Here's the .jpg sent out by Councilmember Michael Brown's office featuring, ahem, another Michael Brown

For the fabulous moolah machine that is the print platform of Washington City Paper, I wrote this week about D.C. Councilmember Michael Brown's memories of his high school basketball exploits, and how they match up, or not, with the public record. Pick up a copy, read the column, acknowledge the awesome power of the hard copy of the 930 Club advertisement, don't go changin'.

The nut of the story is that Brown, after complaining that another Michael Brown was stealing his political thunder, co-opted the athletic glory of another guy named Michael Brown.

The Councilmember had called me a couple weeks ago and wanted me to write about his participation in the Capital Classic all-star game. I had written earlier that the Washington Post archives have no record of him ever being named an All-Met basketball player when he was at Mackin Catholic High School in the early 1980s, which he had claimed to me on two separate occasions, and Brown clearly felt that story hurt his court credibility.

If you played at Mackin back then, you had to be good—Jo Jo Hunter, Austin Carr, and Johnny Dawkins are among the alums. But if you played in the Capital Classic back in the day (as James Worthy, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Patrick Ewing, etc. had), that took your basketball bona fides to a whole other level.

The councilmember then had his office send me a box score of the 1984 Capital Classic, which featured the best prep players from this area against the best of the rest of the country. "Michael Brown" was indeed on the D.C. squad.

But, alas, after searching through those same Washington Post archives that earlier wouldn't confirm that Councilmember Michael Brown was an All-Met,  I learned that the "Michael Brown" in the 1984 Capital Classic was an All-American from Dunbar of Baltimore.

The box score the councilmember's office sent out for me to write about had nothing to do with the councilmember. He'd graduated high school — Mackin Catholic in D.C. — in 1983. Definitely one of the bizarrest experiences of my years of typing about D.C. sports.

But, again, the Capital Classic was a huge deal around here for a long time. I remember watching that 1984 game, which was played at Abe Pollin's Capital Centre, on cable on the USA Network on the USA Network while I was in Lubbock, Texas. Chris Washburn, a massive center playing for the U.S. team, had a breakaway dunk that was one of the greatest slams I had ever seen.

On that highlight alone, I was sure Washburn, who was headed to N.C. State, would be a fabulous NBA superstar in no time flat.

Washburn instead turned out to be a fabulous headcase and one of the biggest busts in NBA history.  Oh, well. He can say he played in the Capital Classic.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• Kwame Brown vs. unpaid traffic tickets
• Tommy Wells is disappointed
• Ron Moten's news conference: the video

Good morning sweet readers! LL is pumped to have survived his first earthquake this morning. Nice try, Mother Earth, but not this time! Wonder how long of a rest the "political earthquake" metaphors will get after this? Don't worry, the ground isn't shaking anymore here at LL Daily HQ—come right in!

Cashquake! Debtquake! Still more earthquake headlines! ...

Mudquake!: WaPo's Nikita Stewart and Tim Craig do nice job of filtering out all of yesterday's craziness and getting to the point, that the sharp elbowed debate on Jonetta Rose Barras' show on WPFW signaled "a campaign likely to be soiled by mudslinging in its final eight weeks." Gray on Fenty: "Gray called the Fenty administration's transfer of city funds to the D.C. Housing Authority to award the contracts 'surreptitious, clandestine and circuitous.' The rerouting bypassed the council, which must authorize contracts exceeding $1 million. Gray, who began his campaign in March with a promise to return integrity and accountability to the mayor's office, peppered his responses Thursday by frequently using the word 'cronyism.' 'If you are a fraternity brother or someone associated with the mayor, you will get a contract,' he said. Fenty on Gray: "But Fenty aggressively offset Gray's attacks by talking about probes that have targeted the council chairman, stopping just short of calling Gray a hypocrite. He pointed to the installation of a fence at Gray's home, which the city has ordered taken down or shortened because it was built without permits. Fenty wrongly said the fence was built by a contractor that had business before the council. Though developer William C. Smith & Co. helped with other repairs at Gray's home, the Office of Campaign Finance found no violation of law. The campaign finance office also cleared Gray in using his council stationery to solicit contributions for the local Democratic Party, but Fenty raised the controversy during the debate."

Motenquake!: WCP had a front-row seat to Peaceoholics founder Ron Moten show yesterday. If you haven't already, check out the videos of the plot's rising action, climax, and denouement. (Thanks, seventh grade English teacher whose name LL doesn't remember!) The Examiner's Freeman Klopott caught up with Moten after the show and has more: "Peaceoholics received $277,000 from city agencies in 2006—the year Fenty was elected, records show. Three years later, Peaceoholics took in at least $5.1 million from the city. But Moten told The Washington Examiner on Thursday that he's not friends with Fenty. 'He's never been to my house, I've never been to his house,' Moten said. 'We don't go out to eat.'  Ron Moten: one day you call the man Jesus, the next, you say he's not even your friend? What?!

Cashquake!: WBJ's Michael Neibauer gets an excused absence from the Moten-o-rama, as he was looking at lobbyists' disclosure filings: "District government leaders were vigorously lobbied in the first six months of the year by the usual power brokers who earned millions of dollars fighting for the policy interests of the beverage, pharmaceutical, insurance, retail and building industries. Among the major players are D.C. lawyer David Wilmot and firms McGuire Woods LLP, Oldaker, Belair & Wittie LLP and Holland & Knight LLP, which count more than 60 clients between them, according to reports filed with the Office of Campaign Finance by the July 12 deadline."

Debtquake!: Chairman hopeful Vincent Orange has started bashing his opponent, At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown, over Brown being sued for more than $50,000 in credit card debt, NBC 4's Tom Sherwood reports. Orange also has problems with Brown owning a 42-foot boat called "Bulletproof."

Narrow Victory in Same-Sex MarriageQuake!: The D.C. Court of Appeals upholds same-sex marriages in the District yesterday, reports Keith Alexander in the Post. "The judges further stated that the [D.C.] Council 'was not obliged to allow initiatives that would have the effect of authorizing discrimination prohibited by the Human Rights Act to be put to voters, and then to repeal them, or to wait for them to be challenged as having been improper subjects of initiative, should they be approved by voters.'" Opponents said they plan to appeal to the Supreme Court.

BarryQuake!: The Washington Times' Deborah Simmons goes for a ride in Ward 8 with Mayor-for-Life Marion S. Barry Jr. and discovers Barry has big plans for next term: "'One of the ironies of losing my [housing] committee chairmanship is the time it's giving me to develop strategy,' Mr. Barry says. "When budget oversight begins, Ward 8 is going to be refocused and reorganized. I can't get every need into the budget. My job is to have leadership and empower the people.' He then makes a promise as much to himself as to Ward 8 residents. 'Next year will be different,' he says. 'They're going to be sick of us [at City Hall], but we're not going away.'

