The District's highest court ordered the D.C. Office of Employee Appeals to figure out a way to resolve delays in assigning judges to outstanding cases within the next 20 days.

The agency is supposed to hand out decisions within 120 days. But that wasn't happening, and with hundreds upon hundreds of teachers fired in the last few years, the backlog became startling.

We've said this before, but the speedy mass dismissal of teachers—including, yes, bad teachers—probably wasn't the best move. At least based on the repercussions the system is dealing with now.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

99 Problems But a Motorcade Ain't One: Turns out the list of celebrities who've gotten police escorts through the District doesn't begin and end with Charlie Sheen and Fran Drescher. Internal Metropolitan Police Department records show Jay-Z and Bill Gates have also sped through D.C. with flashing lights. Gates' escort cost $445.68, and Jay-Z's cost $1,114.20. Both zoomed between Dulles and destinations in the District. No matter what else, Gates should certainly have to wait for red lights; it's payback for every time a Washingtonian's copy of Microsoft Word has frozen. -2

USA Today Gets Results: Back in the day, people used to mock USA Today for being an unserious newspaper. Now, any newspaper that's still got enough readers to be worth publishing daily gets some automatic respect. USAT ought to get a little more now: A District investigation following up on the paper's story about cheating on standardized tests found that, indeed, there was cheating, and the results from three classrooms have been thrown out. Prediction: This will not calm the ongoing battles in town about what kind of legacy Michelle Rhee left behind when she split for California. -2

Weeded Out: Worries that medical marijuana would mean a huge influx of pot to the District (which, really, wouldn't have been so bad) seem to have been completely misplaced. So far, only 11 applicants have put in to run "cultivation centers" to grow the, uh, medicine, and only nine have applied to sell it. (The Rabbi of Pot is one of them.) Two would be in Northeast, and one would be near Eastern Market along Pennsylvania Avenue SE. One would be somewhere in Ward 2. Not exactly Amsterdam-esque. You've got another month or so if you want to get in on the action. +1

100 Percent Chance of Weather: May and June in D.C. tend to mean one thing: Thunderstorms. Okay, two things: Thunderstorms, and lots of 'em. Today is no exception. A serious storm front is rolling through the area; a tornado was already spotted on the Eastern Shore, and the D.C. area is under a severe thunderstorm watch until 9 p.m., with a chance of winds up to 70 m.p.h. Maybe the end of the world guy was only a few days off? -1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 65 Today's score: -4 Today's Needle rating: 61

They've tried civil disobedience. They've tried legislative maneuvering. Now D.C.'s frustrated statehood activists are threatening to employ a new tactic: Cartographic sabotage.

D.C. Council member Michael Brown is holding a meeting this evening at the Wilson Building to ponder renaming the stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue NW in front of the city government's headquarters. The idea is to pick a name that shames the powers that be by reminding visitors of the capital city's marooned political status.

This isn't the first time a government has used its thoroughfare-naming powers to tweak a rival. In the Indian city of Kolkata—long ruled by a Communist party—the road outside the American consulate had its name changed from from Harrington Street to Ho Chi Minh Sarani during the Vietnam war. Right here in D.C., Soviet diplomats during the Cold War suddenly found that their stretch of 16th Street NW had become Andrei Sakharov Place.

Vietnam won and the Soviets lost, right? Alas, Brown's renaming ambitions have at least one problem: Other than Marion Barry—whose name would presumably not be helpful in winning out-of-towners to the statehood cause—the District doesn't boast many household names among its political stalwarts. It's a pretty good bet Brown et al won't want to honor the local government veteran with the highest national Q ratings by turning the avenue into Michelle Rhee Boulevard.

Which means visitors will be puzzling over, say, Alexander Shepherd Place, Hilda Mason Trail, or Ron Brown Parkway—names that do little to insert Washington's non-democratic status into the national conversation. Instead, they'll smack of yet another lame statehood stunt.

Or worse: Out-of-town types regularly gripe about how frequently they get lost in D.C. after finding that a street's name has changed. We locals laugh about the rubes' geographic cluelessness. But when they panic after suddenly going from Pennsylvania Avenue to Mark Plotkin Boulevard, where do you think they're going to turn for help? That's right: To Congress.

Photo by Mr. T in D.C. via Flickr/Creative Commons

Reading, 'Riting, and Punching: Now this is education reform: A teacher at the Rock Creek Academy punches a student in the mouth, knocking out a tooth, after the student tries to grab his hat. The teacher, Joe Coleman, was charged with assault. No word yet on what Michelle Rhee thinks of the whole thing. -2

Off the Amtrak: Train service in and out of the District was disrupted after a collision between a MARC train and an Amtrak train near Union Station. The collision was reportedly low-speed. Which, for anyone who's taken either train line recently, was not entirely a surprise. -2

Snow Joke: Next time you step outside today, take a moment to thank whatever higher power you believe in for the Appalachian mountain range. Because the stretch of low-lying mountains a few hours west of the District are, at least according to our extremely rudimentary understanding of meteorology, the only thing standing between us and 2-6 inches of snow this weekend. Which, considering it's Nov. 5, would simply not be acceptable here in town. -2

Sisters of Perpetual Mint Condition: You should have saved those giveaway Stephen Strasburg cards in your Nationals program this summer, after all—a bunch of Baltimore nuns just sold a Honus Wagner card for $262,000 after inheriting it. Evidently, that was more than anyone expected it to sell for. Actually, we ought to amend the admonition earlier—you should have gone to a Nationals game this summer. +1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 39 Today's score: -5 Friday bonus: +2 Today's Needle rating: 36

Regis routinely held afternoon faculty meetings in the school's auditorium. These often turned into one-man bitch sessions, in which Regis would hammer his teachers for various misdeeds. If he found that teachers weren't moving around their classroom enough, they got a lecture. If the objective for the day wasn't posted in each and every classroom, they got a lecture. If a teacher didn't want to volunteer their free time at the afternoon daycare center, they got a lecture. But nothing got the attention of eighth-grade teacher Glenn Campbell more than an idea Regis floated during a staff meeting last April.

Regis wanted to search all students. Or at least threaten to do so.

"At an afternoon faculty meeting, he told all of us to spread the rumor that there would be random mass searches at the school," Campbell recalls. "He wanted this to be used as a deterrent. I wasn't really sure what the state of the law was... I didn't think random, mass searches were legal."

Campbell says he didn't pass on the rumor. The student body had enough stress. The school is comprised, Campbell says, of special-needs students—kids with learning disabilities, motor-skills or vision problems.

But in early May, the rumor became reality. Regis, Campbell says, barged into his classroom and ordered all of the male students to get up against a wall. He told the two or three female students to exit into the hallway where they would be searched by a female security guard.

About 10 male students lined the wall. Regis patted each of them down, making them empty their pockets and pull their pocket lining out for inspection, Campbell says. Regis then went into every student's backpack.

Campbell recalls one student asking Regis: "Why are you doing this?"

Regis, who has been described as 6'2 with the build of a linebacker, told everyone in the room that as principal, he had the authority to perform his one-man jumpout. "Because you could be potentially carrying something that's harmful to another student," Regis added, according to Campbell.

All 30 of the eighth-grade students would be searched that day by either Regis or female staff. One student, Campbell says, was found with a handful of very small fireworks. That student was suspended for a couple days.

"I think it's completely wrong," Campbell says. "[Regis] doesn't belong in that position of authority."

Whether Regis thinks he acted appropriately, he won't say. When asked about the incident, he refused to comment. "I have no comment in regards to that," he explained. "I'm going to redirect you to the central office. Have a good day, sir." Regis then hung up on me.

But it isn't just Campbell who is questioning Regis' mass search. This week, ACLU staff attorney Fritz Mulhauser sent a letter to Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee inquiring about the incident and demanding a full investigation. In his letter, Mulhauser describes the search as "unlawful, intrusive and demeaning."

Mulhauser goes on to write:

"The Constitution prohibits searches in school by school staff unless particular conditions are met, which from the facts as we know them were not present in this situation... The principal's remarks and actions show an intolerable misunderstanding of the law. The law is clear that the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure applies in schools and that any search by school officials must be justified at its inception and reasonable in scope."

Campbell says a DCPS administrator did come to Prospect Learning Center to investigate the search. Apparently, that investigation from last May has yet to be completed.

"Upon learning of the allegation, DCPS initiated an investigation," says Safiya Simmons, a DCPS spokesperson. "That investigation is nearing completion, but we cannot comment on it any further."

Campbell says he received a solid teacher evaluation—netting a 4.0 in student performance and a 2.36 in administrator's opinions—and could have returned to the school. But he chose not to come back to Prospect. Regis remains the school's principal.

Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic and Web Design: We're beginning to get the sense that maybe, just maybe, Michelle Rhee's resignation announcement this morning wasn't a last-minute decision on her part. A few hours after appearing with Almost Mayor Vince Gray and Still Mayor Adrian Fenty, Rhee unveiled a new website, Facebook page and Twitter account dedicated to, well, Rhee. By mid-afternoon, she had 319 people "liking" her on Facebook. Just think, if all those people had voted for Fenty... he still would have lost. -2

Ah, Listserves: When a Department of Public Works employee was shot and killed this morning at the Fleet Management Center in Northeast, the city, reasonably enough, canceled garbage and recycling collection for the day. There was an investigation to run, after all, and besides, DPW workers would probably be mourning Larry Hutchins, 51, their late colleague. Apparently that bit of human decency was too much for one Adams Morgan resident, though, who took to the neighborhood's e-mail list to complain that the decision would mean "rats will have a great time tearing open the bags," and that the DPW move was "NOT ok." It's impulses like that that make us wish Al Gore had never invented the Internet. -4

Don't Drive Over There!: Most of the bridges named by Travel + Leisure as the scariest in the world share a few common characteristics: They run through the Alps or the Rockies; they're made of rope or wood; they're in parts of the world where the budgets for preventive maintenance maybe aren't what you might prefer. Then, there's #9 on the list—our own Bay Bridge, on Route 50 leading to the Delaware and Maryland beaches. Apparently frequent violent storms helped put it on the list; we think it's actually the presence of so many drivers from Virginia. Then again, Travel + Leisure just doesn't seem to like the region much: D.C. also came in 13th in its list of "America's Dirtiest Cities." -3

Rush Hour in Disguise: Okay, yes, closing the 12th Street tunnel all afternoon to allow Transformers 3 to shoot its undoubtedly Oscar-winning scenes probably inconvenienced a few thousand people who ordinarily use that route to cut from Northwest to Southwest. We prefer to look on the bright side: Unlike Monday, Michael Bay's little project didn't wreck any city-owned vehicles today! (And miraculously, the Hollywood-owned car involved in the wreck this week is back in business.) +2

Hail to the Radar: Being a professional football player (on a team that, somehow, has compiled a winning record) has its perks. You've got the millions of dollars in salary and bonuses, the endorsements, the dudes wearing your name on their shirts around town. And also, apparently, some good luck in traffic court. Redskins left tackle Trent Williams had a reckless driving charge, stemming from being clocked doing 90 m.p.h. on the Dulles toll road in June, thrown out because the mechanic who calibrated the speedometer in the police car that chased Williams down didn't have a certification notarized he's a professional football player. +1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 38 Today's score: -6 Today's Needle rating: 32

Do You Have a Reservation, Mr. Bin Laden?: Sure, those sneezeguard salad bars are a dismal way to dine. But you didn't realize they could literally kill you—until now. Inspire, the magazine published by Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (the Yemeni branch of the international terrorist conglomerate), suggests "a random hit in a crowded restaurant in Washington, D.C., at lunch hour" might be just the way to strike back at the Great Satan and its bureaucrats. We're just waiting for some downtown BID to suggest food trucks, not crazed radicals, are behind the threat. Which we don't recommend you actually worry much about. -1

Egg Flambé: Finally, the world has learned what fate befalls D.C. firefighters who cook eggs naked in firehouses: they are suspended without pay. Such is, at least, the fate of the firefighter who pulled that stunt at a firehouse at 14th and Newton streets NW over the summer, apparently as a way of winding down after a retirement party. Seems some new allegations have also been made against the firefighter in question, which isn't entirely a surprise. Someone who strips nude in the presence of his colleagues might have committed other offenses? Like they say: Where there's smoke, there's fire. -2

Stand to the Right: In each Metro station, there are stairways that look suspiciously like escalators. They seem like they could move, they're often right next to escalators, and sometimes they're even marked "escalator." Except they're so rarely in service that they must just be stairs. Now an independent audit has confirmed that in fact, they're supposed to be escalators, and no, they don't often work, mostly because mechanics need more training, don't stick to maintenance standards, and don't have much supervision. Hey, walking's good for you, anyway! -3

Let's Talk About Sex, Baby: Parents at Hardy Middle School freak out over a survey given to students asks about whether they're transgender, whether they know how to put on condoms, and other topics that apparently kids aren't supposed to be exposed to. The problem, of course, is that the whole reason the school gave the survey is that kids are exposed to such topics all too early these days. The real puzzle? Given all the energy they spend freaking out about the school's principal being canned by Michelle Rhee, how did the parents manage to get worked up over this, too? -2

Yesterday's Needle rating: 46 Today's score: -8 Today's Needle rating: 38

Say It Ain't So, Howie: A Monday without the Washington Post Style section delivering a mild scolding from Howard Kurtz to some media organization for violating his keenly honed sense of ethics is like a day without finding something irritating to read in the morning paper over breakfast. (What, you thought we were going to say "sunshine?") So the announcement today that Kurtz is leaving the Post for the Tina Brown-er pastures of the Daily Beast was, to say the least, unsettling. What next? David Broder joining Twitter? Sunday morning talk shows actually producing content that informs viewers? We like our mainstream media to stay right where it belongs: in print, a little bit behind the times without realizing it, and kind of boring. +3

