The Washington Times has historically placed a real low value on transparency. For years, the place ran corrections only at gunpoint. It was nearly impossible to get newsroom leaders on the line to defend their journalism, a task that often required going through a flak and then getting a “no comment.”

Editor John Solomon changed a lot of that. Having taken over the newsroom in early 2008, he was not only easy to get on the phone, but he’d talk your ear off, evangelizing about this great new initiative or that one.

Yet he’s not helping too much on the great unanswered question of this new round of weirdness at the Times.

Where is he? Why hasn’t he shown up after the Sunday/Monday firings of the paper’s top execs?

And current management isn’t helping too much with the info flow. At a staff-wide meeting on Monday, new top dog Jonathan Slevin reportedly asked staffers to refer media calls to the PR ace that the Times had hired. Way to act on industry principles, Slevin: Reporters and editors should never be asked to refer calls to anyone; that’s the very behavior that they rightly declaim every single day.

Anyhow, the freedom-of-expression-chilling request of Slevin has meant business for Don Meyer of Rubin Meyer Communications. Meyer has been in the PR biz for about 20 years and has worked for the Times going back about five.

Here’s a Q&A with one smooth newspaper mouthpiece:

Question for Don Meyer: What’s up with Solomon?

Don Meyer response: I don’t have any updates on his status at this time. When additional information becomes available, I will be happy to pass it along to you.

Question for Don Meyer: So is he resigning or something?

Don Meyer response: I am sorry to do this to you, but I don’t have any information on his stautus right now.

Question for Don Meyer: Does anybody have that information?

Don Meyer response: Somebody does.

Question for Don Meyer: How many inquiries have you gotten about the Washington Times?

Don Meyer response: Quite a few…I’ve received a dozen calls.

Question for Don Meyer: Were you aware that management advised reporters and editors in yesterday’s meeting not to answer media calls and to route inquiries to you?

Don Meyer response: Oh yeah, I wasn’t aware that he said it in the meeting, but my guidance to him was that media calls be directed to me.

Question for Don Meyer: Why should all media calls be directed to you?

Don Meyer response: Because they have decided to utilize me as appointed spokesperson for this particular announcement and so they have asked me to handle it. It ensures that everyone gets the information from a reliable source.

Statement to Don Meyer: That seems to run contrary to the spirit of a newsroom.

Don Meyer repartee: Listen, this is actually how a lot of organizations handle sensitive announcements, which is they want one spokesperson speaking to the media, and it tends to be an accepted practice in corporate and organizational settings.

Statement to Don Meyer: Right, and again, it runs contrary to the spirit of a newsroom.

Don Meyer repartee: The newsroom might not have the latest information involving the executive situation and may not be the best source of information anyway.

Pause in interview to ponder that last Don Meyer comment: Way to keep the newsroom in the loop, Washington Times!

Question for Don Meyer: What do you think of John Solomon?

Don Meyer response: I think he’s a very capable journalist. He’s done great things for the Washington Times.

Question for Don Meyer: Will he continue doing those great things?

Don Meyer response: When I have more information on the status of John Solomon vis-a-vis the Washington Times, I will be happy to pass it along.

Question for Don Meyer: So is the financial state of the paper the cause of the uncertain status of John Solomon?

Don Meyer response: I gotta give you credit for trying, but honestly I don’t have any additional information.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Today, the D.C. Wire reported that a five-member council delegation met with Mayor Adrian Fenty last night to discuss the standoff over Ximena Hartsock. A symbol of testy council-mayoral relations, Hartsock is Fenty’s choice to helm the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation. Following some discord among the council, Hartsock, and Fenty, however, the council voted against confirming Hartsock. The mayor responded by keeping Hartsock in place.

According to a source familiar with the meeting, the prevailing sentiment among the councilmembers in attendance (Chairman Vincent Gray and councilmembers David Catania, Mary Cheh, Harry Thomas Jr., and Muriel Bowser) was that Hartsock had to go.

Fenty, according to the source, assured that he was looking for her replacement but stressed that the search wasn’t an easy one. The meeting ended with a promise: The mayor would replace Hartsock by Dec. 1, the source recalls.

