D.C. Don't Stand for Democracy City: The good news from Friday night's budget dealing between the White House and Congress was that D.C. libraries, rec centers, and other services—like trash collection—didn't have to close. The bad news was that, once again, Congress has decided to play D.C. Council, with President Obama's blessing. City officials still [...]
The good news: Libraries and rec centers around the District are open today. The bad news: Congress is, once again, back in the "let's tell D.C. exactly what it can and can't do with its local tax revenue!" game.
Late last night, House Republicans, Senate Democrats, and the White House finally found an arbitrary number of [...]
The City Desk page of this week's dead-tree edition of Washington City Paper features a short, parodic piece focusing on the simultaneous political debates over the District's budget deficit and its high-speed gentrification. With critics of Mayor Vince Gray's budget measures arguing that too much of the pain falls on working-class Washingtonians, the piece suggested [...]
Even the most placid of citizens have lines they simply won't allow their elected leaders to cross without arousing some populist fury. This week, as the federal government girds itself to shut down—taking most of the District government along with it—one of those lines has come into sharp relief. You can deny D.C. its voice [...]
Experts Weigh In: The House is setting up a fight with the White House over school vouchers for low-income D.C. students, which the Obama administration is opposing on the theory that Congress really shouldn't be deciding who goes to which schools in the District. And like all issues, the future of D.C. education policy can [...]
D.C. Busted: For months, budget experts and politicians have been warning of how bad the District's fiscal situation is, and how much would have to be cut from expenditures (or raised in new taxes) to fill a $450 million gap in this year's balance sheet. Now it turns out the real shortfall is $600 million [...]
As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. And get LL Daily sent straight to your inbox every morning!
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—"Defendants Won't Testify In Wone Case," "Metro's Worst Year Ever," "World Cup Roundup," "Defense Seeks Maureen Bunyan Mimic In Wone Case," "Dancing? On [...]
Activists with DC Vote—whose executive director Ilir Zherka figures heavily into this week's City Paper cover story by writer Byron Tau —staged a "file-in" demonstration on Capitol Hill yesterday, one by one filing into the offices of U.S. Rep. Travis Childers in protest of the Mississippi Democrat's efforts to gut the District's gun laws.
It was Childers' 11th-hour [...]
Good morning, City Desk readers! Remember those lovely events and people we tried to forget about in the past few years, among them press secretaries, judicial nominations, and transit accidents? They're all back to rear their ugly heads this morning, so let's commence with the news rundown.
Yesterday afternoon, City Desk posted the latest WaPo article [...]
The economy might be in the dumps but it’s turning into a stellar year for consumer scams … and government plans to combat them.
First, this just came in from one of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Yahoo groups: Beware of the telephone shysters posing as sales reps for the FBI. No, silly! Not the real Federal Bureau of [...]
So the D.C. Council has voted to (kinda-sorta) allow same-sex marriage. What now?
Assuming the bill becomes law, plenty of observers see two fronts of possible conflict. First is that the law will set off a frenzy of congressional intervention. To wit, American Prospect's Ezra Klein.
Nope, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton says to LL this afternoon: "I [...]
So yesterday, the Senate passed a bill that would give us a vote in the House. Real Representation. But there's a catch—a gun amendment that would strip the District of its gun laws. The Post writes:
"Some D.C. officials said it was ironic that the Senate bill granted the city full representation in the House while [...]
Is it just me or is the case against Miguel Tejada a bit small? The former Orioles standout obviously doesn't think so. Tejada just pled guilty to lying to Congress. According to the Post account: "Federal prosecutors alleged that Tejada lied to staffers when he told them he never discussed steroids with other players and [...]
Jason Chaffetz, a Republican about to take Utah's 3rd district congressional seat, says he's not going to support efforts to give D.C. a vote in Congress. So says the Deseret News.
Yeah, yeah—GOP'er against District voting rights; no news there. Why should anyone care what this guy thinks?
Well, the former BYU placekicker is the first member [...]