It's a Family Affair: The District is facing a $175 million budget shortfall. So it's only natural that the D.C. Council spent this morning passing a bill to protect animals like raccoons, foxes, pigeons, and sparrows from overzealous pest control officers. The legislation as passed didn't—as rumored—actually set up any special protections for rats and mice. But it would require animal control experts to keep "family units" together when removing wild animals from homes. No truth to reports that Republicans on Capitol Hill are considering their own measure to ensure D.C. doesn't recognize gay raccoon marriages. -1

Babies-R-Us: Two explanations have been offered for the news that D.C. Public Schools enrollment is up this year—either the reforms pushed by Michelle Rhee are working, drawing more parents to send their kids to public schools, or the bad economy means parents can't afford private school anymore, so they're opting to go the free route instead. Now the federal government says both are wrong. The real reason DCPS enrollment is up? There are more school-age kids out there. So presumably private and charter schools will also see their rolls grow. We're just waiting for the Post to say the baby boom is the legacy of Snowmaggedon. +2

White House Goes Solar: Dealing with Pepco may be easier for the residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW than it is for many other Washingtonians who install solar power. The Obama administration will put solar panels and a solar hot water heater on the White House, in an attempt to demonstrate the benefits of green living. D.C. residents are eligible for big grants from the District for solar installations. It's unclear whether President Barack Obama qualifies for the help, but since the U.S. Department of Energy is sponsoring the project, he probably doesn't need it. Wisely, Obama resisted a campaign to get him to put the solar panels Jimmy Carter installed back up; Democrats have enough problems this fall without setting up easy Carter-Obama punch lines. +3

Yesterday's Needle rating: 46 Today's score: +7 Today's Needle rating: 53

photo by Darrow Montgomery

Somebody's gotta win.

Remember when Michelle Rhee pronounced the vote against her boss as "devastating for the children of D.C.," the cockiest  utterance from a D.C. public official since Marion Barry's "Get over it!"? (Yeah, Rhee is a public official. I just looked it up.)

Well, it's real tough to view Rhee's leaving, if that's what she's promising us, as much of a loss when looking at tonight's football matchup of Coolidge and Anacostia. The athletic programs at both schools are a mess—neither team has won a game yet, for starters—and their problems are symptomatic of larger ills within DCPS athletics that Rhee, megalomania notwithstanding, has done nothing to cure.

Coolidge, a regular Turkey Bowl contender in recent years, goes into the game 0-5, and has been outscored 125-37. The team is now in the hands of first-year head coach Natalie Randolph, who, much like Rhee, didn't have a fit resume when she was handed the job but looks good on a magazine cover. Coolidge, as a school, isn't really even run by DCPS any more. Rhee turned the school over to Friends of Bedford, some New York-based education reform clique, and they hired Randolph. It's not Randolph's fault she was hired, and Rhee could learn a lot by watching Randolph, who has been humble and hardworking as her squad's taken its lumps.

Anacostia, meanwhile, isn't really even run by DCPS any more, either. Rhee turned its management over to a charter school, Friendship Public Charter School. Anacostia, which had the best football program in the city 20 years ago, is 0-4 and has been outscored 130-12. Anacostia didn't even field a team at the beginning of the 2010 season. The Indians were forced to forfeit their opening game with Gonzaga because there weren't enough kids on the roster.

That's a pretty good indicator of the competence of the Friendship administrators Rhee gave the school to. Nicely done!

The athletic problems at these schools, and all of Rhee's DCIAA high schools, run way beyond the football field. Both Coolidge and Anacostia, like all of Rhee's schools not named Wilson, treat girl athletes like they don't exist. For all the years she's held the title chancellor—somehow, even her title is obnoxious—the utter absence of girls' sports teams is on Rhee, too.

What's devastating, again?

Let other folks repeat the feel-good portions of the Natalie Randolph story. There's a whole lot about the hiring of America's only woman football coach that's suspect.

On paper, Randolph is laughably underqualified to take over a DCIAA program, where the football programs routinely crank out NCAA scholarship athletes. Her football coaching experience amounted to two years as a receivers coach at H.D. Woodson high school, and she didn't coach football at all last year, according to the version she's been telling the press for months. But don't blame her for being hired: She wasn't even looking to become a coach when she was recruited for the top job at Coolidge, she told Parade. Randolph's hiring was handled by some outsider funky education reform group called the Friends of Bedford, which now runs the long-troubled Coolidge, located in Takoma.

