The mayor’s office just issued a press release announcing that Hizzoner’s wife, Michelle Cross Fenty, is expecting the couple’s third child in late fall. Baby Fenty will join 8-year-old twins Andrew and Matthew. Mom, according to the release, “says she is feeling great and is looking forward to meeting the newest addition to the family.”

So, will youngest Fenty be attending D.C. Public Schools? (Just kidding, Mr. Mayor. Sort of.)

Millicent Williams, who had been head of Serve DC, the mayoral volunteerism concern, will be the new executive director of the Children and Youth Investment Trust Corp., sources tell LL.

The appointment of a mayoral insider by the nonprofit’s board marks the culmination of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s move to assert more control over CYITC, which, since its establishment in 1999, has been charged with supporting youth services by pooling public and private money and issuing grants. Why might Fenty want more control? Most of the organization’s money has been provided by the District government—according to the organization’s 2006 tax return, it received $18.8 million in government funds and less than $4 million from other sources.

Last Thursday, in a move that set tongues wagging, Fenty replaced the high-powered chair and vice-chair of the board: The chair was none other than Federal City Council CEO John W. Hill, head of the organization that speaks for the city’s business and political elites. The vice chair was Diane Bernstein, long active in child welfare causes and—with her husband, businessman Norman Bernstein—a well-regarded philanthropist.

Both Hill and Bernstein had been on the CYITC board since the corporation’s founding in 1999; their terms had expired late last year, but had stayed on pending their successors’ appointments. With their departure, the board’s taking a steep hit in prestige, with top business and policy leaders giving way to lower-profile folks with closer ties to the mayoral administration.

The timing of the power move was somewhat suspicious, considering that the CYITC’s executive director, Greg Roberts, recently announced he’ll be leaving next month to take a job with the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville.

Replacing Hill and Bernstein, who had been on the board are Clark Ray, the director of the Department of Parks and Recreation, and Lisa Simpson, a program manager with AARP. Late last year, Fenty also appointed his deputy mayor for education, Victor Reinoso, to the board, as well as James Carter, an analyst who works on youth issues for the mayor’s office. Three other members of the seven-member CYITC board are appointed by the D.C. Council.

Last week, the board voted Simpson as its new chair, with Carter as secretary, according to CYITC spokesperson Ellen London.

At Hart Middle School, the eight-graders went through their graduation rehearsal today. The rest of the day was spent on fighting and just hanging out. A bunch of cops–more than a half dozen–were stationed a half block away. Earlier today, there had been a huge off-campus fight.

When I asked the cops about the ruckus, they just muttered something about gangs as if it were the most boring subject in the world.

By 1 p.m., a few kids chose to kill the rest of the afternoon by sitting on Hart’s front steps. Best putdown overheard: “You are the dumbest kid that’s graduating.” The kid didn’t have much of a response. He actually seemed to agree with his friend’s assessment.

Poetry month is wrapping up, and tonight offers the perfect way to celebrate it. Poetry Out Loud, a program co-created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, is a national poetry recitation contest for high school students. In spelling-bee style, students have moved up the ranks, from their classrooms to last night’s semifinals where the 52 state champions competed. Tonight the 12 survivors will compete for a $20,000 scholarship ($10,000 goes to second place and $5,000 to third). The event will be held at the George Washington University Lisner Auditorium at 7 p.m. And the best part is that it’s free and open to the public.

Are any kids in your office today? Today is “Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day” (expanded from “Take Our Daughters To Work Day” in 2003). I don’t see any kids running around here though, learning how to do my job. I seem to remember heading into my parent’s offices a couple times at the end of April when I was growing up. Does anybody do this anymore? -Amanda Hess

Ira Glass is coming May 1 to a movie theater near you. Sort of. He’s actually coming to a theater near you via satellite from a theater near him in New York. But it’s live, people, the scripted pauses, the predictable story arcs, perhaps even the grating delivery of Sarah Vowell—it’ll all be in real time. I’m more of a Radio Lab fan myself, but never say I didn’t do anything for all you TAL junkies out there. For a mere $20, watch His Glassness debut “never-before-seen extraordinary, funny, and true stories from everyday life, show outtakes, and answer audience questions.” In HD. H-fucking-D!!