OTHER NEWS:

Wal-Mart Fight Preview: The Post's Mike DeBonis, tackling a subject already nicely handled by City Paper's own Lydia DePillis's column this week, previews the fight over Walmart's attempt to build a store in Northeast Washington. "The game plan for unions, who have long been stalwart foes of the mega-retailer's labor practices, will remain much the same this time. ... But the seduction might be less superficial in a city hurting from near-record unemployment. The District needs the jobs, even at near-minimum wages, and residents tend to appreciate the prices."

DYRS Worker Shot: A summer youth employment worker was shot in the hand while on the job yesterday in Northwest Washington. WTOP reports: "Councilmember Michael A. Brown, who chairs the committee that oversees the SYEP, says it is not clear if there were any supervisors from the jobs program around when the shooting happened, or if the teen was part of the program being held at the rec center. D.C. Police are still investigating the incident. Brown says the beleaguered program could avoid incidents like the shooting if D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty would focus on quality or quantity."

Big Ol' Drug Bust [News 8]

Jaffe's take on an ousted English teacher [Examiner]

On Kojo: At-Large Councilmember Michael Brown.

On Newstalk: Neibauer talks about whether District construction projects and whether they are producing jobs for residents.

Mayor and Council: No public schedules.

Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. appears to be the latest member of D.C.'s legislative body with financial woes to come to light—court records show the U.S. government is claiming he owes  than $16,000 in student loan-related debt.

UPDATE: Thomas disputes this, saying all his loans have been "satisfied," and the whole brouhaha originated from an "administrative error."

The councilmember took out two federally-backed student loans of $2,672.60 each in the early '80s, then defaulted on those loans shortly thereafter, according to U.S. District Court filings. In 2006, the federal government came to collect, suing Thomas for $16,820.06. That total included the $5,345.20 in principal, $7,680.86 in interest (behold, the magic of compound interest!), attorney's fees of $3,794, plus court and other fees adding up to $400.

But the case was dismissed last year by United States Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson after an attorney for the government, Thomas Mauro, said he hadn't properly served Thomas with court papers.

Lucky break, right? Not so fast: Mauro isn’t letting this go without a fight. He’s since asked Robinson to reconsider, in a filing that doesn’t paint Thomas in a very flattering light. Mauro said the only reason the case was tossed out in the first place was because he realized Thomas' lawyer wasn't actually licensed to practice law in the District.

In the latest filing, Mauro says Thomas hasn’t responded to multiple calls to his council office to discuss the case, and has “no legitimate defense” against the government’s claim that he owes them money. Thomas never showed at a status hearing in 2008, either, court records show. Mauro said he served Thomas’s attorney with a “Motion for Summary Judgment,” but then had to withdraw it after he realized Thomas’ attorney wasn’t a licensed member of the D.C. Bar.

According to an online docket, Robinson is at least leaving the door slightly open for the government to collect. In May, the judge directed Thomas to file a response to the request to reopen the case. That response was due June 9^th, but there's no record that one was ever filed.

Thomas said he's confident his lawyers will be able to have the case tossed again because he "has no balance due" to any "educational institution."

Last week, City Paper reported that “according to Maryland court records, Thomas has earned himself five speeding tickets in the Old Line State—none of which have been paid.” And in March, the Examiner reported that Thomas’s car was booted for not paying for "four unpaid parking tickets, totaling $655."

By the old newspaper rule—three is a trend!—it would appear the Wilson Building is past due for a visit from Suze Orman: Thomas is now the fourth councilmember (that we know about) who has debt problems. The Washington Times reported earlier this week that At-Large Councilmember Michael Brown is “facing a federal lien seeking more than $50,000 in unpaid income taxes.” Last week NBC-4 reported that Kwame Brown was being sued for more than $50,000 in credit card debt. And Marion Barry has had plenty of tax problems.

We’re nearing a quorum!

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• Dan Snyder bragged his wealth came from diabetes and cancer victims?
• Feeding the homeless has never been so sexy
• Best Bond movie

Good morning D.C.! How about "The Bachelorette" last night? Crazy, right? Well, don’t spoil it for LL—who was stuck at a mayoral forum in Ward 6, hosted by the Public Interest Civic Association Forum. If LL had to guess who would have been sent home without a rose based on their performance at the forum, he'd pick Mayor Adrian Fenty. Why? Because Hizzoner didn’t show up. Or maybe he was there, maybe he’s everywhere, in our hearts, like somebody else we all know...

So is Vince Gray Buddha? Fenty pal, giver of firetrucks and quote machine Ron Moten compared Fenty to Jesus Saturday at a “Go-Go 4 Fenty” event held at in a parking lot at RFK stadium, reports Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post. Said Moten: "If you understand what they did to Jesus, on Monday, everybody was praising him. Wednesday, he went to court, and all the people who he helped, nobody came to court for him... On Friday, they crucified him... The reason why we're here today is to get the facts out to you so history don't repeat itself again." Just a tad over the top? LL can only imagine what history might look like if Peter Nickles had been Jesus’ attorney. DeBonis also explained why Anwan "Big G" Glover, of "The Wire" and Backyard fame, is such a strong Fenty supporter. “Glover explained that his ties to Fenty were bound after Fenty, as a councilmember, wrote a letter to a Superior Court judge ruling on a 2004 gun charge. If Glover, then nearing the height of his 'Wire' fame, had been jailed, it would have been a serious blow to his career. He ended up getting probation.” The whole post is a must-read, but one other tidbit LL found worth sharing is was Moten’s channeling of his inner Karl Rove when talking about Fenty challenger Vincent Gray: "He's a flip-flopper, y'all. He's gonna tell everybody what they need to hear."

Taxes Schmaxes: At-Large Councilmember Michael Brown owes owed Uncle Sam more than $50,000 in back taxes, according to Jim McElhatton of the Washington Times. “A copy of the lien filed against Mr. Brown at the D.C. Office of the Recorder of Deeds shows tax debts of $7,128.22 for 2004, $28,625.11 for 2005, $5,176.17 for 2007 and $11,951.18 for 2008. Mr. Brown said he is close to paying off the tax debts. He said he has been on a scheduled installment plan with the IRS for about two years and that he's never missed a payment. He said his last payment is scheduled for August. 'Nothing has been done wrong, zero,' he said, adding that his situation is no different from those of millions of Americans working to pay off taxes through installment plans with the IRS.” First Marion Barry, then Kwame Brown, and now Michael Brown. Memo to all councilmembers with money problems: there’s blood in the water, and the sharks are circling. It might be better to come clean now rather than let an enterprising reporter uncover your misdeeds. (Though LL's editors wouldn't mind if an enterprising City Paper reporter did the uncovering!) (NOTE: This item had the tense wrong originally; Brown has paid off much of the debt already.)

When at First You Don't Succeed: Remember last week when the Examiner's Billy Myers reported that Abdullahi Barrow, a key figured into the D.C. Council's investigation of how the Fenty administration awarded park contracts, failed the engineering licensing test seven times before a Fenty-approved board game him license anyway? Well, turns out, as Myers reports, the special investigator is now looking into that matter as well. "Veteran lawyer Robert Trout, who is leading the council's investigation, briefed members Monday morning. He told them he wants to know how Abdullahi Barrow obtained his license just months before his company was made a subcontractor in several parks and recreation contracts, multiple sources told The Examiner." What's even more interesting, on the political side of things: "Trout told council members Monday that his investigation is like 'peeling an onion,' and his report won't be finished until late September at the earliest—after this year's Democratic primaries."

