In the past few weeks, City Desk and everyone else praised Taxicab Commission Chairperson Leon Swain Jr. for his starring role as a police informant. The audio evidence is pretty clear that Swain is one talented actor. David Simon needs to put Swain in his next series.

Swain performed on hours and hours of F.B.I- produced tapes for roughly two years. But is there a case to be made that maybe Swain overacted, that he was too good in the role?

Read More "Was Leon Swain Jr. Too Good At Playing The Criminal?" »

Right now, Abdulaziz Kamus has a lot on his mind. First, there's the fact that he's a central figure in the Ted Loza bribery case (Kamus allegedly joined the Fed probe, wired up, and paid Jim Graham's Right Hand Man $1500 in bribes). Today, we learned that key players in the bribery scandal discussed killing Kamus after the Loza story broke. Several community leaders say that Kamus has not appeared in public since his law enforcement activities became public.

Now comes the claim that Kamus wasn't such a great community organizer. We had previously heralded the man as the major player within the Ethiopian community. Yesterday, I was cautioned that this just wasn't the case at all.

Daniel Belayneh, the executive director of the Ethiopia Community Services and Development Council, laughed when I mentioned Kamus as a leader.

"Mostly he was working with the Latino community," Belayneh said. "He's more with Latinos."

Read More "Claim: Kamus Is No Community Organizer" »

Today, 27 individuals have been arrested in connection with the growing taxicab bribery scandal. Moments ago, two indictments were unsealed. You can read them here and here. Nearly 30 individuals have been indicted in federal court.

One indictment concerns three individuals: Yitbarek Syume, Berhane Leghese, and Amanuel Ghirmazion. They have been charged with bribing and conspiring to bribe the chairperson of the taxicab commission---Leon Swain Jr., who then cooperated with authorities. If convicted, the three each face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. These three individuals are alleged to have:

knowingly and willfully conspired and agreed together and with each other, and with other persons both known and unknown to the grand jury, to commit the following offenses against the United States: that is to directly and indirectly, corruptly give, offer, and promise things of value to the Chairperson, with intent to influence official acts....[they] agreed to give approximately $220,000 in cash to the Chairperson in return for the Chairperson's agreement to issue numerous multi-vehicle taxicab company licenses.

According to the indictment, they agreed to pay the Chairperson approximately $10,000 per license for multi-vehicle taxicab companies.

Read More "Breaking: Read the Taxicab Indictments; Suspects Tried To Bribe Leon Swain Jr." »

WaPo is reporting that more than two dozen individuals have been indicted in the ever-expanding taxi-cab bribery scandal:

"The suspects are cab drivers or others with financial ties to the industry, said the sources, who requested anonymity because the case is actively under investigation. The indictments remained sealed on Friday.

FBI agents and local police, the sources said, were going to try to round up as many of the suspects as possible on Friday."

The investigation started 18 months ago when people tried to bribe a member of the taxicab commission.

Read More "More Than Two Dozen Indicted In Bribery Scandal" »

Pictures sent in by a helpful reader:

Read More "Jim Graham Gets Pasted @ 18th and Columbia Road NW" »

All this week Councilmember Jim Graham has strayed from his usual m.o.: He's been press shy. He has stayed relatively quiet, refusing to answer questions about his indicted chief of staff Ted Loza and the various fallout issues that have come up.

Last night, Graham played hard to get with us over this story concerning his intensely personal entanglements with Loza. All of a sudden Graham has become allergic to the cameras. This has got to be a first for the Grahamstander.

Today, Graham made his next move: killing the controversial taxicab legislation that has become part of the Loza bribery scandal, the Washington Post reports. The paper writes:

Reached Wednesday morning, Graham said he planned to withdraw the legislation. "This bill was introduced to provoke a conversation about the ever-increasing number of taxicab operators in D.C.," he said. In its place, Graham said he planned to hold a public hearing this month to discuss the state of the District taxi industry.

Graham went on to tell the Post that his killing of the bill has nothing to do with the growing bribery investigation.

Does he think D.C. residents are going to believe that?

Read More "A Time When Grahamstanding Fails" »

Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham just told a horde of reporters that he's "deeply troubled at the indictment of Teddy Loza." This afternoon brought news that Loza, Graham's chief of staff, has been indicted on charges of accepting bribes in exchange for influencing legislation on taxicab regulation.

Looking to get a jump on his side of the story, Graham described Loza, a nine-year aide, as someone "I have grown to trust and have confidence in."

Read More "Graham “Deeply Troubled” By Charges" »

"You know I need it. That's why I take it, you know."

Those are the words allegedly uttered by Ted Loza, chief of staff to Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, after receiving a payoff from someone with an interest in taxi regulation, according to a federal indictment that was unsealed today. The indictment charges Loza with two counts of accepting a bribe by a public official.

Federal prosecutors are accusing Loza of accepting "cash, the use of vehicles, and trips" in exchange for pushing certain legislation affecting the taxicab industry. The person who allegedly offered the bribes to Loza is not identified in the indictment, but the document does specify what sort of favors were under discussion: After advocating for the enactment of a moratorium on the issuance of taxicab licenses, the unidentified lobbyist then worked with Loza to arrange for the council to pass an exception to the moratorium.

The charging documents feature this Gotcha! moment, in which Loza is discussing the license-exception legislation with "Individual No. 1." In this conversation, Loza is giving the "individual" copies of legislation that the "individual" had sought:
Read More "Loza Indictment!" »

Ted Loza, longtime right-hand man to Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, has been arrested to bribery, according to the Washington Post.

Loose Lips correspondent Mike DeBonis is on the scene at Graham's office at the John A. Wilson Building. He reports that agents are searching the office and are searching computer records at an administrative office of the D.C. Council. Graham has taken a dozen staffers into a private meeting.

Tom Sherwood, WRC-TV reporter, says that the arrest stems from Loza's involvement in overseeing taxicab legislation. Loza serves as Graham's chief of staff.

The arrest happened as Graham was chairing a meeting of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA).

We will keep updating this story as more developments occur.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery