michael Neibauer details Yvette Alexander's lonely attempt to enlarge the religious exemption. Also Catholic News Agency, Blade, AmericaBlog.

ABOUT CATHOLIC CHARITIES---'It serves 68,000 people in the city, including the one-third of Washington's homeless people who go to city-owned shelters managed by the church. City leaders said the church is not the dominant provider of any particular social service, but the church pointed out that it supplements funding for city programs with $10 million from its own coffers.'

Feds tell the District that it's in danger of losing $12M in federal funding for HIV/AIDS housing due to oversight failures, Debbie Cenziper reports in WaPo. This is 'the first time in the AIDS housing program's 18-year history that money would be withheld from a city based on poor performance.' An assistant HUD secretary, Mercedes M. Márquez, says funding will continue only if HAA 'improves its tracking of services and spending' and she calls the District's program 'consistently...among the most troubled in the nation.' Just this year, HUD 'urged the city to release records and arrange for a meeting between HUD and the city's financial management team. "They were making it almost impossible to do the monitoring...It's really like pulling teeth with the District," Márquez said....When the 2009 report was complete, HUD again found the city had failed to ensure that nonprofit groups submitted basic documentation to account for their spending.' Mayoral spox says the city 'will work closely with HUD to ensure continued funding.'

George Rawlings, 21, was shot to death yesterday morning while boarding an X2 bus on H Street NE. He was the older brother of DeOnté Rawlings, the 14-year-old shot dead by off-duty police in 2007, and he was murdered, WaPo reports, 'after attending the funeral of another homicide victim'---a teen, Ashton Hunter, killed on Halloween. Greg Lattimer, lawyer for the family, said Rawlings 'feared for his life and went into hiding after Hunter's killing. Lattimore said talk on the street was that Rawlings would be targeted as a witness to the shooting...."When the thought of going to the police was mentioned, this is a situation where DeOnté was killed by the police...so how could [George] go to the police and expect them to legitimately try to help him?" Lattimore said. "That was his thinking. Whether that was right or wrong...that's the way it was."' Also WTOP, NC8, WRC-TV, WUSA-TV, WTTG-TV, WaTimes, with more on Rawlings' background.

ALSO---One man killed, one seriously wounded yesterday on 4200 block of Meade Street NE. Police, according to WaPo, 'found a dark-colored sedan that appeared to have rear-ended a white sedan....Police officers said it appeared that the two men, who were in the dark-colored sedan, were shot while the car was in motion. Although officers think the shooter might also have been in the car, they could no find no sign of a third person last night.' Also NC8, WUSA-TV, WTTG-TV.

The National Transportation Safety Board is calling for hearings---a relatively rare occurrence---on the June Metro crash, Kytja Weir reports in Examiner. 'The board voted for the hearing and scheduled it for the week of Feb. 22, according to the e-mail sent to officials who may be asked to testify. The hearing highlights the importance of the crash and gives the agency a chance to air broader problems that may have been to blame....The NTSB does not call for hearings for each case it investigates. It has had five hearings so far this year but voted not to hold one in such high-profile cases as the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse.'

WTTG-TV continues investigating problems with police and 911 dispatching, highlighting this time problems with dispatchers performing real-time background checks for officers in the field. 'Office of Unified Communication Director Janice Quintana runs the 911 system. Fox 5 has tried for six months to get her to talk to us about the claims against her agency, visiting her office, her home and finally catching up with her outside a pharmacy....Quintana didn't respond and walked briskly to her car. "We've emailed you. We've called you. We've talked to the Mayor's office. You keep running away. The FOP says you're hiding something. Are you something?" Quintana finally responds. "I'm not hiding and I don't want to get into a discussion between them and us."'

WTOP's Mark Segraves squeezes out another story on the Fenty bike rides, this time quotes D.C. GOP executive director Paul Craney calling on Hizzoner to reimburse the city for expenses paid transporting his bike. How much to reimburse? Hard to tell: Segraves' FOIA request for receipts was denied, citing 'operational security information, including information which is part of MPD's deliberative process, personal information and information prohibited by other statute from being produced.' In themail, Gary Imhoff adds some further thoughts on l'affaire du vélo: 'What wasn't covered, or hasn't been covered so far, is the biggest problem with the mayor's sports obsession, his neglecting his job to spend hours every day exercising. If a president golfs one day a week on the weekends, the press writes that the president is goofing off and isn't serious about his job. Yet the mayor's bicycle club rides were almost all during the middle of the work day during the work week, and the mayor spends hours during nearly every work day with his sports buddies.'

FWIW---Fenty did a really good job this morning answering questions from Barbara Harrison on WRC-TV. He explained how he's actually cut down on the mayoral security detail, how his training schedule poses special challenges to the detail, and he pledged not use have a police motorcycle escort his cycling team any more. A fine display of candor, understanding, and remorse which raises the question: Why couldn't he have done that on Monday?

VothH: 'The owner of H Street Martini Lounge is being investigated for allegedly interfering with the inquiry into stabbings that involved D.C. firefighters at the establishment two weeks ago....Two patrons, D.C. firefighters Ernest Payne and Damien Jackson, had been stabbed and drove themselves to Washington Hospital Center for treatment, according to the report. The officers then returned to the bar to discover workers cleaning up spilled blood on the floor.' The owner, Cliff Humphries, is a fire lieutenant and told investigators that 'the incident wasn't recorded on security cameras because he inadvertently neglected to reset the surveillance equipment after it automatically turned off earlier in October....But police Detective Sabrina White testified at the hearing that Humphries "was not cooperative" when she tried to interview him the night of the fight and she "suspected that Mr. Humphries and another gentleman may have deleted the video footage from the hard drive on the lap top."'

WaPo columnist Robert McCartney takes a look at a new manual compiled by the Alliance of Concerned Men, whom he calls 'a District nonprofit group with a proven record of achieving peace for a while in some of the Washington area's most dangerous neighborhoods.' The 41-page document 'offers tips such as barring cellphones from meetings so participants won't worry that calls are being made to arrange an ambush. It says that it's important when picking a mediator to weigh whether to send a young man, who might be perceived as a threat, or an older one, whose presence might be "a negative trigger, a reminder of a lost or abusive father." The alliance recommends using prayer, food, trips to the movies and, believe it or not, hugs as a way to create the right atmosphere. "Hug a thug, and you might not get mugged" is one of the group's numerous sayings....Above all, the training guide emphasizes the need to believe that the tough young men would like to solve their problems themselves and need a credible outsider to assure them that it's possible.'

D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute report finds that the District's welfare program 'is pushing recipients to work but is not providing the skills and support they need to land decent-paying jobs,' according to WaPo account by Henri Cauvin. 'The study of the District's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program concluded that although the city has opportunities for substantive educational and vocational training, TANF recipients are too often kept in the dark about such help. "These services exist," said Katie Kerstetter, an analyst at the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute and one of the authors of the report. "We need to find ways to connect TANF recipients to them."' The report 'criticizes what it calls the city's one-size-fits-all approach and its singular focus on what is known as job readiness....But job-readiness training does not address more fundamental deficiencies that might represent bigger barriers to employment for many recipients.'

There's an upside to Metro's lack of dedicated funding, the WaPo editorial board points out: 'As the economy has nosedived, state and local tax receipts have followed. For at least half the transit systems around the country, that has meant reduced funding from state, local and regional sources. And in most of those cases, funding has dipped sharply---by more than 20 percent. By contrast, Metro's patrons, which together contribute several hundred million dollars annually to help the transit agency balance its budget, have generally held steady.' Still: '[H]old the celebrations....the outlook is bleak. Don't be surprised by round-trip daily fares that jump sharply in 2010 for both bus and subway service.'

And there's a downside to being Sidwell Friends, the preferred private school of presidents, politicians, and other local big shots---your high profile makes you a target for protests, Michael Birnbaum reports in WaPo. The nutjobs from the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas showed up Monday. Since the Obama girls enrolled, Birnbaum writes, 'Sidwell has been pulled into the spotlight of a distinctly 21st-century culture---one that is increasingly celebrity-obsessed and often shockingly unmannered....When five anti-Obama, anti-gay protesters appeared in front of the school's Wisconsin Avenue NW entrance Monday morning, they were met by 150 Sidwell students waving signs ranging from "There is that of God in Everyone" to "I Kissed a Girl and I Liked It."'

Hill East resident, while videotaping rowdy kids on their way home from school, is hit in the face by rock. NC8 reports: 'Fed up and frustrated by the students' disregard for residents and the latest attack, [Tim Krepp] followed the group to the Metro where he says a Metro employee was unwilling to help. The students disappeared on the trains. Neighbors and police believe the students attend [Eliot-Hine] Junior High, which is just blocks away from the neighborhood. Police tell ABC 7 News they plan to make announcements at the school and send in officers to let the rock wielding students, whoever they are, know that officers are on the case and that behavior won't be tolerated.' Also WUSA-TV.

In District Weekly, WaPo's Timothy Wilson covers the results of the latest Ready Schools survey from nonprofit DC VOICE. Findings: '[P]rincipals are receiving more support and resources from the school system since the initial report in 2004....Eighty-nine percent of principals were able fulfill their staffing needs by the start of the school year, compared with about 40 percent last year. About 50 percent were able to fulfill their staffing needs five years ago.'

Union Station is replacing the 'Circle of Flags' on Columbus Circle after Tom Sherwood's WRC-TV reporting pointed out their tattered state. 'Park Service spokesman Bill Line told News4 and NBCWashington.com that our call prompted the quick action. Line said the Park Service tries to replace the flags two or three times a year and had just done so in early October. "We take it very seriously," Line said. He blamed bad weather---wind and rain---on the quick deterioration of the flags. Rather than inspect every one, they were simply replaced.'

Weird, intersexual-fish-causing chemicals in the Potomac! Get to legislatin', Cheh!

