The Washington Redskins now make a point of letting folks know they don't belong to Washington. The team puts "Loudoun County" as the dateline on all its press releases. That's an odd practice —datelines are usually reserved for cities, and the team's offices at Redskins Park are located in Ashburn, Va.

But, Dan Snyder had his flacks start adding the county dateline last year after supervisors way out there (Mapquest tells me Ashburn's more than 40 miles from midtown) agreed to pay him $250,000 for the right to call the county the "Corporate Home of the Washington Redskins." And since his boss took the Virginia taxpayers' money, Redskins mouthpiece Larry Michael manages to work the phrase "in the heart of Loudoun County" into his broadcasts about the team again and again.

D.C. has no such business deal with the Redskins. Yet Adrian Fenty of late has done a lot of catering to the team that left the city in a huff after the 1996 season. He declared this week "Beat Dallas Week" at Redskins GM Bruce Allen's behest, and then the Mayor appeared at a team-organized pep rally at Powell Elementary School.

I'm particularly intrigued by Fenty's allegiances to the Redskins this week, because I spent a lot of time lately looking at his very dysfunctional relationship with a sports franchise that still plays in the city, in fact right where the Skins used to play: D.C. United. The soccer team, of course, has been wanting to leave the city ever since the mayor failed to follow through on a pledge to build United a stadium. The D.C.-based franchise and its fans wish the D.C. mayor would show the real home team the same sort of love that he shows the team based in the Corporate Home of the Washington Redskins..

Guess there's an election...

My favorite came with Mike Wise’s column on the Hogs, going over the birth of football history's most durable and successful offensive line. I was particularly taken with what the young Skins would bring with them to their Redskins Park post-practice hangout, dubbed The Shed, in the early days.

From the story:

It's where Riggo and friends could down a brew, Russ could chew his Copenhagen and Joe Jacoby could bring back his favorite sandwich from Merino's in Fairfax, two pieces of Sicilian pizza pressed together with chopped beef and white, runny cheese spilling over the sides – the Hog Cheesesteak, named for him.

I'm a product of Northern Virginia, and I'd never heard of Merino's Pizza or the Hog Cheesesteak. But I bet if we jump into the way-back machine, we’d find that Jacoby’s foodstuffs actually came from Marino’s, a carryout outlet in the brief and mostly disastrous attempt to franchise the glorious Mario’s Pizza, the Arlington fixture. (The name was altered during franchising for legal reasons related to too many "Mario's" already being in business, is the story I'd always heard.) And I'd bet the sandwich he describes is Mario's BBQ pizza, where a blob of meat – I've always believed it was pork, but Wise says beef, and I've never had it tested – was thrown on square, but not Sicilian, slices of pizza.

Why is this important? Because Mario's is one of the few institutions in this area that means more to folks than the Redskins. (Full disclosure: My first pizza came from Mario’s, and, my last probably my will, too.) You can still go to the original Mario’s on Wilson Blvd., open all the time, with Lefty Lindsay and Joe Williams serving up subs and square, but not Sicilian, pizza. Last I checked, Lefty and Joe have been there for 45 and 48 years, respectively. Loading up on Mario’s Pizza on Redskins Sundays was a tradition I carried with me after moving into D.C. 24 years ago. I'm not as devoted to either the eatery or the team these days, and that saddens me now that I think about it.

I've never been able to figure out why Mario's franchising was such a debacle. (An outlet in Petworth on Georgia Avenue, the last franchise to open as far as I know, shuttered just months after opening.)

The Hogs beer recollections in the story — Coors and Bud Light are said to be the faves way back when — are probably faulty, too. You couldn’t really get Coors beer east of the Mississippi until the mid-1980s. I know this because I used to bring cases home from Lubbock, Texas, and one of the great tragedies of my life came when a portion of my Coors shipment, already spoken for by friends in NoVa, was stolen by baggage handlers at Dulles. Plus, I've seen "Smokey and the Bandit." And, Bud Light didn’t hit the market until 1982, with Lite from Miller remaining the dominant light beer in football for years afterward, with its NFL-centric media campaigns.

But why quibble about food and beer during such a grand tour. Thanks for the memories.

Sure, the league is flying higher than ever now — TV coverage of the NFL draft drew a bigger audience than the NBA playoffs this spring. But mark down July 28, 2010 as the day everything started rolling downhill.

That's the day the reports surfaced that the NFL has brought in Dan Snyder protege/partner-in-debacles Mark Shapiro.

Yesterday, the web site Sports By Brooks told us that Shapiro "is now consulting for the league on television matters – including NFL Network games and studio shows."

Good news for the NFL: The reliability of the Sports By Brooks' report is suspect. When giving Shapiro's bio, we're told, "Shapiro is currently running Six Flags after being lured away from Bristol by Redskins Owner Dan Snyder."

Well, now....As both my readers know well, Shapiro WAS running Six Flags — until he and Snyder ran it straight into the ground. With CEO Shapiro and Chairman of the Board Snyder calling the shots, Six Flags filed for Chapter 11 more than a year ago.

When he was hired by Snyder in 2005, Shapiro said his salary would be tied to the value of Six Flags stock. He and Snyder then took Six Flags stock price from $11.93 per share down to nothingness. So during bankruptcy proceedings, Snyder and Shapiro wrote up an unbelievable golden parachute that gave Shapiro millions upon millions of dollars — one $3 million payment was labeled a "success bonus," though Shapiro and Snyder's only success in four-plus years at the helm of Six Flags came in bankrupting the company –  while stockholders lost everything.

Snyder was bounced brutally from his chairmanship during the reorganization proceedings, while Shapiro got his comeuppance from the newly installed Six Flags board shortly after the company emerged from bankruptcy.

So while, sorry Sports by Brooks, Shapiro isn't running Six Flags, he is still Snyder's partner, and is now president of Dick Clark Productions. That's the company that Snyder bought for $175 million with money from his Red Zebra investment fund, then used the cash of Six Flags stockholders to defray the purchase price by 40 percent.

Like Snyder, Shapiro was conflicted out the wazoo while Six Flags and Dick Clark hammered out deals. Shapiro was Six Flags CEO and president of Dick Clark Productions, which is also a major vendor for Six Flags, at the same time.

That arrangement's shaky enough to register on the Richter Scale, ain't it?

Six Flags isn't the only place that Shapiro showed he's got the Midas Touch...in Opposite Land! On May 9, 2008, Shapiro was elected to the board of directors of the Tribune Company. On the following Dec. 9, that corporation also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Great move, NFL!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• Blame Metro?
  
• Go-Go schedule
• Goodbye, Amanda
  

Good afternoon sweet readers! What was up with the wackjob at the Ward 6 mayoral forum last night who kept yelling, "Long live the Second Amendment!" Wrong forum, pal. LL had the misfortune to be standing next to the guy, who after professing his love of the right to bear arms, started to rifle through his backpack looking for something. LL was 90 percent sure he was looking for a gun, but instead he pulled out a pocket Constitution or Bill of Rights to wave around. Crisis averted—on with the news:

The Day the Music Died: Ye olde LL, Mike DeBonis, was up early this morning making a correction to his story about the news weapon in Mayor Adrian Fenty's campaign:  One of the worst songs in the history of the world. The song, "Five for Fenty" by Stinky Dink, includes the following lyrics: "A lot more sweat, less blood and tears / got the lowest murder rate in 'bout 40 years / 22,000 jobs for the young'uns / so they can do somethin' constructive for the summer." LL is no music expert, but he can say with 100 percent certainty that this song blows. Campaign talking points do not a good song make. And Dink is obviously not carefully reading LL Daily; otherwise he would know that the current number of summer jobs is about 18,000, not 22,000.  Tisk, Tisk, Mr. Dink. DeBonis originally thought the song was called, "Fire for Fenty," but turns out the song is inspired by the the 1995 paean to buying marijuana called, "I got Five On It." LL fav Ronald Moten is the man behind the track, and tells DeBonis the Fenty campaign paid for this song, and has commissioned two other tracks. Moten also predicts that this song will become widely popular around the city. How much Fenty is paying for these songs isn't yet known. Whatever it is, LL's pretty sure he's getting ripped off.