AFTER THE JUMP: Metro bus shenanigans; Orange manifesto; H Street cash...

If Pretending to be a Metrobus Driver is Wrong, I Don’t Want to be Right: The Examiner’s Kytja Weir finds Metro is closing doors for would-be poseurs. “Metro says it is working to enhance security at its facilities, just days after a bus was stolen from a garage and reportedly driven on its regular route by a teen in a Metro uniform. The agency already has taken some action, according to Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel, but plans to increase security further this week, including adding security checks of employees entering and exiting each of its bus facilities. In the long term, the agency is considering adding more fencing, lighting and security cameras, plus new technology to verify driver identification and disable buses remotely, he said.” Forget disabling buses remotely; LL dreams of the day when Metro can un-disable them remotely.

Orange You Glad I Have a Plan: WaPo’s Ann Marimow breaks down D.C. Council chairman candidate Vincent Orange’s “manifesto.” "Orange's five-point plan calls for expanding pre-K programs for toddlers and vocational and employment training for young adults, reducing energy costs for residents and enforcing employment measures designed to ensure better wages and more jobs for District residents. But much of the document—replete with attractive photos and pull quotes—is repetitive, listing the elements of a sustainable energy initiative three times; the 13 highlights from his tenure on the council twice; and his compelling personal story several times. Orange draws on a theme from his unsuccessful 2006 mayoral bid, pointing to what he calls the 'connection between education, employment and economic development.'"

Bacon Spreading: WBJ’s Michael Neibauer reports that Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells is looking to spend some of the $25 million the council set aside for H Street in 2007. “Wells is expected to introduced legislation Tuesday that would allocate $5 million for small businesses on H Street NE and another $5 million for Guy Steuart's mixed-use project at Third and H."

Easy Work if You Can Get It: Neibauer also reports on an investigation of the Office of the Chief Technology Officer that finds plenty to be concerned about. "The District's technology office is overly reliant on contractors, too eager to award jobs to under-qualified local businesses and not nearly aggressive enough in its monitoring of their work, setting up a system that is easily defrauded and wastes piles of taxpayer dollars, a new report finds." ... "Of larger concern, perhaps, is the District's certified business enterprise program, which requires the government to direct 'significant amounts of procurement' to D.C. businesses. In the technology field, the report states, CBEs often do little more than find applicants to fill open jobs. The District pays the CBE, and the CBE pays the contractor."

I Got a Bad Feeling About This: Harry Jaffe’s take in the Examiner on the city’s latest purchase: “I was left with a queasy feeling when the hearing ended. The city got rooked—again—this time for more than $80 million. In the unraveling of the United Medical Center hospital deal, there is a loose string. Give it a tug and you can see the half-baked dreams, liberal guilt, bets on the come and the kind of funny money accounting that led the District to the financial control board and near bankruptcy 15 years ago.”

Speaking of hospitals, a potential buyer? [DeBonis]

Police brass and Council at odds over what to do with jailed illegal immigrants. [Examiner]

National Zoo vets headed to the Gulf to help nurse birds back to health. [WAMU]

Cindy Sheehan cleared. [AP]

Reagan statue maybe coming to Reagan Airport. [FOXDC]

Mayor's schedule: Remarks at Microsoft’s 2010 Worldwide Partner Conference, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Room 306, 3:30 p.m.

Council schedule: Legislative meeting, Wilson Building, Room 500, 10 a.m.

Hello, sweet readers, and welcome to the first Loose Lips Daily of the Alan Suderman era. LL is eager to drag you along with him through the wonderful world of D.C. politics, and trusts you'll soon enough be asking yourself, "DeBonis who?"

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• D.C. Council rants, Peter Nickles swims
• Air conditioning still a problem at D.C. General homeless shelter
• Building industry throwing down for unopposed Mary Cheh

How about that Paul the Octopus oracle, who correctly predicted eight out of eight World Cup games, including Spain becoming champs yesterday. LL has an idea: Let's pass the hat and pay for Paul to predict the winner of this year's mayoral race so the rest of us can relax until September? No? Okay, let's get to it then.

Trouble on the Home Front: The Post's Nikita Stewart takes the pulse of Mayor Adrian Fenty's home turf, Ward 4, and finds discontentment a'bloomin'. Stewarts talks to Ethel Delaney Lee, the "matriarch of modern Ward 4 politics," who has thrown her support behind D.C. Councilman Vince Gray, after feeling ignored by Fenty. "The cellphone that I had for him, someone always answered for him," said Delaney Lee, 84, of North Portal Estates. "I wrote a letter... I never heard a word. Now, the mayor says he never received the letter and says he wishes he had." Money grafs: "Nowhere does Fenty have more to lose than in Ward 4. Conventional wisdom and political tarot readers have wards 5, 7 and 8 potentially in Gray's column. Fenty would win wards 1, 2 and 3. They would split Ward 6. That clears they way for the mayor's former epicenter of popularity to become the battleground in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary." ... "The ward's word-of-mouth work helped Fenty become mayor almost four years ago. This time, it's hurting him. Former Fenty supporters who back Gray recount personal insults and lament laid-off or transferred city employees. The mayor's supporters apologize for their candidate."

AFTER THE JUMP:Vincent Gray fundraiser in Georgetown; Nickles fights back; school's in!

Show Me the Money: A Post editorial gives Gray a slight tap on the hiney for having an education platform that is so ambitious "that it is hard to discern what are his priorities and, more significant, how he would pay for them." The Posties give credit to Gray for his focus on charter schools but take him to task for past meddling and unilateral actions as council chairman. "Most disappointing is the absence of any detail on what his proposals would cost or how—other than a vague promise of savings in special education—he would pay for them. It's easy to promise comprehensive pre-natal-to-toddler programs for families with special-needs children, more resources for charter schools or a doubling of school guidance counselors. Coming up with money, particularly in these tough fiscal times, is an entirely different matter."

Shut Your Hole and Know Your Role: The Examiner's Jonetta Rose Barras takes the D.C. Council to task for their meddlesome ways, affirming Nickles' assessment that they act like "mini-mayors." Barras singles out At-Large Councilman Michael Brown for proposing legislation that would mandate field trips for public school students. "Rather than just gripe about the problem, I offer this cure for the mini-mayor-micromanaging syndrome: less time in the John A. Wilson Building. After all, the job of council member is, by law, part-time—except for the chairman. Many legislatures hold clearly defined legislative sessions—sometimes spanning just 90 or 120 days. The city could follow suit. If there was an emergency, the chairman could call a special meeting." LL doesn’t need an octopus to predict the odds of that happening.

Anger Makes the Money Flow: The Georgetown Dish's Molly Redden covered Gray's Georgetown fundraiser Friday. Redden's take: Even among many of the avid Gray supporters at the ornate reception hall of the City Tavern Club, there were bitter feelings about Fenty that were as strong as the feelings for the man of the hour. There can't be any doubt any more—this election seems more and more like a referendum on Fenty's (un)likableness. Admirable as he may be for his "maturity" and "character"—words many used to describe him—Gray, it seems, scores extra points simply because he isn't his despised opponent.