GW Hatchet covers changes to vending regulations.

Black clergy works to overcome H1N1 vaccine fears, WAMU-FM reports. Also Informer covers black response to HIV/AIDS.

Lez Get Real covers D.C. rights for nonbiological parents of children born to same-sex couples. 'With the passing of this legislation, the District of Columbia will become the first jurisdiction in the nation to enact a statute specifically providing children born through artificial insemination with two legal parents from the beginning even when those parents are a same-sex or different-sex unmarried couple. Until now, a mother's same-sex partner in the District of Columbia could become a child's parent only through an expensive and lengthy adoption process.'

Home sales are way up in the suburbs, Examiner reports, with days-on-market figures plunging for just about every regional jurisdiction...but not in the District. Homes spent an average of 91 days on market in October 2009, versus 77 days in October 2008.

Eyewitness account of the D.C. sniper execution, from WaTimes' Sarah Abruzzese.

Dr. Gridlock addresses the new 15th Street NW 'contraflow' bike lane.

Dee Hunter disbarred in Maryland. His U Street campaign office strangely persists.

New D.C. tourism Web site.

Jim Riggleman will remain Nats manager.

Mattie Cummings obit, from Memphis Commercial Appeal. 'During her son Marion Barry's well-publicized troubles in Washington, Mattie Cummings stood by him. When the former D.C. mayor was arrested and imprisoned for drug use, Mrs. Cummings was by his side as he went to jail. When he was released six months later, she was again there for him.'

Kwame Brown broke his ankle! '"I was dunking the ball, and normally I dunk with two hands but I dunked with one....And normally I land on two feet, but this time I landed on one, and it was too much weight,' the 5-foot-7 legislator tells WaPo's Nikita Stewart.

D.C. COUNCIL TODAY---10 a.m.: Committee on Finance and Revenue hearing on B18-423 ('NoMa Water and Sewer Improvement Special Assessment Authorization Act of 2009'), B18-431 ('OTO Hotel at Constitution Square Economic Development Act of 2009'), B18-432 ('Third and H Streets, N.E., Economic Development Act of 2009'), and B18-475 ('Arthur Capper/ Carrollsburg Public Improvements Revenue Bonds Amendment Act of 2009'), JAWB 412; 10:30 a.m.: Committee on Government Operations and the Environment hearing on B18-64 ('Lead Hazard Prevention and Elimination Amendment Act of 2009'), JAWB 123; 2 p.m.: Committee on Health roundtable on 'The Implementation of the Healthy DC Program,' JAWB 500; 4 p.m.: Committee on Public Services and Consumer Affairs hearing on B18-407 ('Tenant Advisory Council Clarification Amendment Act of 2009') and B18-484 ('Tenant Bill of Rights Amendment Act of 2009'), JAWB 123.

ADRIAN FENTY TODAY---6:45 a.m.: remarks, Connecting with the Mayor, WRC-TV; 7:10 a.m.: remarks, Fenty on Fox, WRC-TV; 10:30 a.m.: remarks, CVS groundbreaking, Georgia and New Hampshire Avenues NW.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"Fenty Promises To Replace Hartsock By Dec. 1"; "Pershing Park Case: Is Peter Nickles Ready To Deal?"; tweets galore!

Good Veterans Day morning to all. Yesterday, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray celebrated his 68th birthday with a party/fundraiser at the Beacon Hotel. LL, feeling under the weather, couldn't make it, but WaPo's Nikita Stewart did, calling it 'like a pre-mayoral campaign kickoff.' From her D.C. Wire report: 'Go-go godfather Chuck Brown, who is also the father of Ward 4 activist Cherita Whiting, led the crowd in a chorus of "Happy Birthday."...There were some interesting faces in the crowd: Greg O'Dell, who heads the Washington Convention and Sports Authority and happens to be a fraternity brother of Fenty; Adrienne Todman, the interim director of the D.C. Housing Authority who has had to answer questions about controversial construction contracts; and Lateef Mangum, Fenty's former photographer.' Also there: Sharon Pratt, Linda Cropp, and Virginia Williams, and all CMs except Marion Barry, mourning his mother.

AFTER THE JUMP---The D.C. sniper mastermind is dead; more stories about Fenty's biking habits; council and mayor come to an understanding on Hartsock; gay marriage bill is out of committee; Randi Weingarten as next DCPS chancellor?

John Allen Muhammad is dead, executed last night at the Greenville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Va. He made no statement before receiving a lethal injection. From WaPo: 'Muhammad, a man who directed what many law enforcement officials consider one of the worst outbursts of crime in the nation's history, died in Virginia's death chamber while relatives of his victims looked on. Unlike his victims, Muhammad knew when and how he was going to die....Virginia authorities escorted Muhammad, in denim and flip-flops, into a small room at the Greensville Correctional Center and strapped him to a cross-shaped table. He was then injected with a series of lethal drugs beginning at 9:06 p.m. and he was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m.'

Controversy persists over Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's bike rides. WTOP's Mark Segraves does a second-day story on Fenty's use of SUVs on loan from the federal homeland security department to transport his Cannondale race bike to triathlons. 'According to records obtained by WTOP through the Freedom of Information Act, the mayor's Executive Protection Unit has signed out one or both of the SUVs 25 times between September of 2008 and June of 2009. Fourteen of those dates coincide with race events Fenty participated in.' Meanwhile, both WUSA-TV and WTTG-TV run follow-up stories with Fenty's response, highlighting that bikes aren't allowed on the Clara Barton Parkway. Even WaPo acknowledges the story. DCist's Martin Austermuhle, however, says Segraves' story has prompted a cyclist backlash, saying they were 'left seething at what they perceived as a hit-job not on Fenty, but on them.'

The summit meeting between Fenty and five councilmembers happened Monday evening in a bullpen conference room, as Stewart reports at D.C. Wire. WCP learns that Fenty agreed at the meeting to replace Ximena Hartsock at DPR by Dec. 1. But, he said, 'I want you to understand something---anything we agree to will not dictate my actions as mayor.'

Gay marriage bill is passed out of the D.C. Council's judiciary committee, setting up a first-reading vote for early December and final passage before year's end. The vote was 4 to 1, with Yvette Alexander dissenting. Writes Tim Craig in WaPo: 'If it survives congressional review, officials said, same-sex couples will be allowed to marry in the District by spring. "We will get this to the mayor and Congress, and it will become law," said council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2). Before the committee vote, Alexander unsuccessfully pushed an amendment that would have allowed any individual to decline to provide services related to same-sex weddings.''

Metro agrees to let inspectors from oversight board access live tracks to check safety procedures, days after WaPo story revealed some reticence to do so. Says Jim Graham: 'We are reversing that, we are rejecting that, we are repudiating that.' Writes Lena Sun and Joe Stephens: 'Graham said that he met with Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. on Tuesday and that "it was most clearly agreed" that there would be "no impediments placed in the way" of the inspectors' from the Tri-State Oversight Committee.

WaPo editorial board has a question for Metro: 'What does the transit agency have to hide?' They add: 'Metro's first responsibility is to the safety of its passengers and employees -- a responsibility that it has failed to live up to in repeated instances this year alone....[W]e suggest that the Senate probe be broadened to cover the agency's impulse to flinch from openness, even or especially on issues related to safety.'

Noel Bravo will replace Noah Wepman as DCPS chief financial officer, Bill Turque reports at D.C. Wire. 'Bravo is walking into what has become one of District government's most punishing posts. Wepman's departure marks the second time on Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's watch that the school system's top fiscal officer has left in the wake of questions about the transparency of the agency's budget process. Wepman and his predecessor, Pamela Graham, took different paths to the exit sign. But both ultimately discovered that trying to keep the numbers straight under Rhee's high-velocity attempt at transformation can be dangerous to your career health.'

Get this: WaPo ed columnist Jay Mathews says that if Michelle Rhee leaves D.C. to follow her heart to Sacramento, AFT president Randi Weingarten should replace her. 'I hear your gasps of astonishment, your muttered conclusions that the Redskins' awful season has finally sent me over the edge....But if Rhee did decide to leave (and I have no inside knowledge suggesting that she's planning to), I don't think Weingarten is a political impossibility as a replacement. First, Mayor Adrian Fenty, who obviously loves surprising people, could see the startling, news-generating appointment as a way to push to the back pages all those stories about city contracts with his friends....In D.C., where politics is deep blue, who in power will make a fuss about picking Weingarten, a member of the Democratic National Committee, a lesbian and a skilled politician who knows just how to talk to council members?'

Ryan J. Reilly, former CP intern, writes for Main Justice on proposals for an elected DA for D.C. Eleanor Holmes Norton, he writes, 'argues that the District U.S. Attorney “needs to be freed up to handle national security and other vital federal cases, particularly in the post-9/11 nation’s capital.” But a spokesman for the office seemed to think it was handling the caseload just fine. “We put a huge amount of resources into local prosecutions,” Ben Friedman told Main Justice. “We are the local prosecutor and we act like it.”'

ALSO---WaTimes takes EHN to task for comments blaming Republicans for HIV/AIDS rate in D.C.

Zoning Commission gives initial thumbs-up to Fort Totten and Brookland mixed-use projects expected to 'dramatically alter' their Northeast neighborhoods, Ovetta Wiggins reports in WaPo. 'To receive final approval, the groups behind the projects, the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation and Abdo Development, must submit information to the commission about the community benefits they plan to provide, zoning officials said. Final action is scheduled for Dec. 14.'

City kicks off replacement of Eastern Avenue bridge over Kenilworth Avenue. Writes Ashley Halsey III in WaPo, 'The bridge has been a too-short player in a tall-truck world, resulting in many a crunching encounter that have caused backups to radiate through adjoining streets and highways. One of the most memorable occurred four years ago, when a backhoe atop a flatbed trailer -- total height 15 feet -- rammed into the bridge, which has a clearance of 14 feet. The only things hurt were the bridge and the schedules of thousands of drivers caught in the ensuing traffic. The new bridge will have a 16-foot clearance.' The project will close the bridge to traffic for about a year.

