American University graduate student Michael Lindley says he and colleague Anthony Greene, of local indie film production company Silent Code Features, are ready to try. They've begun pre-production on what will likely be a 90-minute exploration of the gang intervention group's saga. "It really is modern day fodder," Greene says. "There’s money involved, there's politics involved, there's whole communities involved."

Lindley, who's directing, says the documentary will present the full account of what went down with the nonprofit, which was charged to race around the streets of D.C. defusing gang rivalries and halting retaliation shootings. For doing so, the Peaceoholics were shoveled millions in funding. That didn't sit right with District journalist and watchdogs who believed the organization lacked oversight.

Lindley is lining up interviews for the doc (full disclosure: I'm scheduled to be interviewed, because Washington City Paper has covered the Peaceoholics ad nauseam) and has scored a sit down with one of the group's founding members.

"Ron Moten is on board," says Lindley. "He wants to be heard and seen."

Moten, who recently decided to run for political office and who says over the phone that he's currently on a spiritual retreat in a mountainous region he refuses to name, seems to be looking forward to his time on camera. He believes it'll bring vindication: "They tried to say we spent money. We took money. Now they'll have to exonerate us." (Imagine that line in the Hollywood film trailer voiceover voice, and it's got a certain ring to it.)

While a full exoneration might not seem likely to skeptics, the reputation of former Mayor Adrian Fenty has improved in light of scandals rocking Mayor Vince Gray's term. If Fenty might consider a comeback, it makes sense that Moten—who has always been his man on the street—would come along. Moten says he's already noticed things turning around. "Everywhere I go, people apologize to us," he says.

Lindley hopes to have the documentary shot and edited in under a year.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

BB&T Financial filed a lawsuit in December alleging that Peaceoholics owed the bank on $28,160.56 on a BB&T corporate credit card in the group’s name. A judge ruled on April 6 that the organization has to pay the money, plus 21.99 percent interest between November 24 and April 26, and $1,408 in attorney’s fees—$31,842 in total.

BB&T is also looking for payment from Peaceoholics co-founders Ron Moten and Jauhar Abraham, who signed on as guarantors of the credit card when Peaceoholics applied for it in April 2009, accepting responsibility for debts if the organization wouldn’t pay them off.

On the day it won the ruling against Peaceoholics, BB&T asked for a judgment against Moten for the money. Abraham was dropped from the suit after a process server couldn’t find him.

Moten referred City Desk’s questions to Abraham, Peaceoholics’ CEO. After saying he wouldn’t say anything about the debt before he talked to a City Paper editor because he has “always been suspicious of City Paper,” Abraham starts talking anyway. “We owe them money, and we have to pay them,” Abraham says. He blames the group’s financial situation on Alexander’s investigation, and contracts the group has lost in the Vince Gray administration. He also says Peaceoholics knew about the BB&T debt, and intended to pay, saying the bank didn't have to sue.

The Peaceoholics’ ability to stop gang violence has shrunk along with its bank account, Abraham says. Moten made a similar warning in February.

“We don’t have the capacity that we had a year ago,” Abraham says.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Back in October, Ron Moten seemed to be sounding a warning: Après Moten, Le Déluge. After Moten, the flood.

That was when, after years of getting ample funding from the administrations of Mayor Anthony Williams and Mayor Adrian Fenty, it was apparent money would be drying up for Peaceoholics, the anti-gang group he founded, in a Vince Gray administration.

The Washington Post spoke to Moten about a tragic Columbia Heights shooting on Saturday. There were three victims. One of them, Lucki Nancy Pannell, an 18-year-old student at Cardozo High School, later died of her wounds. Moten had worked with Pannell, and told the Post she was a good kid who might have hung out with the wrong people. Moten also seemed to not so subtly suggest a thriving Peaceoholics organization might have helped avoid the bloodshed.

"Moten said he was concerned that a Peaceoholics program that had worked with the three victims is no longer active," wrote the Post."'As soon as the weather breaks and you start having warm days, people come out of the woodwork, and people who have beefs with people, they tend to start heating back up,' he said"

When City Desk contacted Moten via phone, he was more explicit: "There's a few homicides that have happened that they [Peaceoholics] could have prevented."

As one of many D.C. journalists who looked very closely at Moten's organization, I've had a few animated discussions with him about the Peaceoholics. Each time, I've brought up the fact that I admire the dedication he and his colleagues have shown. But there seems to be little data on what happened to the money the group previously received, or on how effective their programs were.

Moten says the data is there: "They never want to print it."

Moten seems to be convinced the flood he predicted will crest when the streets are hottest. "I think after this summer people will appreciate our work more," he says. I suggest to Moten that if that crisis hits, it'd be helpful to have the data he says no one would print, so we can look back on it and figure out what the Peaceoholics did right. He claims to be willing: "We got it somewhere."

Whether Moten has the data or not, he does make one salient point over and over: Someone needs to be out there, talking to the youth who are beefing. He says not many others know what goes on in D.C.'s streets, and that the proof of this lies in the fact that after a homicide, reporters still call him for information.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Ron Moten says trouble is coming. "A lot of the our money has been cut,"  says the outspoken co-founder of the anti-gang group Peaceoholics. Moten says the cuts bode badly for the District: "We get results. Whenever something happens, who are you going to call?"

It's a prediction he's made before. To hear Moten describe it, in the last few years, the Peaceoholics have operated sort of like the CIA, working in the shadows to combat dangers average citizens will never know about. In a given day, he says, the ex-offenders field 30 to 40 phone calls from people asking for their help. A number of those calls concern gang conflicts that might quickly erupt into violence without the expertise and intervention of his organization, he claims.

For an example of what Moten says will be emerging in the wake of a severely underfunded Peaceoholics (an ousted Mayor Adrian Fenty is thought to have orchestrated much of their funding), the co-founder believes you can look to the demise of John "Baby J" Foreman.

Foreman, who one police source refers to as having been a "Peaceoholic poster boy," was recently convicted of murder. Cops said Foreman shot and killed Arthur "Geezy" Gale on Oct. 17, 2008, in the Bruce-Monroe School playground in Columbia Heights, because he believed the victim was "snitching" on his brother, Maurice Foreman, who was facing an attempted murder charge.

The Peaceoholics worked extensively with Foreman. "We worked with that whole family," Moten says. Foreman was on the right path. At one point, he was helping to "squash beefs" among rival gang members. But then funding was cut to a program the Peaceoholics  had established at Bruce-Monroe. "As soon as we stopped the program, Baby J. got into trouble," Moten claims. He says the murder Foreman was convicted of  occurred only a few months after the group left Park View.