Since being handed the job, Randolph and her players have been followed around by an ESPN crew. According to the Parade story, one of many national profiles of Randolph that's run recently, she and her players made a trip to the NFL Draft in New York a few months ago.

Color me cynical, but: Really? Aren't there more pressing needs at Coolidge where that sort of money could have been spent. If footage of that New York excursion shows up on ESPN, an investigation of the whole shebang is in order. The entire Randolph saga so far stinks of a publicity stunt, like a real-life remaking of "Wildcats," the Goldie Hawn feature film where a petite pretty woman takes over an inner city football program.

But the stinkiest thing about the Randolph hiring is that all the attention it's generating masks some incredibly serious problems with the athletic programs at Coolidge, specifically, and throughout Rhee's DCPS. Randolph or no, female students at the school and all over this city have criminally few athletic opportunities compared to girls at D.C.'s private schools or public schools in surrounding jurisdictions. If it weren't for volleyball, in fact, at Coolidge the girls would have just about no athletic opportunities this fall. Randolph, who grew up in the area, went to a private high school a couple miles south of Coolidge when she was a kid. That school has varsity and JV soccer teams, field hockey teams, lacrosse teams, and cross country teams for girls. Coolidge has none of those.

But, Coolidge has a woman football coach. So all's square, right, Michelle Rhee?

(And, sorry, DCPS, cheerleading IS NOT a sport in the eyes of the law.)

The reality show that is Randolph's Coolidge experience makes its national television debut tonight, as ESPN broadcasts the season opening game with Carroll. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Coolidge.

On Second Thought, Don't RSVP: Eloping is hard enough when you're a public figure. Eloping when you're a public figure and you've already sent out invitations to the wedding that's been described as the social event of the year (albeit in Sacramento)? Downright rude. But DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee and her fiancé, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, didn't let that stop them. Freaked out about the scale of the event, they've been sending e-mails to guests they'd invited for Sept. 4, telling them the wedding is still on—just minus the guests. Don't worry—you can still buy them a gift (perhaps a nice $311 sauceboat?) off their registry. -2

Burn, Baby, Burn: Three scooters are found wrapped around a tree near 16th Street and Arkansas Avenue NW early this morning, ablaze. No sooner is the fire put out than another one breaks out in the same spot, this time consuming four cars. Either a serious firebug is on the loose, or Vespa is launching an aggressive viral marketing campaign for its rumored new model, the Vespa Fuoco. On the plus side, at least no one has speculated that the fires were set by "eco-terrorists"—yet. -4

SmarTrip Gets Dumber: Changes announced today mean Metro passengers will no longer be able to run a negative balance on their SmarTrip accounts; a trip that costs more than what's left on the card will require a stop at the dreaded ExitFare machines, which only take cash and—for now—don't even work with SmarTrip at all. Metro claims the move is necessary because the cost of the cards will fall from $5 to $2.50. Which means for the first time in a while, a cut in quality of service is accompanied by a price decrease, instead of an increase. -2

Yes We Can (Have Food Trucks)!: Two years after Barack Obama rewrote the rules for online politics, the power of motivated grassroots activists is on display once again, as an organized campaign to fight back against new D.C. regulations on food trucks sweeps the local blogosphere. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs officials even agreed to extend a deadline for the public to weigh in on the rules until tomorrow, in response to higher-than-usual interest. Change—and lobster rolls!—is on the march. +3

Yesterday's Needle rating: 41 Today's score: -5 Today's Needle rating: 36

Two years ago, Jordon began his tenure as principal at Sousa, where only 23 percent of students tested proficient in reading and 17 percent proficient in math. After a year under Jordon, Sousa’s scores rose around 20 points each. But that was only after 25 teachers and 25 support staffers—almost the entire original staff—had been either fired or had left of their own accord.

This year’s D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System (DC-CAS) school-by-school report, released Friday, tells a different story: although scores continued to rise at Sousa, educators didn't see anything like last year’s success. Math scores at Sousa reached 46.4 percent proficiency, a 4.6 percent increase from last year, while reading scores topped off at 41.6, an increase of 2.2 percent. Sousa, along with 183 public and public charter schools, failed to achieve “adequate yearly progress.” (Which, of course, speaks to a frequent criticism of using test scores to evaluate teachers; it's hardly surprising that progress slowed a couple years after the scores practically doubled.) Now many former Sousa teachers argue the scores raise serious questions about the efficacy of Jordon’s "Big Brother" approach to running a school.