AFTER THE JUMP: Straw poll results; DYRS report; Metro crash post-mortem...

Straw This!: D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray won last night's straw poll in Ward 6, 56.2 percent to Fenty's 40.7 percent, reports Tim Craig over at the Post. "With Ward 6 shaping up to be a key battleground in the Sept 14 Democratic primary, few expected either Gray or Fenty to win an outright endorsement. But both candidates appeared to pull out all the stops in a bid to win over the hundreds of voters who showed up for the event at Eastern Market. ... Fenty appeared to have a small advantage among voters who walked to the straw poll from homes near the market. But Gray surprised Fenty's "green team" by chartering at least three buses to transport seniors from other parts of Ward 6 to event."  The acoustics at the forum stunk, so LL didn't hear everything that was said, though Fenty appeared to find his rhythm when beating Gray over the head for not saying one way or the other what he would do as mayor with DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee. The Georgetown Dish's Molly Redden has deets on the shenanigans involved in counting the ballots. "The final tally became official around 11 p.m.—nearly two hours after the Ward 6 Democrats had projected that they would have a final count to announce. At about 9:30 p.m., the ballot counting process stalled abruptly when the Fenty campaign challenged a stack of ten ballots that volunteers for Gray had collected from seniors who could not walk into the polling station."

Rhee on TV: Speaking Rhee, the lady chancellor was on Newstalk with Bruce DePuyt yesterday defending the IMPACT system she used to decide which teachers to fire. DCist has the breakdown.

Metro is Bad for Your Health: LL says a little prayer everytime he rides Metro, asking the good lord to keep him alive for just one more ride. "Federal investigators slammed Metro on Tuesday for a 'systemic breakdown of safety management at all levels'  that led to the deadly Red Line crash last summer, pointing to the continued use of uncrashworthy rail cars, safety testing rules that were not followed and alarms that were ignored, reports The Examiner's Kytja Weir. The Post's Ann Scott Tyson's take is here. LL's question: Why did it take the train conductor three seconds from the time she saw the train ahead of her until she pushed the emergency brake?

Could Have Been Prevented?: The Examiner's Freeman Klopott also got his hands on Attorney General Peter Nickles' report on DYRS. "The District's Department of Youth and Rehabilitation Services could have prevented Sanquan Carter from being released from jail in March. It didn't, and just days later the 19-year-old allegedly committed the first murder that started a chain of violence that ended in one of the District's deadliest rampages, according to an internal attorney general's report obtained by The Washington Examiner."

Medical pot months away [Post]

Jonetta mad at council over Gandhi—no, not that Gandhi [Examiner]

D.C. in race to the top [Post]

Rhee critic Robert Brannum goes to great lengths to let WaPo's editorial board know it is "intellectually dishonest" [DCist]

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• ¿Dónde está Fenty?
  
• NIMBY grill
• Don't cover this!

Good morning sweet readers! The power is back. All hail the demon lords of electricity, who giveth light, the Internet, and a fridge that keeps food. The price for these riches? A constant and never-ending stream of news:

Waive This!: Fox 5's Paul Wagner wins the morning with this investigative piece about the city's apparently new practice of waiving police security fees for certain events, like the National Marathon. "In the last two years, more than $600,000 has gone uncollected, money that should have been paid to the city for security at special events." The marathon, Wagner notes, attracts enough runners to generate at least $700,000 entry fees, yet the city waived about $200,000 in police costs last year. Another piece of the story: A homeland security fund absorbs the costs for other events, like the Georgia Avenue Caribbean carnival. LL can't help but observe, as Wagner did, that Fenty has run in the marathon, and that the carnival is quite popular in Ward 1 and Ward 4, both of which could be political battlegrounds this year. (Also, LL liked the way Fenty tried to brush off Wagner's questions outside a Ward 1 ground-breaking ceremony last week by saying he needed the facts, even as Wagner brandished the relevant documents.) Besides the obvious budget-related questions here—like, how can the District afford to be eating these costs when the budget is as tight as it is?—LL wonders how Vincent Gray will handle this story: The marathon angle seems to be another example of Fenty pals benefiting from decisions made with no input from the D.C. Council. At-large Councilmember Phil Mendelson tells Fox he's got plenty of projects he'd like to spend money on, but the Fenty administration insists the money isn't there. Finally, it's not at all clear how the waivers get doled out—the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, for instance, had to pay its security costs. Watch the video.

AFTER THE JUMP: Post profiles; DYRS shenanigans; DCPS lawsuit...

Kwame & Vincent, Bestest Friends: The oft-ignored council chairman's race gets some Monday/Tuesday love from the Post's Ann Marimow with profiles of At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown and former Ward 5 Councilmember Vincent Orange.  For the interest of space, LL will skip the nice parts of both profiles and get to the dirt. The knock on Brown: "Even as they have endorsed him, some council members point to what they call Brown's propensity to change positions with the political winds. When it appeared this spring that the District's best hope of winning a voting seat in Congress would mean agreeing to a measure to weaken the city's gun laws, Brown initially issued a statement saying, 'Now is the time for voting rights' and calling for 'sacrifice.' Three days later, after Gray and others publicly opposed the measure's impact on firearm rules, Brown appeared to change course, saying in a statement, 'Now is the time for voting rights, but if it means we have to erode our local governing authority, we must wait for a better opportunity to strike.' Brown said he never wavered in his support of gun control. The first message was a mistake, he said, sent out prematurely by an aide before Brown had thoroughly vetted it." That strikes LL as a kind of "dog ate my homework excuse." There wasn't much dirt on Orange, save for this: "But his preference for fiscal conservatism seems to have its limits: Orange favors lavish parties (including birthday bashes at Love nightclub), and as he was leaving office in 2006 he unsuccessfully proposed increasing council members' pay to $140,000—a 51 percent hike." LL used to favor lavish parties, including birthday bashes at Chuck-E-Cheese. But those days are gone.

Repeat Offender: The Post's Colbert I. King, who has been a strong critic of the city's juvenile justice system, praises Fenty for "finally" trying to fix DYRS, by firing chief Marc Schindler and replacing him with Attorney General's Peter Nickles' pick, Robert Hildum. King has the results of Nickles' report of the embattled agency, including that DYRS "measures recidivism too narrowly... has a weak policy on abscondence and oversight... has a flawed method of deciding youth placement... has lax rules on community placements." "Since their commitment just over two years ago, 71 percent had new convictions, and 42 percent of those convictions were for offenses such as robbery, weapons assault and drugs. Moreover, 23 percent of those with new convictions were convicted in the adult system. Those numbers don't even include DYRS youth in the D.C. jail awaiting trial on adult charges... The investigation found several instances where youths disappeared for several days without DYRS requesting the required custody order (or arrest warrant) from the court. In one case, a youth was gone for several weeks before an order was sought. In another case, DYRS gave a third-party monitor 'a number of' days to locate a missing youth, and no one sought a custody order." Liz Ryan, president of the Campaign for Youth Justice, fires back at the Post for the heat she's taken. "The fact that I and others asked for an investigation of Mr. Nickles’s involvement in Mr. Schindler’s replacement and other decisions on juvenile justice demonstrates our commitment to reducing youth recidivism—the opposite of what The Post accuses us of. Despite the fact that Mr. Nickles was warned by Judge Herbert Dixon about a potential conflict of interest for his role in the Jerry M. case regarding the District’s juvenile justice system, it appears that Mr. Nickles repeatedly gave counsel to the mayor that a reasonable observer could view as a conflict with his previous position as lead plaintiff’s counsel."

It's Suing Time: The Washington Teachers Union is going to file suit against DCPS over the fired 241 teachers, reports Leah Fabel of the Examiner. Union President George Parker said, "'The story is not the firings so much as the document upon which the firings are based,' Parker said. 'It is a flawed document.' He derided the 'euphoric' reaction of observers and news reports nationwide, saying he's 'never seen a superintendent receive less scrutiny than Chancellor [Michelle] Rhee. 'There's this sense that since [other superintendents] haven't been able to do something like this, she must be right,' he said. 'They assume that if she's firing people, they must be poor teachers.'" LL agrees with Parker that it has been a little strange watching the glee these firings have evoked nationally.  Here's just two example: The National Review wants Rhee to lead the war effort. And the New Republic also loves Rhee, and demands answers from Gray. Personally, LL would be more euphoric if the city fired all the "ineffective" workers at the DMV.

