On May 16, 2008, D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles personally delivered controversial baseball tickets to then-D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, ending one of the more mind-boggling standoffs between councilmembers and the administration of then-Mayor Adrian Fenty. At least for that year.

At the center of the dispute were 19 tickets in Suite 61 at the taxpayer-funded Nationals Park that were supposed to go to the D.C. Council as part of a lease agreement with the Nationals. The mayor had his own set of tickets. But before opening day, the Nationals gave the D.C. Council's tickets to the mayor, who without much explanation, refused to give them up. When Fenty eventually doled out the tickets, he skipped over councilmembers he had clashed with. In a show of D.C. Council strength, all members returned their tickets until Fenty released all of the tickets for the season. A month after the standoff started, Nickles coughed up the tickets.

Though that year's ticket standoff was resolved, a similar row awaited D.C.'s elected officials the next baseball season, when several councilmembers and their constituents were denied entry to Nationals Park on opening day, because, as The Washington Post reported at the time, "Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) was withholding 19 tickets to their suite at the stadium." Gray said at the time: "It's deja vu. We were assured this fiasco would not happen again, and here we are with no tickets."

D.C. Councilmembers Kwame Brown and Mary Cheh proposed a legislative solution, mandating that all of the city's tickets be auctioned off to help close a budget gap, though that plan didn't go far. In the meantime, Fenty was very much irked when the press grilled him on the ticket fiasco and refused to elaborate, creating more animosity between the mayor's office, and, well, just about everyone in town! The battle, which concluded quietly on May 18 when "a young aide from the office of Deputy Mayor Neil O. Albert handed them over." As the Post assessed at the time, the ticket spat "raised questions about whether Fenty (D) was being petty and stubborn by failing to turn over tickets for the suite designated for council use."

For the 2010 season, the Fenty administration delivered the D.C. Council's full set of tickets in March, with Nickles telling the Post that "It just seemed like the right thing to do...We have reached our semblance of peace and order with the council." (Well, maybe just on the ticket issue.)

So what happened with the baseball tickets this year under Mayor Gray? There's barely been a peep on the issue. The mayor's office delivered the D.C. Council's tickets before opening day without incident, according to Wilson Building sources. There are, after all, better things for D.C. officials to spend their time bickering over—like the budget!

Photos by Darrow Montgomery

On Sept. 27, 2002, the Metropolitan Police Department rounded up hundreds of citizens inside Pershing Park. They then arrested them and detained them. For those hours and hours in police custody, these citzens were hogtied. And as soon as the last person was released—the city dropped all charges against everyone in this case—everyone knew that the class-action cases were soon to follow.

The Pershing Park case was an embarrassment for the city which had once prided itself on hosting protests without resorting to heavy-handed tactics. Chief Charles Ramsey's reputation took a big hit. [Chief Cathy Lanier was also involved].  The cases could have been settled a long time ago. Except that....the city lost key evidence in the case and a then-Attorney General Peter Nickles decided to play stall ball.  The case became endless. Here's a handy rundown.

Some of the cases have settled. The city has given out millions and millions. The settlement amounts related to Pershing Park and another protest case have been historic. One case is still pending.

But now comes the real punch in the face. WaPo's Del Quentin Wilber is reporting that the District has paid out more than $2 million in attorney's fees for the lawyers representing the police officials behind Pershing Park. That's quite a defense fund!

Wilber writes:

"The tally came in a filing late Thursday in the District's federal court by lawyers representing four bystanders who were among those swept up and arrested in Pershing Park during demonstrations against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. 'The District continues to seek to drive up costs and prolong litigation in this case,' lawyers Daniel C. Schwartz and Jonathan Turley wrote in court papers, adding the city has 'spared no expense' in defending former Chief Charles H. Ramsey and Assistant Police Chief Peter Newsham."

To give you a sense of the amazing gravy train this case has become, a recent court filing shows that ex-Chief Ramsey's lawyer, Mark H. Tuohey III, wants $80,628 in attorney fees for work done from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31, 2010.