The Post’s glistening July 6 profile of Jordon and his achievements incited an outcry among fired teachers and staffers. Immediately following the article’s publication, Post reporter Jay Mathews addressed some teachers’ concerns on his blog. As Mathews points out, Jordon claims to be purging the system of inadequate teachers; however, those teachers remain in DCPS, teaching at other schools. One of those teachers who transferred from Sousa has also been rated as highly effective.

Eight former and current teachers contacted City Desk to voice their complaints about Jordon’s conduct before Sousa’s scores appeared on OSSE’s website Friday. Every one of them spoke of feeling humiliated, paranoid and subjugated. Some said they would have to retreat into the bathroom for privacy, since Jordon and his math and literacy coaches were known to prowl the halls and classrooms, watching and critiquing constantly.

“He would sequester teachers,” said one teacher (who, like all the teachers interviewed for this story, insisted on anonymity). “If he thought you had said something about him, he would sequester you in his room with four other people and say, ‘I hear you were talking about me with such and such.’”

Jordon was frequently compared to a tyrant or "Big Brother" of Sousa. Some teachers and staffers even say they went on stress and mental health leave, while others left in the middle of the school year, something that is almost unheard of in the school system.

“As a manager, you have to assess your personnel; but to set up your whole school as a meat grinder is not sustainable,” said another teacher. “When you see that many heads rolling, you just have to question what’s going on. You can get higher scores without burn and pillage approach to management.”

To give City Desk a taste of the experience working with Jordon, a teacher sent a copy of one of Jordan’s weekly bulletins, posted in the teachers’ lounge. In one section, Jordon is addressing the staff about quality of some teachers’ performances:

Some of you do not have a clue as to how to deal with adolescents. You are confrontational with them, you bait them, you react to their histrionics, thus adding fuel to the fire, and you incite them. Some of you have few skills as far as how to deal with this age group.

Some of our staff have gaps in their education. It is incumbent on you that no matter how many gaps you have, you must provide a quality education for all of our students.

City Desk asked Jordon about teachers’ less-than-flattering opinion of him. Jordon responded by e-mail, writing with a prosaic gloss,

Change is difficult and growing pains are bound to occur. But I value all of the successful teachers in our school; recognize each and every one of them for their successes; and celebrate their accomplishments. Without a strong teacher at the front of the classroom, our kids are doomed to fail. I look forward to working shoulder to shoulder with all teachers going forward.

But many teachers don’t look forward to working shoulder to shoulder with him. If this year’s DC-CAS scores have told teachers anything, it’s that real public education reform will not come from prophetic individuals who take it upon themselves to do the moving and shaking.

“[Jordon] thinks that because of some stupid test scores the kids learned better,” said one teacher. “But children need to learn human values and how to deal with people. And he doesn’t do that at all. He’s more concerned about himself than the children.”

You Weren't Invited to Michelle Rhee's Wedding: "Glamorous" invitations have been going out by mail lately to the Sacramento social event of the year—the Labor Day weekend wedding of DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. A big suburban real estate developer/Johnson supporter, Angelo K. Tsakopoulos, will host the reception. (Which may prove Rhee's buddy Adrian Fenty isn't the only capital city mayor who's got cronies.) School will have already started two weeks before the wedding; so much for the honeymoon! +3

Board of Elections and Ethics Still Missing One Member: The D.C. Council resisted voting on Mital Gandhi's nomination for a long time, but after today, he may wish they'd kept punting. The council sent Gandhi packing, in a 7-4 vote that means the three-member board may still only have two seats filled by the Sept. 14 primary—which sets up the prospect of a deadlock should any disputes about the election arise. Gandhi, meanwhile, didn't exactly take the news lying down, e-mailing councilmembers afterwards to rant at them. How's that for ethics? -4

Summer Jobs Program Won't Be Extended: After voting against Fenty's nominee to the BOEE, the D.C. Council moved on to voting against Fenty's proposal to extend the city's summer jobs program. This one was even less popular than Gandhi, losing on a 9-2 vote. The move means the District won't have to divert $4.3 million from federal poverty funds to pay for the summer jobs, but it probably mostly means the council wanted to show who was boss. Still, since the city hadn't solved the persistent problem of muggers targeting kids working for the program, Fenty can probably count on a bump in the crime stats. -3

Wale Rediscovers His Inner Seinfeld: Maybe it's all the minor, lame controversies he's endured this year (plus one medium- to major-sized one), or the initially sleepy sales of his major-label debut in 2009, but Wale's trying to recapture some of his blog-rap glory days. That means crafting a sequel to the release that made him D.C.'s Great Rap Hope, The Mixtape About Nothing. More About Nothing promises more of the same, which is actually quite something: If you can you find a working download of the tape, released for free today, you'll find Wale at his best and loosest. He'll be at Commonwealth tonight at 7 p.m. handing out 300 physical copies. +4

