One of the temporaries (Matt Bevilacqua)

Many a District resident is willing, on petitions and in online comment boxes, to voice support for D.C. voting rights. But does your passion run deep enough to ink it on your skin?

Several score of people gathered in Dupont Circle earlier this evening to prove they would go so far in demonstrating pride for their city. Flag Day in the Flesh saw dozens of die-hards showing off different variations on the D.C. flag permanently gracing their bodies (many more made due with temporary tattoos handed out at the event).

A few local politicos showed up, including Shadow Rep. Mike Panetta and former At-Large D.C. Council candidate Bryan Weaver, both of whom unveiled tattoos of their own last Saturday. Speeches were made, a DJ spun The Smiths and Slayer, and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton herself slapped on a temporary, proclaiming “Where else is there to be tonight?” (This story originally referred to Norton as a shadow senator.)

We’ve already told you about some of the less flattering ways to wear the stars and bars. But here are some photos of statehood activists and other concerned citizens who know how to rock it:

All photos by Matt Bevilacqua

We've heard there may be more such license plate covers on Capitol Hill, including what's been described as a Ford Excursion with Alaska plates. Does anyone have additional info? We'd love to hear from you.

So is such a license plate cover illegal? There are D.C. regulations on the books that dictate that license plates "shall be maintained free from foreign materials and in clearly legible condition." Five years ago, D.C. police started to enforce a law making license plate covers illegal. A cottage industry had sprang up selling tinted and clear plastic covers that could evade traffic enforcement cameras.

But are the anti-D.C. statehood covers—which only obscure the iconic protest message on D.C. plates, not the tag number itself—out of step with D.C. law? We have an inquiry in with the city and will report back when more information becomes available.

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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]

"Five for Fenty," by Stinky Dink, is Ron Moten's latest effort to boost his pal's q-rating with musical outreach. It'll soon be blaring at "all the clubs, all the the DJs, all the events," Moten tells DeBonis. (Listen to the song here.) The song features Stinky Dink rapping about Fenty's achievements over a classic Backyard Band cover of the Luniz's "I Got Five On It."

DeBonis has been in D.C. a while, but he didn't initially realize the musical provenance of the song; another former City Paper staffer (and now TBD writer), Sarah Godrey, set him straight on the weed-buying origins of the phrase "five on it" (which does seem a little off-message for Fenty). Still, our former Loose Lips columnist is a dogged reporter, and once I pointed out the Backyard angle, it didn't take long for DeBonis to acquaint himself with the go-go cover that undergirds the Fenty anthem.

Backyard Band frontman Anwan "Big G" Glover makes a cameo in the Fenty song. But if you'd like to listen to "I Got Five On It" with more Big G and without lyrics like "If you in the game, you can take it from a playa/the grass ain't greener over there, it look Gray-er," enjoy:

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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.

The caucus, which voted 37 to 1 for D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray over Fenty, is muy cabreado that Fenty didn't show up.

Franklin Garcia, president of the caucus, said he worked with Fenty's folks to change the date of the forum just so the mayor could be there. And he's got the e-mails he says back him up, which he shared with LL.

Here's one Fenty's campaign aide John Falcicchio sent to Garcia on June 17:

Thanks for sending this email and working with us to set July 24th as the date for the DC Latino PAC endorsement.

A day later, Falcicchio sent another email:

Franklin: We've agreed to attend the July 24th endorsement forum. We also appreciate the invitation to send a representative to the June 24th meeting, which we will do. We look forward to seeing you next on the 24th. Thank you for your work, John

But wait! The mayor's folks have the emails that show he was never confirmed, confirmed.  (They've also shared them with LL).

On July 21, Garcia sent Falcicchio a reminder of the upcoming forum, to which Falcicchio replied:

Franklin: As we discussed earlier when you and Angel called me about rescheduling the conflicting forums on the 24th, the Mayor is not confirmed for this event on the 24th. I never heard back from you about your plans. John

To which Garcia replied:

Not sure of what conflict you are referring to John.  You may be thinking of the Ward 5 democrats, we had the Mayor confirmed long ago.  I can forward you emails, maybe you are thinking this is for Ward 5 Democrats?  This is for the Latino Caucus.  Remember you asked me to change the date to accommodate the Mayor to the 24^th?  I can forward you email trail if you are unsure.

To which Falcicchio said:

Thanks, Franklin. There's no e-mail chain because we spoke on the phone on or about July 8th.

