In early 2009, the Partnership for Civil Justice filed a lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court in the hopes that the D.C. Police Department would get its act together and comply with a very basic FOIA request. What did the civil rights lawyers want?

They wanted the D.C. Police to cough up their operational procedures and general orders. In other words, just the rules on how the police are supposed to govern themselves, and utilize their authority with the general public. The complaint stated:

“Public disclosure of the operational policies and practices, orders and staff instructions of the police department is essential for policing in a democratic society and to establish accountability….The D.C. FOIA mandates that the MPD specifically make public and make available upon demand its policies, procedures, manuals and staff instructions….Additionally the MPD is required to publish a general index of all such records unless the materials are promptly published and copies offered for sale.”

Today, the Partnership announced that the D.C. Police Department has finally complied with the FOIA.

Read More "It’s About Time: D.C. Police Release General Orders In Response To FOIA Fight" »

DC Teacher Chic stresses about having to monitor at-risk students. A huge number of your colleagues just got canned. And you get to complain about your job on a blog. Maybe you should quit. Here's what they wrote:

"I have the fortunate task of progress monitoring at least three-quarters of the students in my classroom. To progress monitor a student in the intermediate elementary school grades, the assessment takes approximately thirty minutes to complete. And here's the cherry on this hot-mess sundae -- for students identified as high-risk, I have to perform the assessments every two weeks and for the students identified as some-risk, I have to perform them every three-weeks. YIKES!"

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Should Bloomingdale Become A Gated Community?" »

DC.gov is texting some major traffic news:

"MPD is reporting a sinkhole at 295 & Pennsylvania Area. Delays in area; avoid if possible."

A call to MPD's press office put me on hold for longer than I care to admit. Maybe the public information officer fell in the sinkhole.

Dee Does The District doesn't appreciate a sad bit of race baiting reported from the marathon hearing on the DCPS teacher layoffs.

Harry Potter and the Urban School Nightmare despairs over their students' poor attendance. They write:

"Our school's enrollment is down, and attendance is lower than I've ever seen it. When I first started at my school, I routinely had between 25 and 30 students in my class each day. Now, I'm lucky if I get 12. Today, less than half of my students were in class, and last week the average was 55%. Now, the kids who are there every day are learning like FIENDS, but at this rate 45% of my kids are going to fail. So what gives?"

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: DCPS Students Discover The Working Lunch" »

There have been a number of shootings lately in Shaw. This has touched off a lot of worries on the part of community leaders that a gang war has started up. Councilmember Jim Graham dashed off a letter to D.C. Police  Chief Cathy Lanier and others concerning these recent events.

Read the letter after the jump.

Read More "Has A Gang War Started In Shaw? Graham Says Yes." »

Today, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia refused to hear the District's appeal on the legality of  D.C. police checkpoints. On July 10, a unanimous three-judge panel of that court ruled that the police checkpoints---which started in Trinidad---were unconstitutional.

The District's only recourse at this point is to take its case to the Supreme Court.

AG Peter Nickles tells City Desk: "I'm disappointed. We'll look at our options including a Supreme Court request....The D.C. Circuit has spoken and we'll take it from there."

In late August, the Examiner published a piece arguing that the District's low homicide rate might be due to the cooler-than-usual summer temps. The story was one of the dumbest crime stories we've ever read. Even D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier called the lower-temp theory "idiotic." But the story did at least provoke a little attention on the police department's stunning successes and the city's big drop in murders. When Lanier speculated that the city could see fewer than 100 homicides for the year, she wasn't laughed out of town. Of course, the District's perps did not cooperate.

As of today, there have been 106 homicides. At this point last year, there were 148 homicides. The plummeting homicide rate is still quite impressive. So why is the District experiencing such a huge drop?