Metro Basically Plans to Take Labor Day Weekend Off: Feel like taking the Red line to the eastern side of Montgomery County over Labor Day weekend? Too bad! Metro announced more details today of a massive track work project that will close the Glenmont, Wheaton, Forest Glen, Silver Spring and Takoma stations from 10 p.m. Sept. 3 to 12 a.m. Sept. 6. Delays on that part of the system are so common, though, that riders may or may not even notice the difference between regular, inconsistent service and a total lack of it. -4

Yesterday's Needle rating: 49 Today's score: -4 Today's Needle rating: 45

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• ¿Dónde está Fenty?
  
• NIMBY grill
• Don't cover this!

Good morning sweet readers! The power is back. All hail the demon lords of electricity, who giveth light, the Internet, and a fridge that keeps food. The price for these riches? A constant and never-ending stream of news:

Waive This!: Fox 5's Paul Wagner wins the morning with this investigative piece about the city's apparently new practice of waiving police security fees for certain events, like the National Marathon. "In the last two years, more than $600,000 has gone uncollected, money that should have been paid to the city for security at special events." The marathon, Wagner notes, attracts enough runners to generate at least $700,000 entry fees, yet the city waived about $200,000 in police costs last year. Another piece of the story: A homeland security fund absorbs the costs for other events, like the Georgia Avenue Caribbean carnival. LL can't help but observe, as Wagner did, that Fenty has run in the marathon, and that the carnival is quite popular in Ward 1 and Ward 4, both of which could be political battlegrounds this year. (Also, LL liked the way Fenty tried to brush off Wagner's questions outside a Ward 1 ground-breaking ceremony last week by saying he needed the facts, even as Wagner brandished the relevant documents.) Besides the obvious budget-related questions here—like, how can the District afford to be eating these costs when the budget is as tight as it is?—LL wonders how Vincent Gray will handle this story: The marathon angle seems to be another example of Fenty pals benefiting from decisions made with no input from the D.C. Council. At-large Councilmember Phil Mendelson tells Fox he's got plenty of projects he'd like to spend money on, but the Fenty administration insists the money isn't there. Finally, it's not at all clear how the waivers get doled out—the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, for instance, had to pay its security costs. Watch the video.

AFTER THE JUMP: Post profiles; DYRS shenanigans; DCPS lawsuit...

Kwame & Vincent, Bestest Friends: The oft-ignored council chairman's race gets some Monday/Tuesday love from the Post's Ann Marimow with profiles of At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown and former Ward 5 Councilmember Vincent Orange.  For the interest of space, LL will skip the nice parts of both profiles and get to the dirt. The knock on Brown: "Even as they have endorsed him, some council members point to what they call Brown's propensity to change positions with the political winds. When it appeared this spring that the District's best hope of winning a voting seat in Congress would mean agreeing to a measure to weaken the city's gun laws, Brown initially issued a statement saying, 'Now is the time for voting rights' and calling for 'sacrifice.' Three days later, after Gray and others publicly opposed the measure's impact on firearm rules, Brown appeared to change course, saying in a statement, 'Now is the time for voting rights, but if it means we have to erode our local governing authority, we must wait for a better opportunity to strike.' Brown said he never wavered in his support of gun control. The first message was a mistake, he said, sent out prematurely by an aide before Brown had thoroughly vetted it." That strikes LL as a kind of "dog ate my homework excuse." There wasn't much dirt on Orange, save for this: "But his preference for fiscal conservatism seems to have its limits: Orange favors lavish parties (including birthday bashes at Love nightclub), and as he was leaving office in 2006 he unsuccessfully proposed increasing council members' pay to $140,000—a 51 percent hike." LL used to favor lavish parties, including birthday bashes at Chuck-E-Cheese. But those days are gone.