New study sees quick rebound for D.C. area economy, V. Dion Haynes reports in WaPo, and that in turn 'should help local governments restore tax revenue to pre-recession levels quicker than other municipalities across the country, according to a new report Tuesday by the bond rating firm Moody's Investors Service.' Still: 'It's going to be another tough year -- I doubt there's going to be a quick recovery," said Dave Robertson, executive director of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. "No one is predicting that next fiscal year everything will be back to normal."'

Rydell Dickerson, 18, of Capitol Heights is killed in double shooting early Tuesday on the 1100 block of 21st Street NE. Another man with gunshot wounds was hospitalized. DCist notes that homicides are still 25 percent down from last year.

WBJ's Jonathan O'Connell covers Monday's 'Actionomics' summit, which was hosted by the WDCEP and Vincent Gray and attracted about 150 participants. 'In the crowd were advocates for ever-starving artists, bankers with new lending restrictions, city officials who face budget shortfalls, developers and property owners who cannot start their projects due to the credit crunch, and techies who are short on capital; essentially, there was plenty of desperation. During a half day of brainstorming they batted around ideas for some ongoing problems, such as how to encourage low-income D.C. residents to open bank accounts, how to enliven the city's corridors during the construction slowdown, how to find space for local artists and how to attract tech firms.'

Ward 3 Dems chair Tom Smith does some WaTimes 'Citizen Journalism' on speeches given to his group by Gray and Rhee---on the night of the D.C. Council's RIF hearing.

Read Black Enterprise cover profile of Don Peebles.

WTOP's Adam Tuss covers DDOT pilot program to allow drivers to pay for parking via cell phone.

Props to Nat Gandhi: D.C. is a regional finalist for Deal of the Year honors from Bond Buyer magazine for the $800M income-tax-secured revenue bond issue.

Taxi companies set to introduce wheelchair-accessible vehicles by December. 'Yellow Cab and Royal Cab...should have 20 cabs that can accommodate wheelchairs in service by January. The federally funded project, which the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board initiated last year, also will receive matching funds from the D.C. Taxicab Commission,' WaPo reports.

A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE---Hey, our mayor isn't on trial!

Dead cats on Capitol Hill! Are they due to young kids with a pit bull?

We Love D.C. debunks Metro usage myths.

The D.C. Armor may be done with D.C.: '[T]he team began informing partners in October that it may be leaving town. Andre Johnson, a minority owner for the team, said the ownership group is considering moving to a smaller market and will probably make a final decision in a few weeks. “I don’t want to say yes, we’re going to leave, because it’s not 100 percent,” Johnson said. “What we’ve realized is that there’s definitely a market for this sport and this brand of football and it’s given us a lot of options.”'

Susie Cambria notes a proposed increase in UDC law tuition.

Another anti-gay incident reported at Georgetown U.

Habitat for Humanity fixes up pastor's one-room house in Northeast.

IBM to add up to 100 jobs at K Street facility.

Here's a somewhat longer WaPo obituary for Mattie Cummings, Marion Barry's mother: 'She was an advocate of her son's rise from political activist to politician, and she supported him in his bleakest hours. He was forced to leave the mayor's office in 1991 after being convicted of drug possession, and he served six months in prison. She was also by his side when he was reelected mayor in 1994.'

D.C. COUNCIL TODAY---No events scheduled.

ADRIAN FENTY TODAY---No public events scheduled.

Have you thanked a veteran today? What are you waiting for? Technology is only getting faster! That’s right, soon you will be able to thank a veteran by using a technology chip in your mind! (No, there’s no actual link to that…it's just a theory.)

Can’t remember if the Georgetown Circulator exists? Download the new iPhone app! And while you’re at it, you may soon be able to pay for parking at meters with your cell phone! Isn’t technology great? Oh wait, WUSA has just reported that there is a new virus that downloads child porn onto your computer. Does it call Chris Hansen too?

Do you Twitter? Do you use LinkedIn? This was actually a secret intern test to remember not to trust you (because you are obviously over 30, we don't touch that stuff). Anyway, the two companies announced a new partnership yesterday.

Stop the presses (are there any left to stop?)—commenters on Prince of Petworth universally agree that the new mural on Sherman Avenue and Barry Place NW is awesome.

The Advoc8te bemoans the lack of local news coverage in Ward 8, and argues that bloggers have been picking up most of the slack. Looks like print journalism’s fat lady is singing before I even graduate. At least when I’m unemployed, I’ll still be able to get a haircut.

Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service has reportedly placed an online ad for a new dean. A commenter says, “Let’s also put it on Craigslist. Then people searching for DVD players can also apply.”

And two things technology has yet to solve: death and politics. John Allen Muhammad, the D.C. sniper, was pronounced dead by lethal injection last night at 9:11 p.m. EST.

WTOP also reported on Monday that it caught Mayor Adrian M. Fenty biking in Bethesda in (gasp!) a no-biking zone. Oh right, he also used police officers and their handy sirens to clear traffic—apparently a violation of federal law. Evidence of corruption, or political mud-throwing? You decide. But this has to be evidence that we need more bike lanes. Fix that, iPhone.

Photo by Christopher Chan, Creative Commons Attribution License

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"Nickles Seeks Order Barring Public From Seeing Pershing Park Discovery Materials"; "WTOP: Fenty Uses D.C. Cops to Escort Cycling Team"; tweets galore!

Morning all. The big news yesterday came from WTOP's Mark Segraves, and his report, complete with video evidence, that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty is in the habit of regularly having police motorcycles accompany himself and his cycling team on midday training rides. Picking up on the story were WJLA-TV, WTTG-TV, WUSA-TV, DCist, and LL---meaning that Hizzoner has lost yet another news cycle to allegations of arrogance and misdealing. WRC-TV's Tom Sherwood takes a more expansive view of Hizzoner's style, noting that it's not unusual for 'take-charge mayors of big cities' to, well, take charge. It's just that Fenty seems particularly tone-deaf about how he does it, leading to 'a consistent drumbeat around town that he's overdoing it with his "I'm in charge; you're not" frame of mind. Even discounting the criticisms from people who have lost their jobs or who are tied to the old-school way of doing things, there still seems to be too much grumbling about this mayor's ABC's -- arrogance, bullying and cronyism.'

AFTER THE JUMP---City settles first protest lawsuit; Wepman is out as DCPS financial officer; religious freedom provisions strengthened in gay marriage bill; Barry reality show taping confirmed; prosecutors explain handling of Tony Randolph Hunter case; the teabagger angle on the teacher layoffs

The city has settled the first of the four wrongful detention cases connected to April 2002 protests, Keith Alexander reports in WaPo. The eight plaintiffs will get $25,000 apiece, with the rest of the $450K going to attorney's fees for the Partnership for Civil Justice. '[A]s attorneys for the protesters were preparing for the trial, which was scheduled to begin in federal court Nov. 30, they unearthed D.C. police logs that confirm the role of a secret FBI intelligence unit in the incident....D.C. police agreed not to allow outside agencies to question people in police custody without a D.C. police officer signing off on the questioning. "We believe this will make it impossible for this kind of illegal action to occur again," [said PCJ lawyer Mara Verheyden-Hilliard].' AG Peter Nickles has promised to settle the remaining cases, including Pershing Park, by Thanksgiving.

The council claims a scalp: Noah Wepman, chief financial officer for the D.C. Public Schools, either handed his resignation to or was dispatched by CFO Natwar Gandhi in recent days, depending on which press report you believe. (WaPo says he quit; WTOP says he was fired.) His ouster follows an Oct. 29 council hearing performance that might have been considered among the worst the Wilson Building's seen in years, had the facts he had to defend not been so indefensible. Writes Bill Turque: 'Whether he was thrown from the train or jumped off by himself, it was clear that Wepman had big problems after acknowledging at an Oct. 29 hearing that he had not reported the existence of a $12 million-plus deficit in DCPS' 2010 budget. Wepman handled school finances for [Rhee], but reported to [Gandhi], who certified the District's 2010 budget as in balance without knowledge of the deficit. Although he had told Rhee's people, Wepman conceded that he should have made Gandhi aware of the problem.'

Gay marriage bill is amended and ready for today's markup. The changes, as detailed in WaPo by Tim Craig, include maintaining domestic partnerships, as well as 'a provision that will make it easier for church officials to avoid participation in gay weddings and receptions'---a bow of sorts of the Archdiocese of Washington and other same-sex marriage opponents. 'The proposed revisions mean, for example, that church officials do not have to rent reception space to a same-sex couple for a wedding, even if heterosexual couples can access that space. But churches would still have to abide by other aspects of the city's Human Rights Act, including not discriminating against gay employees who choose to get married.' So, hey, there's that. Also Blade, and DCist even reads the committee report.

Marion Barry reality show update: DCist confirms Congress Heights on the Rise's rumor that that he's filming a pilot. LL hears the producer is Kirk Fraser, the man behind filmed bios of Rayful Edmond and Len Bias.

Aftermath of WaPo story on Metro's impeding oversight track inspections: Sen. Barbara Mikulski demands an investigation and Sen. Robert Menendez wants hearings into why the transit agency refused to let inspectors from an oversight group onto tracks, Lena Sun and Joe Stephens write . And 'Metro board Chairman Jim Graham said Monday that the transit agency's safety chief was "out of order" when she denied access to the monitors.' And from Eleanor Holmes Norton: 'Ultimately, however, "nothing short of federal regulation is going to do the job" of ensuring that the train system is safe, she said.' Also Examiner, which airs Metro complaint that this inspector thing was a whole lotta nothin'. Richard Layman wonders whether the Public Service Commission should get back into the transit oversight biz.