In the filing, the District's lawyers justified the fee's amount this way: "During the four-month period for which fees are requested by this Motion, counsel prepared and responded to pleadings, participated in various aspects of pretrial discovery and trial preparation, and, in conjunction with the Office of the Attorney General, counsel participated in many telephone conferences."

Trial preparation? Really? Phone calls?

The District has approved the money. The District Court judge in the case just has to sign off the funds.

*file photo of Ramsey by Darrow Montgomery.

"The subpoena requests the production of a copy of all MPD documents related to a homicide that occurred on October 15, 2010 at 9th Street and U Street N.W., Washington D.C.  for a summary suspension hearing to be held on December 1, 2010 at 10:00 a.m." the motion reads. "The subpoena should be quashed because the requested documents are confidential under the law enforcement privilege."

The board wanted to view the documents because it was pondering DC9's liquor license suspension, but the motion to quash was granted. Cops originally contended that employees of DC9 beat Mohammed to death after he threw a brick through the nightclub's window. The employees were arrested for murder. Those charges were eventually downgraded and then dropped, but not without a catch. Prosecutors can refile later. "We have every faith that the U.S. Attorney will ultimately charge the party responsible for the tragic death of Ali Mohammed," MPD said in a statement about the dropped charges.

Prosecutors have given the impression they're waiting on the autopsy report. One strange thing about Nickle's motion is that it lists what the confidential "investigative files contain," and "autopsy reports" is listed, though it hasn't been released.

D.C. Medical Examiner's office  spokesperson Beverly Fields suggests the list might refer to items that are generally in an investigative file, instead of specifically in Mohammed's. MPD hasn't responded to an e-mail asking about the file.

Keely Thompson, the director of Keely's District Youth and Boxing Center in Columbia Heights, has been arrested for pocketing money that belonged to at-risk kids. The former boxer allegedly stole $500,000 of grant money to have a good time.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's office notes that the affidavit issued in connection to his arrest says "a bank record analysis revealed that Keely used the organization’s debit card to obtain more than $150,000 cash while on several cruises or at Bally’s casino in Atlantic City. In addition to a yearly salary that grew from $46,000 in 2004 to $81,000 in 2009," Keely also received 127 checks, totaling $355,210, it says. "The organization’s accounting records did not identify a legitimate purpose for these additional payments and when asked by financial professionals, Keely failed to provide supporting documentation."

The shenanigans seem to have been happening since 2004. "I used the money in the wrong way. I done it and I can't change it," Keely reportedly told the FBI.

But it gets even more interesting.

Thompson seems to have had at least one powerful supporter: Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham. According to a 2004 Washington Post article, Graham was pivotal to the gym opening: "Thompson said he opened the gym with the aid of Graham, who helped him find the funding and the space."

The gym has publicly thanked Graham for looking out for it. A former Graham staffer says that's because, in the past, the councilmember helped steer city earmarks toward the non-profit. But the ex-staffer also says that it was Graham who dropped the dime on Thompson. He learned of  "accounting irregularities" at Keely's a year ago, and sent a letter about the problem to Attorney General Peter Nickles. Nickles hasn't returned a call asking about the letter.

Still, that letter wasn't the first time the allegation that Thompson was misusing funds had surfaced. Back in 2006, in a civil trial in which Thompson was taken to task for firing a boxing trainer, a complaint filed on behalf of the trainer included references to Thompson using grant money allocated to the gym in 2004 by community organization Columbia Heights Shaw Family Support Collaborative—to buy vans to shuttle kids on field trips—to instead buy himself a BMW.

The case, which was settled, paints Thompson pretty monstrously: The suit alleges that the trainer "a man living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus(HIV), was fired from his job as a boxing trainer after his supervisor, Mr Thompson, discovered that he is HIV positive, and after [the trainer] reported that the center and/or Mr. Thompson appeared to be engaging in fraudulent and possibly criminal behavior."

