Yesterday, Mayor Adrian Fenty fired DYRS' interim-director and replaced him with AG Peter Nickles' "top aide" Robert Hildum. In today's WaPo story, the controversial attorney general had high praise for his side kick:
"Nickles said that Hildum's experience as a prosecutor is an asset at a time when some critics have said that the agency's [...]

Trash fires are again becoming a trend in Capitol Hill. WJLA has a small story on the trend and notes that investigators are looking into it. Of course, the last time trash-can fires had worried Capitol Hill residents occurred around the time of the Eastern Market fire. The D.C. Fire Department quietly dispatched a team [...]

In early June, the Office of the Attorney General dropped the charges against D.C. Fire Department whistleblower Gerald Pennington. Pennington has spoken out against mismanagement within the department and faulty fire investigations. Pennington and his partner Greg Bowyer were the subject of a Washington City Paper profile.
Pennington and Bowyer had been respected fire investigators until [...]

Two years after the fact, Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells has gone on the record suspecting that the Eastern Market fire was arson. Wells tells the Voice of the Hill:
"'I have a tremendous amount of suspicion that it was arson,' Wells told the Voice immediately after the market reopened Friday."
Eastern Market re-opened today with the [...]

In late May, D.C. Fire Department brass tried to hose down a local reporter's Emmy nomination. Deputy Chief Kenneth Crosswhite lobbied to have a story produced by WJLA disqualified as a local Emmy nominee. The story in question was a three-month investigative piece that ran on Nov. 11. It chronicled the saga of arson investigators-turned-whistleblowers [...]

The D.C. Fire Department has lost one of its weapons in its fight against two whistleblowers.  Fire investigator Gerald Pennington was set to face a trial board hearing today on charges that he allegedly claimed credentials he did not have. He was facing termination. Office of the Attorney General prosecutors–which would have handled the case–reviewed [...]

Few in public service have fallen harder. Recently, we chronicled Greg Bowyer, a fire department whistleblower who had been demoted from arson investigator to hydrant checker. Today, his hydrant checking duties were temporarily suspended in favor of rescuing some flooded bathrooms. This morning he attended to the Florida Avenue NW water main break–which still appears [...]

This week I chronicled D.C. Fire Department arson investigator Greg Bowyer. Bowyer, along with his partner Gerald Pennington, went from working arson cases to checking fire hydrants. They allege their demotion wasn't for any performance reason. No. They got transferred because of their whistleblowing activities.
For more than two years, Bowyer and Pennington have waged a [...]

First CFSA lost its spokesperson powers to the Mayor's Office. Now, it's the Fire Department's turn to refer all calls to Fenty spokesperson Mafara Hobson. At this point, I feel sorry for Hobson. Her job is busy enough with the on-going budget debates, the travel issues, etc. Now, she gets to field inquiries about the [...]

Last night, two firefighters—Greg Bowyer and Gerald Pennington—announced their plans to file a lawsuit against the fire department. We detailed their case roughly an hour ago on City Desk.
Since announcing his imminent lawsuit against the fire department, Bowyer says his day has gone pretty normal.