"The mayor had nothing to do with the contract."---Peter Nickles on Kojo concerning questions related to the parks contracts to Fenty's frat brothers. Then why is there a hearing going on? Maybe Nickles needs to read LL's latest column.

And this from Nickles: "I think Mary Cheh is great....Mary Cheh is a great councilmember."

There's been a lot of grandstanding over the pending crime bill. Mendo has been particularly targeted in silly ways--at a press conference and at recent hearing. Now comes Muriel Bowser on Kojo with her own bit of fear mongering. (She's BSing right now! on gangs). Bowser argues that the police need better tools in dealing with gangs. Her argument is completely uninformed, straight-up Palin-esque politics.

Yes. Gangs are scary. But D.C. has plenty of tools already on the books. The District does not need to go into civil court with these new crime-bill tools. The Feds have long used RICO to take gangs off street corners. They've been quite successful. RICO is scary, too. Gang leaders like Kevin Gray and Tommy Edelin have found that out. Death penalty cases are now part of D.C.

There are also already civil tools the city has used like nuisance property laws that can target crack houses and shut them down. The results have been mixed. Innocent families have been targeted based on flimsy evidence.

Read More "Crime Bill Angst" »

More footage from the National Zoo, where Baraka and the other gorillas got involved in a bit of a dust-up!