Still, Fenty still couldn’t help being Fenty.

At one point in the meeting, Fenty apparently told the councilmembers: “I want you to understand something—anything we agree to will not dictate my actions as mayor.”

*photo by Darrow Montgomery.

And then there’s the whole John Solomon angle. The outgoing, popular newsroom leader hasn’t been seen since the putsch. The staff-wide meeting yesterday featured no mention of the guy who happens to top the masthead. Solomon isn’t commenting and even people who consider him a close friend are reporting no contact with him.

One possible reason for Solomon’s scarcity: He has lost his parking spot. According to Washington Times sources, the signs that reserved spaces for top company officials have been stripped away, including the one for Solomon.

So even if he did have plans to come back, where the hell is he going to park? At the Arboretum?

While Nickles may not be such a goodwill ambassador, he did promise the courts that plaintiffs would see a nice payday soon. In late September, Nickles told U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan that he would personally direct settlement talks. He boasted of making huge breakthroughs in the negotiations, and stated that he expects the cases to be wrapped before the Macy’s Parade. Yesterday, Nickles announced a settlement in an unrelated protester case, and again expressed hope that the Pershing Park cases would be resolved within weeks.

Turley, who represents plaintiffs in one of those cases (the Chang case), says Nickles has actually shutdown talks. “Despite the statement by AG Nickles that he was going to settle these cases,” Turley explains, “he canceled all settlement negotiations with the Chang plaintiffs soon after leaving Judge Sullivan.”

Turley says: “We have yet to even meet with him. In the meantime, the city is spending copious amounts of money fighting a case where the merits have already been established.”

Six Flags’ reorganization is nowhere near complete, and god only knows what’s beneath the surface of this debacle. But from the sound of things, when all’s said and done Snyder will still be chairman of Six Flags board of directors when that company comes out of bankruptcy.

How can this be? In Snyder’s world, what do you have to do to lose your job?

One small aspect of the fiasco: Would somebody PLEASE explain to me how Snyder was allowed to pay a whopping $175 million for Dick Clark Productions using private equity money from Red Zone Capital, a fund he controls, then turn around and sell 40 percent of Dick Clark Productions to Six Flags, using public equity money, which he also controlled? And Snyder did this deal, remember, in 2007, while Six Flags was on the way to the bottom and he was already blaming the company’s woes on its billions of dollars of debt.

Snyder made the Dick Clark Productions sale around the time he made a licensing deal between Johnny Rockets, another Red Zone-owned company and controlled by Snyder, and Six Flags. Again, would SOMEBODY please explain to me how that’s allowed?

I mean, I make a lot of fun of Lindsay Czarniak and Dan Hellie working for Snyder’s Redskins Broadcast Network and WRC News at the same time. And that really does bug me. But Czarniak and Hellie’s conflict of interest ain’t a hair off the ass of the conflict of interest Dan Snyder had in dealing with himself during Red Zone’s sale of a huge chunk of Dick Clark Productions to Six Flags. Let alone the Johnny Rockets deals.

How hard a bargain do you think private-money Dan Snyder drove with public-money Dan Snyder in making these deals?

(AFTER THE JUMP: More on Dan Snyder, Red Zone and Dick Clark? DeMatha sends more jocks to college? Remember Harvey Grant? The DC Armor are gonna just disappear? Somebody’s still kvetching about the El Al/FedExField comparison?)

And what bang have Six Flags investors gotten out of the tens of millions of stockholders’ bucks Snyder threw at himself during the 40 percent sale of Dick Clark Productions? Who’s looking out for who?

Who knows what the Dick Clark Productions ownership situation will be when this comes out of bankruptcy.

But, again, it looks like Snyder will still be in charge of both Red Zone and Six Flags at that time. Maybe he’ll have a chance to buy Dick Clark Productions from himself during the bankruptcy, then sell Dick Clark Productions to himself all over again.

Seriously, in Snyder’s world, what do you have to do to lose your job?