'Cause I Say So: Nickles has fired back against the complaint Robert Vinson Brannum filed against schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Refresher from The Examiner's Leah Fabel: "The complaint was filed with the city's Office of Campaign Finance in June by Robert Vinson Brannum, a reliable Rhee antagonist and president of the D.C. Federation of Civic Associations. It charges that Rhee violated city law and standards of conduct when she "solicited or accepted private funding to support certain provisions of" the school system's contract, passed in late June by the D.C. Council. The $1.4 billion contract, which is partially funded by nearly $65 million in private donations from four foundations, grants teachers a 22 percent salary raise through 2012, retroactive to 2007. It also lays the foundation for teachers to be paid large bonuses depending on their successes in the classroom. The Office of Campaign Finance deemed Brannum's complaint worrisome enough to open an investigation in early June." Nickles called the complaint "baseless." Bill Turque reports that Rhee told the District's Office of Campaign Finance on Friday that she gained nothing financially from the private foundations that are underwriting part of the new teachers contract, nor did she have anything to do with a provision allowing donors to reconsider their support if DCPS leadership changed hands.

School's In: The Post's Stephanie Lee checks in with the District's new community college. The Community College of the District of Columbia, which split from UDC, has seen its enrollment jump from 960 in the fall to 2,335. Lee reports that the CCDC's growth is part of a national trend. "CCDC is starting as two-year colleges are enjoying a kind of renaissance. In the Washington region in the 2009-10 academic year, community college enrollment increased by 12,000 students, or 10 percent. Students are signing up in record numbers nationwide, though budget cuts make it impossible to accommodate them all."

Can Somebody Tell Me What the Crime is Here?: "The 19-year-old man suspected of impersonating a Metro driver and crashing a Route B2 bus carrying five adults and a baby before fleeing the scene initially drove so well that passenger Thomasena Thompson still thought he was a real Metro driver Sunday evening. "If he wasn't a driver for real," Thompson said, "he's been watching somebody for a real long time." William Jackson, the suspect, was polite and knew the bus's exact route, Thompson said. He stopped at Washington Hospital Center and even left the bus idling for her as she ran to it from the McDonald's she had stopped at after transferring from the X2 Friday afternoon." [Post]

It's Getting Hot in Here: The Examiner's Freeman Klopott reports that Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh has introduced emergency legislation "that would prevent power and gas companies from shutting off residents' utilities during extreme heat."

We Bought a Hospital: "The city now owns United Medical Center, the only hospital serving residents east of the Anacostia River, after bidding $20 million for the beleaguered facility at a five-minute foreclosure auction Friday that drew no other bidders." [Post] And Fenty named five to the hospital's board. [WBJ]

I'm Going to Disneyland! WBJ's Michael Neibauer finds that "rarely do D.C. staffers miss an opportunity to travel well."

Spare a Dime?: D.C. Wire reports that the fiscal note on a law making it a crime "for city employees to engage in politicking or electioneering while on duty or dressed in a city uniform or driving a taxpayer funded vehicle" would cost upwards of $100,000 in fiscal year 2011. CFO Natwar Gandhi said the city can't afford the price tag.

D.C. Council Schedule: 2 p.m. roundtable to discuss Peaceoholics' construction project at 1300 Congress St. SE

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—"Vincent Gray Calls For AG Peter Nickles To Resign," "Watch: The Marion Barry Wrestling Move," "Why Didn't Adrian Fenty Get A Ticket?," "Harry Thomas Jr.: Speeding Ticket Scofflaw?"

Good Morning. During the last few weeks, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, Attorney General Peter Nickles, and even the mayor's summer jobs program have popped up as campaign issues. They are the subjects of editorials, debate, overly angry LL Daily columns, and tons of comments from our awesome, loyal readers. But maybe this substitute LL is missing something. This Sub LL just hasn't heard enough talk about the District's economy. Yeah, we all care about Spike's new pizza place. But his new pizza joint or the new Chipotle in Columbia Heights aren't stories that tell the full picture of the District. It's only half that picture. The other half? The other half doesn't draw comments, is rarely seen or heard from in the mainstream media. I'm talking about the more than 10 percent who are unemployed. Or the many who are under-employed. Or those of us who live paycheck to paycheck. On July 7, all the homeless shelters were at or very near capacity. The D.C. General emergency shelter held 131 families and 227 children. I recently spoke to a father who told me he and his family were stuck living in their car because they couldn't get into D.C. General.

Mayor Adrian Fenty would much rather talk about a minor traffic violation. WaPo's Mike DeBonis reported yesterday morning that Fenty had been pulled over in Chinatown for failing to signal a right turn. Is this newsworthy? Sure. But what was so telling about it was that Fenty actually addressed his violation with the press: "'It was a mistake. It was a hundred percent my fault,' he said, calling the police officer who pulled him over 'one of our best officers.'" I think that's one of the mayor's better apologies and longer press statements we've had in a while.

What Fenty's administration doesn't want to talk about? Jobs. Specifically, the city's auditors findings that his administration did not enforce the living-wage law and local hiring requirements. On May 18, D.C. Auditor Deborah Nichols issued a 24-page report [PDF] on her findings. Here's what our new LL, Alan Suderman, reported in the Examiner:

"The District failed to enforce its own law requiring local hires for taxpayer funded developments, costing residents hundreds of jobs and potentially $14 million in lost wages, a new city audit has found.

The city's First Source program requires developers working on city-funded projects to fill 51 percent of newly created jobs with District residents. But a review of 16 projects started under the guidance of two now-defunct, quasi-independent agencies shows that only four projects met that threshold.

The projects that did have the required number of District residents include the DC USA retail complex in Columbia Heights and the Mandarin Oriental hotel by the Tidal Basin.

Developers can get a waiver for the 51 percent requirement if they show that there was a "good faith" effort to find residents with the needed skills. But Department of Employment Services, which is tasked with implementing the First Source Program, said they have no record that the agency ever tried to determine whether good faith efforts were made.

D.C. Auditor Deborah Nichols said a rough estimation puts the number of potential jobs lost to nonresidents at 361, and the potential wages lost at $14 million. Nichols said the figures show the "type of economic fortune that could have occurred for the District and its residents had District agency officials and developers been more committed to [First Source] laws and procedures."

Nichols found that Mayor Adrian Fenty's office had essentially ignored the city's Living Wage Act of 2006, which requires city contractors to pay workers at least $12.10 an hour.

Nichols also noted that Fenty's administration, including Attorney General Peter Nickles, refused to allow her access to all the documents she requested for the audit."

Inevitably, the D.C. Council wanted a hearing on the matter. The hearing was yesterday. Guess how that turned out?

