#Fail To The Redskins: The New York Giants won the Super Bowl Sunday night, but most of the D.C. Council seemed to be thinking about a different football team, one that wasn't eligible for the sort of playoff run the Giants made this postseason even though two of their five victories in 2011 came against [...]
Tips For Thomas: Now that Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. has been formally charged by federal prosecutors for theft and filing false tax returns, the question becomes: What's next? Loose Lips is on it, musing about who could run to replace Thomas (should he resign, which he hasn't formally done yet), and getting tips [...]
I Can't Pay My Taxes: Being on the D.C. Council comes with a few perks—the chance to weigh in on important matters of public policy, the ability to use donations from powerful business interests to buy things to make your constituents like you, free Lady Gaga tickets. And oh, yes, also an average salary of [...]
(For reference)
This was the year that Marion Barry discovered the concept of nudge.
After a debacle—no turkeys!—at his 2010 annual giveaway, the Ward 8 councilmember announced plans earlier this fall to revamp the affair by using the prospect of a free bird to encourage positive behaviors: To get a turkey, constituents would have had to do things [...]
Tweet On, You Crazy Diamond: Mike DeBonis confirms that former Mayor-for-Life Marion Barry is, indeed, tweeting his own tweets from a brand new Twitter account. “The social media is hot right now,” he says. “I want to keep in touch with technology. I want to stay in touch with the young people.” Sample tweet: "@KwameBrownDC WELL [...]
Hoo boy:
The Ward 8 council race has its official first dust-up, and it doesn't even include Councilmember Marion Barry.
Jacque Patterson, former head of the Ward 8 Democrats and almost at-large council candidate, tells LL he's going to make a run at Barry's seat: "I've got my wife's approval, I'm gonna run."
An official kickoff is scheduled for later [...]
Last week, a capacity crowd gathered to hear Tom Sherwood and Harry S. Jaffe discuss Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, D.C. The size of the audience at the Waltha T. Daniel/Shaw public library was a testament to the landmark status of the 1994 chronicle of Marion Barry’s rise and (apparent) fall. [...]
So, Marion Barry has car troubles again. What else is new? The Ward 8 councilmember was in the news yesterday after he was spotted driving down Pennsylvania Avenue with the rear bumper of his silver Jaguar rattling along the pavement. Barry told The Washington Post that the car had been the victim of a hit-and-run [...]
Legalize, Or At Least Discount, It: The District's medicinal marijuana program is moving along, albeit not as quickly as some might like. But what about those of us who don't qualify under the strict regulations? Turns out we're overpaying for pot. A study by Floating Sheep published in Wired this month found D.C. pays, on average, [...]
Former D.C. mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown, who’s gotten far more attention this year than he ever did when he was running for office, refused to take off his mirrored sunglasses while testifying (reluctantly) before the D.C. Council on Monday. We can’t pretend to know why Brown insisted on wearing the glasses indoors, but if he [...]
On May 19, 1993, the D.C. government lost one of its early Home Rule-era leaders and most accomplished legislators. D.C. Council Chairman John A. Wilson was found dead in the basement laundry room of his Southwest home by his wife, Bonnie, and chauffeur. His death, ruled a suicide by the Metropolitan Police Department, sent shock [...]
On April 28, 1986, Washington Post columnist William Raspberry, urged then-Ward 4 Councilmember Charlene Drew Jarvis to run against then-Mayor Marion Barry.
Raspberry's column, which called Jarvis "a formidable candidate," was a follow-up to a story by Post city reporter Arthur S. Brisbane. Four days earlier, Brisbane called Jarvis a "formidable" vote-getter who "made a modest [...]
On April 5, 1968, civil disorder that had started the night before after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in Memphis turned into a full-scale riot in the District, prompting a federal response to protect the government and restore order on the streets.
The night before, local African American organizers—including activist Stokley Carmichael—had begun ordering stores [...]