Tickets went on sale today for the 8 p.m. show at the following locations:

• Ballston Commons 12
  671 Glebe Road
  Arlington

• AMC Hoffman
  206 Swam Fox Road
  Alexandria

• AMC Tyson’s Corner 16
  1961 Chain Bridge Road
  McLean

• Lee Highway Multiplex Cinemas
  8223 Lee Highway
  Merrifield

• Fairfax Towne Center
  12110 West Ox Road

• Snowden Square
  9161 Commerce Center Dr.
  Columbia

Today, the Washington Post published a front-page piece on Positive Nature and the non-profit’s on-going struggle to pay off its huge property tax bill. We have a story or two on this issue as well.

This afternoon we got the chance to talk to Stephen T. Baron, Director of the Department of Mental Health, about the non-profit.

“We think very highly of them,” Baron said. “We are trying to do everything we can to support them. They’ve done great work.”

On the property tax issue: “Where I come from I thought most non-profits get their taxes abated. They do great work. If you do a whole cost analysis….it’s much better for the kids and much cheaper for the kids to be served [by Positive Nature].”

Now if only the D.C. Council would actually do something. In the meantime, you can step up.

Update: In another conversation with DMH, they wanted to stress that Mr. Baron was arguing that having kids enrolled in Positive Nature is cost effective considering the alternative. Without Positive Nature, kids could have possible trouble with the law, require extra tutoring at school, and other social services.

The social worker who pleaded in vain for the city to intervene in the Banita Jacks case has a new job: She’s working for Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso.

Kathy Lopes had been a counselor at Booker T. Washington Public Charter School, where 16-year-old Brittany Jacks had attended. After Brittany stopped going to school for a month last spring, Lopes visited the Jacks home and repeatedly tried to get the city’s Child and Family Services Agency to intervene. After it was discovered in January that Brittany and her three sisters had been murdered, the city released tapes of Lopes all but begging a CFSA social worker to check on her.

Lopes started as a “program analyst” on March 3; according to Reinoso, her job is connected with a pilot program that aims to identify at-risk schoolkids and coordinate the delivery of city services to help them. She currently works out of the deputy mayor’s Wilson Building office suite, but Reinoso says that next month Lopes will start working in one of two DCPS schools slated to debut the program this school year. Another five schools will start the program in August. (The chosen schools are scheduled to be announced at 10:30 this morning.)

Reinoso says Lopes came to his notice due to her involvement in the Jacks case. “We reached out to her,” he says. “She obviously understands the importance of people coordinating on these issues.”

Lopes went through an interview process along with about a dozen other social workers before she was selected. “She obviously has a lot of persistence,” Reinoso says. “You’ve got to have a lot of persistence in this line of work.”

Lopes could not be immediately reached for comment.

Mike Rhode’s excellent ComicsDC blog includes a tidbit that makes the town of Falls Church at least 25 percent more interesting: It’s the town where Columbus, Ohio, native and very funny writer James Thurber was nearly blinded in one eye as a child, thanks to a moment of unstructured play with his brother that went terribly wrong. (A bow and arrow was involved.) Cul de Sac cartoonist Richard Thompson, who fed Rhode the anecdote, fills out the story on his own blog.–Mark Athitakis

Shadow Sen. Paul Strauss has made no bones about the fact that he’d like spots for him and his daughter in the city’s Verizon Center skybox for the Jan. 7 Hannah Montana concert.

Well, he asked. And he’s been denied.

“Neil Albert told me there’s no room,” Strauss says, referring to the deputy mayor for planning and economic development. That means Strauss won’t be sitting with Albert, Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans, City Administrator Dan Tangherlini, schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, and offspring.

Strauss says he’s moved on to Plan B: Appealing to the Verizon Center itself for any spare seats.