The suit also says the trainer was paid less than minimum wage for his work and that Thompson, after firing the worker, falsely told a prospective employer that the trainer had AIDS and was an active drug user. He also told kids at the gym as much, the suit claims.

Thompson had grown angry with with the trainer for voicing suspicions about him to the collaborative. If the rumors were out there, one wonders why Thompson's allegedly free-wheeling ways didn't show up on Graham's radar until 2009.

Despite Graham's letter and an investigation, city funds routed to Keely's slowed, but they didn't stop. Financial documents obtained by City Desk show that in 2009, Keely's received at least one $20,000 grant from the city and at least one $75,000 grant this year. But that was all chump change compared to the past. In 2008, Keely's received a $200,000 city grant. According to documents obtained via a FOIA request, the organization entered invoices that indicated the money went to things like a $58,000 boxing exhibition. Records indicate that from 2008 to 2010, Keely's received more than $600,000 in city grants and earmarks. According to the Post, the organization has received $1.4 million in municipal funds since 2004.

Contacted today, Graham said he's no longer talking to Washington City Paper (though 15 minutes later, he commented to Housing Complex reporter Lydia DePillis on another matter). Graham hung on me before I could ask about the letter. A call placed to Thompson hasn't yet been returned.

*Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Last week, it was announced that former Metropolitan Police Department Chief Charles Ramsey will be inducted into the inaugural class of George Mason University's Evidence-Based Policing Hall of Fame. George Mason's version of a policing Cooperstown hailed the former chief with a lengthy bio, concluding on its website:

"A nationally recognized innovator, educator and practitioner of community policing, Commissioner Ramsey is known to refocus police departments on crime fighting and crime prevention through a more accountable organizational structure, new equipment and technology, an enhanced strategy of community policing and, since September 11, 2001, new approaches to homeland security and counter-terrorism."

Unfortunately, Ramsey is also known for mass arrests at Pershing Park on Sept. 27, 2002 that had nothing to do with accountable organizational structures and enhancing strategies for community policing. Just as his induction was announced, a magistrate judge in U.S. District was setting up the possibility that Ramsey just might go down in history as the Mark McGuire McGwire of police chiefs. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola announced that he plans to personally question Ramsey—and many other police and OAG officials—in the court's long-running probe into missing and doctored evidence in the Pershing Park case.

At a status hearing yesterday in his second-floor courtroom, Judge Facciola outlined three possible penalties Ramsey and the others could face: perjury, obstruction of justice, and destruction of evidence. In his order outlining the inquiry, Judge Facciola writes that Ramsey and Co. should "be advised of their constitutional right not to incriminate themselves."

Ramsey is definitely not in the clear.

At the conclusion of Facciola's inquest, the entire matter could end up being investigated anew by the Feds. Ramsey has already come under considerable scrutiny for his deposition testimony in which he swore he did not order the mass arrests at Pershing Park on Sept. 27, 2002; several police officials testified that they heard Ramsey give such an order. But the thrust of Facciola's inquiry will focus on the missing or doctored evidence which includes police radio recordings that go blank during the period in which the mass arrests took place, missing video evidence of police activities, and the missing running resume—the official log of all police activities that day. Other bits of a messy discovery process could enter into the investigation.

Walking into Facciola's courtroom yesterday, Ramsey's attorney Mark Tuohey expressed total confidence that his client is no slugger who suddenly came up short under oath like McGuire McGwire. "He has nothing to worry about," Tuohey said. "But he will comply with whatever the court wants."

The magistrate judge wants: Definitive answers as to how so much critical evidence could go missing in such a high profile case. The cases is already deep into extra innings.  The judge is embarking on an investigation that has stymied veteran judges and talented plaintiffs attorneys. The Partnership for Civil Justice, plaintiffs attorneys in one of the Pershing Park cases, first discovered the evidence abuses years ago. Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan went ballistic last summer over their findings. By the end of the year, Retired Judge Stanley Sporkin issued his own report on Pershing Park in which he could not exonerate any police official of wrongdoing [PDF]. Now, it's Facciola's turn.

