Fortunately, Kojo Nnamdi is here to help. Tune in to Monday's Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU (88.5 FM) at noon, to hear Kathryn Masterson, who wrote City Paper's recent cover story on DCUM, talk about the piece with Jeff Steele, the site's administrator, and self-described "Adequate Parent" Lara Schwartz.

FCC regulations being what they are, don't expect the talk to dwell too much on DCUM's "explicit" forum.

Illustration by Elizabeth Graeber

Nnamdi: Thank you very much, sir. Let me ask this gentleman over here. Sir, what do you like about THEARC, and why are you here?

Audience Member (with a Connecticut accent): Well, I'm a father, and I've got my two daughters taking ballet. And they're going to be involved with the Washington Ballet, so we come over here, I think, three or four nights a week. I feel like I'm a captive of the ballet as a father. I think I've spent half my life at the ballet here at THEARC. So we come over about four nights a week, and it's a wonderful facility. It's a great program, and we're delighted to be a part of it.

Nnamdi: And, sir, would you please tell us your name.

Audience Member: Well, I'm a retiring United States senator. I've been in the Senate for 30 years from the state of Connecticut. I have a home on Capitol Hill, and I've come over to this side of the river many occasions. I sit on the board of regents to the Smithsonian. I love the Smithsonian Museum here in Anacostia. I've been to it many times and didn't discover THEARC until the ballet program, but I'm glad that I did. So a pleasure to be over here.

Nnamdi: Ladies and gentlemen, Senator Christopher Dodd, retiring from the Senate after so many years.

After chatting with Dodd, other audience members discussed issues related to educational opportunities, bridging the digital divide and job creation. (Anyone want to start an over/under line on how many other members of Congress will make it east of the river in the next two years?)

THEARC will host a community open house on Saturday to celebrate its 5th anniversary.

Here's the full transcript and listen to Kojo's show here.

Photo courtesy office of Sen. Christopher Dodd

Just moments ago, appearing on the Kojo Nnamdi show, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier announced that Washington City Paper had gotten something wrong. In an article about the fact that D.C. cops refuse to name potentially warring crews in Petworth, and that Lanier has asked media not to report the names of criminal crews, we mentioned that sources told us two of the Petworth groups cops have had trouble with are called CRT and Taylor Street. Lanier told Nnamdi that we had gotten those names wrong.

That might be. When we attempted to confirm that those were two crews MPD had their eye on, we couldn't get a straight answer. The brass wouldn't talk. 4-D commander Kimberly Chisley-Missouri, for instance, refused to say anything, as did MPD spokesperson Gwendolyn Crump. "We do not identify the names of gangs and crews in the media," Crump emailed. If cops wouldn't tell us, we figured a public official might, but we were mistaken. Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser also refused to say. "I stand by the chief's request," she said.

It seems Lanier has the media over a barrel. While she won't confirm the names of the crews she believes are responsible for wreaking havoc in places like Petworth, when it's advantageous, she's suddenly willing to say who they're not.That seems to fly in the face of the idea that the blackout on crew names has some kind of ethical utility as opposed to a political one.

UPDATE 4:38 P.M. — Unspecified City Paper Error Was Non-Erroneous, Source Says

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Watch here:

The Virginian-Pilot reported Saturday that the seal on Cuccinelli's staff pins is different from the one usually used by the state. While the typical seal has Roman goddess Virtus baring one breast, in Cuccinnelli's version, both mammaries are covered with armor. How very John Ashcroft of him! When he passed out the pins, Cuccinnelli said the new version was more modest.

WaPo has Cuccinnelli saying he was joking, but that doesn't stop porn mustache cultivator Larry Sabato from dropping in for a laugh at Cuccinelli's expense:

The joke might be on him, said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato.“When you ask to be ridiculed, it usually happens. And it will happen here, nationally,” he said. “This is classical art, for goodness’ sake.”

WAMU's Kojo Nnamdi, who is never modest in his loud shirts, gave outgoing Loose Lips Mike Debonis a Bud Light-inspired "Real Kojo Guests of Genius" send-off on Friday. Highlight: calling Debonis the "warlock of the Wilson Building."

Meanwhile, the Unification Church is looking for buyers for the Washington Times. Former editor John Solomon is listed as a potential buyer, but I've got a better idea.

Philip Anschutz, the conservative mogul behind the Examiner and the Weekly Standard, should buy it. He gets a marginally more respected publication, and a higher-tier stable of conservative pundits. It's the perfect opportunity to dump Gregory Kane!

In an appearance this afternoon on WAMU-FM's Politics Hour, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty made as stinging a rebuke to his political ankle-biters as he ever has.