“I haven’t given up hope yet,” he says. (There’s always Plan C: A glimpse at StubHub reveals that two nosebleed-section tickets could be his for $240 apiece.)

Strauss says he’d love to take his daughter to future skybox events. “She’s 9,” he says, “so I hope there’ll be other opportunities.”

Now, I am all in favor of lawns and art and lawn art. And these little statuettes from home-furnishing cataloguer Frontgate might just make a fine gift. But boy putting and girl putting will run you $2,500. Each.

Even if D.C. ever really got enough snow to make a snowman, I have to wonder: Is there anything more pathetic than one that comes to life via Restoration Hardware?

To wit: Kit ($14.99) comes with “everything you need to dress Frosty in his finest,” including “coal” for the eyes and mouth, a “carrot” nose, three buttons, and a pipe, all carved of hardwood and mounted on skewers. While waiting for enough snow to hold your wood, keep your handcrafted items in the knit cap (surely not made in Sri Lanka). It doubles as a storage bag!

No need to search for stones and sticks. That’s for the kids in Ward 7.

The other day, my roommate and I were reminiscing over our junior high days when she let slip an interesting fact: At her school, Monroe Traditional Alternative Middle School of Colombus, Ohio, the administration would throw school dances during lunch. All students were required to wear their uniforms. Faculty would roam the gymnasium with rulers to ensure that dancers’ bodies writhed at least a foot apart. The cost was $7. Everybody paid. I believe that my roommate described the scenario as “lame.”

Lame? Fuck that! Young people get everything cool, and they never realize how good they have it. They get naptime-that’s “lame.” They have meals bought and prepared for them, and all they have to do is sit down at a kitchen table and eat it all-also “lame.” Now, they get to have a dance party in the middle of the day? All I get to do in the middle of the day is file blogs about how I wish I were at a dance party!

Let’s go, working stiffs. Nooner dance party. If we can get this, surely we can get our hands on a ruler.

Take it away, Minogue.

Brock, I just gotta say sorry, man. You were an excellent guide to the Capitol this past Saturday, and your knowledge of the artwork inside the rotunda verges on ridiculous. And even your Jesuit priest-style habit of ending a fact with a question—e.g., “The statue of General Jackson was a gift of…what state?”—grew on me after a while.

So it only seemed fair of you to ask whether any of us had questions of our own. And when my toddler son said yes, and you asked him what it was, and I was waving my hands as if to say, No, no, don’t call on him—well, it’s understandable that you didn’t see that.

What I can’t figure out is why he then told you and the tour group, “I live in a car.”

And why I felt compelled to tell them we don’t.

John Trumbull, Surrender of Cornwallis, 1817-1820 (from the Capitol Rotunda collection)

Happy Halloween, Washington. Welcome to my favorite holiday, the one that brings together two of my chief passions: candy and clothes.

I’ve been monitoring neighborhood Listservs to see how residents are preparing for tonight’s onslaught, and I discovered that Capitol Hill is embroiled in a serious debate: Do un-costumed kids deserve candy? If so, what kind?

One resident says she and her husband have initiated a policy to deal with costumeless kids. “We are pretty strict about the no costume-no candy rule and my husband revels in skimping out on the older kids with mediocre attempts at dressing up,” one neighbor posted on her local Listserv.

Another responded that plainclothes kids should be viewed within their socio-economic context. “I can understand feeling a bit ripped off by kids and adults who come with no costumes, but I’d like to urge some compassion – for the kids anyway. Younger kids in particular may not have the means or ability to put together a costume if Mom or Dad don’t help. What’s the harm in modeling generosity or teaching compassion by wishing everyone a Happy Halloween and giving out some candy?” she wrote.

Meanwhile, one resident said he was just too scared to deny kids candy. “I concur with the no costume-no candy rule, but then reality strikes. The kids without costumes are usually the kind who will remember your house and return with some ‘tricks.’ So it is better to just pay the protection candy and let them move on. Besides, one kid was pretty funny. I asked what he was dressed as and he said ‘I’m a student in the DC Public Schools, isn’t that scary?!!!’”