That was back when the organization still had a plenty of cash. Now that the non-profit is really suffering, things will get worse. "Almost every homicide in the last three months are people we worked with where programs were stopped," says Moten. (Washington City Paper couldn't independently verify that claim.)

Of course, there is one way Moten sees for the District to avoid the impending crime-ageddon: Send more funds to Peaceoholics. And even though he and presumptive mayor-elect Vincent Gray have had words, Moten thinks the politician could help. "I don't necessarily have to like someone to work with him."

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

The ANC Seegars chairs, 8E, filed a motion with the Board of Zoning Adjustments on behalf of three residents—Brian Townes, Tonette Sivells and Shayla Edgerton—trying to stop Peaceoholics from developing a building they own on Congress Street SE. The filing says, pre-emptively, that a certificate of occupancy application for the building will be filed in error and that a building permit issued to the group was issued under false pretenses.

“Was the building permit inaccurately issued?” Seegers asked on behalf of the residents at a hearing Tuesday night.

Jauhar Abraham, CEO of the Peaceoholics, said the building will be an “independent living” facility for youth between the ages 18 and 24. The motion claimed the group's intended use for the building more closely resembles a “community based residential facility." That means Peaceoholics will need to show proof of several licenses which they do not currently have, according to Abraham. He says the building will serve as low-income housing for young adults who need some form of support or rehabilitation.

The case was continued until October 28, by which point the Peaceoholics should have submitted their certificate of occupancy application. The delay will also give the board more time to review the evidence Seegars and the ANC submitted.

If the proceedings are delayed much longer, though, Peaceoholics may find their allies in D.C. government are dwindling. The group was very tight with Mayor Adrian Fenty, but campaigned aggressively against Vince Gray's election.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—"World Cup Roundup," "Another O.J. Simpson Expert to Appear At Wone Trial," "District Unemployment Rate Drops," "Kojo: 'What's With The Hatred of Adrian Fenty?,'" "Scene, Protests At Georgetown Apple Store Opening," "Shooting Near 4D Police Headquarters"

Good Morning. There's so much news, let's just get to it. The Examiner's Bill Myers reports that the Fenty Administration had raided millions from workers' insurance fund. The fund's mismanagement is now being investigated by the F.B.I. and the city auditor: "The Fenty administration took $10 million from a workers' insurance fund that is now at the center of multiple investigations, sources told The Washington Examiner. Fenty and his attorney general, Peter Nickles, have now acknowledged that hundreds of disabled workers were charged for life insurance but weren't actually given the policies. The administration announced that it was handing the matter over to the city's inspector general last week. The workers' money, which might be worth up to $6 million, went into the city's workers' compensation fund. Sources familiar with the investigations into the scandal told The Examiner that the Fenty administration took some $10 million from the workers' compensation fund to balance the fiscal 2009 budget. Then City Administrator Dan Tangherlini met with finance and Risk Management agency officials in early 2008 and discovered that the workers' comp money had continually "rolled over" from previous years, the sources said. Tangherlini assumed that insurance claims were falling and that the city was safe in raiding the fund, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigations. The fund has since been under 'spending pressure' and some workers have complained that they are being bilked out of both life and health insurance benefits." KEY LINES: "Beside the missing insurance benefits, authorities have also been told that contracts went to friends of Risk Management Director Kelly Valentine. Authorities have not found any evidence of corruption."

FENTY STAFF TROUBLES: WaPo reports that a Fenty canvasser has been arrested for allegedly selling crack: "A canvasser for the campaign of D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) was fired after being arrested Friday in connection with an alleged attempt to sell crack to an undercover police officer in Northwest." A Fenty spokesperson says that the staffer has been fired and was not canvassing at the time of his arrest. More coverage via NBC4. BONUS FENTY STAFFER GOSSIP: From commenter "Rob" from this past Friday's LL Daily on the ongoing Fenty Campaign's Sign Wars:

"A Fenty sign was also placed in my front yard right next to my Gray sign AFTER the Fenty campaign idiot was told (politely)that we were not interested. Enraged, I pulled up the sign and I am now awaiting the opportunity to do the 'appropriate' thing with it. Another thing that I've noticed, there seem to be an unusual number of Fenty campaign volunteer vehicles possessing Maryland, Virginia and even Delaware license plates. I guess Fenty is counting on those votes to get him back in."

And from "No To AMF" :

"Vacant property and homeowners often come home from work to find a Grey sign moved to an out of sight part of the yard and a new Fenty sign placed without permission. What can we do outside of throwing his signs out? There should be a penalty or fine for this. I can't go to his house and place signs in his yard without permission and he shouldn't be able to do it to my home!"

Is this a trend? Or just BS from Gray supporters?

AFTER THE JUMP—New residents could impact election, Metro one year later, Ron Moten vs. Vincent Gray, D.C. Police roll out curfew campaign, and much, much more!

NEW RESIDENTS: Those newly registered to vote in the District could have an impact on this year's big races, reports WaPo's Ann Marimow. Like all the newbies in Mount Vernon Triangle and elsewhere. There are 47,000 new voters. The biggest jump in voter registration has taken place in Ward 1 and Ward 7. Marimow writes: "To Fenty's camp, the fact that newcomers have chosen the District over, say, Bethesda or Ballston is directly related to the mayor's initiatives to improve schools and lower crime, said campaign strategist Tom Lindenfeld. 'We think we have a chance once they are exposed to the contrast in the race,' he said. 'We're going to do everything necessary to make that case.' Gray's campaign is trying to capitalize on his background as a community organizer—something he shares with Obama—and founder of a nonprofit group. Traci Hughes, spokeswoman for the Gray campaign, also stressed his deliberative, inclusive decision-making style and said new voters want a candidate 'who really cares about the people living in the city.' In the hierarchy of sought-after voters, residents with habitual records of participation are especially prized. At the other end are those who typically cast ballots only in presidential elections. Then there are the newbies, who have yet to establish a voting pattern in the District. The get-out-the-vote challenge for both mayoral campaigns heading into the September primary is to persuade the newly registered — without ignoring established voters — that they have a personal stake in who is elected mayor."

METRO ONE YEAR LATER: The Examiner's Kytja Weir asks: Is Metro any safer one year after the crash. Weir writes: "The crash did not end the safety problems. Instead, the transit agency saw a spate of other deaths, safety missteps, damning reports and other problems in the past year." Key detail: The transit agency signed an $886 million contract this spring to buy new steel-bodied rail cars to replace the Rohr 1000 series cars that federal investigators have called uncrashworthy for years, but it will take at least six years for the new cars to arrive and all the old ones replaced. The agency has been running trains in manual mode since the crash and has fixed problems in nearly 300 of its some 3,000 track circuits, according to a Metro database. It has not come up with the real-time sensor of failures in the train safety system that the National Transportation Safety Board asked it to create."

WaPo's Ann Scott Tyson produced a riveting feature on the Metro crash victims' families and the impact one year later: "The relatives of those killed in the deadliest accident in Metro's history have spent the past year dealing with practical hardships. They have had to find ways to replace lost incomes, care for orphaned children and shift living arrangements to create new homes. But they live with an aching sense of loss that is as raw today as it was in the days after one train slammed into another near Fort Totten Station in Northeast Washington. Some refuse to ride Metro trains; they're worried about safety and plagued by horrific memories. Lawsuits over the crash, which also injured 80 people, are crawling through the courts, and the National Transportation Safety Board won't announce a formal cause of the accident until late July. As the months have passed, many family members grew bitter over what they see as the indifference of Metro, government officials and the public to their suffering."

WUSA9 interviews Peter Benjamin, Metro's Chairman of the Board, on the system's safety improvements since the crash. KEY QUOTE: "Yes METRO is safe. Now, nothing is perfectly safe. There is always some chance of an accident. But you are safer riding METRO than any mode of transportation. I've got to tell you I take my grandchildren for rides on these trains. I wouldn't take them on these trains if it wasn't safe,"

Meanwhile, a Metro bus driver has been arrested over a fare fight. AP reports: "Metro Transit Police charged Vento Mickens with simple assault on Friday. Mickens was driving a 71 bus to Buzzard Point when the alleged incident took place near Georgia Avenue and Van Buren Street NW. Metro spokeswoman Cathy Asato says that Mickens, who had worked for Metro for more than 23 years, is on administrative leave pending an internal investigation."

And NC8 reports that a Metro bus was involved in an accident with four other cars at Suitland Parkway and Stanton Road SE on Sunday: "As many as 10 individuals were evaluated for injuries and four were taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Pete Piringer, the spokesperson for DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services."

FENTY FINISHES 16TH: Not in a straw poll. No, he finished a very respectable 16 in this weekend's triathlon.

RON MOTEN VS. VINCENT GRAY: Tim Craig reports on the Peaceoholics Co-Founder's potential impact on the mayoral race: "Frustrated by Gray's attacks on Fenty and concerned that a Gray victory would dry up funding for violence-prevention programs he credits with reducing homicides, Moten said he will use the sales skills he learned on the streets to put the mayor over the top in the September primary. 'I haven't even gotten started yet,' said Moten, 40. 'Adrian has helped a lot of people in the streets. People just don't know about it yet. I'm going to help change that.' In recent weeks, Moten has created a Web site to spread information about Gray's record, fueled newspaper articles on the illegal fence at Gray's home in Hillcrest and helped Fenty reach out to African Americans through radio ads featuring hip-hop artists. Now, Moten is gearing up to mobilize thousands on Fenty's behalf, confident he can drive up African American turnout enough to dilute Gray's expected advantage. Privately, some Fenty advisers said they are nervous that Moten's efforts could backfire, but the mayor said in an interview that he is 'honored' to have the support, calling him a 'friend' and a 'great Washingtonian.'"

CHARTER SCHOOLS: Three schools may close, reports the Examiner's Leah Fabel: "Facing closure are two Ward 1 elementary schools — Children's Studio and Academy for Learning through the Arts (ALTA) – as well as a Ward 4 secondary school, Kamit Institute for Magnificent Achievers (KIMA). The three threatened revocations constitute a strong signal from the board that it is willing to use its authority to uphold charter quality. About one-third of District students attend charter schools, and the city's charter experiment is being closely watched by education reformers around the country. Each of the three schools posted dismal test scores in 2009. At Children's Studio, fewer than 26 percent of students performed at or above 'proficient' level on the city's standardized math exams, while about 39 percent reached that mark in reading. In a recent board report, the school was criticized for having 'no clear instructional philosophy or model of exemplary teaching.' At ALTA, about 19 percent of students scored proficient or better in math, down from 27 percent in 2008. About half of the students scored proficient in reading. In a 2009 report, the school carried a cumulative deficit of $111,000, among the highest in the city. At KIMA, about 43 percent of high schoolers passed the city's reading test, and about 34 percent passed the math test. A report stressed concern over the school's ability to serve students with special needs, such as English language instruction."

JONETTA ROSE BARRAS: The Examiner columnist thinks Gray's recent victory in the Ward 3 straw poll may be meaningless: "Truth be told, straw polls and endorsement meetings are merely an opportunity for each campaign to take the other's measure: How much effort does it take for Gray to win in Ward 3? Is Fenty mimicking Muhammad Ali's "rope-a-dope," or is his organization in disarray? Neither campaign has hit its stride. 'This is still a very competitive race, and Fenty still has plenty of money,' said another political operative. The mayor has more than $3 million. Insiders told me he soon may release television ads: 'A lot of voters have fixed opinions [about him]. The only way to change that is to come into their living rooms,' said a campaign source."

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: On Friday, District officials reported that the city's unemployment rate fell by .6 percent to 10.4 percent: WaPo's Mike DeBonis tries to gauge the impact of this very tiny news on the mayoral race: "The dip in joblessness probably won't play much on the trail. For one, any effort to take credit for the trend is going to ring hollow in the parts of town where the numbers shoot past 20 percent. For another, what's going on in the nation at large — high unemployment due to fewer jobs — is not what is happening in the District. There are more jobs in the city than there were in 2006, but poorly qualified D.C. residents simply aren't filling them. So the campaign rhetoric tends to center on job training issues, rather than job creation issues. That certainly, is what candidate Vincent Gray is focusing his message on. At a June 3 mayoral forum hosted by Ward 3 neighborhood associations, Gray said: 'The skills that are required for the jobs that we have in the city don't match the talents of the people we have here. The job of the mayor is to be able to create the jobs program that will facilitate that.' He went on to advocate for more training in the areas health care, early childhood education, and financial services — what he sees as growth sectors in the District. He also boasted how he moved to restore a $4 million cut to workforce development programs. The man who proposed that cut, Mayor Adrian Fenty, has chosen to integrate his jobs policy with his No. 1 campaign talking point: education."

RAY VS. MENDO: Clark Ray has beat At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson in a Ward 8 straw poll. From the Ray press release: "Challenger Clark Ray, showing growing momentum, handily won the Ward 8 Democratic Straw Poll over longtime incumbent Phil Mendelson with the vote of 46 to 28." Ray can take heart that he beat Mendo in a straw poll. Mendo can take heart that less than a hundred residents participated.

CURFEW: D.C. Police are launching a campaign to spread the word that the District's youth have a curfew. Lame slogan included in the message! More coverage via WUSA9.

TAKOMA AQUATICS CENTER: The awesome facility was scheduled to close for most of the summer for repairs. But residents protested. District officials have now decided that the pool will remain open, reports WaPo's Nikita Stewart. The pool will close right after the primary vote in September.

APPLE STORE MANIA: NC8 reports from the Apple Store's grand opening in Georgetown.

MAYOR'S SCHEDULE:

11 a.m. Remarks
Groundbreaking for Fort Stanton Recreation Center
Location: Fort Stanton Recreation Center
1812 Erie St SE

D.C. COUNCIL SCHEDULE:

10 a.m.
Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary (Hearing)
Bill 18-692, Health and Safety 911 Abuse Prevention Act of 2010
Location: John A. Wilson Building, Room 412

Committee of the Whole (Round Table)
PR 18-927, " Compensation and working conditions collective bargaining agreement between the district of Columbia and the Washington Teachers' union, American Federation of Teachers Local No. 6, AFL CIO Emergency Approval Resolution of 2010"
Location: John A. Wilson Building, Room 500

1 p.m.
Postponed – Committee on Economic Development and Government Operations and the Environment (Round Table)
The Proposed Surplus and Disposition of the following District -owned properties: 4800 Nannie Helen Burroughs Ave., N.E.; 335 8th St. S.E.; 1101 24th Street, N.W.; 2301 L ST, N.W.;2225 M St., N.W.; 3050 R St., N.W.; 27 O Street, N.W.
Location: John A. Wilson Building, Room 123

The citizen crime fighters are revving up to, among other things, continue patrolling Metro this summer.

As founding member John Ayala points out in an email, riders could certainly use the safeguarding:

"In the month of May, there was a 17 yr old shot on a metro bus, a grandmother ass[a]ulted on a metro bus, a 15 yr old girl sexually ass[a]ulted outside a metro station, a 21 yr old man was fatally stabbed at a metro station and there have been several fights on Metro buses and trains and the summer has not begun."

Ayala says this summer the Angels will be keeping an eye on on both trains and buses, and also conducting "foot patrols in Chinatown, Anacostia and other places thoughout the city."

If you're not familiar with the do-gooder group, it consists of trained volunteers, armed with nothing but radios, who help out cops when they need it, break up fights, and generally protect those who need protecting. All while wearing a red beret.

Unfortunately for Ayala and crew, they'll likely be doing so completely broke. That's no exaggeration. Ayala tells City Desk: "Our account in DC is actually zero."

Ayala founded the local Guardian Angel chapter 21 years ago, when drugs and violence plagued D.C. streets with an intensity that makes many who experienced that time shudder.

One reason the organization is broke, he says, is that in the two decades they've been fighting for DC, the city hasn't given the group a single dime.

Ayala says he's tried to get money from the District in the past but was discouraged by all the "red tape" he has to go through.

That the city has never chipped in to help the Guardian Angels would seem amazing, as the bereted criminal stoppers have rarely shied away from putting themselves on the line for their city. Ayala has a wound to prove it.

Back in the 90s, when the Angels were running an operation they called "Crack Down on Crack," Ayala took an ice pick to the back.
"We got into a big throwdown," he recalls of the incident in Southwest D.C. Around the same time, he says, another Angel was clobbered with a baseball bat, and had to have a steel rod put in his arm.

Still, none of the blood spilled by Angels has earned them any cash.
Ayala says it's been hard to get by. The Angels can't afford an office right now, and have a hard time paying for uniforms. New recruits need to be outfitted with pants, t-shirts, and boots, plus a jacket with the angel logo on it.

The cost can run more than a $100 per recruit. Ayala once hoped to cover the expense through citizen donations, but that hope has fallen flat.

The last public donation the group got was for $200, he says, and that was a year ago. That means the expense of getting a uniform and paying bus and train fares comes out of the pocket of the individual crime fighter. "Sometimes it discourages the guys who go on partol," says Ayala.

Despite the shallow pockets, Ayala sometimes thinks the lack of public funding is a blessing, considering how other nonprofits have gotten millions from the city, and squandered it. "The guys are messing it up for other nonprofits," says Ayala.

It's obvious that Ayala is talking about the Peaceaholics organization, an anti-violence group made up of reformed criminals. The organization–which works with at-risk youth–has enjoyed municipal support in the form of multiple grants.

Ayala says the Angels have run similar programs for youth without getting much support for it. He says the Angels have done school presentations that teach youth about issues like bullying and date rape.
Ayala scoffs at the idea that the ex-offenders have supposedly been given so much help because, regarding violence, "they've been there."

"Well, we're Angels," he says, "We've been there, too."

Clark Ray, who is challenging Mendelson for his at-large council seat, and his campaign team greeted all of the meeting's attendees with a targeted flier: "Another election year meeting in Ward 8. We Deserve Better: Communities need to be involved every day to solve the issue of crime, not just during an election."

The crowd inside was scarcely more welcoming toward Mendelson, who chairs the Council’s committee on public safety and the judiciary, or the other panel members he brought with him, including representatives from the Office of the D.C. Attorney General, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), the Office of the U.S. Attorney General for D.C., and the D.C. Superior Court. 

Gathered just a block away from site of the March 30 shooting that left four dead, the group of roughly 70 victims' relatives, concerned community members, and anti-violence activists voiced tremendous frustration with how they've seen the D.C. government deal with violent crime.

Patricia Jefferies, the grandmother of 16-year-old shooting victim Brishell Jones, asked why Attorney General Peter Nickles had the time to look into Councilmember and mayoral hopeful Vincent Gray’s controversial fence but was too busy to meet with family members of those killed on March 30. Another Congress Heights resident wanted to know why another murder she witnessed firsthand was still an open case.

Naturally, the most vocal audience member was Peaceoholics co-founder Ronald Moten, who railed against Mendelson’s harsh policies regarding PCP and his lenient stance on curfews. But what he seemed most peeved about was Councilmember Gray and Harry Thomas Jr. doling out money for anti-violence initiatives in what he described as an unethical manner.

When Moten called for him to launch an investigation into the nonprofit allocations, Mendelson attempted to diffuse the issue by telling him the U.S. Attorney’s Office would be in charge of investigating such claims. That prompted Moten to remind him the Council had no problem investigating the Dominican firetruck donation on its own.

“When are you going to stop these dog and pony show hearings?" Moten asked. “All y'all doing is playing political games. And because we speak out about it, we get punished.”

Much of the meeting focused on how the D.C. government treats youth offenders. There was one agency conspicuously absent from the panel: the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS). Mendelson was quick to announce that representatives from DYRS were slated to attend, but sent an “interesting” email that afternoon that “suggested they were told not to come,” he said.

Despite being stood up by DYRS, the group discussed youth issues at length, particularly the problem of truancy and how it contributes to high levels of violent crime.  According to Second Seventh District Commander Joel Maupin, MPD picked up 7,000 truants last year, including over 1,000 in Ward 8.