Read More "Chief Lanier Deserves Credit For Drop In Homicides" »

Dee Does the District believes last week's protest will have no effect on Rhee's hold on DCPS:

"The City Council uses only rhetoric to denounce the pairs' actions; remember when Vincent Gray caved and restored the school funding he originally cut? The Washington Teachers Union has been utterly useless in the struggle between 825 and teachers' rights; George Parker continues to cancel meetings and overall, has not been proactive in addressing the layoffs. With the Mayor's reelection looming within a year, there are no candidates that pose a serious threat to him. And while the protests and sit-ins are a start, I seriously doubt Chancellor Rhee or Mayor....o until someone with a better vision and a stronger hand comes along, I think Chancellor Rhee is here to stay, despite what you think of her."

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: What’s On Your Agenda?" »

Today, plaintiffs attorneys in one of the Pershing Park cases filed their response to AG Peter Nickles' sworn statement submitted to the court on August 12. The plaintiffs' response is a 26-page takedown of the OAG's and the D.C. Police Department's conduct in the case as well as a refutation of Nickles' own sworn declaration [PDF}.

At issue: the missing evidence, doctored or missing radio dispatches, and a discovery process that has lasted for years without an end in sight. Nickles' statement apparently has done little to assure plaintiffs that they will be getting a full accounting of what happened during the mass arrests at Pershing Park---and what happened to all that missing evidence.

The attorneys state that they were so disappointed with Nickles and Co.'s representations to the court, they can only form one conclusion: the need for an independent investigation, and "severe sanctions."

Read More "Pershing Park Case: Plaintiffs Call For ‘Independent Inquiry’" »

Councilmember Jack Evans is sticking by controversial AG Peter Nickles. Last week, a U.S. District Court judge strongly condemned the OAG's conduct surrounding a Pershing Park civil suit in which discovery has taken at least five years, and crucial evidence has gone missing or been destroyed. Yesterday, we highlighted one particularly egregious screw-up involving a troubling affidavit submitted by city attorneys to the court. His colleagues on the Judiciary Committee---Phil Mendelson and Mary Cheh---have called for Nickles to resign.

Evans also thinks the U.S. District Court judge's strong recommendation that the D.C. Council should investigate the OAG is misplaced. "I would think that the more appropriate agency would be the inspector general," Evans tells City Desk. "Certainly, someone would have to determine if there was wrongdoing. That's not the city council's job that's the inspector general's job."

Evans is sure that Nickles did not commit any of the alleged wrongdoing. For one thing, Nickles was not in office during the bulk of the Pershing Park case's activity. That fishy affidavit? Well, that's come up under his watch.

Read More "Jack Evans Says He Still Supports Peter Nickles" »

As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. And get LL Daily sent straight to your inbox every morning!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"Peter Nickles: I Will Not Call You Back," "Video: Is Cleveland Park Dead?" and "The Pershing Park Case: Did A District Official Commit Perjury?"

Morning all. A big thanks to the local politico reporters and Wilson Building staffers who a) Jokingly thought I had become LL; b) Wished me luck in compiling the must-read briefing on local politics; and c) failed to mention the "resident" controversy from yesterday. A few local heavyweights inquired about LL's bike ride to Dewey Beach and wondered if he had made it to the Rusty Rudder safely. I reached LL via e-mail. Here is what he wrote about his trek:

"Uh, well, we left gonzaga HS at 4:30 a.m. then took back roads to just across the severn river in annapolis where we were bused across the bay bridge to where 50 meets 404. it started out looking like it was going to be cloudy and rain all day, but by the time we crossed the bridge the clouds were gone and the sun was shining. so it was really hot. the route kinda sucked. its exactly the same as driving; we rode on the shoulder of these roads the whole time, trucks whizzing pasy, chickenshit in the air, no real scenery of note. but it was for a good cause--autism research--and it was pretty well run, lots of rest stops with powerbars and water and bananas and all that stuff. The first leg I did pretty fast, finishing 35 mi in about two and a half hours. the second leg was somewhat slower---five and a half hours to do 65 mi to Bethany Beach--but i was among the first half of finishers (at 2:15 p.m.) on my junky old bike. so yeah, it was good."