Oh snap! Who's still with LL—anyone?

Whoever is to blame, the net result is this: Garcia said there's a lot of anger from caucus members over the no-show. Though that anger might not translate to a lot of votes, it probably adds fuel to the perception that Hizonner is a tad aloof. After all, this is not the first forum the mayor has decided to skip.

Garcia also noted, via email, the irony of Fenty's absence.

Back in 2006 when we hosted the 2006 Latino Mayoral Forum, then Council Chair Linda Cropp did the same thing. All candidates showed for the endorsement meeting, except for leading candidate, Linda Cropp. Ms. Cropp received 2 votes and Adrian Fenty won the endorsement.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

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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!"

Muse Nightclub and Lounge, at 717 6^th Street NW, is facing a slew of violations from the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA). Just this past May, MPD Chief Cathy Lanier shut down Muse for 96 hours, over a box-cutter slashing incident. On Wednesday, Wei Zhou, co-owner of the establishment, sat before the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board at a status hearing regarding four separate charges dating back to 2009. And the club's future still looks up in the air.

On April 26, 2009, ABRA investigators found Club Muse “allowed the establishment to be used for an unlawful or disorderly purpose and failed to cooperate with investigators,” according to ABRA records. The alleged incident involved an altercation between patrons, and an altercation between a patron and security personnel. Investigators also cited the club for sale of alcohol to intoxicated persons and a violation of its security plan in failing to document the altercation; failing to log a stolen purse; and the “Unhappy Guests” clause, “sending a guest away unhappy and failing to find out why” after the altercation.

The fourth charge was for failure to comply with their Voluntary Agreement. On Friday, March 12, 2010, ABRA General Counsel Martha Jenkins had advised the club to provide an MPD reimbursable detail by the next weekend. According to an ABRA investigator, the establishment failed to provide one. The detail was in place by the following weekend.

The District and the bar worked together on an offer-in-compromise, which would have included a total fine of $6,000, to be paid within 30 days, a temporarily suspension of the liquor license on Monday, July 26, and two additional suspensions that could be triggered by additional violations.

“We… worked very very hard to put together an OIC, on a very complex case, where the establishment has…worked very hard to take care of the issues that we have in front of us,” said Louise Phillips, an assistant attorney general.

But the ABC Board rejected the OIC, setting up another hearing on Wednesday, Aug. 18. The parties are expected to call a total of at least 13 witnesses—might need some alcohol to get through that one.

Photo by StuartWebster. Creative Commons Attribution License.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

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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.

("Some people say I spend too much time responding to my constituents," of course, is the political ad equivalent of answering that dreaded, "What are your biggest faults?" job interview question by saying you work too hard.)

But what a difference four years can make. Here's one of the new ads, featuring Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans—who uses the same construction in his first line:

We've gone from some people saying Fenty "spends too much time responding to [his] constituents" to the some people saying Fenty is, essentially, a jerk.

Some people, it appears from the ads, were a lot nicer four years ago!

D.C. Public Schools are days away from informing a “sizable” number of teachers and school staff that they no longer have a job in the system because of “ineffective” performance, according to school officials.

The school officials are short on details and specifics, but said the exact number of teachers getting pink slips will be released before the end of next week, Fabel reports.

Poll question: Firing a bunch of teachers two months before an election—good or bad move?

Who wants more results of meaningless straw polls? LL's readers do!

The latest one was in Ward 2 last night, where Mayor Adrian Fenty got around 60 percent of the 160-some ballots cast by registered Democrats. His opponent, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, got about 40 percent. Hizzoner is probably not thrilled with the results, though, as Ward 2 is thought of as Fenty country—and a 60 percent showing is kind of weak. Fenty's got to rack up a bigger margin in the ward on Election Day, to offset Gray's strength in other neighborhoods, or he can kiss that District-owned Smart car goodbye.

Over by the snack bar last night, LL met a nice 74-year-old Ward 2 resident, who—this being Washington—didn't want her name printed. (We'll call her a "senior Ward 2 official," in homage to the folks at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.) The lady swore up and down that she was a true undecided voter and had come to the forum to hear the candidates' pitches with an open mind.

LL called her up this morning to see who won her over. Her answer: “I don’t really care for any of them, but I put my vote in for Gray."

She said she didn't think there was much difference between Gray and Fenty's ability to run the city, but she didn't like Fenty's attitude and she figured why not give Gray a chance? She added, though, that she could easily change her mind between now and the election.