“If the kids aren’t in school, they’re not going to get employment,” said Lee Satterfield, the chief judge of the D.C. Superior Court. “It’s not rocket science in terms of where you need to start.”

When Mendelson asked why youngsters who went on to be involved in shootings were let out of juvenile supervision, however, he found the heat turned back on himself and his Council colleagues. Because of the District’s strict juvenile confidentiality laws, Deputy D.C. Attorney General for Public Safety Robert Hildum said government officials cannot share that kind of information with the public.

“In my experience, [the confidentially laws] don’t protect the child as much as the agencies in charge of that child,” Hildum said. “It’s within the Council’s power to change that.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—"Prosecutor: Wone Suspects 'Did It For The Family,'" "Defense: Cops Prejudiced Against Wone Suspects"

Howdy. A big day in D.C. Superior Court with the start of the Robert Wone conspiracy trial. It's been several years since Wone was murdered in the Dupont Circle home of the three defendants. That's a long time to speculate, theorize, and comb through the evidence. No one has been more attentive to this case than the men behind the website Who Murdered Robert Wone? The site offers up strong Day One coverage that included opening statements and the testimony of Wone's widow. The bloggers picked up on a few interesting details:

"It’s clear the defense is ready to take full advantage of any and all previously admitted government and law enforcement errors, reinforcing their message that this was a flawed investigation from the beginning. Said Ward counsel Schertler, the government '…tried to create evidence to fit a preconceived theory…'

Interestingly, all three defense attorneys took pains to paint Robert and all of the Swann Street three as good friends…and that friends simply can’t murder friends. A close reading of the defendants’ interview statements, and comments today from Kathy Wone, raise some doubt about those claims.

Looking back, in his opening statement Kirschner seemed to hit his strongest stride referencing W-5 and Joe’s statement to him that he pulled the knife from Robert’s chest. This, after being interviewed for hours that he found the knife lying on Robert’s chest..an inconsistency that Kirschner hopes to demonstrate the 'vacuum' of truth in statements by the defendants."

More coverage via WaPo, NC8, the Examiner, WUSA9, WTOP.

AFTER THE JUMP—More bad news for CFSA, introducing the Fake Don Peebles, Maya Angelou pens supportive note to Fenty, and MOCO schools get in hot water over religion.

BUDGET WATCH: Yesterday, LL cheered the restoration of funds to several Child and Family Services Agency programs that had been cut by Mayor Adrian Fenty's proposed budget. But LL failed to provide a clearer picture of the cuts that are still set to take effect. You can find a full breakdown of the cuts in the Human Services Committee report (PDF)–which include hefty slices from foster parent subsidies, rapid housing, along with a cut to the grandparent-caregiver subsidy program, and the gutting of the parent advocacy program. The safety net still needs a lot of patching up. The D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute provides a fact sheet on the budget mess. Meanwhile, Save Our Safety Net is organizing a Human Safety Net around the Wilson Building tomorrow morning. The press release has the details:

"District residents and advocates will build a safety net around the John A. Wilson Building at 8:30 am Wednesday, May 17, 2010. The demonstration is being organized in partnership with the Fair Budget Coalition and Save Our Safety Net (SOS-DC)....Harry Thomas, Michael Brown, and other Councilmembers will join hundreds of DC residents

FAKE DON PEEBLES: The big question from yesterday: Was Don Peebles now using Twitter? The answer turned out to be no. But the Fake Don Peebles is still pretty awesome. Favorite tweets include this one from May 16: "There has been much speculation over my intent to run for mayor of DC, for inquiring minds: I am still giving it serious consideration." And this one from May 12: "I like thinking big...If you're going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big." I don't know about you but this substitute LL is going to be following the Fake Don Peebles at least until the election.

MAYA ANGELOU STICKS UP FOR FENTY: Remember that controversy last summer revolving around the Fenty Administration's attempt to boot out Cora Masters Barry from the tennis center? Remember the reports of Fenty dissing Dorothy Height and Maya Angelou? Fenty had failed to meet with the famous women, who were intent on lobbying on Barry's behalf. On NC8's NewsTalk last week, Fenty addressed the controversy. During the interview, Fenty mentions receiving a letter from Angelou as evidence that there were no hard feelings. WaPo has a copy of the letter: "In the September missive, Angelou writes, 'I know that my name has been used in varying ways, but while I am a friend of Mrs. Cora Masters Barry, and a supporter of her great efforts, I in no way meant to be a threat or a negative figure to you in this matter....I want you to know that I have not spoken to the press and it was never my intent to bogart or jam you against a wall.'" We applaud the poet for her use of the word "bogart." I'm sure Fenty totally understood the term.

VINCE GRAY CAMPAIGN WATCH: D.C. Wire's Mike DeBonis (the name sounds familiar...) reports that Gray is playing catchup on a number of fronts: "Gray's nascent operation has to contend with a well-established, well-organized Fenty election apparatus, the vaunted 'Green Machine,' which prides itself on identifying friendly voters and making sure they get to the polls on Election Day. Already, Fenty works from a list amassed in the course of his 2006 landslide win, and his re-election campaign continues to collect names on street corners and from door-to-door canvassing. Without divulging the actual length of the list, Fenty consultant Tom Lindenfeld says that the campaign 'has been counting and mining the voters for an extended period of time.' Gray, on the other hand, starts pretty much from scratch. This weekend, his campaign started making headway on that front, phoning thousands of District voters to ask for their support. 'In a sense, it is catching up,' Gray campaign spokesperson Traci Hughes said Monday. 'We've got someone who's been essentially running for office for three years, and we're just joining the race.'"

MOCO VS. GOD'S PLAYGROUND: A MOCO school canceled a series of field trips to Bethesda's With Me Playseum for its kindergarten classes after the museum's owner apparently dropped the G word on her website. WaPo reports: "The owner of the fledgling business, Gina Seebachan, bought tiles so each child could make a handprint to take home as a keepsake. She organized books by authors the children were reading for story time. If the trip went well, Seebachan thought, business might really take off. Then, without warning, Westbrook Elementary School, which all four of Seebachan's children have attended, canceled the trip. All because, Seebachan says, she mentions God on the Playseum Web site. Last month's canceled school visits were just the latest in what some friends and neighbors call an unsubstantiated whisper campaign that has gone viral, with Web postings accusing Seebachan, an evangelical Christian, and the Playseum of being less about creating a play space for children and more about saving their souls. In a well-to-do, liberal community, where separation of church and state is virtually a religion, Seebachan's references to God, and the use of the politically loaded word 'life' on the Playseum Web site, coupled with the echo chamber of the Internet, made for a combustible mix." Key graph that makes the owner look a little kooky: "She indeed plays her iPod Nano at the Playseum, meaning that children hear '80s hits such as 'Tainted Love' but also some Christian rock. She says she did once sing a catchy ditty that included some hallelujahs while she made apple pie in the play space's bakery. But, she says, she hasn't sung anything with religious content since then. All the other things people are saying about her, she says, are 'utter lies.'"