No one from Fenty's administration bothered to show up. WaPo's Ann Marimow reports on the administration no-show: "Council members Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large) and Michael Brown (I-At Large), who presided over the hearing, expressed frustration that Fenty's administration has not made the employment measures a priority. There was no one at the hearing Thursday to defend the administration's position, only the missive from the attorney general. An aide to the council's Economic Development Committee said the panel had confirmed participation from the Department of Employment Services and the office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. But two hours into the hearing, there was no sign of an administration representative. [Auditor Deborah] Nichols said she was surprised that no one from the deputy mayor's office had appeared. She said she was told that their team was too busy to meet in late June because they were preparing for Thursday's hearing. Brown called the absence 'unacceptable.'"

Instead of actual Fenty officials answering questions, the D.C. Councilmembers got a letter from AG Peter Nickles saying the District was in compliance.

Housing Complex's Lydia DePillis covered the hearing as well. This wasn't the first instance of the Fenty administration stonewalling the auditor's investigation into the living-wage law. At the hearing, Nichols told the D.C. Council:

“This administration doesn’t even consider itself subject to philosophical standards, practices, that you would expect them to have, that you see in national government, local, state governments throughout the country,” Nichols said. “It’s just not the same mentality.”

In Tim Craig's WaPo piece on the oddly personal feud between Gray and the AG, the city auditor summed up the problem with Peter Nickles as good as anyone: "Deborah K. Nichols, told a council committee that Nickles has made it more difficult for her office to assess the performance of the government because he interferes with the flow of information from the administration. 'Everybody has to have a system of checks and balances. When you are the check and the balance, there's a conflict,' said Nichols, who has worked in the auditor's office since 1982. 'When you are the spokesperson, the attorney general and the investigator, there's a conflict.'"

We thought we elected our own Cory Booker. Now we know the only thing they have in common is that they're both bald. Can you imagine Fenty living in James Creek or Barry Farm? Instead, we got a mayor who zips around in a Smart car and really loves sports. Where was he headed when he got his little traffic warning? He wasn't racing off to a senior center or an ANC meeting or a church basement. He was off to his cushy seats at a Washington Kastles team-tennis game.

This is my last LL Daily and possibly my worst (where's the aggregation?). It's everything my anonymous readers hated—whiny, bias-seeming, etc. Oh well. I will be getting back to doing some reporting for Washington City Paper where I will be covering the social-services beat. So you'll probably be seeing stories about homeless services, affordable housing, and a lot of other stuff that may or may not turn into campaign issues.

Anyway. Here are a few quick links:

Kwame Brown is in some serious trouble (Tom Sherwood)

D.C. Streetcars loose $25 million grant (The Examiner).

One mayoral candidate drops out and throws support to Gray (D.C. Wire)

Catania takes a really tough stance on truancy (WaPo).

We're really buying a hospital? (DeBonis)

Double shooting in Southeast (NC8)

Adams Morgan apts. to be converted to condos (WBJ)

Amtrak adds Richmond-to-D.C. service (WTOP)

MAYOR'S SCHEDULE:

10 a.m.Remarks
Georgia Commons Topping Off
Location:3910 Georgia Ave. NW

D.C. COUNCIL'S SCHEDULE:

1 p.m. Roundtable on: The Settlement Agreement with Banneker Ventures, LLC [that's going to be fun]
Location: John A. Wilson Building, Room 500

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—"Fenty, Transparency, Scrutiny: The Political Fallout of FOIA Reform," "Council Ices Statehood Committee," "Mount Pleasant NIMBYs Battle Over Haydee's," "Photos: Strasburg's Debut @ Nationals Park," "Triple Shooting Near Howard University"

Howdy. D.C. Auditor Deborah Nichols finds that the District rarely enforces laws providing that city contractors hire local workers and pay living wages. Along with the city's high unemployment rate, and staggering homeless problem, LL wonders where is the mayor on this issue? Michael Neibauer reports: "District laws requiring that developers of taxpayer-funded projects hire D.C. residents and pay their employees a living wage are poorly monitored and rarely enforced, a new audit finds.The failure of multiple District agencies, primarily the Department of Employment Services, to manage or even implement the 'first source' and living wage programs has cost hundreds of D.C. residents potential jobs and the city government millions in potential tax revenue, D.C. Auditor Deborah Nichols concluded in the May 18 report. District residents, Nichols reported, 'may not be receiving an equitable hourly wage rate.'"

Neibauer goes on to report: "Meanwhile, of the 700,000 jobs in D.C., 72 percent are held by non-District residents, said Councilman Michael Brown, D-At large, who has oversight of DOES as chairman of the Housing and Workforce Development Committee. 'When you’re looking at these high unemployment numbers,' he said, 'I don’t know what is a higher priority.' Only four of 16 development projects that Nichols reviewed met the 51 percent hiring requirement. The 12 that did not, including DC USA, Kenyon Square and the Mandarin Oriental hotel, amounted to 361 jobs and $14.3 million in earnings lost. While that is an estimated figure, Nichols wrote, 'it shows the type of economic fortune that could have occurred for the District and its residents had District agency officials and developers been more committed to FSA laws and processes.'"

More coverage via the Examiner's Alan Suderman: "Nichols found that Mayor Adrian Fenty's office had essentially ignored the city's Living Wage Act of 2006, which requires city contractors to pay workers at least $12.10 an hour. Nichols also noted that Fenty's administration, including Attorney General Peter Nickles, refused to allow her access to all the documents she requested for the audit. The mayor's spokeswoman and Nickles could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday."

And Nickles wants to toughen the city's FOIA laws making it that much harder for reporters and citizens to access government documents. If he won't turn over materials to the city's auditor, do you think he'll turn over materials to you? This LL bets our AG has spent more man hours stonewalling Pershing Park plaintiffs attorneys or suing lawyers in special education cases than going after contractors who fail to live up to their obligations to city workers. Council Chair Vincent Gray won't need a focus group to realize he needs to make this a campaign issue.

AFTER THE JUMP—Politics and Prose owners say store is for sale, more Tax Office Troubles, Trey Joyner's family speaks out, Fenty addresses Hadar resignation, and much, much more!

POLITICS AND PROSE: WaPo's Michael Rosenwald reports that the beloved bookstore is up for sale: "The store's owners, Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade, both 74 and so in synch they often wear the same colors without planning to, said they are simply too tired to keep steering Washington's most prominent non-chain bookstore — a premier stop on top-shelf author tours and a frequent setting for book talks on C-SPAN — through the uncertainty of an industry threatened by e-books. Cohen is also seriously ill. 'It's time for us to stop and let somebody else take over for the future,' Meade said in the 26-year-old store's cramped office. Cohen, eyes reddening, said, 'I just don't have the energy like I used to.' Meade and Cohen said that their 60 employees are nervous but that the sale should not be perceived as the store's final chapter. Despite doom and gloom in the industry, Meade said, 'there are no financial problems here. We make a good profit.'" More coverage via WBJ, DCist. On their blog, the bookstore's owners promise: "Although we are contemplating retirement, we anticipate maintaining a regular presence during the transition, and hopefully afterward. Our goal is to find new leadership to operate the business in the spirit which has been our hallmark. As always, we'll see you at the store!"