Nice Lemonade, Jo-Ann: Correction of the Week award goes to the Post editorial board, for this gem. After incorrectly stating in a previous editorial that Gray convened a hearing over the dismissal of a popular biology teacher, the Posties cop to their error. But then they spend the rest of a new editorial bashing Gray anyway for listening to the teacher's students and telling them that their teacher sounds like a great guy who shouldn't have been fired. "Mr. Gray followed up with a meeting with Ms. Rhee, and a spokeswoman for his campaign stressed that he deferred to the chancellor. But as council chairman, he didn't have much choice; as mayor, he would have the power to interfere. His statements in this case might lead voters to ask whether Mr. Gray will back his frontline educators, even when they don't do the popular thing." In other words, we do not regret the error.  

You're Hired: Togo West, the former Army secretary and veterans affairs secretary, breezed through a confirmation hearing yesterday to serve as a member of the city's elections board. [Post]

Check out the photo in this story [Examiner]

Medical Marijuana now legal in the District [Post]

No smoking area expands [WBJ]

Fenty frustrated with Pepco [WTOP]

Metro crash findings released today [NEWS 8]

Summer jobs program cut [NEWS 8]

Fenty schedule:

Groundbreaking for senior center, 10:45 a.m. 1330 Missouri Ave, NW. Ribbon-cutting for George Avenue CVS, 3:30 p.m. George and New Hampshire NW.

Political schedule:

Ward 6 mayoral forum, Eastern Market, 7 p.m.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• Ward 7 celebrity sighting
  
• GOP wants their seat
• I'm coming to kill your SUV
  

Good morning sweet readers! LL's power went out yesterday afternoon and still hasn't come back on. That's why you're getting this abridged e-mail late, if you're getting it at all. Complaints? Call Pepco or Mother Nature, depending on your disposition. The news:

Feisty Ward 7 Forum: LL wrote a quick recap of the Ward 7 mayoral straw poll Saturday, where D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray easily beat Mayor Adrian Fenty. The Post's Nikita Stewart has more, including:  "Fenty supporters included a mix of paid workers, volunteers and construction laborers. Like fans of the visiting team at a basketball game, they sat together in the bleachers in the gymnasium of Fort Davis Recreation Center."

AFTER THE JUMP: Fired teacher; Affordable Housing; Streetcars...

Can 'Em: The Post editorial board and The Examiner's Jonetta Rose Barras both applaud schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee for last week's firing of 241 DCPS teachers. Post: "No joy can be taken in knowing the hardship caused to individuals who likely are nice people and good neighbors. But if there is outrage to be felt, it should be directed at a system that has enabled, even rewarded, poor teachers." Barras: "Workers are being held to an appropriate standard. When they don't meet it, they are being led to the door with boxes and empty wallets. That's a good thing. Let's shout hallelujah!"

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• Some people say bad things
• We all lose at straw polls
• Garden v. dog

Good morning sweet readers! Flack of the day awards go to Parks and Rec spokesman John Stokes, who quickly responded to LL's query in yesterday's LL Daily about the number of yoots in the summer job program. (About 21,000 signed up for jobs, but only about 18,000 actually showed up to work the first week, which is about the normal rate of attrition, Stokes said). News time:

How Comes None of My Teachers Ever Got Fired?: The Examiner's Leah Fabel has the day's big news that schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee "will fire a large number of teachers and school staff by next week based on ineffective performance, said a top aide—a move certain to become a factor in the tight mayoral race. 'It's going to be a sizable number,' Deputy Chancellor Kaya Henderson said at a briefing Thursday about details of D.C. Public Schools' evaluation tool. The tool, called Impact, was used for the first time in 2009-2010 to determine employees' effectiveness, based mostly on five observations as well as measures of students' academic progress. Teachers evaluated as "highly effective" will be eligible for performance bonuses in 2010-11. Rhee declined to comment on the numbers, expected as early as Friday." The Examiner's Freeman Klopott has the breakdown on what the teacher firings means for the mayoral race, saying Mayor Adrian Fenty needs to make sure the firings are done in a transparent way.  'There are signs that Team Fenty could already be losing control of the public's perception of this firing round, too. A Rhee deputy let slip that a 'sizable' number of teachers are being cut not long after she turned a Thursday morning off-the-record meeting with reporters into one that was on the record. Rhee then refused to provide an exact number, leaving teachers, students and their parents in the dark just one month before school is set to start. But if Rhee and Fenty can take control of the message, the mayor will find the opportunity to flaunt his success over his rival." Note to Rhee: If Fast Company calls, LL suggests you let it ring to voicemail.

AFTER THE JUMP: Cronyism Explained; Man, There Are a Lot Of Cops 'Round Here; Togo to the Rescue;

One For The Cronies: The Post's Mike DeBonis takes a look at the charges of cronyism being thrown back and forth on the campaign trail between Fenty and council Chairman Vincent Gray. "That is the WMD in Gray's ethical arsenal: parks and recreation spending directed through the Housing Authority to be distributed, without council scrutiny, by firms run by Fenty allies. Fenty has not apologized and maintains that the contracts were legal. Investigations by the inspector general's office and an independent attorney appointed by the council are ongoing and unlikely to be completed before the Sept. 14 primary. No one has alleged that the work hasn't gotten done on time. But there are questions about the way the contracts were awarded and the price the city is paying for the work. Meanwhile, the Fenty campaign has been preoccupied with painting Gray as a creature of the old school, a feckless bureaucrat who as human services director in the early 1990s helped lead the city into fiscal ruin." Did you know the word crony, according to one of LL's favorite websites, originated in the 1660s in Cambridge as student slang deriving from the Greek word "khronios," which means "long-lasting"?  The negative connotation of cronyism, meaning "appointment of friends to important positions, regardless of ability" originated in the States around the 1950s.

Crisis Averted: Fenty nominates Togo West, former U.S. secretary of veteran affairs and of the Army, to the short-staffed Board of Elections and Ethics, reports the Post's Nikita Stewart. Councilmembers seem pleased with the pick. "The D.C. Council and Fenty have often clashed over the mayor's choices for boards and commissions, with council members frequently questioning the experience of nominees. In the past, Fenty has dipped into a pool of his running buddies, fraternity brothers and his wife's friends to fill seats on boards." LL alternate history scenario: If Fenty had been appointing people like West all along for important jobs around the city, would Gray even be running against him? And if not, has the campaign already had an effect on the way the city's run?

Freeze, It's the National Institute of Health Police!: Gray nabbed the endorsement of 11,000 members of the D.C. Fraternal Order of Police Lodge, Tim Craig has at D.C. Wire. Tip of the hat to Craig for listing the law enforcement agencies in this town. "Now, Gray can also claim support from some police officers, law enforcement personnel and security guards who work for: the D.C. Housing Authority, the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Capitol Police, Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms Bureau, U.S. Secret Service, National Institute of Health Police, U.S. Park Police, Department of Defense, D.C. Department of Corrections, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Customs, Metro Transit Police, Library of Congress, Drug Enforcement Agency, Internal Revenue Service, Supreme Court, Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Naval Investigate Service, Postal Police, Federal Protective Service, Department of Labor, Bureau of Engraving & Printing, National Zoological Police, Amtrak Police, Department of Health and Human Services, Defense Protective Service, U.S. Mint Police, Naval District Washington and Walter Reed Army Medical Center."