COMMENTARY: This morning, Children's Law Center's Executive Director Judith Sandalow provides a commentary on WAMU concerning Mayor Fenty's child-abuse prevention plan. Here is an excerpt:

"Four years after he called for a District-wide plan to prevent child abuse and neglect, Mayor Fenty quietly issued a press release announcing the plan had been completed. It wasn’t worth the wait.

The inconspicuous nature of the announcement speaks volumes about the District’s lack of commitment to actually prevent child abuse and neglect. Indeed, the plan itself is all talk and very little action.

I just don’t understand the Mayor’s lack of urgency.

Our child welfare system is overflowing. Almost 4,000 children were abused or neglected in fiscal year 2009 alone. There are more than 2,000 children in foster care at any given moment and another 2,000 children whose families are monitored by our child welfare agency. With the troubled economy sending thousands of additional families into poverty, we can only expect this number to increase.

The suffering behind these numbers is almost unspeakable."

HORSE PLAY FOLLOW UP: WUSA9 has video of the wild horse romp through NW from this past weekend.

APOLOGIES TO RON MOTEN: Early in LL's short tenure, he quoted FOP honcho Kristopher Baumann stating that Peaceoholics received city funds to locate and return juvenile absconders. This is not true. Ron Moten tells LL that his organization had received no such funding. Juveniles charged in the Brian Betts murder had escaped from DYRS supervision. All three defendants had attended a Peaceoholics retreat just prior to the killing. Moten says he did not know of their issues with DYRS. "We would have made them turn themselves in," Moten says. "They have to be willing to accept responsibility for what they've done." Moten adds that the retreat did help many of the other kids in attendance. Of the 47 children who participated, 16 have since found employment. It should be noted that Baumann promptly contacted LL to correct the error.

Seegars put out a press release demanding that the group, which aims to turn at-risk youths away from violence, be investigated for taking three teens wanted by authorities away on a recent Maryland retreat.

The teens, who were being sought for skipping out on a D.C. Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) facility at the time, were later also picked up in connection with the murder of middle school principal Brian Betts.

For weeks, Seegars has been tangling with the Peaceoholics over the group's construction of a transitional living facility for at-risk youths in Congress Heights. For their part, the Peaceoholics recently filed a lawsuit accusing Seegars of libel.

Seegars says the new revelations about the accused killers' participation in Peaceoholics programming has only heightened neighborhood concerns about the group's Congress Heights project.

"The government, Mayor, Ward 8 Councilmember and Department of Housing and Community Development are ignoring the complaints by the ANC Commissioners and the community," writes Seegars in a statement. "In light of the recent incident, whereas, Ronald Moten, Peaceoholics, admitted that he allowed fugitives to participate in his program, under his direct supervision, without first getting a clearance on the alleged murderers of a school teacher. The immediate neighbors to 1300 Congress St., have grown more frighten of the mystery facility that is underway to open there by the negligent, untrained, hotheaded maverick."

Yesterday, Peaceoholics co-founder Moten told City Desk that though the currently jailed teens had attended one of the group's retreats, the organization had no idea DYRS and police were looking for the kids.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—"Is There Still Room For Seniors At The New 15th and U?," "Peaceoholics Took Betts Suspects On Retreat," "Disc Jockeys Irk Desk Jockeys In Dupont Circle"

Mornin' all. Tons of news so lets get to it:

THE WORKOUT LOBBY LEAPS INTO ACTION: Yesterday, D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham received 2,689 e-mails from constituents. And Councilmember Mary Cheh says her office received about 2,000 e-mails. Did these legislators rail against the Tea Party? Did they make fun of Arizona's draconian anti-immigration law? Did they say they wanted to cut funding to after-school programs or health clinics? No. They were besieged by District residents who are perspiring profusely over the possibility that they may get taxed for their gym memberships and yoga classes. WaPo's Nikita Steward and Tim Craig chronicle the stuffed in-boxes down at the Wilson Building. Graham offers the key quote about the controversy: "Things have gotten a little uncorked here." LL Daily wonders where were these people when D.C. General was so overcrowded? Where where these people yesterday protesting the layoffs at CFSA? Is this what District residents really care about—yoga? Yes! Hundreds, thousands even spammed the D.C. Council to make sure they knew that they wanted their $18 hot yoga class to stay $18 and not $19.06 with a 6 percent DC sales tax of which $1.06 would go to pay for teachers and trash pickup and child care etc. [LL had help with that last sentence as he is is terrible with numbers]. The D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute responds with a blog post defending the idea of a yoga tax. This all makes the great Susie Cambria sad.

Meanwhile, CFSA LAYS OFF MORE THAN 100 WORKERS: WaPo's Henri Cauvin reports on the scene at CFSA: "Social service assistants, who shuttle foster children to school, bring them to doctors appointments and do any number of things that social workers don't have time to do, were among the hardest hit, with all 57 of them losing their jobs. The mayor's proposed budget, released last month, projected CFSA job cuts, but it wasn't until Thursday that employees found out where the ax would fall. After learning of the layoffs at a 9 a.m. meeting at the CFSA's Southwest Washington headquarters, the social service assistants were told to clean out their desks. Throughout the morning, workers emerged on Sixth Street carrying boxes of belongings....'This is like a hospital, and they just cut all the nurses,' said Kina Cypress, a social worker in child protective services, which investigates abuse and neglect." The total number of employees laid off: 115. Along with social-service assistants, junior social workers and facility monitors were also axed. The silver lining: "A new position has been created to replace the social service assistants, a CFSA spokeswoman said. The new job, called a family support worker, will require a college degree, and the agency expects to begin hiring soon."

AFTER THE JUMP—WaPo gets tough on DYRS, Ron Moten Vs. SS, and Free Street Car rides might be in your future!

WAPO ED. BOARD VS. DYRS: WaPo's editorial board shocks all by finally addressing DYRS' problems. The board calls for an independent study in the wake of the Betts murders in which all three suspects where under some kind of DYRS supervision: "Community outcry about the competency of this agency in ensuring public safety is understandable. We share the concerns, and we believe it is time for an independent commission to review how the District and the court system handle juvenile offenders. Such a study could examine the untold successes of the city along with both the hidden and the very public failures. It could consider whether the secrecy that shrouds juvenile justice in the city serves more to protect children or shield the system. And it could recognize the progress we believe has been made in the past five years while considering, without defensiveness, further reforms that may be needed."