"The difference, I think, between a councilmember and an executive is, you know, I'm the one making the tough decisions," he said in a lively conversation with host Kojo Nnamdi and reporter Tom Sherwood.

Shades of "I'm the decider" perhaps?

But, more than that, he gave what could prove an effective response to critics who say he's too arrogant, aloof, and personally out-of-touch to deserve a second term as D.C.'s mayor: "We're taking on issues that aren't just tough, we're taking on issues that are intrinsically not politically popular," Fenty said, citing D.C. Public Schools closings, mandating at-will employment for DCPS employees, and implementing taxi meters as examples.

In a version of an answer he deploys often, Hizzoner characterized concerns about his style, his bedside manner, as far removed from the concerns of everyday citizens.

"When they talk to me," Fenty said, "this is what they say: They say, Mayor Fenty, I want to you to keep continuing fixing the schools; I want you to keep driving the crime rate down; I want you to keep renovating schools, liberties, recreation centers. Keep building new construction in the city. I want you to keep the population growing. I want you to keep fixing up hospitals like Greater Southeast. Keep reducing the backlog in child welfare....They say deliver results because that's what we elected you to do."

In another portion of the show, Fenty addressed allegations of malfeasance involving allies Omar Karim and Sinclair Skinner and tens of milliions in parks contracting.

Without once mentioning Karim or SKinner's name, Fenty denied any wrongdoing and called for ongoing investigation by the D.C. Council and city inspector general to run their course. Any contract awards, he said, were "completely removed from the executive branch of government, completely followed the procurement law, and very high-quality work [is] being done."

Embattled developer Omar Karim, in a rare appearance, submitted to journalists' questions today on WAMU's Politics Hour.

Under fire for his ties to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, Karim answered questions from hosts Kojo Nnamdi and Tom Sherwood with thinly veiled outrage. Karim defended his own credentials and the record of his firm, Banneker Ventures, with an emphasis on the "defensive."

At one point, Sherwood asked to what LL's ears seemed to be a legitimate question: Name development projects you began or completed before Fenty became mayor. His initial response: "For you to ask me that is very insulting." He kept up with the bluster until finally naming a completed Silver Spring office project, as well as another project that's yet to move to construction.

Karim went on to deny aspects of a Washington Post story. In particular, megadeveloper R. Donahue Peebles therein accused Karim of approaching him at a 2007 event and telling him that "if I wanted to get to do a development deal with the District of Columbia government under Fenty, I'd have to do business with them and their circle...Essentially, the message was I was going to need him."

Karim denied the encounter ever took place, raised questions about Peebles' historical ties to Mayor Marion Barry, and in fact said he was considering filing a libel suit against Peebles. He went on to equate his ties to the mayor to certain D.C. councilmembers' apparent conflicts of interest.

But Karim made it clear he had another motive for coming on the radio: His own bottom line.

A project he's currently developing is in danger, he said, due to politics. Banneker had been selected by Metro to develop a parcel at 7th Street and Florida Avenue NW into a mixed-use project called "The Jazz @ Florida Avenue." That deal is now in jeopardy, he says, because the Metro board is refusing to extend a deadline to finalize its terms—a deadline that's already been extended twice, not unusual in a historically tight credit market.

He implied that his current notoriety has interfered with the deal, and Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, a member of the Metro board, is behind it. Graham told Washington Business Journal in September: "I know that the developer is dealing with a recovering real estate market, but we either have to move forward now, or take another look at who will do this job."

File photo by Darrow Montgomery

(Darrow Montgomery)

Awhile ago, we brought you a story about recycling that routinely gets tossed out with the trash. Well, as you can imagine, we thought this was pretty surprising news: that loads of plastics, paper, bottles and cans dutifully dumped into recycling bins around the city were still ending up at the landfill. The culprits? Some private haulers, who apparently f0und it too expensive and too much of a hassle to take the goods to out-of-town recycling centers.

After the story ran last November, we asked Department of Public Works officials if they planned to do anything about the problem. This week DPW got back to us, which is convenient since DPW recycling chief Bill Easley and I are all going to be on the Kojo Nnamdi Show this afternoon talking about the city's recycling travails.

But, for starters, here's DPW's response to our follow up questions:

"In response to your follow-up question, DPW is working to step up its enforcement efforts by expanding the numbers of personnel who will be inspecting for commercial recycling violations. We plan to augment the number of inspectors by training some of the inspectors with our Solid Waste Education and Enforcement Program (SWEEP) on what to look for. I don't have an exact number of how many additional inspectors will be added but we currently have only three recycling inspectors compared to 35-40 SWEEP inspectors.