Repeat Offender: The Post's Colbert I. King, who has been a strong critic of the city's juvenile justice system, praises Fenty for "finally" trying to fix DYRS, by firing chief Marc Schindler and replacing him with Attorney General's Peter Nickles' pick, Robert Hildum. King has the results of Nickles' report of the embattled agency, including that DYRS "measures recidivism too narrowly... has a weak policy on abscondence and oversight... has a flawed method of deciding youth placement... has lax rules on community placements." "Since their commitment just over two years ago, 71 percent had new convictions, and 42 percent of those convictions were for offenses such as robbery, weapons assault and drugs. Moreover, 23 percent of those with new convictions were convicted in the adult system. Those numbers don't even include DYRS youth in the D.C. jail awaiting trial on adult charges... The investigation found several instances where youths disappeared for several days without DYRS requesting the required custody order (or arrest warrant) from the court. In one case, a youth was gone for several weeks before an order was sought. In another case, DYRS gave a third-party monitor 'a number of' days to locate a missing youth, and no one sought a custody order." Liz Ryan, president of the Campaign for Youth Justice, fires back at the Post for the heat she's taken. "The fact that I and others asked for an investigation of Mr. Nickles’s involvement in Mr. Schindler’s replacement and other decisions on juvenile justice demonstrates our commitment to reducing youth recidivism—the opposite of what The Post accuses us of. Despite the fact that Mr. Nickles was warned by Judge Herbert Dixon about a potential conflict of interest for his role in the Jerry M. case regarding the District’s juvenile justice system, it appears that Mr. Nickles repeatedly gave counsel to the mayor that a reasonable observer could view as a conflict with his previous position as lead plaintiff’s counsel."

It's Suing Time: The Washington Teachers Union is going to file suit against DCPS over the fired 241 teachers, reports Leah Fabel of the Examiner. Union President George Parker said, "'The story is not the firings so much as the document upon which the firings are based,' Parker said. 'It is a flawed document.' He derided the 'euphoric' reaction of observers and news reports nationwide, saying he's 'never seen a superintendent receive less scrutiny than Chancellor [Michelle] Rhee. 'There's this sense that since [other superintendents] haven't been able to do something like this, she must be right,' he said. 'They assume that if she's firing people, they must be poor teachers.'" LL agrees with Parker that it has been a little strange watching the glee these firings have evoked nationally.  Here's just two example: The National Review wants Rhee to lead the war effort. And the New Republic also loves Rhee, and demands answers from Gray. Personally, LL would be more euphoric if the city fired all the "ineffective" workers at the DMV.

Nice Lemonade, Jo-Ann: Correction of the Week award goes to the Post editorial board, for this gem. After incorrectly stating in a previous editorial that Gray convened a hearing over the dismissal of a popular biology teacher, the Posties cop to their error. But then they spend the rest of a new editorial bashing Gray anyway for listening to the teacher's students and telling them that their teacher sounds like a great guy who shouldn't have been fired. "Mr. Gray followed up with a meeting with Ms. Rhee, and a spokeswoman for his campaign stressed that he deferred to the chancellor. But as council chairman, he didn't have much choice; as mayor, he would have the power to interfere. His statements in this case might lead voters to ask whether Mr. Gray will back his frontline educators, even when they don't do the popular thing." In other words, we do not regret the error.  

You're Hired: Togo West, the former Army secretary and veterans affairs secretary, breezed through a confirmation hearing yesterday to serve as a member of the city's elections board. [Post]

Check out the photo in this story [Examiner]

Medical Marijuana now legal in the District [Post]

No smoking area expands [WBJ]

Fenty frustrated with Pepco [WTOP]

Metro crash findings released today [NEWS 8]

Summer jobs program cut [NEWS 8]

Fenty schedule:

Groundbreaking for senior center, 10:45 a.m. 1330 Missouri Ave, NW. Ribbon-cutting for George Avenue CVS, 3:30 p.m. George and New Hampshire NW.

Political schedule:

Ward 6 mayoral forum, Eastern Market, 7 p.m.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• Ward 7 celebrity sighting
  
• GOP wants their seat
• I'm coming to kill your SUV
  

Good morning sweet readers! LL's power went out yesterday afternoon and still hasn't come back on. That's why you're getting this abridged e-mail late, if you're getting it at all. Complaints? Call Pepco or Mother Nature, depending on your disposition. The news:

Feisty Ward 7 Forum: LL wrote a quick recap of the Ward 7 mayoral straw poll Saturday, where D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray easily beat Mayor Adrian Fenty. The Post's Nikita Stewart has more, including:  "Fenty supporters included a mix of paid workers, volunteers and construction laborers. Like fans of the visiting team at a basketball game, they sat together in the bleachers in the gymnasium of Fort Davis Recreation Center."

AFTER THE JUMP: Fired teacher; Affordable Housing; Streetcars...

Can 'Em: The Post editorial board and The Examiner's Jonetta Rose Barras both applaud schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee for last week's firing of 241 DCPS teachers. Post: "No joy can be taken in knowing the hardship caused to individuals who likely are nice people and good neighbors. But if there is outrage to be felt, it should be directed at a system that has enabled, even rewarded, poor teachers." Barras: "Workers are being held to an appropriate standard. When they don't meet it, they are being led to the door with boxes and empty wallets. That's a good thing. Let's shout hallelujah!"