Co-Mayor Nickles: The Examiner's Harry Jaffe looks at the recent firing of juvenile justice interim director Marc Schindler, and says it's okay because his predecessor was too much of a coddler. What!? Sucks to be Schindler. LL hopes he doesn't get canned for any of DeBonis' antics. "Under Vinnie Schiraldi, the pendulum swung too far toward rehabilitation and turned the detention system into a sieve. [Attorney General Peter] Nickles investigated the recent shootings on South Capitol Street where young people who had been in the city's care shot up and killed innocent kids. He looked into the killing of principal Brian Betts, again by kids who the city agency knew were violent. He attended forums where citizens said they were not being protected. 'I listened,' he said. 'You have to balance reform with safety on the street. People have to trust the reform. They were losing confidence.'[Robert] Hildum is a 180 degree change from Schiraldi. He will be tough. He will open up the system to public scrutiny. He will strengthen the detention process." The Post editorial board takes a look at the issue and finds fault with advocates who are angry at Schindler's firing.

Watch and Learn, Grasshopper: LL once worked for a plumber, who yelled at him for not sweeping up in a concerted and thoughtful way. The plumber told LL, you have to be able to do the simple things correctly, like sweeping, before you can do the more complicated things, like redoing a house's plumbing. This story reminds LL of that lesson: "Metro escalator problems continue to plague agency." [Examiner]

Rhee looks to increase voucher program [Times]

Struggling homeowners line up for help [News8]

Should urbanists worry about Gray? [GGWash]

Fenty schedule: 10:45 a.m.1809 I Street, NE, remarks on homelessness.

Plotkin's on at 10, Kojo and Tom Sherwood at noon.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• Jim and Adrian on Park Road
• Hizzoner doesn't own an iPod, or so he says
• Mid-blink poster

Good morning sweet readers! OMG, it happened again: LL gave birth to a second column, taking a crack at what Kwame Brown's ginormous debt means for the council chairman race. New tidbits: Besides the boats and the cars, Kwame also bought (and sold) a Harley and has some D.C. parking ticket issues. Perhaps less surprising: Marion Barry also has his own credit card problems. Here's some more news for ya:

Does the Madness Ever Stop?: The timing of Errol Arthur's resignation from the city's Board of Elections and Ethics couldn't have been much worse (except maybe Sept. 13). The Post's Timkita Crawart (get it?) report on a burgeoning brouhaha over who will take Arthur's place. "With Mayor Adrian M. Fenty facing council Chairman Vincent C. Gray in this year's Democratic mayoral primary, the selection of board members is quickly becoming entangled in election year politics. Administration officials said the mayor may have to make emergency interim appointments to the board if he and the council, which is on summer recess, are unable to agree on nominees. If that occurs, Fenty will have unilaterally seated a majority of the board charged with overseeing an election in which he is a candidate. 'I don't think that is correct,' Gray said. 'To not have the legislative body involved in something of this enormity is highly questionable.' Fearful that having a powerless board could make it difficult, if not impossible, to certify a winner or oversee a recount, council members are vowing to return from recess to deal with the vacancies. In recent days, council members Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) and David A. Catania (I-At Large) have reached out to the administration to head off a showdown." The Post's editorial board asks all parties involved to play nice: "It was irresponsible of the council to recess for the summer without taking action on this matter. But we would urge Mr. Fenty, given his self-interest in the coming election, not to use his authority to make an emergency appointment."

AFTER THE JUMP: Lotto contracts; blowback for Orange; Ward 4 skirmish...

You Say Sinclair Skinner, I Say Lottery Contract: The Times' Jeffery Anderson has more on the fracas over the awarding of the city's lottery contract, which led Attorney General Peter Nickles to ask the city's inspector general to investigate, essentially, Vincent Gray's role.  "Mr. Nickles said the council chairman allowed, among other things, a substantial portion of the contract to be handed to a 'complete unknown.' He said he has no explanation of why an international gambling company that delivers state-of-the-art systems to lottery organizations worldwide felt compelled to team with an inexperienced firm that had questionable credentials." Gray said Nickles is motivated by "petty political retaliation."

Irony, Thy Name is the Council Chairman Race: It seems Kwame Brown's debts are causing headaches for his opponent, Vincent Orange. First, news breaks from WBJ's Michael Neibauer that two business groups who have endorsed Brown rebuffed the Orange campaign's overtures to rescind their endorsements after Brown's personal debt problems came to light. Now comes word from the Post's Ann Marimow that Orange campaign "finance chairman George Lowe, who cited the 'negative tenor of this campaign,' has become the second person from the campaign to jump ship. Linda Mercado Greene, who was Orange's spokeswoman, resigned from the campaign last month because of her personal history with Orange's chief Democratic rival, council member Kwame Brown. In an e-mail to Orange and other top advisers last week, Lowe wrote that he has 'given this a significant amount of thought... and continue to arrive at the same conclusion and that is that I no longer feel comfortable with the negative tenor of this campaign and will not be a part of such.'" The one glimmer of what LL supposes is good news for Orange: The Board of Trade left open the door to dropping its endorsement of Brown if more bad news comes out. (Uh, that's bad news for Brown, as opposed to still more bad news for Orange.)

War on the Homefront: The Georgetown Dish's Molly Redden has a wrap up of last night's mayoral forum in Ward 4, Fenty's home turf.  "It may be a bad sign for Fenty, then, that mayoral hopeful Sulaimon Brown's enthusiastic recommendation that Fenty 'and his cronies' serve jail time for alleged corruption garnered boisterous applause—more than Fenty's own closing statement did."

Summer Jobs Program Problems Now Less Bad: The Post's Stephanie Lee reports that there are fewer payday "glitches" with the 18,000 youths on the city's payroll for the summer. "In contrast with previous years, the majority of the more than 18,000 youths working in businesses, nonprofit organizations and city agencies across the District were paid in full and on time, said John A. Stokes, a spokesman for the Department of Parks and Recreation. Yet some employees were not paid correctly, city officials said. According to City Council member Michael A. Brown (I-At Large), more than 120 employees of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's Conservation Corps, a program dedicated to cleaning up trash and graffiti in the city, were not paid on time. Mafara Hobson, a spokeswoman for Fenty (D), said that 24 Conservation Corps supervisors claimed on Wednesday that they had pay issues. Stokes said city officials are investigating the complaints of 74 employees, of more than 18,400 total participants, who said they were not paid correctly." Umm, a few weeks ago the city was saying the program totaled 22,000 participants.  Did 4,000 kids quit? LL will look into it and report. (Or better yet, Stokes, if you're reading this, what's the deal?)

What!? Bogus Police Stats: LL missed this yesterday from WTOP's Mark Seagraves. "The union representing the District's 3,600 police officers is calling for an investigation into how the police department reports crime statistics after comments made by Chief Cathy Lanier on WTOP." The Examiner's Freeman Klopott has more: Sexual assaults across the District spiked nearly 50 percent in the first five months of 2010 over the same period last year, according to internal police documents obtained by The Washington Examiner. From Jan. 1 to June 8 there were 82 sexual assaults in the city, up from 56 during the same period in 2009, the documents show. But Chief Cathy Lanier told The Examiner that the document is a 'preliminary report to be used in conjunction with and read within the context of all the reports and totality of the data available to us.' The statistics, she said, are subject to change 'for a variety of reasons, including late reporting, reclassification of some offenses, and discovery that some offenses are unfounded.' Lanier said when all classifications of sexual assaults are accounted for, including misdemeanors, there has been more than a 3 percent decrease when compared with last year. She did not elaborate when pressed to provide specific data showing the decline in sexual assaults."