***

From our Hyattsville bureau: DeMatha’s library will be packed tomorrow to unveil the latest batch of athletes that the sporting powerhouse will send up to the next level.

Among the more notables in the jock octet featured in the scholarship signing ceremony:

Jerian Grant, son of Washington Bullets 1988 first-round pick Harvey Grant, will announce he will attend Notre Dame. That’ll make him the first DeMatha basketball player to commit to South Bend since Hall of Famer Adrian Dantley back in 1973.

And, Casey Thrush will be the first DeMatha student to accept an NCAA hockey scholarship while still in high school, representing the Stags’ desire to dominate yet another prep sport.

This signing ceremony, which is surely bigger than any signing ceremony any other local high school will have this year, does not include DeMatha football players. DeMatha already sends more folks to the NFL than any school in the country. They’re doing something right in Hyattsville.

***

The return of the DC Armor for a second season is looking bleaker and bleaker. This update from oursportcentral.com’s Weekly Pro Sports League and Franchise Report:

American Indoor Football Association: The future of the D.C. Armor in the AIFA is in doubt. The team played before very small crowds in its inaugural 2009 AIFA season and it is unknown whether the franchise will attempt to play a 2010 season in another venue or simply be discontinued.

Somebody’s gonna miss you, DC Armor.

***

JTA, which describes itself as the “Global News Service of the Jewish People,” and a media organization I have long suspected is controlled by Jews, had some fun with Cheap Seats Daily’s comparison of the security at FedExField during the Prague Spring for Redskins fans to the security of El Al Airways.

I had gotten a call from a friend before the Eagles game a few Mondays ago, who told me about getting the once over and then some from a guard at the FedEx gate. So I wrote:

The only first-person account I got was from a friend who called me from FedExField just after being searched at the gate like he was boarding an El Al flight.

He asked the frisker, “Are you looking for anti-Snyder paraphernalia?”

“As a matter of fact, I am,” the guard told him.

That caught the attention of El Al account manager Ron Glickman, who wrote us to say that “the checks that one would go through for an El Al flight are a lot less hands on” than what I wrote about FedEx. El Al, Glickman said, hasn’t done done any [body checks] in the past year in the entire United States.”

And Glickman’s quotes, in turn, inspired JTA blogger Eric Fingerhut to wonder what entering FedEx would be like like if in fact El Al did take over security:

You’d get to the gate and they’d ask: “So, did you write your sign yourself? Did anyone help you to write your sign? When did you write your sign? Has it been with you since you wrote it?…

That guy’s funny!

***

Story tips? Wanna Play the Feud? Tube amps for sale? Send to: cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Car crashes into 2615 Bowen Road SE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NC8 covers NY Avenue construction.

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

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

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

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

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

“Don’t know if it’s because of Impact (don’t think so) or the forever stalled contract negotiations (maybe) or my administration (YES!!!), but I just feel really de-motivated. One thing I can say is that it’s definitely not the kids. My kids this year are doing really well, and I’ve somehow managed to build a really positive culture in my classes. They try hard, and for the most part they’re learning a lot. But damn if I’m just not satisfied.

It’s getting to the point where I’m thinking about what else I could be doing, and trying to figure out if I want to stay teaching (or at least teaching at my school) next year. On the one hand, I don’t like falling into the stereotype of Teach for America teachers who sweep in on a wave of idealism and then leave after we’ve worked that glassy-eyed naivete out of our system. But on the other hand, do I really want to continue working in a place where I feel unvalued, unengaged, and unhappy?”

Bloomingdale (for now) has left Bloomingdale. In a moving post, blogger writes:

“Well, i looked, but there was nothing in my price range in the neighborhood. working for a non-profit doesn’t allow one to afford the prices in this part of the city if you want a rowhouse (not condo). so, i looked far-and-wide for a place that fell into my price range. in the end, i bought a house in trinidad.

i’ve been in trinidad for two months now. i love it. this house is amazing, the neighbors are friendly (as friendly as bloomingdale, i dare say!), and i’m still a short bike ride downtown to work. it’s been interesting learning the minute details of a whole new part of town.”