ALSO---Metro employee union goes to court, seeking enforcement of pay raise arbitration decision. Also WTOP.

Prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's office show at meeting of Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence to explain why Robert Hannah got six months for the assault that killed Tony Randolph Hunter last fall. It did not go so well for them, Blade reports: 'Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Flynn, a 20-year veteran prosecutor specializing in homicide cases, startled some of the activists at the Nov. 5 forum...when he said the “system worked” in the case of gay beating death victim [Hunter]. Flynn also elicited anger and disbelief from the forum’s participants when he acknowledged that he had never heard of the so-called gay panic defense.' Which Hannah more or less used.

WaPo ed board says the New Haven, Conn., teacher contract so often lauded by unions and the Obama administration alike is 'tepid' and 'timid.' Of course: 'To find a place where someone is pushing reforms worthy of his rhetoric, Mr. Duncan might do better to look out his window. D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is trying to make big changes, like breaking the stranglehold of seniority and being able to reward the best teachers.' The board also addresses congressional efforts 'gumming up' needle exchange programs.

LL is sure that his multitudes of readers were waiting for a Teabagger angle to the DCPS layoffs. Well, here it is, courtesy of Examiner columnist Barbara Hollingsworth: 'According to the federal government's Foreign Labor Certification Data Center, D.C. Public Schools submitted 46 labor condition applications in 2007 and 2008, giving [Michelle Rhee] authority to import hundreds of foreign teachers on H1B visas without having to make any attempt to find eligible Americans.' She points to no such holders of said visas now teaching in DCPS schools, but hey: 'What urban school districts really need are right-to-work laws that empower school administrators to hire professional Americans with college degrees in needed core subject areas who are willing to give teaching a chance.' U-S-A! U-S-A!

WUSA-TV's Bruce Johnson covers the latest sad funeral at Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church, of a young man who died before his time. 'The ushers at Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church estimate that in the past year alone they have eulogized about 15 innocent young people who met violent deaths in the District....Today, 19-year-old Aaron Brice of Silver Spring, Maryland was eulogized by a packed congregation that chose to celebrate his young life rather than simply mourning his sudden loss. Brice was shot and killed on Halloween night at a party in Columbia, Maryland that had been advertised on Facebook.'

National study sponsored by education-reformist groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, finds that D.C. suffers from an 'inability to remove bad teachers from the classroom,' Leah Fabel reports in Examiner. But hey: 'Certain reforms, especially in the District, were not cited in the report because of the study's timing. D.C. Public Schools, for example, received an "F" grade in the data category because it lacked a system to track students' progress throughout their school years.' Adds WaPo: 'The study graded states and the District on policy questions central to the Obama administration's education agenda.'

More from WaPo on the police chase/shootout that ended early Monday on I-295.

Petworth neighbors remember shopkeeper Rufina Hernandez, slain Saturday. NC8 reports: 'All day long the liquor store "La Casa de Morata" was the focus of a community's outrage and grief. "She didn't deserve this. She was too nice with everyone," said customer Will Pagan on Monday. "It just doesn't make sense." "She was a very sweet woman," shared Felicia Heiskell, a store customer. "Everybody called her 'Mom.'"' Also WRC-TV, WTTG-TV. And see the official police flyer, via PoP.

Feds say that Lawrence E. Thomas was returning to his old stomping grounds when he robbed a pair of downtown banks in recent months, Examiner reports. Thomas had been convicted of robbing a nearby bank in 1999. This time, he grabbed $4,500.

Car crashes into 2615 Bowen Road SE.

Why foster care court hearings should be opened to public scrutiny, according to UDC law prof Matt Fraidin: 'Secret proceedings means that you can't meet the children whose lives are turned upside-down, perhaps never to be righted – for no reason. You can't observe the rubber-stamp hearings. You can't watch a case worker hem and haw an explanation about why a distraught child hasn't been referred to a therapist, despite a court order directing the referral. You can't see a lawyer guessing at his client's position, rather than knowing it, because the lawyer hasn't met with the client since the previous court hearing. You can't sit in the back of a courtroom and shake your head in frustration and disgust at a judge who openly flouts the law, refusing to let a child live with her beloved aunt, simply because it is that judge's "personal policy" not to allow children to live with relatives unless [CFSA] agrees. You can't know what's going on, and you can't do anything about it.'

District Daily, the new project of why.i.hate.dc's Dave Stroup, profiles mayoral wannabe Leo Alexander. '"No one wants to talk about it, but..." is a good way to sum up Leo Alexander. He talks about parental responsibility in the black community. He openly talks about illegal immigration. Not so much about the greater ideological issues, but that fighting illegal immigration costs the District $86 million each year. He wants to send that bill to the Federal government. Alexander personally doesn't support gay marriage, and politically he takes an even more interesting position. Civil unions for all, if it was up to Leo Alexander.'

Fenty debuts 'Young Adult Internship Program,' which would be a 'new work force pilot program for 18-to-24 year olds,' WBJ reports. 'Participants work with case managers to devise personal and professional goals. Interns will be placed at designated work sites, where they work four days per week for $8.25 an hour. A mandatory employment training workshop is held on the fifth day, which will teach financial literary and critical thinking skills.'

Craziness at WaTimes! Three execs out, and possibly editor John Solomon, too. Writes WaPo: 'Of [the Rev. Sun Myung Moon]'s 13 children, the mantle generally has been passed to three sons and a daughter, but specifics have been elusive. Church members said this week that the shakeup at the Times reflected a power struggle among the sons.'

Tax breaks: Not just for Jim Graham! DCFPI suggests that Tommy Wells is handing 'em out all over the place!

German Embassy on Reservoir Road is getting 'gut rehabilitation,' WBJ reports, meaning the Teutons will be moving their diplomatic operations to M Street offices recently vacated by EU.

AWARDS TIME! Get your noms in for the Cafrtiz Awards for Distinguished D.C. Government Employees by Dec. 11. And Wells is taking suggestions for his Livable Walkables (aka the Brickies) until Nov. 30.

Roll Call has more on the new Michael David Baldacci book inspired by Cathy Lanier. Did you know: 'The book’s mayor...appears to be a cynic’s take on D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty. He is “young and good-looking” but also a “cagey politician, meaning that the person he looked out for most stared back at him in the mirror every morning.”' And 'Balducci’s book also includes some wishful thinking, giving the city a forensic lab that can turn around DNA samples within days. The real lab has been in the works for years. But officials haven’t even broken ground, so the real-life police chief might have trouble tracking down a national conspiracy in less than a week.'

Scientologists open new D.C. home at 16th and P Streets NW, WBJ reports. 'Mike Silverstein, president of the Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Association represented Mayor Adrian Fenty at the event.' He did?

NC8 covers NY Avenue construction.

DID YOU KNOW?---UDC Prez Allen Sessoms has a blog? Well, he does!

Read the brief WaPo obit for Marion Barry's mom, Mattie Cummings.

By the time you read the next edition of LL Daily, John Allen Muhammad will almost certainly be dead. WTTG-TV gets the Chief Moose interview.

D.C. COUNCIL TODAY---10:30 a.m.: Committee on Government Operations and the Environment hearing on B18-460 ('Prohibition on Government Employee Engagement in Political Activity Act of 2009'), JAWB 412; 1 p.m.: Committee of the Whole hearing on PR18-535, ('Board of Zoning Adjustment Nicole Sorg Confirmation Resolution of 2009'), JAWB 500; 2:30 p.m.: Committee on Public Works and Transportation roundtable on PR18-556 ('Alcoholic Beverage Control Board Charles Brodsky Chairperson Confirmation Resolution of 2009'), JAWB 120.

ADRIAN FENTY TODAY---10:30 a.m.: remarks, Eastern Avenue Bridge modernization announcement, Eastern and Kenilworth Avenues NE.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"Fenty Fundraises in San Francisco"; "City Agencies Asked to 'Dig Deeply' to Cover $300M 2011 Budget Gap"; tweets galore!

Morning all. Kathy Patterson, in a WaPo op-ed, begins her advice for Chancellor Michelle Rhee by invoking names like Arlene Ackerman and Julius Becton. The lesson from those failed DCPS chiefs: 'You can't fix schools from the top down, and working from the bottom up requires working with the duly elected legislature of the District. How to get along with the council? Pretending it doesn't exist isn't the answer. Far better would be a program of preventive maintenance made up of regular conversations and a policy of "no surprises."' Furthermore: 'Communication is a two-way street, and politicians no less than superintendents have a responsibility to keep channels open. The notion of a superintendent or chancellor as change agent on horseback, single-handedly rebuilding a system and improving learning, is illusory.' A must-click.

Also: Mattie Cummings, mother of Marion Barry, has died at 92 in Memphis. In a release, Barry 'asks that you keep him and his family in your prayers.' LL offers his condolences to the CM and family. See Tim Craig's item at D.C. Wire for more.

AFTER THE JUMP---Barry reportedly taping reality show; Colby King says Hizzoner needs to watch out, lest he get Bloomberged; Jonetta recounts the history of cronyism in the District; Georgia Avenue liquor store holdup leads to shopkeeper slaying; deer becomes dinner for zoo lions

IN OTHER MARION BARRY NEWS---Congress Heights on the Rise reports that the mayor-for-life is 'in the process of filming a reality show pilot....No word yet on when the show would make its way to TV or on what network, but folks are telling The Advoc8te they have seen the film crews trailing Barry about town and that members of his staff have confirmed that they are in fact filming a pilot for Barry's reality show.'