$1 million for landscaping a library!? [WBJ]

Fenty Schedule: 3:30 Justice Park Affordable Housing Announcement, 1421 Euclid Street NW

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• New DYRS chief and fire investigators
• D.C. unemployment drops—a little
• Some people shouldn't own pets

Good morning sweet readers! LL is on high alert today; his mother-in-law is coming to town. Just everybody stay calm, okay?! The news:

Investigate This: The Washington Times' Jeffery Anderson wins the morning with this report about Attorney General Peter Nickles asking the city's inspector general to investigate how a "firm with questionable credentials and limited experience took a majority share in the city's $38 million lottery contract. Citing recent reports in The Washington Times, Mr. Nickles pointed to contracting irregularities, including the addition of local firm Veterans Services Corp. (VSC) to the lottery pact after the city awarded it to Greek gambling giant Intralot. ... Mr. Nickles indirectly attacked D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, saying that the council 'failed to hold a hearing on any of the proposal packages' submitted by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty after a previous contract award to Intralot. Mr. Gray and others thought a local firm that partnered with Intralot was too close to Mr. Fenty. VSC, Intralot's eventual local partner, is headed by a man with ties to several council members, including Mr. Gray." Anderson has raised plenty of questions about the contract in recent weeks; be sure and check out the related articles linked on the right sidebar. Nickles has been saying since June that he's looking into the contracts, which seemed somewhat questionable given his political loyalties, so passing it off to the IG is probably a good move. Fenty brought up the Times' lottery contract work last week during a debate with Gray, as a counterpunch to Gray's charges of cronyism in the Fenty administration.

AFTER THE JUMP: Fenty vs. Post; Sucker job; Bad Speech...

Fenty and the Post: The Post has posted a video of an interview between the mayor and editorial writer Jo-Ann Armao, where Fenty again takes the blame for not getting word out about his good deeds (umm, sound familiar?).  Fenty stresses that he's doing a good job, which is noticable in part by how unnoticeable D.C.'s problems are compared to the past, when "you could see a glaring problem in D.C. government—from trash pick up, to potholes to road repairs to schools being broken down—anywhere you drive in the city." If he gets a next term, Fenty said he'd continue to focus on education, "infuse energy" into fixing public housing, and work with the guvs in Maryland and Virginia on Metro. Not in the 9-minute interview, probably much to the Gray camp's consternation: Any talk of those pesky park contracts.

Wanted, Sucker for Thankless Job: The D.C. Board of Elections & Ethics is hiring after Chairman Errol Arthur quit, reports Freeman Klopott of the Examiner. "The timing of his leaving the board couldn't be worse. Arthur's last day will be Aug. 2, just weeks before the primary that will likely determine the District's next mayor. The three-member board has been running with only two members since February 2009, and if a replacement can't be found quickly, there won't be a board in place to verify the primary votes. In other words, it'll be as if the primary never happened, officials said." (Since LL is new to the beat anyway, why not just start the whole thing over in September?)

Watch What You Say, Not How You Drive: Metro has suspended a veteran employee after she made offensive remarks at a graduation class for bus drivers, reports Kytja Weir in the Examiner. "Ora Crutchfield made statements against elderly people, young black men and Asians during the April 30 graduation ceremony, according to a Metro investigative report obtained by The Washington Examiner. Such events are typically attended by graduates' friends and family members — of all ages and backgrounds."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!: "Mobile speed cameras were posted to a dozen new sites last week, mostly in Southeast Washington, in a move critics say puts the District on track to net $41 million from tickets," reports Kafia Hosh in the Post.

Jonetta sure does hate the D.C. Council [Examiner]

Area unemployment falls; could it be all those top secret dudes? [WBJ]

Does anyone ride these things? [WTOP]

Mayor's schedule: Kelsey Temple, 10:45 a.m.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• Elites win the dawn
• Pizza delay
• The real reason LeBron went to Miami

Good morning sweet readers! Has anyone else seen the trailer for the new movie about Facebook "founder" Mark Zuckerberg? Creepy. Just watching that thing makes LL want to delete his account this instant. But first things first—the news:

Hit the Road, Marc: There's a new boss in town for the city's troubled juvenile justice system. Marc Schindler was shown the door yesterday; he was replaced by Robert Hildum, a top aide to Attorney General Peter Nickles.  "[H]is appointment took many people inside and outside DYRS by surprise and raised fears among some advocates that juvenile justice reform in the District could be set back," reports Henri Cauvin in the Post. Also gone: "Deputy director David Brown and head of internment David Muhammad resigned from the agency, citing uncertainty about its future, a source with knowledge of their decisions told The Washington Examiner," Freeman Klopott reports. Klopott says the move was a power grab by Nickles in a sidebar:  "Neither outgoing DYRS interim director Marc Schindler, nor his predecessor Vincent Schiraldi, reported to Nickles as other agency heads do, one source said. By placing Hildum at the top of DYRS, Fenty has added another agency to Nickles' zone of influence."  LL once visited Nickles' zone of influence. Nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there.

AFTER THE JUMP: Gray's education plan panned; cash rules everything around Gandhi; more on Bullet Proof...

Been There, Done That: DCPS gives D.C. Council Chairman and mayoral candidate Vincent Gray a smackdown over his proposed education plan, reports the Examiner's Leah Fabel. "D.C. Council Chairman and mayoral candidate Vincent Gray's campaign promise of 'birth-to-24' public education is already under way and succeeding, according to school officials aligned with Gray's opponent, Mayor Adrian Fenty." It's hard to tell how much of the pushback from DCPS is the usual sort you'd expect from bureaucrats defending the system after Gray criticized it—and how much has something to do with schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee's obvious preference for a Fenty win. LL prediction: Gray will keep pushing the education plan, even if DCPS says it's redundant; his camp knows he needs to demonstrate commitment to school reforms.

Love Letter:The Examiner's Harry Jaffe has the  news that CFO Natwar Gandhi is composing a letter to the mayor and the council about his recent visit to Wall Street and its bond rating agencies. "The good news is D.C. gets to keep its gold-plated rating for now; the bad news is that if our politicians add to the debt and keep dipping into the savings account, the ratings will go south and the cost of borrowing will go north and add millions more to the cost of government. Gandhi has tried to be a reliable 'Dr. No,' forcing the pols to spend within their means. He needs help now from the only council member to veto the budget: Jack Evans, chair of the finance committee. As a tag team, they might be able to rein in the pols freely spending our cash. Otherwise, the city goes broke—or we pay higher taxes."

Pay No Attention to What I Said Last Time: Speaking of Evans, on D.C. Wire, Nikita Stewart reports he pops up in the latest round of Fenty TV ads. "On Saturday, the Fenty campaign unveiled three new 15-second testimonials, including one in which Evans (D-Ward 2) addresses one of the criticisms of Fenty: 'Some people say that Adrian Fenty doesn't play well with others.' 'Some people' would include Evans. In November, he told The Washington Post that Fenty has always tended to 'operate alone.' In 2006, when Fenty successfully ran against then-Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp, who was endorsed by Evans, the Ward 2 council member made a number of unflattering statements about Fenty."

If You Build It, Pols Will Come: NBC 4's Tom Sherwood braved the heat to report on a library groundbreaking in Ward 8 yesterday.  Both Fenty and Gray are taking credit for the project. LL invites readers to check out the awkward bro-hug at the 10-second mark.

What's In a Name? The Post's Mike DeBonis has even more to share about Kwame Brown's boat, Bullet Proof:  "Brown insists the name is 'not about violence.' Rather, Brown said in interviews that his wife, Marcia, named the boat. He was somewhat fuzzy on the precise inspiration, but he said it was a reference to President Bill Clinton—'a comedy type of thing' involving either Chris Rock or Saturday Night Live. (Brown has worked in the federal Commerce Department during the Clinton administration.)"