Facciola, who was appointed to look into Pershing Park this past March, will most likely key on three attorneys who handled or mishandled the case (and the evidence): Office of Attorney General lawyer Tom Koger, MPD's top attorney Terrence Ryan and his deputy Ron Harris. Koger has been removed from the case having already come under scrutiny. The FOP has raised concerns about Ryan. Harris may have penned a false affidavit in the case. Testimony before Judge Facciola is set to begin Oct. 12.

And of course, there's Ramsey. What did he know? When did he know it? And how did evidence—the radio transmissions, the computer files, and the videotapes—get destroyed, lost or altered?

The one thing we know is how the former chief got into GMU's hall of fame. According to Cody Telep, a GMU grad student, Ramsey had been nominated by two professors—one who worked with Ramsey in Chicago, and another who works with him now in Philly where Ramsey is the city's police commissioner. No one from D.C. participated in the nomination process.

Telep tells City Desk that he knows nothing about Pershing Park. And it wouldn't be a matter of particular concern for the Hall. "Our hall of fame is more about rigorous scientific evaluation. It's about using science in policing," he says. "That's not as relevant to the specific qualifications for the hall of fame. I don't know the details of the case so that I can't comment on that."

*file photo by Darrow Montgomery.

Has Peter Nickles ever met a controversy he couldn't whitewash with one of his so-called investigative reports? From his fire-truck mini investigation to his assessment of the missing evidence in the Pershing Park case, Nickles has developed a reputation as a bulldog whose afraid to do much more than bark. Now comes WaPo's Mike DeBonis' fine reporting on Nickles' latest fact-finding mission. This time Nickles promised an exhaustive accounting of the failures at DYRS. DeBonis discovered that the investigation had been headed up by Nickles' deputy Robert Hildum–the man who has now taken over DYRS. [Hildum also  ruined two fire fighters' careers with a few lies]. Talk about a conflict of interest. But it gets worse. The report itself may have been riddled with problems:

DeBonis writes:

"The report I've obtained [PDF], dated May 20, is not so much an investigative report with findings, but a six-page memo that makes 'general observations' about the city's youth justice apparatus before delivering more than a dozen recommendations. It's entirely possible that a more detailed report has been completed in the meantime, but DYRS officials raised serious questions about the inquiry in an undated response [PDF] to the May 20 document. For instance: Because the OAG staffers tasked with investigating the agency didn't know how to use the DYRS computer system, the report based some of its recommendations on mistaken findings."

And to think WaPo's editorial board slammed critics of DYRS latest personnel moves as being too hasty! DYRS has become a huge problem, one that warranted more than a six page memo, and quick knee-jerk praise from WaPo's editorial board. At the very least, Councilmember Tommy Wells, whose committee deals with DYRS issues, tells City Desk that the Nickles Report could be a distraction in the city's efforts to reform DYRS and get the agency out of federal court oversight.

But Wells says he hasn't even seen "an official" copy of the report.

"I got a report from the Examiner," Wells says. "I have not gotten an official report even though I asked for it. There does seem like there was this tension between prosecutors and DYRS and Peter Nickles won. It does seem like the report started off with a conclusion."

Wells continues: "This [case] seemed closest to getting out from under the class-action lawsuit...I think the report is a distraction from the bigger picture....I've had concerns about DYRS, but what I need is good evidence, good data. This appears to have been a dispute between two government agencies and the bigger one won. We just need to be sure they don't mess up the [reforms]."

Plaintiffs in the Jerry M. case could make the report, and the installation of Hildum to head DYRS, an issue in court. The plaintiffs in the CFSA federal oversight case successfully argued that they hadn't been consulted when Mayor Adrian Fenty and Co. hired Roque Gerald to head that troubled agency. A judge had required that the plaintiffs be consulted on that hiring. The judge in the CFSA case eventually held Fenty in contempt of court.