Now on to the news: Councilmember Phil Mendelson has joined colleague Councilmember Mary Cheh in calling for AG Peter Nickles to resign. Cheh spoke out to City Desk last Friday. So what has provoked the councilmembers? The OAG's conduct in a Pershing Park lawsuit in which police evidence has gone missing and/or has been destroyed, among other discovery problems. The U.S. District Court judge in the case has promised painful sanctions, has called on the D.C. Council to investigate the matter, and ordered Nickles to provide a sworn statement explaining his office's conduct. The Examiner's Bill Myers gets Mendo on the record calling for Nickles to go. Nickles offers his usual bulldog-with-rabies react: "It's politics at its worst. They have no idea what's going on." What's going on is available via transcript. News Channel 8's Bruce DePuyt has Cheh and Nickles on the Pershing Park issue. Nickles says he is "troubled" by the missing evidence, and will follow the law. Cheh stands by her comments and says D.C. needs a new attorney general.

LEAD TROUBLES: WaPo is reporting that House investigators have found many more children than previously reported had high levels of lead in their blood during the drinking water crisis from a few years ago. Key graphs: "Local officials could not say Monday whether some children with unsafe lead exposure have gone without intervention to reduce their health risks. The CDC and city health department had reported dangerously high lead levels in 193 children in 2003, the worst year for high concentrations of lead in city tap water. But lab data gathered by congressional investigators this year show that the actual number was 486 children."

AFTER THE JUMP: More public transpo issues, D.C. Police are getting some federal dough, Legal Seafood is fighting to stay inside National Reagan National Airport, WaPo stands up for press freedoms(!) and much, much more.

Read More "‘Politics At Its Worst’: Loose Lips Daily" »

The D.C. Police Department has heralded its latest All Hands On Deck weekend with a press release. This AHOD took place between the early morning hours of July 10 to the early morning hours of July 12. The all gambit produced 519 arrests and one closed homicide case.

As all AHOD scholars know the bulk number doesn't quite tell the story of what the officers really achieve during these weekends. More detailed breakdowns show that much of the arrests are ultimately tossed out by the U.S. Attorney's Office. We posted the numbers of previous AHODs here and here and here.

The latest numbers provided by the U.S. Attorneys' Office show a similar stack of flimsy arrests.

Read More "Case Dismissed: The Latest AHOD Stats Are Here!" »

Prince of Petworth reports that finally(!) the fences have been removed from Malcolm X Park. Grass is still dry. But you are now free to play soccer or toss a baseball freely. Rejoice.

New Columbia Heights spots a possible illegal bar on Georgia Avenue. Jim Graham is so on this.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Fences Coming Down" »

The rooftop of the Pickwick Apartments building, located at 1754 S Street NW, is currently being treated to a personal visit by a couple of MPD officers, a roving helicopter, and a good dose of CAUTION tape. What's on the roof, officer? Oh, "just looking for a suspicious person," MPD told a tipster, who submitted the above photo of MPD making the climb. If you've seen one, let them know.

If only this car could talk. Though it looks like somebody thought it could talk, which is why they shot it full of holes.

In any case, there's gotta be a story behind the black vehicle identified in its temporary tags as a 1998 Land Rover (VIN #391804) now sitting across the street from Pierce Park in Adams Morgan.

There are magic marker-type writings on the windows that seem to indicate somebody from the 5th District of the Metropolitan Police Department marked the car on May 9. That same somebody tried to cover the shot-up windows and put duct tape over the bullet holes. They're big holes.

A neighborhood resident told me some shady-looking fellows who didn't look anything like cops recently dumped the auto off as discreetly as they could. The resident told me the dumpers didn't appear to be happy when they noticed somebody was watching the drop.

Read More "What’s the Story With the Shot-Up Range Rover on Adams Mill Road?" »