Crash photos [NBC4]

Proposed pot site draws concern [NEWS 8]

Murder house for sale [FOXDC]

Mayor and the Council, no public schedule

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• Tent city achievement
• Mr. Gray, tear down that fence
• Weaver's funky ad

Good morning sweet readers! Did anyone here what Prince had to say recently about our online age? "The Internet's completely over... All these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you." LL thinks the purple one has a point, but that won't stop him from filling your head with numbers, or in this case, words. Here goes:

Kwame Brown Loves Cars, Boats, Not Paying Credit Cards on Time: The Post's Mike DeBonis wins the weekend with this piece about Council Chairman candidate Kwame Brown's debt problems. DeBonis mines Kwameworld and comes up with these nuggets: 1) Brown estimates that his personal debt exceeds $700,000, much of it outside his mortgage. 2) If the Canyonero were real, Brown would likely own one. "As Brown's debt grew, he continued to project an image of affluence. Until earlier this year, Brown drove a 2000 Mercedes-Benz E350 for which he paid $19,000—one of three cars in the household. 'I like cars. There's no question that Kwame likes cars,' he said, reciting a list of used Mercedes-Benzes he has driven in years past. 'I try to get the best value I can for the dollar I spend on my car.' But Brown said he is cutting back. He sold the Benz earlier this year, he said, leaving him with a 2003 Lincoln Navigator SUV and a 1999 Ford F-250 pickup with custom wheels—both vehicles owned free and clear. But he regularly drives a 2008 Escalade ESV leased for $1,380 a month—including insurance for any driver—by his campaign, which raised more than $200,000 in its first two months, according to a June campaign finance report." (Two of LL's editors spotted the campaign Escalade parked outside City Paper's offices a couple weeks ago in what didn't look like a spot that matched the conventional understanding of legal parking. Also, note to Kwame: All three of your vehicles get horrendous gas mileage. Might wanna think about a nice Tercel.) 3) It's a bear market for 38-foot boats named Bullet Proof. "Brown said he regrets his nautical foray. He would like to list the boat for sale at $50,000, but he has had trouble finding a broker open to that price. Anything less, he said, will exacerbate his financial troubles. 'I can't afford to lose $30,000 on a purchase,' he said." 4) Vincent Orange, Brown's challenger, is happy. "Brown's opponent in the Democratic primary, former Ward 5 council member Vincent B. Orange Sr., has started to make Brown's credit-card debt a campaign issue by directly linking it to the city's fiscal health—the District is perilously close to a 12 percent debt ceiling that Brown voted to adhere to."

AFTER THE JUMP; Soft Landing; Whosit?; Fenty and Jetset...

We're Coming In For A Soft Landing!: The Post editorial board weighs in on Attorney General Peter Nickles' decision to settle with Banneker Ventures for $550,000, saying "he makes a plausible argument that it was in the city's interests to settle to avoid the risk of much greater liability as well as the possibility of ongoing construction projects getting stalled in the legal dispute." The editorial sounds off on the D.C. Council, saying it's "hard to imagine a worse way to elicit information than that employed by D.C. Council members, whose principal interest seems to be embarrassing the administration." What? The Council wants to embarass Fenty over questionable contracts going to his friends? Get out of town, WaPo, with your crazy conspiracy theories!

What's His Name Again?: Mayoral dark horse candidate Leo Alexander complains in D.C. Watch that the Post is ignoring him in their mayoral coverage.  The slight is by "design," Alexander says, to preserve the status quo. "In this town, if the Post doesn’t cover you then the voters don’t know you exist—so it’s difficult to raise money. This way nothing ever changes, except the names of the safe establishment candidates." Now the Washington Times, that's a different story. Deborah Simmons chats with Alexander about the need to fix families and stem illegal immigration.

Fenty Scores with Official Washington: Mayor Adrian Fenty is having a fundraiser held in his honor by the politically connected set on July 25, reports Politico's Patrick Gavin.  The co-hosts are: "Media Matters' David Brock, Hunter Biden (son of Joe), Nathan Daschle (son of Tom), consultants Shari Yost Gold and Jason Gold, lawyer Mary Streett, Elmendorf Strategies Shanti Stanton, Fortune Brands' Matt Stanton and consultant Kimball Stroud. The event costs $250 per family. There are also contribution levels at $500, $1,000 and $2,000."

Nickles to The Rescue: The Examiner's Freeman Klopott has the story of how the AG forced fixed to a Southeast apartment building described as a "deathtrap." "Last week, Nickles stepped into the fray and forced the tenants and management to the bargaining table. They reached an agreement in which Nickles will assume control of the $450,000 in the escrow account. He will release the cash only when the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs clears the building of hundreds of citations. 'If they screw around on this, they can expect trouble from me,' Nickles told The Washington Examiner, referring to the landlord. 'I'm not a bashful guy, and I will come down hard.'"

I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me: From News 8: "Police say they operate a network of closed-circuit television cameras throughout the city to deter crime. Officials say businesses owners can register their surveillance cameras or video systems with police to help expand that network."

Realty Star: Here's a clip from the upcoming Marion Barry reality show, in which Barry visits a social services center in the Southeast. It appears from the video that Barry is not a home subscriber to the Washington Post.

Chat Time: WUSA 9 has a sit down with D.C. Council Chairman and mayoral candidate Vincent Gray, who says his administration would be more "mature" than Fenty's.

Crappy "friends" stick couple with huge electric bill [Post]

Dinner with Cathy Lainer [Post]

Jonetta Thinks the Council's Anti-Vote Buying Act is Self-Serving [Examiner]

Living Wage Rules Update [Neibauer]

Water Trees [WTOP]

Mayor's schedule: 10:45 a.m. Groundbreaking at Washington Highland Library, 115 Atlantic Street, SW

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• Kwame Brown vs. unpaid traffic tickets
• Tommy Wells is disappointed
• Ron Moten's news conference: the video

Good morning sweet readers! LL is pumped to have survived his first earthquake this morning. Nice try, Mother Earth, but not this time! Wonder how long of a rest the "political earthquake" metaphors will get after this? Don't worry, the ground isn't shaking anymore here at LL Daily HQ—come right in!

Cashquake! Debtquake! Still more earthquake headlines! ...

Mudquake!: WaPo's Nikita Stewart and Tim Craig do nice job of filtering out all of yesterday's craziness and getting to the point, that the sharp elbowed debate on Jonetta Rose Barras' show on WPFW signaled "a campaign likely to be soiled by mudslinging in its final eight weeks." Gray on Fenty: "Gray called the Fenty administration's transfer of city funds to the D.C. Housing Authority to award the contracts 'surreptitious, clandestine and circuitous.' The rerouting bypassed the council, which must authorize contracts exceeding $1 million. Gray, who began his campaign in March with a promise to return integrity and accountability to the mayor's office, peppered his responses Thursday by frequently using the word 'cronyism.' 'If you are a fraternity brother or someone associated with the mayor, you will get a contract,' he said. Fenty on Gray: "But Fenty aggressively offset Gray's attacks by talking about probes that have targeted the council chairman, stopping just short of calling Gray a hypocrite. He pointed to the installation of a fence at Gray's home, which the city has ordered taken down or shortened because it was built without permits. Fenty wrongly said the fence was built by a contractor that had business before the council. Though developer William C. Smith & Co. helped with other repairs at Gray's home, the Office of Campaign Finance found no violation of law. The campaign finance office also cleared Gray in using his council stationery to solicit contributions for the local Democratic Party, but Fenty raised the controversy during the debate."

Motenquake!: WCP had a front-row seat to Peaceoholics founder Ron Moten show yesterday. If you haven't already, check out the videos of the plot's rising action, climax, and denouement. (Thanks, seventh grade English teacher whose name LL doesn't remember!) The Examiner's Freeman Klopott caught up with Moten after the show and has more: "Peaceoholics received $277,000 from city agencies in 2006—the year Fenty was elected, records show. Three years later, Peaceoholics took in at least $5.1 million from the city. But Moten told The Washington Examiner on Thursday that he's not friends with Fenty. 'He's never been to my house, I've never been to his house,' Moten said. 'We don't go out to eat.'  Ron Moten: one day you call the man Jesus, the next, you say he's not even your friend? What?!

Cashquake!: WBJ's Michael Neibauer gets an excused absence from the Moten-o-rama, as he was looking at lobbyists' disclosure filings: "District government leaders were vigorously lobbied in the first six months of the year by the usual power brokers who earned millions of dollars fighting for the policy interests of the beverage, pharmaceutical, insurance, retail and building industries. Among the major players are D.C. lawyer David Wilmot and firms McGuire Woods LLP, Oldaker, Belair & Wittie LLP and Holland & Knight LLP, which count more than 60 clients between them, according to reports filed with the Office of Campaign Finance by the July 12 deadline."

Debtquake!: Chairman hopeful Vincent Orange has started bashing his opponent, At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown, over Brown being sued for more than $50,000 in credit card debt, NBC 4's Tom Sherwood reports. Orange also has problems with Brown owning a 42-foot boat called "Bulletproof."