Update: DeBonis posted an update this afternoon. Nickles denied Hildum's lead role  in the DYRS investigation. Still, Nickles does not deny that Hildum was involved. He just didn't play the lead role. A copy of a longer more involved report [PDF] revealed a more in-depth analysis of the issues surrounding the troubled agency (if you discount the first two pages of fluff).

Liz Ryan of the Campaign For Youth Justice sent out a press release condemning the OAG's research methods and the OAG's apparent conflict of interest:

“It cannot be ignored that, OAG is investigating how youth offenders are treated, and at the same time, has the authority to prosecute those offenders,” said Daniel Okonkwo, Executive Director of D.C. Lawyers for
Youth. “We ask that the DC Council hold immediate hearings on how this report was done and ask credible academics to comment on what appears to be a shoddy piece of 'research' that has resulted in a major decision being made about a City Department.”

Campaign for Youth Justice also highlights discrepancies in juvenile arrest statistics:

"The OAG said juvenile crime is increasing. The latest figures from the Metropolitan Police Department show that, in absolute terms, juvenile arrests are down -2 percent, compared with the first six months of 2009. Overall, juvenile index (serious) crime has declined slightly over the past five years.  Index crime is the primary indicator reported by the FBI, but OAG’s report carefully avoided reporting overall index crime data in its 'analysis.'"

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:

• Jim and Adrian on Park Road
• Hizzoner doesn't own an iPod, or so he says
• Mid-blink poster

Good morning sweet readers! OMG, it happened again: LL gave birth to a second column, taking a crack at what Kwame Brown's ginormous debt means for the council chairman race. New tidbits: Besides the boats and the cars, Kwame also bought (and sold) a Harley and has some D.C. parking ticket issues. Perhaps less surprising: Marion Barry also has his own credit card problems. Here's some more news for ya:

Does the Madness Ever Stop?: The timing of Errol Arthur's resignation from the city's Board of Elections and Ethics couldn't have been much worse (except maybe Sept. 13). The Post's Timkita Crawart (get it?) report on a burgeoning brouhaha over who will take Arthur's place. "With Mayor Adrian M. Fenty facing council Chairman Vincent C. Gray in this year's Democratic mayoral primary, the selection of board members is quickly becoming entangled in election year politics. Administration officials said the mayor may have to make emergency interim appointments to the board if he and the council, which is on summer recess, are unable to agree on nominees. If that occurs, Fenty will have unilaterally seated a majority of the board charged with overseeing an election in which he is a candidate. 'I don't think that is correct,' Gray said. 'To not have the legislative body involved in something of this enormity is highly questionable.' Fearful that having a powerless board could make it difficult, if not impossible, to certify a winner or oversee a recount, council members are vowing to return from recess to deal with the vacancies. In recent days, council members Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) and David A. Catania (I-At Large) have reached out to the administration to head off a showdown." The Post's editorial board asks all parties involved to play nice: "It was irresponsible of the council to recess for the summer without taking action on this matter. But we would urge Mr. Fenty, given his self-interest in the coming election, not to use his authority to make an emergency appointment."

AFTER THE JUMP: Lotto contracts; blowback for Orange; Ward 4 skirmish...

You Say Sinclair Skinner, I Say Lottery Contract: The Times' Jeffery Anderson has more on the fracas over the awarding of the city's lottery contract, which led Attorney General Peter Nickles to ask the city's inspector general to investigate, essentially, Vincent Gray's role.  "Mr. Nickles said the council chairman allowed, among other things, a substantial portion of the contract to be handed to a 'complete unknown.' He said he has no explanation of why an international gambling company that delivers state-of-the-art systems to lottery organizations worldwide felt compelled to team with an inexperienced firm that had questionable credentials." Gray said Nickles is motivated by "petty political retaliation."