Colby King, in his Saturday column, expands on the thought that Mike Bloomberg's close call in New York ought to sober up Mayor Adrian M. Fenty: 'If Fenty somehow missed the message from Manhattan, it's this: Money and a slick, professional campaign strategy can take an incumbent, even one as seasoned as Bloomberg, only so far; likability counts, too....Bloomberg had a record to run on: improved schools, less crime, better public services. But he and his outsized ego got in the way of his accomplishments. Adrian Fenty seems headed in the same direction....Fenty has come to regard himself as never wrong, invulnerable and beyond accountability. That could prove politically fatal.' King adds that the park contracts 'carry a whiff of something that is disagreeable to the nose' and this: 'This is no time for stonewalling. Anyone and everyone with knowledge about what happened should be required to testify before the council. If they don't, then to a grand jury.'

King this weekend also offers a second, online only piece about a 2004 gang report commissioned by DCPS. 'The report...surveyed students in each secondary public school in the District. Forty-four schools---grades eight to 12---were asked to participate. In total, 42 (95 percent) of the eligible schools did so. More than 2,800 students completed the survey....Westat, which was paid more than $50,000, submitted the survey results and recommendations to DCPS in September 2004. And then? Nothing, according to Westat Senior Study Director Joseph Hawkins, who served as the gang survey's project director. Hawkins said that Westat was not asked to make a formal presentation to the school system or to any other D.C. agency. Neither did anyone in the school system invite Westat to discuss the findings. The survey, as far as can be determined, was put on the shelf or stuck in a desk drawer somewhere....It deserved, at least, a public airing. The 107-page report, complete with detailed tables, revealed criminal behavior within school walls and in nearby neighborhoods that ought to shock the sensibilities of parents and residents across the city.' He also shares lists of gangs and crews complied by various sources.

Metro has prevented inspectors from the Tri-State Oversight Committee from observing trackside safety procedures, WaPo reports on A1 today. 'The monitors...wanted to determine whether Metro was following rules put in place in recent years after a number of workers had been fatally injured on the job. Instead, they have spent the past six months pressing Metro in writing and in person for access---a period in which two Metro employees were struck and fatally injured on the tracks,' Joe Stephens and Lena Sun write. 'The monitors became so frustrated that at one point, internal e-mails show, they discussed formally notifying federal officials and invoking their toughest sanction: declaring Metro to be officially out of compliance with safety requirements. Such a move could cause Metro to lose part of its federal funding.' Metro calls the dispute the result of a 'misimpression.'

Jonetta Rose Barras, in her Examiner column today, leads us on a tour of District contracting cronyism through the ages. First was Marion Barry and Don Peebles. Then came Tony Williams and Jair Lynch. 'Now comes Fenty with his band of buddies who, not unlike Peebles, think they deserve a share of the booty because they helped Fenty get elected. Some may be qualified to receive the bennies they seek, but others are not. By helping them gain influence and affluence, Fenty has cast himself as yet another acolyte of the city's inglorious contracting tradition.' Barring a full procurement reform effort, Barras writes, 'the legislature may want to consider rescinding the independent contracting authority of all agencies, including the DCHA.'

Michael Neibauer explores in Examiner the connection between the DPR-to-DCHA contracting mess and Fenty's proposal last fall to send DPR capital projects to Allen Lew's school facilities shop. 'A year ago Saturday, Fenty stood outside the Bald Eagle Recreation Center in Southwest to announce that Lew would take over construction duties for the Department of Parks and Recreation....Council members were furious. Thomas immediately proposed emergency legislation directing Lew to manage school projects only. The resolution was adopted unanimously. "I'm going to be very vigilant about ensuring the parks and recreation budget maintains autonomy without the mayor going around the process," Thomas said at the time. The mayor went around the process.' Says Jack Evans of the council rejection, 'In retrospect, I don't know if that was such a good idea.'

In Saturday night holdup gone tragically wrong, 51-year-old Rufina Hernandez is murdered in La Casa De Morata, the liquor store she owned on the 5400 block of Georgia Avenue NW. WaPo reports: 'Based on the account of at least one other employee in the store, investigators believe that two men, one armed with a handgun, entered the business and demanded money from Hernandez. Hernandez "was cooperating and was fully complying with all the demands," Johnson said, but one of the suspects "shot her anyway." The two suspects fled on foot,' leading detectives to believe that the shooters 'might have been neighborhood residents looking to score some quick cash close to home.' Also NC8, WRC-TV, WUSA-TV, WTTG-TV.

On Tuesday night, D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad is scheduled to die by lethal injection in a Virginia prison. See remembrances of the his terror campaign, and his victims' anguish, in stories by Michael Ruane in WaPo, Bill Myers in Examiner (twice), Harry Jaffe in Examiner, Dena Potter for AP, and David Dishneau for AP, plus WTTG-TV.

From Friday's Kojo show: News that Patton Boggs associate Vicky Beasley will replace Elizabeth Noel as People's Counsel. From her Patton profile: 'Ms. Beasley's clients include telecommunications entities, quasi-governmental entities, investment funds and private investment firms in various industries. Ms. Beasley also has significant experience advising clients on election law related issues. She served as director of Legal Outreach & Planning for a major partner in the non-partisan Election Protection program during the 2004 Presidential Election cycle – an initiative that provided pro bono assistance to groups and individuals with the goal to ensure that eligible and qualified voters were able to vote during the 2004 election cycle.'

City loosens restrictions on protest signs as lawsuit over their constitutionality continues, Neibauer reports in Examiner. Where signs used to be limited to 60 days before an event, rules issued last week says that they can go up anytime prior, so long as they're removed within 30 days after the event. 'Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a partnership lawyer, said the decision to issue revised rules is a "major concession" on the District's part. But the regulations remain "hopelessly unconstitutional," she said, because the District is "still regulating based on content" and requiring that posters are registered. The new rules, however, could open the poster floodgate. A candidate for elected office in 2010, for example, can start posting now.'

WaPo ed board stumps for a 'future for Fort Totten,' urging zoning commission approval for the Cafritz Foundation's $425M Art Place and Shops at Fort Totten: 'The area around this strategic Metro station has too long gone underutilized, and the proposed mix of residential and retail development would help transform a neighborhood stuck in the 1950s.'

WaPo's Henri Cauvin covers District's mental health mobile crisis unit---'an effort by the D.C. Department of Mental Health to rebuild its capacity to help people in crisis and those veering toward one....[C]ounselors crisscross the city every day and night, the frontline of the District's reinvigorated emergency psychiatric care program. In its first year, the mobile unit, with 17 counselors, psychiatrists and social workers, has helped more than 1,500 people. With the city's mental health system in the midst of a major overhaul, the need for a mobile crisis team has perhaps never been greater.'

Michael Brown, rejoice: Rhee and UDC President Allen Sessoms are planning to meet, finally, 'to brainstorm joint programs designed for the city's students,' Leah Fabel reports in Examiner. 'Rhee spokeswoman Jennifer Calloway said the timing of the meetings, to be held later this month, has more to do with adhering to a long-term plan....UDC spokesman Alan Etter said simply, "We've been trying to put this together for a long time," adding that the addition this year of a community college to the university may have attracted the positive attention.'

WaPo education columnist Jay Mathews says there may be much sturm und drang over the District's teacher evaluation system, but at least DCPS has a meaningful one. In the suburbs, 'close to 100 percent of our teachers are entirely satisfactory....Here are the percentages of teachers rated satisfactory, in some cases called meeting or exceeding the standard: Alexandria, 99 percent; Calvert, 99.8 percent; Charles, 98.4 percent; Culpeper, 97 percent; Fairfax, 99.1 percent; Falls Church, 99.55 percent; Loudoun, 99 percent; Montgomery, 95 percent; Prince George's, 95.56 percent; and Prince William, 98.3 percent.'

ALSO---News and react on the Rhee engagement news from SacBee, EdWeek, Chosun Ilbo. Also, in case you are wondering if there were any news outlets left to do fawning profiles of the chancellor, there are. Such as Asiance, which is "Connecting Asian Women to the World."

Man stabbed to death in Petworth apartment. Landscaper Kevin J. Massey, 31, was found dead Friday night in his home on the 4200 block of 2nd Street NW.

Donnell Tyson, 25, is found shot dead on the 5000 block of Bass Place SE early Saturday. Police were led to his body by ShotSpotter.

Woman, 20, ordered held in connection with Sept. 13 shooting murder on 4000 block of Minnesota Avenue NE. 'The gun used in the shooting was not found, [Judge Michael Rankin] said, and so he was concerned about the public's safety should Neeley be allowed to stay in a halfway house or returned home under electronic monitoring.'

Man, 23, killed Wednesday in Petworth scooter crash, WaPo reports. 'Lino Montiel of Tuckerman Street NW was thrown from his scooter about 11:15 p.m. when it jumped a curb at 16th and Emerson streets NW and struck a light pole.'

Four arrested in connection with August 2008 shooting of Michael Henry, 25, in Congress Heights. WaPo's Paul Duggan also notes arrests made in two October murders. Jeffrey Anderson notes at WaTimes that Ashton Hunter, 19, murdered on Halloween night by Darrell Calvin Lee, 21, was a DYRS ward.

Three arrested after shootout on 5800 block of East Capitol Street leads to multi-state chase, NC8 reports. When the suspects saw police, they began shooting at the officers....Officers chased the vehicle from D.C. into Virginia, then back into the District, until the chase ended in Southeast. The suspects were arrested at the Malcolm X Avenue exit on Northbound 295.' Also WUSA-TV.

Two involved in early-morning stabbing incident at 14th and Upshur Streets NW.

Study of CareFirst finances ordered by Maryland insurance commissioner finds that the insurer's reserves are not excessive, WBJ notes. 'The report affirms what CareFirst has said all along; which is that the company holds an appropriate level of reserves for the security of its members.' D.C. insurance regulators have hired their own consultants to study the CareFirst coffers; a determination from DISB is due by New Year's. And Insurance and Financial Advisor notes that the woman doing the determining, Gennet Purcell, has been confirmed by the D.C. Council.