TAX OFFICE TROUBLES (AGAIN): The Examiner's Scott McCabe reports that a D.C. tax office investigator and a Bethesda businessman have been indicted on bribery charges: "Shelly-Ann N. Wicker, an investigator for the Office of Tax and Revenue, and John F. Craul, owner of a corporate tax consulting firm, were indicted on 28 counts of bribery and forgery charges. The alleged scheme lasted between 2005 and 2007, ending mere months before the FBI uncovered a different $50 million scandal in the same office. Reached by phone Wednesday, Craul called the charges ridiculous. 'I have never bribed anybody, and they don't have proof,' Craul said. 'If Shelly did it, she did it on her own.' Craul said he and Wicker were good friends, and he loaned her money and she paid him back. 'I wish I could afford to bribe somebody,' Craul said, 'but I don't have any money.'" The scheme cost the District roughly $106,000.

D.C. STATEHOOD: WaPo's Mike DeBonis assesses the District's failed efforts to win voting rights in Congress and where to go from here. Vincent Gray offers a simple solution: fight for statehood. DeBonis writes: "Gray and others explain their frustration as rooted in political reality: The Democratic Party has majority control of Congress, plus a Democratic president in Obama. But still the voting-rights compromise has failed. 'If we can't get it now, then when?' asked Gray, who is running for mayor. 'Why don't we just go for the whole enchilada?' 'There's a greater understanding that it's not any more difficult to get statehood than it is to get a single House vote,' said Michael D. Brown (D), one of two shadow senators elected by District voters to advocate for statehood. And that new understanding has been accompanied by second-guessing. 'Statehood is the big fish, and I think we should have put more effort in that originally,' said member Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 7), who heads up the council's voting-rights advocacy efforts. 'We would have made much more headway if we have just focused on that.' The failure of the one-vote compromise has also emboldened longtime statehood activists who have been overshadowed by the voting-rights establishment. 'It's an I-told-you-so moment,' activist Anise Jenkins said. 'A lot of people put a lot of energy and money into this effort, and it was a total misdirected waste of time.'"

METRO MESS: Unsuck Metro reports that Transit Union boss Jackie Jeter invoked slavery in an e-mail defending a Metro bus driver who punched McGruff the Crime Dog.

TRIPLE SHOOTING: Last night, three people were shot near Howard University, NC8 reports: "It happened shortly before 8 p.m. Wednesday at 8th and V St NW, a block from the 930 Club. DC Councilmember Jim Graham says two vehicles met up at the spot and fire was exchanged. One witness said he heard two gunshots while leaving a building, then saw people disperse and one man squirming on the ground after being shot. Other people say they saw a victim running toward Howard University, then fall to the ground near the McDonald's." More coverage via WaPo, NBC4, WTOP.

Meanwhile most of those troublesome traffic lights have been fixed.

FENTY ON NEWSTALK: The mayor stopped by NewsTalk for an interview. WaPo's Mike DeBonis took notes: "Fenty also addressed why his well-regarded HIV/AIDS czar, Shannon Hader, abruptly left the city health department. He noted that Hader spent more than three years on the job, 'easily the longest-serving HIV/AIDS administrator by at least double,' he said. But would not address why she left—including rumors of a clash with health director Pierre Vigilance— saying only that 'for professional reasons, she's moved on.' DePuyt noted that Council member David A. Catania (I-At Large), chair of the health committee and usually an ardent Fenty supporter, called Hader's departure 'catastrophic' in a Post story today. But Fenty wouldn't directly address the claim: "We have momentum. We're on a upward trajectory," Fenty said, noting that Hader's replacement, Nnemdi Kamanu Elias, has a resume 'every bit as exciting and robust as Dr. Hader's was when we hired her.'"

TREY JOYNER: WaPo reports that Trey Joyner's family held a news conference demanding answers into his death, and for the park police officers to be held accountable: "Almost a year to the day of the June 8, 2009, incident, the family and supporters held a news conference Wednesday outside the John A. Wilson Building to say that the investigation is taking too long and they are looking for justice. 'It does take time to take care of business,' said Brenda Joyner, Trey Joyner's mother. 'But it shouldn't take this long.'"

INTRODUCING THE STRASBURGER: Perhaps nothing got more coverage than BGR's tribute to the Nats pitching phenom. Certainly more reporters covered this burger than the Nichols' audit on jobs. Here's just one story on the now-famous burger.

MAYOR'S SCHEDULE:

7:10 a.m. Guest
Fenty on Fox
Location: Fox 5

9:30 a.m. Remarks
Frank Kameny Way Naming
Location: 17th and R Streets NW

3:00 p.m. Remarks
Ribbon Cutting for Tewkesbury Condominiums
Location: 6425 14th St. NW

Doxie McCoy, communications director for Council Chairman Vincent Gray, emailed this week in response to City Paper's cover story, "How the Gun Lobby Shot Down D.C.'s Congressional Vote," to point out that Councilmember Michael A. Brown no longer chairs the statehood committee. In fact, she noted, the committee has ceased to exist. Instead, those issues now fall under the purview of Councilmember Yvette Alexander's Committee on Aging and Community Affairs.

Council chose to fold the committee when Brown was given the reigns to Marion Barry's old Housing and Workforce Development Committee in the aftermath of Barry's censure for alleged conflict-of-interest abuses. With Barry on the outs because of ethics issues, McCoy explained, there weren't enough councilmembers to keep the committee functioning as a stand-alone entity.

She describes the move as a "procedural change" but insists that council's efforts to promote D.C. statehood and congressional voting rights will not suffer as a result.

“The council’s focus and the council's intent to raise awareness of statehood has not lessened at all,” says McCoy. “It is the Chairman’s belief that with the funding the Council restored, the statehood/voting rights work can still be done and will not suffer,” McCoy adds via email.

“Statehood and self-determination is certainly at the top of my agenda,” says Brown, the former statehood committee's former chairman. “But I know there are a lot of people that are disappointed that there is not a stand-alone committee.”

Brown says he’d like to see the committee return in another session of the Council. “Just because there may not be a committee per se, doesn’t mean folks are not fighting for this every day.”

Asked about the former committee's legacy, Brown says, “We clearly kept the issue on the forefront. Not having a committee may harm that, but the Committee on Aging and Community affairs can still host those kind of hearings related to statehood. I think people would love to see the progress, though, of a stand-alone committee.”

The biggest challenge to the statehood and voting rights movement isn’t the abolition of the committee in the Council, according to Brown. Rather, it's Mayor Adrian Fenty’s FY2011 budget proposal that almost gutted the whole statehood budget line item.