It’s hard to imagine Bloomingdale having a better blogger. The upside: Trinidad needs a good local reporter to tell us what’s what.

And Now, Anacostia has a full rundown of fotoweek events east of the river.

Borderstan discovers a new place for hipsters to get their haircut.

Greater Greater Washington posts a reader’s letter complaining that no one turns their headlights on in Arlington. Really? And reports on the possibility of Riggs Place adding a dreaded speed bump. The blogger writes:

“Would a speed hump even fix the problem? It’s not like through traffic uses Riggs, since it doesn’t go anywhere. It would be helpful to understand who is speeding there, and why. When I lived a block from there, the only time I would drive on that block was to try to park.

If the high-speed traffic is people circling for parking, a speed hump won’t deter them. They may well just speed down the road until they reach the speed hump, slow down to traverse it, then speed up again, since drivers looking for parking are often in a hurry to get the car parked or to find that elusive space before someone else does.”

Please check out the cool new blog Left for LeDroit.

And let’s give handclaps to Congress Heights on the Rise for their big scoop: Marion Barry is following in the footsteps of some Baldwins, MC Hammer, and Flavor Flav and getting into the reality show racket. He’s filming a reality show pilot.

OAG attorneys argue that the order would simply and reasonably protect personal information from being made public. Attorneys even use Washington City Paper to zing plaintiffs lawyers!

Monique Daniel Pressley, senior assistant attorney general, wrote in a Nov. 5 e-mail to plaintiffs lawyers:

“Is there a public interest served by confidential information…being printed in The City Paper tomorrow?”

I guess someone has been reading all our Pershing Park blog items!

Plaintiffs attorneys argued in court—and over e-mail—that the proposed protective order’s true aim went well beyond redacting  social security numbers.

Lawyers in the Chang case write:

“The District’s Motion for a Protective Order, however, is not what it is represented to be. In reality, it is an unheralded effort by the District to claim the unilateral power to prevent use or disclosure of any document the District would find to be embarrassing or harmful to its defense, even if no recognizable privilege would attach. With increasing attention to newly disclosed evidence showing prior intent to clear the streets of the city and abuse of the discovery process, the District is seeking to limit Plaintiffs’ use of such information.”

The lawyers go to write:

“The true purpose of the District’s Motion is barely concealed in the filing. The District seeks the power to mark any document—perhaps consisting of dozens or hundreds of pages—in its entirety as ‘Confidential.’ Thus, even if the document contains a single telephone number on a single page that the District elected not to redact, the entire document would be subject to the proposed Protective Order and its use limited.”

The proposed order as written by the OAG backs up the plaintiffs’ attorneys fears. The order doesn’t just seek to redact personal info. It goes well beyond that to include barring “sensitive information pertaining to law enforcement personnel and law enforcement strategies and methodologies.”

Aren’t law enforcement strategies and methodologies at the heart of this case? Isn’t that line just vague enough to bar just about any police document?

The scope of the order would not only apply to e-mails and government documents. It would ban even disclosures made in depositions. There would also be a blanket press blackout on all depositions whether the material was confidential or not. The proposed order states:

“All deposition transcripts shall be treated as CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION subject to the Protective Order for a period of twenty (20) days after receipt of each of the transcripts.” Challenges could be made as to whether or not the deposition could be made public.

Imagine if every other deposition was subject to a new set of motions, a new round of classic Nickles stonewalling?

Pressley insisted to the plaintiffs attorneys in the same Nov. 5 e-mail that the protective order was a standard OAG document. “No time wasted drafting one,” she wrote. “Contrary to your repetitious litany with respect to delay and obstruction, a general protective order would enable the District to produce documents faster, as there would be no need for many of the time-consuming redactions.”

Plaintiffs lawyers aren’t buying it.

“We believe the sweep of the protective order is positively breathtaking,” plaintiffs attorney Jonathan Turley tells City Desk. “The order would have succeeded in most of the embarrassing information being withheld from the public and the media. Such an order would not only hamper any disclosure of misconduct by the District but hamper the litigation itself.”