Irony, Thy Name is the Council Chairman Race: It seems Kwame Brown's debts are causing headaches for his opponent, Vincent Orange. First, news breaks from WBJ's Michael Neibauer that two business groups who have endorsed Brown rebuffed the Orange campaign's overtures to rescind their endorsements after Brown's personal debt problems came to light. Now comes word from the Post's Ann Marimow that Orange campaign "finance chairman George Lowe, who cited the 'negative tenor of this campaign,' has become the second person from the campaign to jump ship. Linda Mercado Greene, who was Orange's spokeswoman, resigned from the campaign last month because of her personal history with Orange's chief Democratic rival, council member Kwame Brown. In an e-mail to Orange and other top advisers last week, Lowe wrote that he has 'given this a significant amount of thought... and continue to arrive at the same conclusion and that is that I no longer feel comfortable with the negative tenor of this campaign and will not be a part of such.'" The one glimmer of what LL supposes is good news for Orange: The Board of Trade left open the door to dropping its endorsement of Brown if more bad news comes out. (Uh, that's bad news for Brown, as opposed to still more bad news for Orange.)

War on the Homefront: The Georgetown Dish's Molly Redden has a wrap up of last night's mayoral forum in Ward 4, Fenty's home turf.  "It may be a bad sign for Fenty, then, that mayoral hopeful Sulaimon Brown's enthusiastic recommendation that Fenty 'and his cronies' serve jail time for alleged corruption garnered boisterous applause—more than Fenty's own closing statement did."

Summer Jobs Program Problems Now Less Bad: The Post's Stephanie Lee reports that there are fewer payday "glitches" with the 18,000 youths on the city's payroll for the summer. "In contrast with previous years, the majority of the more than 18,000 youths working in businesses, nonprofit organizations and city agencies across the District were paid in full and on time, said John A. Stokes, a spokesman for the Department of Parks and Recreation. Yet some employees were not paid correctly, city officials said. According to City Council member Michael A. Brown (I-At Large), more than 120 employees of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's Conservation Corps, a program dedicated to cleaning up trash and graffiti in the city, were not paid on time. Mafara Hobson, a spokeswoman for Fenty (D), said that 24 Conservation Corps supervisors claimed on Wednesday that they had pay issues. Stokes said city officials are investigating the complaints of 74 employees, of more than 18,400 total participants, who said they were not paid correctly." Umm, a few weeks ago the city was saying the program totaled 22,000 participants.  Did 4,000 kids quit? LL will look into it and report. (Or better yet, Stokes, if you're reading this, what's the deal?)

What!? Bogus Police Stats: LL missed this yesterday from WTOP's Mark Seagraves. "The union representing the District's 3,600 police officers is calling for an investigation into how the police department reports crime statistics after comments made by Chief Cathy Lanier on WTOP." The Examiner's Freeman Klopott has more: Sexual assaults across the District spiked nearly 50 percent in the first five months of 2010 over the same period last year, according to internal police documents obtained by The Washington Examiner. From Jan. 1 to June 8 there were 82 sexual assaults in the city, up from 56 during the same period in 2009, the documents show. But Chief Cathy Lanier told The Examiner that the document is a 'preliminary report to be used in conjunction with and read within the context of all the reports and totality of the data available to us.' The statistics, she said, are subject to change 'for a variety of reasons, including late reporting, reclassification of some offenses, and discovery that some offenses are unfounded.' Lanier said when all classifications of sexual assaults are accounted for, including misdemeanors, there has been more than a 3 percent decrease when compared with last year. She did not elaborate when pressed to provide specific data showing the decline in sexual assaults."