Metro is rethinking controversial changes to SmartBenefits 'after an outpouring of anger and confusion over a provision that called for returning unused fare money each month to employers,' Kytja Weir reports in Examiner. GM John Catoe 'has not offered details as to how he may change the plan, only promising that he would have more information in the next few weeks.'

The technology failures last week that led to mass delays on Metro, in MoCo traffic, came due to aging equipment, 'foreshadow[ing] scores of problems as cash-strapped governments stagger into the 21st century burdened by creaking 20th-century technology,' Ashley Halsey III reports in WaPo.

The Allegro apartments in Columbia Heights in foreclosure, Jonathan O'Connell reports for WBJ. 'the building's developer, Metro Properties Inc., hasn't rented enough apartments to pay the bills....The result is that the Allegro Apartments, the largest apartment building in Columbia Heights, is headed to auction Nov. 18. Alex Cooper Auctioneers ran advertisement listing it Friday.'

ALSO---Peter Nickles explains to O'Connell why he's not suing online hotel bookers for some $100M withheld tax income, as many states have. All in good time, he says.

Nikita Stewart notes a spate of birthday bashes at D.C. Wire, including Yvette Alexander's Thursday party at Reserve. 'The event was held in a small space upstairs, so multimillionaire R. Donahue "Don" Peebles loomed large in his tuxedo, overdressed for the birthday shindig but suitable for another appearance that evening.'

Legal Times examines Eleanor Holmes Norton's elected AG bill. Gary Imhoff, meanwhile, says in themail that he was wrong to praise the bill: 'The bill leaves the Attorney General's office in place. In other words, if Norton's bill were passed, Attorney General Peter Nickles would remain in charge of his major duties: covering up evidence of cronyism and corruption in the Fenty administration, hiding information from the public and denying access to that information to the city council, and misinterpreting laws in order to claim that the Fenty administration doesn't have to obey the law.'

Ahead of Saturday's health-care voting, the DNC sent out an e-mail message urging District residents to contact Eleanor Holmes Norton and urge her to vote for the measure. From Atlantic: 'In response to our request for comment, an official at Organizing for America said, "We support DC voting rights, and we're just trying to speed the process along."' HuffPo, too.

Meeting between local homeless and UN 'special rapporteur' Raquel Rolnik doesn't go so well, WAMU-FM reports. 'Almost as soon as the roundtable discussion started, an argument erupted between the activists, many of whom live at the shelter. Shelter staffers had to forcibly remove one man. Another left in protest but later returned. After the meeting, several homeless people pleaded with Rolnik for help on the sidewalk outside of the shelter, but she couldn't give them any concrete answers. "I don't have the special mandate to deal with this kind of law enforcement," she told one man.'

Union says it's 'dismayed' that Metro plans appeal of arbitration ruling instituting pay hikes.

Robert Wone defendants ask judge to dismiss charges.

Big fans of same-sex marriage: Straight ex-spouses of gay men and women.

There'a whole blog covering the rewrite of the District's developmental disabilities law.

Rather than auction them off, DHCD is selling vacant city-owned properties though the same MLS service real estate agents use.

Another story, from WTOP, about the supposed link between PCP and a rising number of assaults on police. At least this one cites Cathy Lanier citing some statistics she says she has.

WAMU-FM covers the 'Potomac,' a scrip currency promoted by one D.C. resident equivalent to 95 cents. Only the Potter's House on Columbia Road in Adams Morgan takes the stuff.

Candi Peterson wants to reach out to Oprah to save RIF'd teachers.

Dr. Gridlock has all deets on New York Avenue NE construction scheduled to accelerate shortly. Includes DDOT detour suggestions.

Corrections.com reports on local authorities' use of GPS to track parolees.

Clams reveal previously unknown Anacostia pollution sources.

Layoffs in Nats' sales department.

See applicants for Superior Court judge vacancy, at Legal Times. They include six magistrates, three administrative judges, three AUSAs, two PDS lawyers, plus the Department of Corrections GC and OAG's finance section chief.

Feel-good DMV story! Take that, Virginia!

Buy a Christmas present for a foster child!

'YEILD' PLEASE?---15th Street lane-painting FAIL!

Deer becomes dinner for National Zoo lions. 'As recounted by witnesses, the deer, over as much as 20 minutes, was in and out of a moat while the lions clutched, clawed or swatted it. A crowd of spectators grew. Some shrieked, cried out or took children away.' There's video!

WaPo brief: 'A car carrying five people plunged into the C&O canal about 10 p.m. Friday near Fletcher's Boat House, D.C. police said....A D.C. fire department spokesman said the car apparently was driving on the canal towpath.' Everyone's OK!

D.C. COUNCIL TODAY---No events scheduled.

ADRIAN FENTY TODAY---10:45 a.m.: remarks, launch of DOES work readiness initiative, 7L Group Inc., 3119 Martin Luther King Ave. SE.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"Another D.C. Council Hearing No-Show!"; "The Number Of Homeless Families In Need Jumps"; "Daycare Fight Continues: Union Files New Lawsuit"; tweets galore!

Morning all. Reliable Source with the scoop! D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is engaged to Sacramento mayor/ex-Phoenix Sun Kevin Johnson. 'Rhee, 39, spoke Wednesday night at a Democrats for Education Reform/DC School Reform Now event downtown, and a pretty sparkly thing on her left hand caught the eye of more than one audience member.' So transcontinental power couple, rad. But what does that mean for Rhee's continued tenure here in D.C.---the two Fenty terms she promised to serve? 'Rhee told us she's not leaving D.C. They plan on a long engagement -- no wedding date set, and none envisioned in the near term -- and will keep this a commuter relationship for a while.' (Also WRC-TV.) Sooo...when LL saw KJ in the JAWB last Friday, was he asking Hizzoner for permission to take his chancellor's hand in marriage? JK---best LL wishes to the happy couple!

AFTER THE JUMP---Complete rundown of contract hearing antics; another possible Ward 1 candidate pops up; WaPo ed board tsk-tsks over UDC board fighting; Lanier says marriage debate may have prompted GU attacks; father of Bowman daughter sues District for wrongful death; and OCTOgate nears a conclusion

LL tweeted much of yesterday's hearing on Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's questionable parks contract scheme. From other reports: Procurement chief David Gragan told councilmembers that he wouldn't use the one-step 'RFQ' process used to award the Banneker Ventures contract (as opposed to a two-step RFQ/RFP process, Nikita Stewart writes in WaPo, adding that 'Larry Dwyer, director of the authority's Office of Planning and Development, told council members Thursday that he met with two officials from the deputy mayor's office: David Jannarone, chief operating officer, and Jacquelyn Glover, a project manager. Dwyer said they wanted to know whether the process could be speeded up.' Jeffrey Anderson notes in WaTimes that several executive witnesses were no-shows, including acting parks chief Ximena Hartsock and DMPED Valerie Santos (who did send an excusal letter). That led hearing chair Harry Thomas Jr. to issue subpoenas. Also see Jonathan O'Connell's coverage at WBJ, where he notes: 'Does Fenty get the absolute best possible deal for the city when he brokers these agreements? Probably not. None of the dozens of unused public properties he is trying to sell will get a great price in this market (not to mention the convention center hotel protest). But once the credit markets are revived, they have a good chance to get started.' And WTTG-TV notes that Michael Brown has asked D.C. Auditor Deborah Nichols to investigate. DCist notes a flip-flop there.

NOTE---No one mentions the most shocking portion of the hearing, where soon-to-be-ex-Peaceoholics honcho and mayoral buddy Ron Moten showed up to testify, slammed Vincent Gray and other CMs, prompting Gray to show up and go all native Washingtonian on his be-hind, demanding that Moten repeat his accusations to his face and under oath. Moten refused, leading to a standoff of sorts before he slinked off.

LAUGH LINE OF THE DAY---Marion Barry: 'Any mayor that believes in transparency would come down here and answer questions. Sharon Pratt Kelly would've come down here. Anthony Williams would've come down here. I would've come down here.'

Examiner's Michael Neibauer covers possible challenges to Ward 1 CM Jim Graham: He notes, as LL did Tuesday, that Adams Morgan ANCer Bryan Weaver has filed exploratory papers. He adds in rumors that ex-school board member Jeff Smith, now executive director of the D.C. VOICE nonprofit, is considering a run. Smith's comments to Neibauer (why didn't you return LL's calls?): 'I'd be lying if I said it wasn't something I was going to be thinking about over the holidays.'

WaPo editorial board wants Fenty and Gray to quit their 'gamesmanship' over UDC board nominations. Indeed, they are 'playing political chicken' with the university, and '[t]hat is a real shame, because for the first time in its troubled history, UDC is showing hopeful signs of progress.' The paper lays on this kinda-gotcha: 'Mr. Gray has rightly criticized the mayor, on other matters, for disrespecting the role of the council and not following procedure, so it's ironic that he has refused to give Mr. Fenty's nominees the hearing they are owed and a straight up-or-down vote.' Never mind that they were poorly qualified; 'the executive's right to select the people he thinks are best is most appropriately vetted in an open confirmation process.' But remember: 'Mr. Fenty and Mr. Gray may be political rivals, with Mr. Gray considering a mayoral challenge, but as the city's top leaders they have a responsibility to end this unsavory stalemate.'

OCTOGATE NEARS END---Yusuf Acar, the alleged mastermind behind the city tech office contracting scandal, is likely to plead guilty, Scott McCabe reports in Examiner. 'Prosecutors on Wednesday filed a "criminal information," which typically indicates that a plea deal has been worked out because the document can't be filed without the consent of the defendant. According to the court filing, Acar would pay back more than $200,000 in stolen money, including $69,000 in cash that was seized at his Northwest Washington home at the time of his arrest. Acar, the scheme's alleged mastermind, is being held at the D.C. Jail. A hearing has not yet been scheduled.'