The board takes aim at the ridiculous confidentiality issues surrounding juvenile offenders: "UNFORTUNATELY, the District's strict confidentiality laws surrounding virtually every aspect of a juvenile case obscure many facts. We understand the importance of privacy for a child putting his or her life together after a youthful infraction, but what purpose is served by barring dissemination of information when, as in the case of these three men, there are adult charges of heinous wrongdoing? The absurdity of the city's law is reflected in the ability of Montgomery County to release the youths' arrest records even as Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and his attorney general were criticized for merely disclosing the trio's connection to DYRS. Relaxing confidentiality rules should top the list of fixes to the system, but other areas bear examination. It has been a decade since the blue-ribbon commission that led to the reforms at the heart of today's system, so it is time for review and possible course correction." Amen. The Examiner's Harry Jaffe gets AG Peter Nickles to say on the record that juvenile confidentiality is problem that needs addressing.

THE INEVITABLE PEACEOHOLICS CONNECTION: WaPo had reported that all three suspects attended a Peaceoholics retreat in Southern Maryland just days before Betts' murder: "Ronald Moten, the group's cofounder, said that all three arrived April 10 and participated in group discussions about violence. Moten said that they seemed nice and that he was particularly impressed with Lancaster. 'He voluntarily cleaned the whole compound,' Moten said. The three left that night. After the retreat, two of them attended a follow-up session. 'We haven't seen them since,' Moten said. Five days after the retreat, Betts was dead. Moten went into more detail with City Desk's Rend Smith yesterday: "Though he won't say which one, Moten suggests the nonprofit had extensive experience with one of the murder suspects for at least six months prior to the retreat and phone call. 'We stayed on top of him,' Moten says. The youth eventually left the program, he adds, but maintained a relationship with his former case worker."

Police Union Chief Kristopher Baumann e-mailed LL to say that Moten's group is actually being paid by the District to find absconders and bring them back to DYRS. Moten testified on the subject at a hearing last year. Baumann writes:

"On June 10, 2009, Well’s committee held a hearing on DYRS. It was unbelievable. (I know watching old hearings can be a drag, but it is worth it.) Testifying in support of Schiraldi and DYRS were several non-profit groups (Peaceaholics, Concerned Men, etc) that testified that they were receiving “grants” from DYRS to go track down absconders and talk them in to returning to DYRS. Of course, they had no statistics (e.g., number of absconders returned, etc.) but that was what DYRS was paying them to do (they also apparently have office space at DYRS). These are essentially earmarks, but are being done by the Executive so they are called grants, with no oversight, no reports required. Worse they are giving money to groups to do the work the police should be doing (the word on the street is that DYRS did not want the MPD knowing how many absconders existed because it might be leaked and would not match the numbers they have been reporting)."

None of this latest controversy will help Moten vs. Sandra Seegars. This week Moten took Seegars to court, slapping the political activist/gadfly with a libel suit. Seegars is taking her message to the streets (!) with a press conference today at 11 a.m. in front of 1300 Congress Street SE. SS spammed LL too many times to just ignore and delete her press release. Here it is:

"ANC Commissioner Seegars and the opponents of the Peaceoholics’ are holding this conference regarding the Peaceoholics attempt to ignore the law and open some sort of group home/youth facility/community residential facility/independent living facility/condominium at 1300 Congress St., SE DC 20032 will be speaking out against it.

The government, Mayor, Ward 8 Councilmember and Department of Housing and Community Development are ignoring the complaints by the ANC Commissioners and the community. In light of the recent incident, whereas, Ronald Moten, Peaceoholics, admitted that he allowed fugitives to participate in his program, under his direct supervision, without first getting a clearance on the alleged murderers of a school teacher. The immediate neighbors to 1300 Congress St., have grown more frighten of the mystery facility that is underway to open there by the negligent, untrained, hotheaded maverick.

Moreover, it will be a violation of Title 11, whereas, facilities shall not be within 500 feet of each other, and there are already 4 next to 1300 Congress St., SE. DHCD has already violated the ANC law, whereas, they are supposed to notify the commission, commissioner of the affected area and the Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commission by first class mail before actions are taken to dispense funds for a project in such district.

They will be asking for investigations on the Peaceoholics involvement with the alleged murderers, the loan from the Department of Housing and Community Development, their non profit status, and they will be asking the DC City Council to stop funding them without a competitive bid process – in an effort to get the most qualified entity to provide services for troubled youth and young adults."

Meanwhile, Moten made some shocking comments yesterday on NC8's NewsTalk.

AGENT ZERO ALMOST OUT OF THE CLINK: Arenas is nearing the end of his halfway house stint. I wonder if he pranked any of his housemates. Apparently, he played cards and basketball.

NICKLES VS. BARRY: The Examiner's Bill Myers has more on the battle between two of our most stubborn politicos.

FREE STREETCARS? WTOP's Adam Tuss reports that streetcar rides may be free in some parts of the District: Once the streetcars get rolling, some riders may actually be able to get on and off at their leisure, knowing that they will not have to pay a dime, WTOP has learned. 'It is certainly possible that in certain areas of the city it would be free,' DDOT Director Gabe Klein tells WTOP. 'And we like that, because the point of this is to stimulate growth and move people between neighborhoods. So we are going to look at a structure where people feel comfortable hopping on and off, maybe many times in an hour.'"

WE NEED MORE YOGA: NC8/WJLA reports on a study showing that 20 percent of District residents are obese: "Women make up 25.1 percent of the city's obese population, while men were at 18.9 percent. The report found women were more likely to be obese than men. The wards with the most grocery stores, organic food and farmers markets, Wards 2 and 3, had the lowest rates of obesity. Ward 8 had the fewest healthy food options and had the highest rate of obesity. To combat the problem, city officials put together the Action Plan, an effort to engage the wards where obesity rates were the highest." Meanwhile, a Top Chef judge promotes creating more food jobs (NBC4)

A D.C. Police Officer was found dead in his apartment Thursday morning, WTOP reports.

MAYOR'S SCHEDULE:

10:45 a.m., Remarks South Dakota Avenue Bridge Ribbon Cutting
Location: 2700 South Dakota Avenue, NE

4:00 p.m. Remarks All Hands on Deck
Location: 600 block of 46th Place, SE

D.C. COUNCIL SCHEDULE:

10 a.m. Budget Request and Support Act hearings.

KOJO: "The Politics Hour gang sits down with Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and D.C. Council Member Tommy Wells."

The three teens–Sharif Lancaster, Deontra Gray, and Alante Saunders–had attended a Maryland retreat sponsored by Moten's organization, which aims to turn at-risk youths away from violence.