$1 million for landscaping a library!? [WBJ]

Fenty Schedule: 3:30 Justice Park Affordable Housing Announcement, 1421 Euclid Street NW

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• New DYRS chief and fire investigators
• D.C. unemployment drops—a little
• Some people shouldn't own pets

Good morning sweet readers! LL is on high alert today; his mother-in-law is coming to town. Just everybody stay calm, okay?! The news:

Investigate This: The Washington Times' Jeffery Anderson wins the morning with this report about Attorney General Peter Nickles asking the city's inspector general to investigate how a "firm with questionable credentials and limited experience took a majority share in the city's $38 million lottery contract. Citing recent reports in The Washington Times, Mr. Nickles pointed to contracting irregularities, including the addition of local firm Veterans Services Corp. (VSC) to the lottery pact after the city awarded it to Greek gambling giant Intralot. ... Mr. Nickles indirectly attacked D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, saying that the council 'failed to hold a hearing on any of the proposal packages' submitted by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty after a previous contract award to Intralot. Mr. Gray and others thought a local firm that partnered with Intralot was too close to Mr. Fenty. VSC, Intralot's eventual local partner, is headed by a man with ties to several council members, including Mr. Gray." Anderson has raised plenty of questions about the contract in recent weeks; be sure and check out the related articles linked on the right sidebar. Nickles has been saying since June that he's looking into the contracts, which seemed somewhat questionable given his political loyalties, so passing it off to the IG is probably a good move. Fenty brought up the Times' lottery contract work last week during a debate with Gray, as a counterpunch to Gray's charges of cronyism in the Fenty administration.

AFTER THE JUMP: Fenty vs. Post; Sucker job; Bad Speech...

Fenty and the Post: The Post has posted a video of an interview between the mayor and editorial writer Jo-Ann Armao, where Fenty again takes the blame for not getting word out about his good deeds (umm, sound familiar?).  Fenty stresses that he's doing a good job, which is noticable in part by how unnoticeable D.C.'s problems are compared to the past, when "you could see a glaring problem in D.C. government—from trash pick up, to potholes to road repairs to schools being broken down—anywhere you drive in the city." If he gets a next term, Fenty said he'd continue to focus on education, "infuse energy" into fixing public housing, and work with the guvs in Maryland and Virginia on Metro. Not in the 9-minute interview, probably much to the Gray camp's consternation: Any talk of those pesky park contracts.

Wanted, Sucker for Thankless Job: The D.C. Board of Elections & Ethics is hiring after Chairman Errol Arthur quit, reports Freeman Klopott of the Examiner. "The timing of his leaving the board couldn't be worse. Arthur's last day will be Aug. 2, just weeks before the primary that will likely determine the District's next mayor. The three-member board has been running with only two members since February 2009, and if a replacement can't be found quickly, there won't be a board in place to verify the primary votes. In other words, it'll be as if the primary never happened, officials said." (Since LL is new to the beat anyway, why not just start the whole thing over in September?)

Watch What You Say, Not How You Drive: Metro has suspended a veteran employee after she made offensive remarks at a graduation class for bus drivers, reports Kytja Weir in the Examiner. "Ora Crutchfield made statements against elderly people, young black men and Asians during the April 30 graduation ceremony, according to a Metro investigative report obtained by The Washington Examiner. Such events are typically attended by graduates' friends and family members — of all ages and backgrounds."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!: "Mobile speed cameras were posted to a dozen new sites last week, mostly in Southeast Washington, in a move critics say puts the District on track to net $41 million from tickets," reports Kafia Hosh in the Post.

Jonetta sure does hate the D.C. Council [Examiner]

Area unemployment falls; could it be all those top secret dudes? [WBJ]

Does anyone ride these things? [WTOP]

Mayor's schedule: Kelsey Temple, 10:45 a.m.

Yesterday, Mayor Adrian Fenty fired DYRS' interim-director and replaced him with AG Peter Nickles' "top aide" Robert Hildum. In today's WaPo story, the controversial attorney general had high praise for his side kick:

"Nickles said that Hildum's experience as a prosecutor is an asset at a time when some critics have said that the agency's focus on rehabilitation has come at the expense of public safety. 'I think Rob Hildum brings that terrific approach of balancing rehabilitation with protection of the community,' Nickles said."