The order is still under consideration in U.S. District Court.

WTOP’s Mark Segraves has the hot scoop: He is reporting that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty regularly uses motorcycle-mounted police to escort his cycling team as they train throughout the District and Maryland. This happens during weekday business hours, leading to traffic backups.

Moreover, Segraves says, Fenty and his team, D.C. Velo, use the cops to run red lights and stop signs (mere misdemeanors in LL’s book) as well as traverse thoroughfares verboten to cyclists, e.g. the Clara Barton Parkway along the Potomac.

WTOP’s video is above. Fenty, in comments to Segraves, declined to address the story, except to say if he did anything illegal, he won’t any longer.

More from Segraves’ piece:

According to sources familiar with the mayor’s security detail, Fenty became furious after he spotted WTOP videotaping a recent bike outing. L

Last month, Fenty spotted WTOP with a video camera as he rode along Rock Creek Parkway. Minutes late, as Fenty and his teammates rode along the parkway, the mayor darted across the road and onto the bike path, where he dismissed the police escort and took off through the woods.

A few days later, when WTOP caught up with the mayor and his bike team again, they had moved their training ride to Bethesda, where more than 20 cyclists – along with a D.C. Police escort – tied up traffic along Goldsboro Road, MacArthur Boulevard and other major roadways.

UPDATE, 4:55 P.M.: Not to detract from Segraves’ report, and his extensive videodocumentary evidence, but Examiner’s Bill Myers aired a similar report almost a year ago.

The Issue:

Now Hold On a Just Minute Here: When Pepco goons with chainsaws showed up and began chopping down the 400 trees, the Palisades Citizens Association (PCA) was pissed. “Pepco was springing it on the neighborhood without any prior consultation,” Spence Spencer, the association president, said. He and his neighbors were concerned that losing the trees on MacArthur would “de-nude whole blocks” of a street that is one of the few in D.C. with a tree canopy. He says a letter of concern to Pepco went unanswered. It was only after Mayor Adrian Fenty made a visit to the Palisades in October that Pepco began to listen. According to Spencer, Fenty “basically” said: “Look, Pepco, you guys have gotta come up with a more tree-friendly approach.” Fenty imposed a moratorium on tree work until a plan was approved by the PCA.

It’s All Good: According to Pepco, the Palisades tree canopy was responsible for over 100 hours of lost power in the neighborhood in 2007 and 2008. Pepco media representative Clay Anderson said that the District asked Pepco to improve reliability, and that Pepco has been paying attention to the community all along. “We’re pretty much okay with the folks out there now,” he says of the beef. The company submitted two plans to the PCA last week—one that had little tree pruning on MacArthur, and one that had none.

What’s Next: It’s up to Palisades residents to decide. “We’re evaluating what on the face looks like a positive proposal, even though it took Fenty to get them to pay attention to community,” says Spencer. For the moment, Palisades folks are assuaged, according to Spencer, but “there needs to be a long-term dialogue about this. They’ve got a two-year cutting cycle on trees,” he says, “so best case, all that we’ve done is forstalled what might be another round of mass cutting of trees in the Palisades two years from now.”

Photograph by Darrow Montgomery.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—”Fenty Fundraises in San Francisco“; “City Agencies Asked to ‘Dig Deeply’ to Cover $300M 2011 Budget Gap“; tweets galore!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Robert Wone defendants ask judge to dismiss charges.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Clams reveal previously unknown Anacostia pollution sources.

Layoffs in Nats’ sales department.

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

Feel-good DMV story! Take that, Virginia!

Buy a Christmas present for a foster child!

‘YEILD’ PLEASE?—15th Street lane-painting FAIL!

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

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

D.C. COUNCIL TODAY—No events scheduled.

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

This month as the Council is aging
‘Round town many parties are raging
Got mayoral hopes?
Then get off the ropes
With donors, you’d best start engaging

Your birthday means more than a bash
It’s also a chance to raise cash
The constituent fund
Is best when fecund
Get in there and add to your stash!