"We'll start looking at some of the smaller haulers to see what their ratio of trash to recycling vehicles are.

"Finally, DPW is seeking legislation to increase the amount of fines for violators. We feel like this will make businesses more likely to stay in compliance. We expect Council to hold a hearing on this sometime in the Spring."

Later, Nancee Lyons sent another email saying the following:

"I'd like to expand on what I sent earlier with regard to increasing our commercial recycling fines:

"The Department is working on revisions to the recycling regulations that include increased fines for many initial offenses and that establish graduated increased penalties for repeat offenses.  We expect to move forward with the regulations soon."

I'd still like to know if DPW is investigating the five companies we caught trashing recyclables and whether the planned new legislation will go far enough to close loopholes in the law. I've already sent in my follow up to the department's follow up.  Maybe we'll get some answers this afternoon on the radio! (ADVERTISEMENT: tune in at 1:15 p.m.)

This is a topic near and dear to City Paper's heart, which is why we bring it up. MacDonald wrote a cover story for the paper in November cataloging multiple instances of private D.C. haulers mixing recycling and trash on their rounds. She also criticized DPW for failing to crack down on violators.

Cue the dramatic music: A few weeks later, City Paper itself received a recycling violation in the mail. Inspector Kayanda Jones had discovered trash mixed in with the recycling-only Dumpster behind 2390 Champlain Street NW and written a $50 ticket. There was even a picture!

The timing of this seemed curious. Was it retribution, City Paper asked DPW at the time? (DPW's response: "Of course not.")

Since then, DPW has provided answers to a few questions we asked about how the whole thing went down.

For instance, were there other violations written on the same day in the same area? Turns out, there were: The department provided copies of five other violations observed by the same inspector on the same day, Nov. 16. The 7-Eleven on Mount Pleasant Street was cited for "failure to have sufficient number of containers for separated recyclables," and Queen's Cafe & Hookah on 18th Street was cited for "failure to separate recycling from other solid waste," the same violation issued to City Paper.

Did someone make a complaint to prompt the inspection? Often, DPW spokesperson Nancee Lyons said at the time, that is how inspections come about. "No complaint was filed about the dumpsters behind 2390 Champlain Street. The investigator is assigned to Ward 1 and was working in that section of the ward," Christine V. Davis, the department's general counsel, wrote.

And why was the citation written to Washington City Paper, which does not own the building, but rather is one of several tenants in it? "The materials in the dumpster had the City Paper's name on it."

We wonder what else DPW learned going through our trash.

Hoyer acknowledged that "we've been distracted by the gun issue and a couple of other issues that haven't gotten as much publicity" but said he's been "talking to the mayor, talking to Vince Gray, talking to members of the city council...trying to get this done."

DCist's Sommer Mathis asked Hoyer whether he saw a way forward. "Yes, there is," he replied. "I don't want to go deeply." He did note the possibility of "taking the gun thing then getting the vote, then dealing with the gun issue as we go along"—though he said "that is not my preference."

In response to question from Tom Sherwood of WRC-TV, Hoyer said there was no "drop dead deadline" for getting the bill passed. "I don't expect we'll get past May and not get it done," he said. "Ultimately, we're going to create a sense of how we can do this."

Sherwood asked if it would help if President Barack Obama spoke out on the issue. Said Hoyer, "We're talking to the administration about that, and we're getting a read on what the city wants to do about that and what [Eleanor Holmes Norton] wants to do about that."

Since Jonetta Rose Barras left the Friday noon talk show on WAMU-FM last May over a pay dispute, the show has been rotating in guest analysts (including, now and again, yours truly). But in recent months, Sherwood, best known as a reporter for WRC-TV, has pretty much become a fixture. Nnamdi, indeed, has been referring to him as "permanent guest analyst" on recent shows.

Says Sherwood, "I've been a guest on Kojo's show occasionally over the years. I've got the highest respect for him." Late last year, he says, he was approached about doing something more permanent, and "my TV station decided to give me the time on Friday afternoons. I appreciate that they asked me."

When Barras was on the show, it was billed at the "Politics Hour With Kojo and Jonetta"; with Sherwood on board, however, the name will remain as plain-ol' "Politics Hour," says producer Diane Vogel.

Tune in to Sherwood's "resident" debut tomorrow noon at 88.5 FM—LL will be guest analysting!

The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU 88.5 FM talks to our leader today. The segment with Wemple starts at 12:30, but why wait? Tune in at the top of the hour for a discussion about the future of UDC. It's D.C. hell-in-a-handbasket Monday! Let's all tune in!