At the time of the retreat, which took place weeks before Betts' April 15 murder, the three suspects were wanted by police on a separate matter–having absconding from a juvenile rehabilitation center.

Their participation in the Peaceoholics' event has left the beleaguered organization vulnerable to yet more criticism.

But Moten says the group had no idea the youths were on the run. "If we would have known, we would have had them turn themselves in," he says.

They did, however, later get word that something bad had happened with one of the three, some time after Betts' murder.

Moten says a relative of one the suspects called up the group saying he was looking for a way to turn himself in for a crime. He says police got to the kid first.

Though he won't say which one, Moten suggests the nonprofit had extensive experience with one of the murder suspects for at least six months prior to the retreat and phone call. "We stayed on top of him," Moten says. The youth eventually left the program, he adds, but maintained a relationship with his former case worker.

The Peaceoholics honcho, for years called on by politicos far and wide to do gang interventions and conflict resolution, has moved on to his next project: media entrepreneur.

His outlet, launching today, is called OtherSide Magazine. Get it? If not, here's the publication's tagline: "Every Story Has Another Side."

Where his former job was all about settling tussles, this enterprise stands to stir them up. "I want a vehicle to tell both sides of the story," he says Friday afternoon in his new office, a modest storefront on Martin Luther King Avenue in Congress Heights, a few blocks from Ballou High School.

In the front of the office, formerly a church, his only employee, Damon Gorham, does design work on a computer; Moten has a bare desk set up in the back, in the boiler room—as in right next to the furnace. "I've always been a media man, a promotions man," he says, sitting behind it. "The toothpaste can get out of the tube, and it can do much damage."

Like the whole fishy fire truck fiasco, he says—Peaceoholics found itself in the middle of the controversy over the giveaway of surplus city emergency equipment to the Dominican Republic, even though investigations later determined the group was little more than a middle man. The affair meant a bright light was shined on the nonprofit, soiling its reputation and imperiling its funding. (Moten says he is no longer involved in Peaceoholics' day-to-day operations, but he remains on its board.)

So what stories these days deserve the "other side" treatment?

For one, Moten details "The Other Side of Omar Karim"—the principal owner of Banneker Ventures and frat brother of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty who became entangled in the parks contracting mess. The article describes Karim, Banneker, and the parks contracts in the glowingest of glowing terms.

To wit: "Like Benjamin Banneker, Mr. Karim has committed himself and the firm he founded to improving Washington, DC. The mission of the firm is "[t]o change the world...one community at a time." Banneker Ventures has remained true to this mission. This is a company whose ideals began to remind me of the noble goals and objectives of the Civil Rights Movement and such leaders as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks."

The other subjects of OtherSide Magazine align pretty closely with Fenty's political agenda. One piece deems Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander the "Worst Politician of the Year" for comments she allegedly made about dropouts. Another takes At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson to task for supporting tougher penalties for liquid PCP possession. Another talks up Blue Skye Construction, the D.C. government contractor owned by Fenty ally Scottie Irving, and its efforts to employ ex-offenders and troubled youth.

But OtherSide tackles some non-D.C.-specific topics as well. There's a piece explaining why rapper T.I. sought to buy a vertiable arsenal of unregistered machine guns. Another piece deems Rush Limbaugh a "homegrown terrorist." And then there's this biological perspective on Tiger Woods: 'Woods, like all humans who have come before him, suffers from two conflicting biological programs—the urge to establish a pair-bond with a mate to develop a family versus the urge to consistently find new mates to fertilize and subsequently diversify his genetic potential through the generations."

"That's something the dudes in the street are going to read," Moten says.

The articles are published on the Web, but Moten's also printed up 5,000 copies of an eight-page newsletter promoting his stories. (The Karim piece is printed in full.) Already today, LL found stacks of the newsletters inside the John A. Wilson Building. Moten says he has youths handing them out at Metro stops and elsewhere around town today.

Besides the newsletter and Web site, Moten says he plans to do Internet video broadcasts and PR work. And his cash cow is a market well-known to the well-established music promoter—go-go flyers, done by Gorham in a slick, bold style. "Flyers alone will pay the bill on this building," Moten said Friday. "We're doing all the go-go bands, but we're going to start marketing to nonprofits."

Moten's going to have to expand his enterprise at some point, and soon. He credits "some saving souls" with helping him with start-up costs, but he's the bottom line looms. "I'm gonna need some advertisers within a month and a half," he says. "And I'm gonna get 'em."

File photo by Darrow Montgomery

Yesterday, Fenty declared that the streets were 90 percent cleared. If they weren't, he tapped the Peaceoholics to jump in and give an assist on removing snow from bus stops, pesky side streets, etc. Fenty swears that your commute will have gone or will go smoothly today. He tells WaPo:

"After hundreds of plow crews spent the weekend scraping, scooping and hauling away snow, Fenty said Monday that the city has made significant progress in freeing snow-clogged streets

'We are down to pavement on virtually every residential street,' Fenty said."

Yesterday, Prince of Petworth walked through virtually all of Northwest. You can check out his findings via his Twitter account. Around the time Fenty was telling the press that 90 percent of the roads were clear including all the major routes, PoP reported:

"Just walked to gtown from petworth all roads a mess don't drive if u don't have too!"

And later:

"Wisconsin ave is particularly bad for cars"

And yet, deep in the WaPo piece, the reporters note that some on the D.C. Council wondered if Fenty should have reached out to the Feds. Councilmember Jim Graham recounted his conversation with the mayor. It's an eye-opener (emphasis added):

"Graham said when he asked Fenty about requesting resources from President Obama, the mayor replied, 'What would they have provided us?'

'I said, 'They could have provided soldiers from Fort Meyer,' 'Graham recalled. 'If it had been a riot, they would have.'"

Fenty wouldn't dare think of asking the feds for help. But he'll call on the Peaceoholics. Amazing. So how do you rate Fenty's snow-removal performance today?

Is there anything the Peaceoholics can't do? The anti-gang group is getting millions of city money to settle neighborhood beefs. They're trying to get into the housing business. And now, Fenty declared today that the group is on board to help shovel snow.

D.C. Wire reports:

"'People who are able-bodied are not getting to their sidewalks fast enough,' said Fenty as he announced 'Operation Clean Path' in cooperation with Serve DC and the Peaceoholics, which will solicit help from organizations and people to volunteer to shovel."

Is it me or is this just a little weird? There are tons of organizations that could help dig out sidewalks and bus stops. Many residents organized snow clearing via Twitter this past weekend. So it's just weird that an anti-gang organization is now in the snow removal business.

In other astonishing news, Fenty declared that all major city routes and 90 percent of District roads had been cleared.

*file photo by Darrow Montgomery.