“I was very disappointed that the Mayor’s budget didn’t include any money for statehood activities,” Brown says. “I think that says a lot about where the Mayor’s priorities are.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—"Photos: Official Portraits," "Crime Scene Tech: No Sign Of Break-In After Robert Wone Murder," "Prosecutors Play Joe Price's Police Interrogation Video," "Defense: Missing Blood Theory in Robert Wone Case Based On Faulty Tests,""Outrage Erupts at D.C. Green Groups' Ties To BP"

Howdy. It looks very unlikely that the D.C. Council will raise taxes on the city's elite in an effort to restore spending cuts to District services. As the budget talks come to a close, advocates are intensifying their efforts—enlisting the assistance of Councilmember Michael Brown. D.C. Wire's Tim Craig reports: "Currently, all District wage-earners who make $40,000 or more pay an 8.5 percent income tax. Brown has proposed creating another bracket for residents who make $250,000 a year or more and another for people who earn at least $1 million annually. Brown appears to have support from Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), according to Joni Podschun, campaign manager for Save Our Safety Net. Without a tax increase, Podschun and Brown note, the city will be slashing millions of dollars from programs for the homeless and poor." But Vincent Gray has balked at this plan. He wants to deliberate more: "In an interview, Gray said the council needs a 'longer and more protracted' discussion about taxes and spending that he hopes will continue even after Wednesday's vote on the budget. 'We need a 365-day discussion,' Gray said." Is Gray parodying himself?

AFTER THE JUMP—The wheels start coming off MetroAccess, a judge declares the D.C. Jail a disgrace, CFO takes over the Housing Authority, budget talks, and much, much more.

HOUSING TAKEOVER: The District's CFO is taking over the Housing Authority's finances—an action stemming from Fenty's frat-brother contract controversy. The Examiner's Alan Sudermanreports: "CFO Natwar Gandhi told the Housing Authority on Monday that he's taking control of its 'financial operations and financial staff' starting July 1. The move comes at the behest of some council members who are upset that Mayor Adrian Fenty used the quasi-independent agency to award about $100 million in city contracts without council approval. The council has appointed a special investigator to examine how Fenty's fraternity brothers wound up receiving approval to manage about $80 million in Department of Parks and Recreation projects. The Fenty administration has said it has done nothing wrong, and the contracts were awarded through the Housing Authority not to sidestep council oversight but to speed up the construction of parks, ball fields and recreation centers. Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas Jr. said he was pleased by Gandhi's decision, and said the move was a "refutation of some bad financial practices" that had occurred at DCHA. 'We need more oversight, and more review of what was going on there,' Thomas said. 'It's a good step on behalf of the city to ensure that those dollars are being spent the right way.'"

BUSBOYS AND POETS OWNER: Andy Shallal wrote an op-ed on Sunday that we missed (apologies). He writes an eloquent plea to the D.C. Council to raise his taxes if it means supporting social services:

"Sure, raising taxes for this reason is in my self-interest. I'm a business owner in this city, and I want more customers to have money to spend at my restaurants. Having a city with a widening gulf of haves and have-nots simply doesn't bode well for my long-term business plans.

My personal stake in this doesn't end there. One of the proposals I support is raising the income tax on the top 5 percent of earners in the city. I fall into this category, and I'm happy to tell the D.C. Council that I'm not about to move to Bethesda or Fairfax if it takes this step. My family certainly isn't going to leave behind our friends, neighbors, doctors, etc., just because of a half-percentage increase on our income taxes. I love this city and want all its residents, not just a few, to prosper....I support the proposal to modernize our sales tax system by adding services such as dog grooming, yoga classes and theater tickets to our tax code. I also don't think that those who invest in out-of-state bonds should receive a tax exemption. That creates an incentive for people to invest in Chicago and Seattle instead of in the District.

I invite you to look at what infrastructure investment can do for a city. Take 14th and U streets, for example. This dynamic part of town came about because the District decided to put resources here: The city built the Frank Reeves Municipal Center to create a daytime office population, and it worked with Metro to open a Green Line Metro station. That has brought with it millions of dollars of transit-oriented development and new residents for our city. And that means more tax revenue for schools, splash parks and libraries."

The D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute breaks down the budget cuts and starts another call-in campaign for today. D.C. Wire's Nikita Stewart reports on a big push to restore funding to the Office of Latino Affairs.

D.C. JAIL: Department of Corrections Director Devon Brown has made some strides in improving the D.C. Jail. What those improvements might be, LL wouldn't know. Brown helms one of the least transparent city agencies. What we do know is that the jail has had a problem with violence, security cameras that produce video that no one can see [or you have to wait years to see], and had had issues identifying suicidal inmates. And now we know something else about the D.C. Jail. We now know that a judge thinks the jail is a disaster. WTOP reports: "A D.C. Superior Court judge says the D.C. jail is the disgrace of the nation's capital. Speaking at a community meeting. D.C. Magistrate Judge Richard Ringell said there aren't enough services for the inmates. 'That jail sometimes is not the place in order to solve the community ills,' he said. 'They do have programs in there to help people who have substance abuse, but it certainly isn't the best environment.'" Brown actually responds with some weak offer: "'For the judge to hold a belief that the department is anything but a national leader is not accurate,' Brown says. He says he's invited all of the judges to tour the jail. 'Many of them have accepted my invitation. I don't recall this judge having done so,' Brown said." What would would a judge get out of a tour of the jail?

WaPo's editorial board praises Virginia's governor for making improvements to its services to ex-cons.

SLEEPER CAR: In the wake of last week's incident involving a man found dead on the Red Line, WaPo's Petula Dvorak tries to figure out what happens or doesn't happen when people fall asleep on the Metro: "No one knows how many people passed Van Houter as he was slumped in his seat. The 52-year-old computer programmer boarded the train at the Twinbrook Station on the way to work as a government contractor. He died, presumably of natural causes, sometime between boarding the train for his morning commute and when a train operator found him in the Shady Grove rail yard in the afternoon. Things haven't changed much in the ensuing week. There were 57 people in the car leaving Twinbrook this morning. There were no empty seats. A car full of humans and no human interaction. 'Like him. I wouldn't go wake him up,' Ricki Peltzman said, looking over her paper at a man across the aisle. He had a salt-and-pepper brush cut, wore suspenders and looked to be about the age of Van Houter. He had nodded off and leaned forward, his forehead jiggling against the seat in front of him. No one, except for the little tourist boy in a matching shorts-and-shirt set, looked at one another on the train. Half the riders wore headphones; about a third were scrolling or thumb-tapping their PDAs. Hundreds of people must have walked past Van Houter, scrolling through Facebook updates about what their friends ate for breakfast or what they did over the weekend. There are TMI posts about body functions or Twitter confessions, kilobytes of intimate details swirling around us 24/7."

METRO CUTBACKS: WaPo's Ann Scott Tyson reports that Metro is cutting its services for the elderly and disabled. The reason is very Catch-22. The increased demand has made the program unsustainable: "The proposed changes would curtail service and toughen eligibility requirements. Rates for MetroAccess would rise to twice the comparable base bus fare, and the surcharge on longer trips would increase. If the bus fare increases, there would be a proportional increase in the paratransit fare. In addition, Metro plans to begin more rigorous screening of customers July 1, classifying them not only as "eligible" or "ineligible" but adding a category for those who are "conditionally" eligible....But customers and advocates for the disabled said the service cuts and fare increases would cause serious hardship for some of Metro's most dependent riders. Moreover, they said, some of the changes could be difficult, if not impossible, to implement. Linda Lupaczyk is blind and depends on MetroAccess to get to her job at Home Depot, where she answers phones. Lupaczyk, who rents a room in Centreville and cannot afford her own residence, said that if MetroAccess raises fares, she will have to cut back on groceries."