Narrow Victory in Same-Sex MarriageQuake!: The D.C. Court of Appeals upholds same-sex marriages in the District yesterday, reports Keith Alexander in the Post. "The judges further stated that the [D.C.] Council 'was not obliged to allow initiatives that would have the effect of authorizing discrimination prohibited by the Human Rights Act to be put to voters, and then to repeal them, or to wait for them to be challenged as having been improper subjects of initiative, should they be approved by voters.'" Opponents said they plan to appeal to the Supreme Court.

BarryQuake!: The Washington Times' Deborah Simmons goes for a ride in Ward 8 with Mayor-for-Life Marion S. Barry Jr. and discovers Barry has big plans for next term: "'One of the ironies of losing my [housing] committee chairmanship is the time it's giving me to develop strategy,' Mr. Barry says. "When budget oversight begins, Ward 8 is going to be refocused and reorganized. I can't get every need into the budget. My job is to have leadership and empower the people.' He then makes a promise as much to himself as to Ward 8 residents. 'Next year will be different,' he says. 'They're going to be sick of us [at City Hall], but we're not going away.'

OTHER NEWS:

Wal-Mart Fight Preview: The Post's Mike DeBonis, tackling a subject already nicely handled by City Paper's own Lydia DePillis's column this week, previews the fight over Walmart's attempt to build a store in Northeast Washington. "The game plan for unions, who have long been stalwart foes of the mega-retailer's labor practices, will remain much the same this time. ... But the seduction might be less superficial in a city hurting from near-record unemployment. The District needs the jobs, even at near-minimum wages, and residents tend to appreciate the prices."

DYRS Worker Shot: A summer youth employment worker was shot in the hand while on the job yesterday in Northwest Washington. WTOP reports: "Councilmember Michael A. Brown, who chairs the committee that oversees the SYEP, says it is not clear if there were any supervisors from the jobs program around when the shooting happened, or if the teen was part of the program being held at the rec center. D.C. Police are still investigating the incident. Brown says the beleaguered program could avoid incidents like the shooting if D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty would focus on quality or quantity."

Big Ol' Drug Bust [News 8]

Jaffe's take on an ousted English teacher [Examiner]

On Kojo: At-Large Councilmember Michael Brown.

On Newstalk: Neibauer talks about whether District construction projects and whether they are producing jobs for residents.

Mayor and Council: No public schedules.

Dan Snyder

In June, for example, Snyder started soliciting soldiers and civilian employees of the Department of Defense, sending an announcement out to local bases that told service-connected people: "This is the first opportunity to purchase Season Tickets without being on a waiting list!" Snyder offered the military and DOD folks a $100 discount off the price of season tickets. 'Course, that $100 would go to what Snyder has long called an "account activation fee" that he charges for every season ticket sold. Snyder's customers, civilian or military or whatever, get absolutely nothing for that $100, making the charge one of the sneakiest fan gouging techniques mankind has yet devised. (The Skins' mythical waiting list ranks high on the sneakiest-ever roster, too.) Then the Skins organized a meet-and-greet through the Best Buy outlet inside the Pentagon just a few weeks ago.

But Snyder just dialed the shameless knob up to 11, when he announced that "Redskins Military Appreciation Day!" would be held this Sunday at FedExField. A more honest name for the event would be: "For Crissakes Would SOMEBODY Please Buy Our Tickets Day!"

Snyder did his poorest job yet of hiding his real intentions. Check out the official invitation to "Redskins Military Appreciation Day," (posted after the jump, click for larger image): It asks for basic personal information, though nothing about military affiliation, then delivers the $64,000 question: "Are You Interested In Redskins Season Tickets?"

Actually, to be fair, that's a $6,950 question, if we're talking about a pair of "Dream Seats" plus parking. In any case, nothing says "Thanks for your service!" quite like a sales pitch for stuff nobody else has bought.

Good golly, this is awful. I'm reminded of the most famous quote to come out of most famous Congressional hearings of the mid-20th Century, when Sen. Joe McCarthy, caught using the military to score personal points, was asked: "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• Harry Thomas v. Student Loan Debt
• Go-Go loses one more venue
• Who speaks for the trees?

Good morning sweet readers! LL gave birth to his first column today. Thesis statement: "One of the first things apparent to a new reporter in the Wilson Building is how spectacularly dysfunctional Mayor Adrian Fenty’s press shop is." 'Nuff said. Pick up the paper.

AFTER THE JUMP: Test Scores; Where's Adrian; Uncle Sam Pays the Rent...

Dear Lord, Please Veto This Bill, Amen: Fenty ally Ron Moten is back in the news after getting national attention for comparing Fenty to Jesus. Moten called on the Post's Tim Craig to denounce the D.C. Council's approval of a bill that "would make it a local crime to pay someone to vote. ... The bill, sponsored by council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), enshrines in the local code the federal prohibitions against paying someone to vote or register to vote, or accepting payment to vote or register to vote. It also makes it a local crime to use a false name to register to vote. Violators could be fined as much as $10,000 and face five years in prison. 'Now the District is going to have a parallel law to the federal law," Cheh said. "We do this in a lot of areas because it provides a backstop.' But Moten reached out to the D.C. Wire today to say he wants Fenty to veto the legislation. Moten worries that the council, led by Fenty rival Vincent C. Gray (D), is trying to quash the mayor's go-go concerts, which are designed to get low-income African American residents registered to vote. At the concerts, the Fenty campaign encourages participants to register to vote in exchange for entrance, free food and T-shirts featuring the mayor pictured with go-go artists."  The Gray campaign couldn't resist blasting a response: “It's beyond disappointing that one of the mayor's top campaign cronies would oppose a measure to stop vote-buying. But I'm not surprised. The mayor and his cronies have had no problem bringing pay to play politics to city government. Now it looks like they want to bring it to the voting booth,” said campaign spokeswoman Traci Hughes. LL, like a sucker, has been voting his whole life for free.

Fail-o-lizer 5000: The Examiner's Freeman Klopott covered yesterday's hearing on MPD's faulty breath analyzers, and reports that the District is now facing nearly $1 million in civil suits from a dozen drivers who say their civil rights were violated. "The 12 drivers were among 400 who were convicted of driving while intoxicated in the District since October 2008, when city officials say police Officer Kelvin King inaccurately calibrated three of the police department's 13 Intoxylizer 5000s. An outside contractor discovered the improper adjustments on Feb. 4, 2010, officials said during a D.C. Council hearing on Wednesday. Since then, the District has replaced the 15-year-old Intoxylizer 5000s with a newer version that's deemed more accurate."

Let's Not Freak Out Here, People: A WaPo editorial attempts to administer some balm to the this week's news of dipping test scores for D.C. elementary school students. "District schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee knows better than anyone the value of data, so she's not discounting this year's disappointing dip in elementary math and reading scores. 'We have to own this and figure out how to move forward' she said in a forthright admission of the need to redouble efforts. But, by the same token, Ms. Rhee is right to note and celebrate — the undeniable improvement of the public schools in the past three years. Despite the latest results, the larger trend in achievement is upward." (Please note: most of what LL says is a "forthright admission of the need to redouble efforts.") D.C. Watch's Gary Imhoff called out the Post even before they wrote their editorial.  Says Imhoff: "Within a day or two I expect to see a Washington Post editorial contradicting all its previous editorials that claimed that small gains on the standardized test scores proved Rhee’s genius, admonishing readers that standardized text don’t prove anything, and that they should not pay any attention to them." Gee, it's almost like the Post editorial board has some kind of well-known soft spot for Rhee!

Whither Adrian?: In a piece called "Mayor Fenty plays hide-and-seek with voters," the Washington Times' Deborah Simmons has more on Fenty's recent no shows to candidate forums. "Mr. Fenty was a no-show for at least three public forums in the past week and a half, including the most recent debate on Tuesday night at Israel Baptist Church in Northeast. Whatever the reason for his absences, the mayor has offered no explanation and voters are starting to notice." The Georgetown Dish airs a note of concern from the Citizens Association of Georgetown that Fenty won't come to their upcoming forum. Uh dude, you might wanna, like, I don't know, go to these things.