WAMU's Patrick Madden noted this morning that People's Counsel Elizabeth Noel will not be reappointed by Fenty. She had run afoul of Pepco on recent rulings on faulty meters; no explanation was forthcoming from Hizzoner. No link yet.

Phil Mendelson warns FEMS Chief Dennis Rubin that his overtime spending is out of control, Examiner reports. Rubin is spending so fast, says Mendo, 'that he will blow through his overtime budget halfway through the fiscal year....Rubin told the council's public safety committee, chaired by Mendelson, that the department's problems were caused by "the vicious cycle of vacancies, followed by overtime, followed by frozen vacancies, followed by more overtime."'

MPD Chief Cathy Lanier tells WTOP listeners that the Georgetown University anti-gay assaults 'may have been motivated by the same sex marriage debate.' Police continue to investigate. Her quote: 'Whenever there's an issue that's getting a lot of attention, there may be something that's sparking these assaults...Certainly that's something we are looking at.'

ALSO---Lanier is making a star turn of sorts in Michael Baldacci's latest potboiler, WTOP's Michelle Basch reports. 'In the book, D.C. Police Chief Beth Perry owns a blind dog. Chief Lanier says that detail has "amazing similarity" to her own life. She owns five blind dogs, and some are deaf as well. What does Lanier think about the use of that detail in the book? "I think it just shows that police officers are human too, and we love our dogs, and I think the compassion that drives us to do this job also shows in our private lives."'

WBJ's Melissa Castro follows up on her D.C. procurement story last week, covering efforts by local small businesses to oppose reform legislation. 'They oppose D.C.’s proposed Procurement Efficiency Act of 2009. That too is an obscure name, but the bill’s impact seems clear enough to the coalition’s members: The bill would give the Office of Contracting and Procurement wider and virtually unreviewable discretion to do business with companies of its choosing — preferably on a long-term basis....The full explanation is complex, but there’s a simple aphorism that explains why fewer local companies are winning contracts. It is a concept that has driven the trajectory of the American economy over the past two decades: It’s cheaper to outsource.'

ALSO IN WBJ---Bryant Ruiz Switzky covers possible problems for Morton Bender's attempts to merge Independence Federal Savings Bank with his Colombo Bank.

WaPo's Bill Turque does his usual thorough and excellent job covering yesterday's Superior Court hearing on the WTU's layoffs lawsuit against DCPS. Judge Judith Bartnoff says she'll rule next week. 'While it's always risky business to predict how a judge might rule based on the tone and tenor of her questions, Bartnoff sent some pretty serious signals that she didn't think much of the union's case. She made it clear from the outset that this would not be an exercise in second-guessing Rhee's decision. "There may be a lot of people around who want to run the school system. I'm not one of them," said Bartnoff, a 1994 Clinton appointee to the bench who ruled against Roy Pearson in the famous $54 million "lost pants" case.'

More on how Metro might fix the 37-year-old power unit that melted down on Wednesday. Kytja Weir reports in Examiner that 'replacement equipment could take as long as six months to install, and agency officials said Thursday they couldn't guarantee that more problems were not going to occur in the meantime as they depended on the old, jury-rigged equipment....The failure highlighted the growing list of costly repairs the cash-strapped agency needs to keep the system running. It also spooked officials and riders about the vulnerability of the system.'

ALSO---Metro is fighting to fend off a 3-percent pay hike for union employees ordered by an arbitrator on Wednesday. 'The panel called for giving the union members a lump sum payment for last year equivalent to 2 percent of annual salaries, then 3 percent raises for each of the next three years. The agency agreed to pay the $8.6 million lump sum, but said Thursday it planned to appeal the raises, which would cost $96 million over four years. "We think the panel ignored the law," Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. "If they were following the letter of that law, they would have known we are facing a budget gap."' Also WaPo.

Father of one of Renee Bowman's daughters, murdered and placed in a freezer, files wrongful death lawsuit against the District, AP reports. 'The suit filed Oct. 22 by Michael Muhammad of Temple Hills, Md., seeks $75 million in damages. It alleges that the D.C. government and adoption agency failed to protect his daughter from an unfit mother.'

Harry Jaffe pens a 'tale of two cities' column about unemployment figures. 'In Ward 8, east of the Anacostia River, nearly a third of the work force was without a job in September. Reaching a new high, the number of unemployed hit 28.3 percent. But in Ward 3, which I often refer to as Upper Caucasia [just you, Harry?], the unemployment rate was 3.2 percent. The white folks who live in Chevy Chase, American University Park, Friendship Heights and Spring Valley are doing quite well, thank you very much....Why? We are always tempted to throw up our hands and blame poverty and health care and drugs and the various ills of urban life. I am with Kwame Brown.' More job training!

IN THE BLADE---Coverage of Monday's second gay marriage hearing; Office of Police Complaints recommendation that cop be prosecuted for arrest; Georgetown anti-gay attacks; wrapup of Stein Club awards reception; D.C. Council honors for Desi Deschaine; unveiling of Capital Pride 2010; and an obit for Larry Stansbury, co-founder of Brother Help Thyself, who died at 61.

WCP's Ruth Samuelson notes at Housing Complex that city agencies headed to 225 Virginia Ave. SE will bring some life to Capital Riverfront area, as well as a new restauarant.

Pennsylvania Avenue SE between 27th Street and Southern Avenue to get stimulus-funded facelift. Ovetta Wiggins reports in WaPo that $30M will buy 'a median, new curbs, a gutter, pavement, landscaping and upgraded utilities,' not to mention 'improvement of signal operations and the construction of three rain gardens.'

Chevy Chase speed humps are 'dangerous,' neighbors tell NC8.

With more H1N1 vaccine headed out to other providers, the District is scaling back their vaccination clinics, Michael Laris reports in WaPo. 'Saturday's clinics will have an earlier closing time of 1 p.m., not 4 p.m. Tuesday's clinics at Coolidge High School and McKinley Technology High School have been canceled, as has the Nov. 14 clinic at Wilson High School. Other clinics next week will continue, although three vaccination clinics Nov. 14 will also close at 1 p.m.'

Police are searching for Darrell Glover, 26, who allegedly shot four on Oct. 24 after being accused of stealing an Xbox video game console. 'Glover, a resident of Southeast, is believed to be hiding out somewhere there or in the Northeast quadrant of the city' and 'is described as a black male, 6-feet-1-inches tall and 250 pounds with short hair.'

Age discrimination? Bah! In WaPo letter, 53-year-old explains that she was gladly hired by Rhee. 'My age never seemed to be an issue at any point in the process. The primary question directed to me was whether I could produce results. Could I teach special education students in new and creative ways and help them become academically successful?'

Robert Wone case update: Legal Times reports that defense lawyers 'filed court papers this week saying that the government attorneys should be forbidden to say anything about torture and sexual abuse'---so-called 'uncharged conduct.' Status hearing this afternoon. See also WMRW?, of course.

D.C. Court of Appeals resurrects blockbuster cell-phone radiation case, NLJ reports.

Yes, the Fort Hood shooter has local ties.

Georgetown trolley tracks set for repair---finally!

Ellen London has been named interim director of the Children and Youth Investment Trust Corp., Susie Cambria reports.

DCist wants Hizzoner to fight crime. Like, literally.

Think tank lauds elections bill.

Amtrak officially out as VRE operator. (Eleanor Holmes Norton is not pleased, BTW, issuing a press release decrying the switch to French company Keolis.)

Blogger notes that DCPS is "Covering Their Class-Actions, i.e., looking for 'a "high energy problem solver" who can "effectively deal with and provide solutions to complex EEO cases and issues."'

Ward 3 supermarket controversy. Nope, not that one.

Weekend Metro delays on Orange, Blue, and Yellow lines.

D.C. COUNCIL TODAY---No events scheduled.

ADRIAN FENTY TODAY---No public events scheduled.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"Fenty Embraces "Signing Statement" Tactic"; "Pershing Park Case: Read The Document Nickles Didn't Want You See"; "Giro d'Italia to Start in D.C.?"; tweets galore!

IN LL WEEKLY---Fast Company: Is speed an excuse for Fenty's crony contracts?

Morning all. The D.C. Council is again convened in the fifth-floor chambers to examine Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's parks contracting scheme. LL will be watching on Chennel 13 and Tweeting away. Expected to testify are procurement chief David Gragan, acting parks director Ximena Hartsock, D.C. Housing Enterprises chief Larry Dwyer, as well as D.C. Housing Authority board members William Slover and Anthony Wash, and ...Ron Moten? Not appearing will be DMPED Valerie Santos, who is tending to a serious family illness, and City Administrator Neil Albert, whose father recently died. LL sends his heartfelt condolences.

AFTER THE JUMP---Contracts probe likely to end in courts; the Cheh chem ban explained; Jonetta wants to know when the D.C. gov will get serious about procurement reform; Metro breakdowns traced to 27-year-old power unit; city attorneys try to hide documents because they're 'embarrassing'

The council's probe into Fenty's fishy parks contracts, Jeffrey Anderson reports in WaTimes, is almost certainly headed for a legal showdown with the mayor and his bulldog, Attorney General Peter Nickles. 'Several members cautioned that a pattern of resistance by the Fenty administration comes amid worsening relations with legislators and threatens to plunge the city into court battles lasting well into next year. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray said the council is prepared for obstruction in its latest probe. "We have seen resistance on every front," Mr. Gray said. "I won't be shocked if we are forced to issue subpoenas."'