STEVIE WONDER: Hundreds of DCPS teachers will be losing out on free Stevie Wonder tickets. The tickets have been stolen. NC8 reports: "The concert was a goodbye gesture from the family of the late Abe Pollin, who built the Verizon Center, to the city's public servants. After selling the Washington Wizards to Capitals Owner Ted Leonsis, the family arranged for the free concert, with TicketMaster designated to distribute the tickets to various city institutions — including police, fire, and schools. Each agency's human resources department received a password to access their tickets online. At D.C. public schools, which received 1,500 tickets, somebody got the password and, as schools spokesperson Jennifer Calloway put it: "An unknown individual or individuals falsely claimed the vast majority of the tickets before DCPS could redeem and distribute them to teachers."

RON MACHEN JR. Our new U.S. Attorney was sworn in yesterday in District Court. Legal Times reports: "On the sixth floor, in the ceremonial courtroom, Machen's friends and family—and some 200 spectators—gathered for his formal installation as the top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia. The former Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr partner was confirmed for the post in February, replacing Jeffrey Taylor, who joined Ernst & Young. In remarks, Machen talked about what he called the long road here, which included a stint as a federal prosecutor in D.C. under then-U.S. Attorney Eric Holder Jr. Machen said he was struck back then by Holder's pride in representing D.C.—and, he joked, by the size of Holder’s office."

ROBERT WONE: Read the latest from the trial.

MAYOR'S SCHEDULE: 10:30 a.m. Remarks
Ribbon Cutting for Park Morton Playground
Location: Park Morton
600 Block Park Rd. NW

3:30 p.m. Remarks
Hilton Ribbon Cutting with Magic Johnson
Location: Washington Hilton Hotel
1919 Connecticut Ave. NW

"I'm pretty certain, if the mayor wins the primary, I would probably run against him," said At-Large Councilmember Michael A. Brown this afternoon on Bruce DePuyt's NewsTalk program on NewsChannel 8.

He later added: "I'm not there yet. I'm trying to be the best councilmember I can be."

It would be a quixotic run at best. No non-Democrat has won a citywide office regularly scheduled citywide race, except for those at-large councilmembers who, like Brown, have taken advantage of protected non-Democrat set-asides. Assuming Fenty draws a legitimate Democratic challenger and proceeds to beat him or her, it's unclear how the addition of non-Democratic votes could put Brown over the top.

But, hey—a race is a race. Brown expounded on a potential platform a bit—"we need to talk about a different kind of transparency in government"—adding that, as mayor, he would keep Michelle Rhee as schools chancellor, "but change her governing style."

Dunno how Rhee would feel about that.

File photo by Darrow Montgomery

This morning, General Manager John Catoe made his announcement at the WMATA board's executive session at its headquarters. According to At-Large Councilmember and WMATA Board Alternate Michael Brown, everyone in the room was floored by Catoe's annoucement. "Everyone to a person was surprised and shocked," Brown tells LL. "And frankly, just disappointed."

Brown says that usually when an executive resigns, it's the result of some background drama—a resignation is the solution to an intractable problem. But, Brown explains "that wasn't the case here." In fact, Catoe retained full confidence of the board and recently had his contract renewed.

"People like his leadership and his style," Brown says. "We didn't like the accidents obviously. But there was no pressure on him to resign. Not even one person wanted him out."

*reporting by Mike DeBonis.

*photo of Councilmember Brown courtesy of D.C. Council.

Catania made the announcement in front of more than 200 members of the GLBT community gathered at the True Reformer

"We are going to do it now," he said. Catania will introduce the bill with nine co-sponsors. Also in attendance are Michael Brown, Phil Mendelson, and Tommy Wells.

The Issue:

Mourning Should Be Exempt: Supporters say slapping parking tickets on funeralgoers' cars is unnecessary – not to mention mean-spirited – and the bill already has a number of cosponsors. At-Large Councilman Michael Brown, who introduced the legislation, told the Washington Examiner: "To have to run out in the middle of a service or have to leave the service early in fear of receiving a parking violation is insensitive to this sacred event."

But Everyone Else Still Needs to Park: “Outrageous, shocking and wacky” are the words Shaw advisory neighborhood commissioner Alex Padro uses to describe the bill. He told City Desk that allotting five hours during the day is simply unrealistic: “People who live on the block won’t be able to park for the better part of a business day, because parking will be restricted only to the funeral. What happens [in neighborhoods like Shaw] when there’s five or six at a time?”

Next Step: Although Padro doesn’t believe the legislation will pass in its current form, he says he will be talking to other commissioners to formulate a response. He might support reducing the time window to one hour. The hearing for the legislation has not yet been scheduled.

Photo of the parking sign on Feb. 24, 2009 by Aldrin Muya, Creative Commons Attribution License

In this week's column, LL spun a scenario whereby the D.C. Council might approve a same-sex-marriage referendum. That best-case hypothetical situation for gay-marriage opponents, LL wrote, would be if "Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., on the hot seat with an election a year off, convinces Chairman Vincent C. Gray and at-largers Michael Brown and Kwame Brown to join him, Yvette Alexander, and Marion Barry."

Not so fast! Gloria Murry Ford, a staffer for Michael Brown, called LL yesterday to protest mightily that her boss would never ever consider compromising on such a key civil-rights issue. Not even in some harebrained hypothetical scenario! Never!

Duly noted. And, it should be said that Kwame Brown is signed on as a co-sponsor of the marriage bill, and Gray is not only a co-sponsor, but offered strongly pro-marriage-equality comments in a Washington Times interview earlier this week.

So that leaves Alexander, Barry, and Thomas.

The Post reported Barry is "keeping an open mind" on the marriage bill. (Yeah, right.) Thomas has been waffling for a while. And then there's Alexander, who spoke to LL today.

Don't count on her vote, David Catania.

"I stand where the president stands, that the definition of marriage is a union between a man and a woman," she says, leaning heavily on the Obama civil-union crutch. She adds: "We give them just about everything that they would get [with marriage] with a domestic partnership."

And don't think any of those fancy terms is going to change her mind: "The word "marriage equality" for me doesn't make sensd. Marriage is between a man and a woman," she says. "How more equal do they want it?"

As for it being a human rights issue, Alexander thinks not. After all, she chairs the council's committee on again and community affairs, which has oversight over human rights matters. The bill isn't going to her committee, she points out, but solely to Phil Mendelson's judiciary committee. "No one can argue that it's a human rights issue if it's not going through human rights [committee]," she says, adding to her concerns that "I don't see how Congress is going to approve it."

As for a ballot initiative: "I think that would be the ideal situation."

Alexander says that Catania, the bill's sponsor, called her yesterday to ask whether she would support the bill. She was having lunch with Barry at the time. "When David asked me...he really didn't expect that I was going to cosponsor, but he gave me the courtesy of calling and asking."

And, no, she doesn't expect Barry to support the bill, either.

Among other things.

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