Uncle Sam Saves the Day: WBJ's Jeff Clabaugh reports that commercial real estate vacancy rates in the District are falling, largely thanks to the federal government that "continues to propel the District's recovery."

Educated Doesn't Equal Smart: The Washington region is the best-educated region in the entire universe, Daniel de Vise reports for WaPo. Money quote: "'To put it crudely, Washington, D.C., is parasitic on the rest of the country,' said Dowell Myers, a professor of urban planning and demography at the University of Southern California. 'Most of those people were educated somewhere else.'" Yes, like zombies (and LL's editors), D.C. feeds on brains.

Anger at Pepco [News8]

Wanted: Grocery Ambassador [WBJ]

More on D.C.'s Statues in Congress [WAMU]

More Toilets for the Mall [WTOP]

MPD Back in Mosque Controversy [Examiner]

A Look At D.C.'s Newest Pediatric ER [NBC4]

NTSB Confirms Meeting on Last Summer's Metro crash [Post]

Premature affirmation [Capital Land]

Fenty dissing charter schools? [D.C. Schools Insider]

DON'T MISS: Fenty and Gray on Jonetta Rose Barras's radio show. 11 a.m. to noon, 89.3 FM or WPFW.org. (Or, if you work at City Paper, just downstairs.) Leo Alexander is on at 10 a.m.

Mayor's schedule: Nada.

Council's schedule: Nothing.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• City Paper exclusive on MPD's go-go report.
• Wanted: One mayor for mayoral forum
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Good morning sweet readers! Did anyone manage to watch all 27 hours of the D.C. Council session yesterday? If you missed any, LL TiVo-ed it and is having a viewing party this weekend at the parking lot of RFK Stadium. (Just pretend you're at the old 'HFS-tival!) On with the news:

2+2=5?: The foundation of Mayor Adrian Fenty's re-election campaign is the progress made in D.C.'s schools, right? Duh. So yesterday's news that new standardized test scores show a four to five point drop for elementary school students probably wasn't exactly what Hizzoner wanted to hear. Both the Post's Bill Turque, and the Examiner's Leah Fabel said the results come at an "inopportune" time for Fenty (teacher, someone is copying my use of the word inopportune!) Turque: "The elementary-school decline also represents a blow for [Chancellor Michelle] Rhee, who has made test score growth an integral part of the cultural change in schools she has pursued since becoming chancellor in 2007. Handpicked principals have established academic 'war rooms' to chart the progress of each student, tailoring instruction to address weaknesses that emerge on interim tests. Through winter and spring, schools are fully mobilized to prepare for the April tests in grades 3 through 8 and in grade 10. Field trips are canceled, and classes spend more time on test preparation. Selected schools offer 'Saturday academies' to help students. And this year's scores for the first time will determine half of the annual evaluation of some D.C. teachers. Last week, Rhee confirmed that she intended to expand standardized testing to cover all grades." Fabel: "[Fenty] appeared somewhat perplexed when asked by a parent why his office doesn't do more to communicate the school system's results. 'I grew up in D.C. when people, all they did was talk and talk. I like to do,' he said. 'People can look around and see the progress.' Not that it was all bad news, scores for middle and high school students rose, and overall 'officials said the three-year record of double-digit growth in secondary schools' test scores — an average gain of 14 percentage points in the reading pass rate and 17 points in the math rate — surpasses the norm for big urban school districts.'" Freeman Klopott has more on what the "mixed bag" of test results mean for Fenty in the Examiner.

AFTER THE JUMP: Trolley cars and hospitals; Immunity!; Mendelson and Stein...

A Little Ditty, About Two Guys Running For Mayor: WaPo's Tim Craig and Nikita Stewart tag-team the current state of the mayoral race two months out and air some criticism of both campaigns. Here's the low down on Fenty: "But the campaign has at times appeared rudderless, and sources close to the campaign say Fenty has been reluctant to heed advice and slow to grasp that he faces a far different election than he did in 2006 (not a fresh-faced council member known for his constituent service, but an incumbent mayor defending his record). For instance, Fenty overruled campaign advisers who urged him to hold off on the TV ads until a more comprehensive strategy was put together, two sources close to the mayor said. And Fenty's style has hampered his ability to build and nurture an electoral coalition. Despite his business-friendly agenda, Fenty lost the D.C. Chamber of Commerce endorsement to Gray." And on Gray: "The more immediate concern of those who support Gray—known for relishing the details of governing—is that he is too slow to make some campaign decisions. A dozen advisers helped Gray develop the education plan he rolled out two weeks ago, for instance. Before it was released, however, Gray and his staff vetted it before nearly 100 government officials, teachers, school administrators, labor leaders, parents and other stake-holders, campaign sources said. Gray is using a similar formula in developing proposals on crime, economic development and job creation and fiscal responsibility." LL regularly consults with nearly 100 people when deciding what to have for lunch. The consensus today: bacon. Unless the polling comes back and suggests empanadas.

Council Roundup: WaPo's Ann Marimow catches us up with two issues. Trolley Cars: "The D.C. Council made way for the first leg of a 37-mile trolley system Tuesday, passing legislation to allow the use of overhead wires along Benning Road and H Street NE. The debate over the use of the electrical wires for streetcars has centered on whether the lines violate a long-standing ban intended to preserve the appearance of the federal city. The temporary legislation approved unanimously Tuesday specifically prohibits overhead wires around the National Mall and creates a public process for determining whether the wires can be used in other parts of the city." And the hospital: "With some reservations, the council also gave final approval Tuesday to the creation of a nonprofit to run United Medical Center, the city's only hospital east of the Anacostia River."

Loophole!: WAMU's Patrick Madden reports on a big old campaign finance loophole that allows corporations to give lots more than the $2k limit to their candidate. "Some of the names sound generic: Acme Atlantic Leasing Company LLC or Gotham Investors LLC. Others sound a little more specific: Round Hill Investors LLC or FGV Investors LLC. There are 11 companies in all. They all gave the $2,000 maximum to Mayor Adrian Fenty’s campaign and all are listed at the same address: the 8th floor at 2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard in Rockville, Maryland. That turns out to be the headquarters for Lerner Enterprises, the area's largest real estate developer. Tax records show the resident agent for most of them is a vice president at the company." LL notes that the same practice has been going on for years in Maryland. Possibly involving some of the same companies!

File Under Gross: A MetroAccess driver has been accused of sexually assaulting a disabled rider while transporting her home from adult day care in at least the third sexual assault case involving the agency's paratransit service so far this year, according to the Examiner's resident sex assault expert, Kytja Weir.

Where does he keep his immunity idol?: Clinton LaSuere's lawsuit against Fenty, alleging he stiffed him on $5,000 in unpaid campaign work for Fenty's Ward 4 successor, Muriel Bowser, was denied yesterday, Keith Alexander of the Post reports. "At a hearing Tuesday, Judge Michael J. McCarthy did not rule on the merits of LeSueur's claim. Rather, in dismissing the case, he cited a District law that provides immunity for elected officials." LL would like to point out that he also has immunity. From chicken pox!

Gerty for Mendo: The city's gay activists vote to support At-Large Councilman Phil Mendelson over challenger Clark Ray, Mike DeBonis reports. "Incumbent Phil Mendelson offered a simple pitch: 'I delivered the marriage equality bill,' he said in his opening remarks, a statement that hinted at years of legislative efforts that laid the groundwork for last year's climactic marriage vote. Challenger Clark Ray, the former city parks and recreation director, has had to sell gay activists on a different proposition—I'd be just as good on the issues, and, hey, I'm also gay."

You Kids Driving Me Crazy: Jonetta Rose Barras says in the Examiner that the D.C. Council needs parental control.

"Chat with Ward One School Board Candidate, Patrick Mara" [Examiner]

Prison Guards for Gray [Post]

Pierre L'Enfant, Frederick Douglas Statues to the capitol? [Post]

Mayor's schedule: Ribbon cutting at United Medical Center's New Pediatric ER unit, 10:45

Council hearings: Breathalyzer problems, election reform