Examiner's Michael Neibauer explains everything you need to know about the chemical ban Mary Cheh is proposing. 'The list of chemicals all have been tied, some more than others, to health conditions from cancer and birth defects to reproductive disorders and neurological effects. They are used in a host of products from soap to sippy cups...."I think we have to go with the best information that's out there and not wait for a lagging [Environmental Protection Agency] to take action," Cheh said.' Potentially banned: Bisphenol-A, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, permethrin and propoxur, high levels of phthalates, and synthetic exfoliants, such as polyethylene-based microbeads! (Note that natural alternative, 'such as salt, shell pieces and sugar can replace the synthetic washes. “They can be just as clean and have just as significant an exfoliant experience,” Cheh said.') The American Chemistry Council, needless to say, is not pleased. But where did that get them on the bag bill?

Jonetta Rose Barras in her Examiner column says the the council's emergency bill cracking down on Fenty's fishy parks contracting 'misses the mark.' Rather, the council needs to embark on a holistic look at procurement reform. 'The system is so sluggish and ineffective many managers have sought and received separate powers. At least 15 agencies have independent contracting authority approved by the council or delegated by the mayor or David Gragan, the District's chief procurement officer....The "transparency" legislation introduced by Ward 5's Harry Thomas doesn't...repair the procurement system. It is focused solely on DPR.' She also raises questions about CFO Natwar Gandhi's role in all this, saying he has 'become a hoarder of data.'

The aftermath of yesterday morning's Metro breakdown is this: WMATA needs $14M to replace a pair of 27-year-old power units at its downtown headquarters, Lena Sun reports in WaPo. 'The part that failed cannot be repaired, and Metro has no backup. The agency, already scrambling to plug a $22 million shortfall in the current budget, must find the money to replace the critical parts. Deputy General Manager Gerald Francis called it one of Metro's "most urgent needs." An interim fix is in place, but "there is anxiety" about it, Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. "There are no other options at this moment."' Metro's posted pictures of the antiquated equipment. Also WUSA-TV, WTTG-TV, WRC-TV.

Remember Bill Turque's '15 questions' about the DCPS layoffs? He's finally compiled answers from 'court filings, sworn testimony before the D.C. Council, and interviews.' A good read!

WaPo's Tim Craig collects local reaction to Tuesday's off-year elections, D.C. GOP chair Bob Kabel arguing that Repub victories in Virginia and New Jersey 'offered a road map for D.C. Republicans on how to make inroads in the 2010 city elections.' WAMU-FM's Patrick Madden talks to Harry Jackson et al. for reaction to Maine vote. WaPo editorialist Jo-Ann Armao pens a piece on what the Maine vote means for D.C., gay marriage generally. And national supporters of gay marriage react in WaPo story by Ashley Surdin. 'For the gay rights movement, the defeat is another setback to its long-held strategy of building the case for marriage equality state by state. Historically, the tactics have been to target places where conditions seem favorable, and Maine, characterized by its governor as a libertarian state, seemed to fit that criterion. Still, advocates say the strategy remains effective.' No mention of D.C.

As Legal Times first reported yesterday, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan slapped down an attempt by city attorneys to take back 211 pages of documents related to the Pershing Park case that they had inadvertently handed to plaintiffs' attorneys. Their argument: That the docs were covered by attorney-client privilege and 'include statements by high-ranking officials in the District of Columbia Government which, if disclosed to the public, would only serve to embarrass while not shedding light on any matter of controversy in this case.' And then WCP's Jason Cherkis fills out the story by revealing what some of the documents they're fighting about are---such as notes taken by a city attorney in the aftermath of the arrests pointing to Chief Charles Ramsey's direct involvement in giving orders to conduct the arrests.

Tom Sherwood, in his eponymous Notebook, says the 260-plus witnesses who showed at gay marriage hearings isn't a record: 'We think baseball holds that honor.' He also notes comments from the Rev. Anthony Evans: '[W]e're going to go after Pope Fenty....He doesn't have a church, he doesn't have a pastor … and yet he's dictating religious edicts.'

The Hill: 'Del. *Eleanor Holmes Norton* (D) is blaming Republican lawmakers for the District of Columbia's high HIV/AIDS rate. In a letter posted on her website, Norton lashed out at Republican efforts in recent years to attach riders to annual congressional spending bills that limited the District from using locally raised revenues to support needle exchange programs.'

Airports Authority votes to hike Dulles Toll Road fees $.25 per year for three years to help pay for Metro extension, WaPo reports. 'After Wednesday's vote, H.R. Crawford, the chairman, said most people see the increases as modest. These people are practical and understand that the board needs the toll revenue to build the Metro line, he said. "We had three meetings; there were no more than 35 people at every meeting," Crawford said. "There was no great outpouring of opposition."'

Can you get trapped in affordable housing? Ruth Samuelson explores the notion at Housing Complex.

'Barricade situation' on the 4600 block of Hunt Place NE leads to arrest of Daniel Spriggs, 28, WaPo reports. Marshals showed up with a warrant at about 10 a.m. yesterday; he proceeded to hide in the house for more than two hours. 'When officers entered the residence, they found Spriggs hiding on the first floor, police said. [MPD spox Traci Hughes] said she did not know whether he was armed or why a warrant had been issued for him.' Also NC8.

Judge gives two-month extension to perform competency evaluation on Holocaust Museum shooter.

Examiner reports that Henderson Joseph, owner of a accounting firm that prepared fraudulent returns for its clients, gets three years in federal clink. Reminds Channing Phillips: 'Taxpayers are reminded to scrupulously review a tax return prepared by their tax return preparer.'

WaPo's Turque follows up on Bruce Johnson's scoop that Barbara Bullock is a free woman.

In WaPo District Notebook, a look at Vincent Gray's effort to drum out Noah Wepman as the DCPS chief financial officer.

ALSO IN WAPO DISTRICT WEEKLY---A look at the Healthy Schools Program, an anti-obesity effort being pursued in 47 schools; home sales; news briefs; health code violations; crime blotter.

In themail, Gary Imhoff calls Eleanor Holmes Norton's bill to establish a locally elected district attorney the 'biggest local political news of the week....This is the real deal. This is the Evict Peter Nickles and Let Him Stay at Home in Great Falls Act. What's not to like?' Also: lots more gay marriage talk.

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING DEPT.---WaTimes lets anti-gay-marriage activist Kathryn Pearson-West write news story (if you can call it that) on gay marriage referendum. 'CITIZEN JOURNALISM,' people!

WaPo's Michael Birnbaum looks at the increasing embrace of charter schools in suburban jurisdictions.

Economic development summit kicks off Nov. 9 hosted by Vince Gray and the WDC Economic Partnership. Couldn't come at a better time, says Jonathan O'Connell at WBJ! Gray's involvement, surprisingly, has not damped executive branch participation; Valerie Santos and Harriet Tregoning to speak.

View 14 project at 14th and Florida NW nears completion, WBJ reports. Thanks for all those tax breaks, Jim!

Informer: 'District Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee in the Hot Seat.' Also WireTap mag looks at new AFT ad calling out Rhee.

WaPo profiles new UDC hoops coach Jeff Ruland.

More on the anti-gay incidents at GU, from WAMU-FM.

Noah's Ark Food Bank gets offers of help after city shutdown, WaTimes reports. H.R. Crawford and Harry Thomas Jr. have offered to pitch in, but director Leo Woodson 'said regular patrons of the food bank were not pleased with the city's lack of support for a group that has helped the city for so long....Anita Webster, a volunteer for the organization, said a spokeswoman from the mayor's office called them on Wednesday, asking them to stop having people call the office. She said the phone's speaker was turned on at the time of the call and that people in the lines for bread overhead the conversation and became outraged.' Problem was, they were calling the scheduler, not MOCRS! Also NC8.

In case you were wondering: That Cleveland serial-killer thing couldn't happen in D.C., WUSA-TV explains, because CSOSA checks on our ex-con rapists!

How the Obama girls got their shots: 'A White House physician administered vaccines obtained through the D.C. Department of Health to the Obamas' daughters, Malia and Sasha,' McClatchy reports.

Informer covers opening of Industrial Bank branch in Anacostia.

The Hill Is Home talks to Tommy Wells.

Real-estate blogger: 'I happened to stop by a client's new house today–a fantastic renovation of a rowhome in Petworth–and whom should I see walking down the street but Mayor Fenty himself! He was checking out the neighborhood, shaking hands, etc.–no doubt checking up on all the recent development in the area! He was very interested in the recent sales in the neighborhood, which obviously has been undergoing a lot of changes lately, so we chatted for a few minutes.'

Your November Bicycle Advisory Committee notes, courtesy of the WashCycle.

'The National Zoo's oldest male sloth bear, Merlin, died Wednesday after surgery to repair a partially twisted spleen,' Lori Aratani reports in WaPo. 'It was the zoo's third animal death in a month.' Merlin, turns out, had a history of gastric volvulus.

D.C. COUNCIL TODAY---10 a.m.: Committee on Human Services roundtable on PR18-520 ('Interagency Council on Homelessness Sue Ann Marshall Confirmation Resolution of 2009'), PR18-521 ('Interagency Council on Homelessness Robert Scott McNeilly Confirmation Resolution of 2009'), PR18-522 ('Interagency Council on Homelessness Chapman Todd Confirmation Resolution of 2009'), PR18-536 ('Interagency Council on Homelessness Joshua Greene Confirmation Resolution of 2009'), and PR 18-537 ('Interagency Council of Homelessness Brian Watson Confirmation Resolution of 2009'), JAWB 412; 11 a.m.: Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary roundtable on 'Continuing Overtime and Pay Problems in the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department,' JAWB 123; 6 p.m.: Committee on Aging and Community Affairs hearing on B18-324 ('Advisory Neighborhood Commission Vacancy Amendment Act of 2009'), JAWB 412.

ADRIAN FENTY TODAY---6:45 a.m.: remarks, Connecting with the Mayor, WRC-TV; 7:10 a.m.: remarks, Fenty on Fox, WTTG-TV; 10:45 a.m.: remarks, Pennsylvania Avenue streetscape announcement, Twining Park, 27th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue SE.