Last night's highlights (which were sparse, considering the candidates didn't debate, but rather gave their stump speeches in succession) include an exchange between Gray and a heckler. At one point, the microphone stopped working, and a Fenty supporter screamed at Gray for not speaking loud enough for the whole room to hear. The rest of the crowd shifted uncomfortably. So Gray responded:

"Well, we certainly hear you."

Burn!

As LL said, highlights were sparse. (Truth be told, for LL, the highlight of the night was the cheese platter at the snack bar.)

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

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

Over three dozen people gathered in the sweltering heat this morning on the 1400 block of Park Road NW, in Columbia Heights, for a bricklaying on new storefronts for a retail strip next to D.C. USA. The Samuel Kelsey Community Outreach Center, Deli Grocery, and Pho 14 are among the 13 businesses getting façade renovations. The project, overseen by the Development Corporation of Columbia Heights, is expected to be complete by this fall.

Of course, that might be too late for elected officials to take credit for their part in the whole thing before the September primary. Conveniently enough, Mayor Adrian Fenty and Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham were able to drop by the ceremony today—even if they did show up 17 minutes late (as we were melting). Speeches were made, before Fenty and Graham laid the first brick together.

"Park Road is a place where you see the new stores as you go west out of Columbia Heights, now today, we are saying this will not be the end of the revitalization...[it] will continue all the way down Park Road, some 24 stores deep," Fenty said. "The leadership that has become such a staple of anything that’s happening in Ward 1, that’s born about by our fabulous Councilmember Jim Graham, give him a round of applause.”

“Mr. Mayor, you get several thank you’s today,” for moving in the lighting and the streetscape before the facades came, Graham adds.

After Fenty and Graham finished their high praise for one another, City Desk seized the chance to ask about something a little more controversial. Just a few blocks southwest of the bricklaying, residents (and potential voters) have been buzzing about a tree that was just removed from in front of Haydee’s, a Salvadorean restaurant on Mt. Pleasant Street. It seems Haydee’s—after their attempts to set up an outdoor café and register as a nightclub—decided to cut down the tree in front of their establishment, apparently without permission.

The missing tree was discovered after Gabriela Vega, a transportation planner and Ward 1 resident, noticed the tree had mysteriously lost all of its leaves earlier this month. And then, when she went to investigate it, she found something even more surprising. She wrote on the Mt. Pleasant forum, “Last night I met with [Mt. Pleasant Main Street]… I assured them I had a photo of a healthy looking tree. We walked over there and were shocked to see the tree no longer there and the tree box covered.”

Apparently, Haydee’s decided to go into the tree removal business.

When Prince of Petworth wrote about the tree recently, commenters erupted in anger, some supposing Graham had taken Haydee’s side, keeping District officials from planting a new one. “Mr. Graham likes campaign contributions as long as they aren’t from jumbo slice,” writes commenter Ragged Dog.

But Graham says that's not so. “We’ve been working with everybody involved," he told City Desk. We want that fixed right away, it’s being fixed right away… the tree box, everything.”

Finally, here's a video of Graham dancing to mariachi music during the ceremony:

Photos by Kim Chi Ha

According to the manager of much-maligned go-go band TCB, Fenty isn't just electioneering when he busts loose at a go-go concert. Ben Adda tells City Desk  that when the mayor was first elected, he showed up at various go-go concerts to say a few words to the crowd. Adda remembers that a new-to-the-job Fenty would say "generic stuff" like, "Have a safe event," and "Keep the peace."

"People saying he's getting on the bandwagon," says Adda. But "he's reached out before."

In an effort to get the complete picture of Fenty's personal relationship with D.C.'s homegrown music, yesterday City Desk asked mayoral spokeswoman Mafara Hobson to find out what sort of  go-go Fenty has on his iPod. Hobson got on it—only to report back today with the shocking news that the multiple-BlackBerry-wielding politician doesn't own the ubiquitous device.

"He doesn't have an iPod," emails Hobson,"but he does have Little Benny's latest CD in the car." Which CD would that be, exactly? "His latest."

It's not surprising that Fenty, 39, might be a fan of one of the genre's old-school legends. But City Desk can't help remembering that when Fenty spoke at Benny's funeral last month, he was booed so mercilessly that Pastor Deron Cloud had to admonish the people who gathered to pay their respects to the Rare Essence co-founder.