But two Fire Department investigators turned whistleblowers may have a different view of Hildum's prosecutorial style. Hildum was instrumental in helping Fire Department brass ruin their careers.

In recent years, Greg Bowyer and Gerald Pennington spoke out repeatedly at what they considered to be shoddy investigative work by the Fire Department, racist hiring practices, and improper prosecutions by the OAG. They called out several cases–including the Eastern Market fire–which they claim were not handled properly by authorities. They have since been demoted for their efforts. Hildum was instrumental in Bowyer's demotion, erroneously claiming in a letter to the U.S. Attorney's Office [see PDF] that the investigator had committed perjury during a trial. Bowyer ended up detailed out of the fire investigations unit. He now works in a unit testing fire hydrants. The U.S. Attorney's Office never brought a perjury charge against Bowyer. [For the full accounting of Bowyer and Pennington's case see this timeline]. Hildum eventually wrote a damaging letter saying he wouldn't support any of Pennington's cases. Hildum's letter writing campaign began after the two filed a complaint against an OAG attorney (who was at one point a very questionable police officer; she resigned from the force while under investigation for covering up mistakes made in a missing person's case).

Pennington has been cleared of all charges but remains out of fire investigations; he's now the most-over qualified firefighter to ever ride an ambulance.

Hildum apparently shares many of the same dickish traits as AG Nickles. In Bowyer's trial board hearing, Hildum admitted that one of the reasons he wrote those critical letters is that Bowyer and Pennington had filed a complaint against one of his own.

Bowyer and Pennington have a civil suit pending in federal court. "The fire department and the Office of Attorney General retaliated against Bowyer and Pennington for refusing to go along with faulty investigations, prosecutions and cover-ups," says their attorney David J. Marshall. "Through their lawsuit, they intend to expose the motivation behind the actions taken against them and to correct the injustice that they suffered."

*classic file photo by Darrow Montgomery.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• Elites win the dawn
• Pizza delay
• The real reason LeBron went to Miami

Good morning sweet readers! Has anyone else seen the trailer for the new movie about Facebook "founder" Mark Zuckerberg? Creepy. Just watching that thing makes LL want to delete his account this instant. But first things first—the news:

Hit the Road, Marc: There's a new boss in town for the city's troubled juvenile justice system. Marc Schindler was shown the door yesterday; he was replaced by Robert Hildum, a top aide to Attorney General Peter Nickles.  "[H]is appointment took many people inside and outside DYRS by surprise and raised fears among some advocates that juvenile justice reform in the District could be set back," reports Henri Cauvin in the Post. Also gone: "Deputy director David Brown and head of internment David Muhammad resigned from the agency, citing uncertainty about its future, a source with knowledge of their decisions told The Washington Examiner," Freeman Klopott reports. Klopott says the move was a power grab by Nickles in a sidebar:  "Neither outgoing DYRS interim director Marc Schindler, nor his predecessor Vincent Schiraldi, reported to Nickles as other agency heads do, one source said. By placing Hildum at the top of DYRS, Fenty has added another agency to Nickles' zone of influence."  LL once visited Nickles' zone of influence. Nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there.

AFTER THE JUMP: Gray's education plan panned; cash rules everything around Gandhi; more on Bullet Proof...

Been There, Done That: DCPS gives D.C. Council Chairman and mayoral candidate Vincent Gray a smackdown over his proposed education plan, reports the Examiner's Leah Fabel. "D.C. Council Chairman and mayoral candidate Vincent Gray's campaign promise of 'birth-to-24' public education is already under way and succeeding, according to school officials aligned with Gray's opponent, Mayor Adrian Fenty." It's hard to tell how much of the pushback from DCPS is the usual sort you'd expect from bureaucrats defending the system after Gray criticized it—and how much has something to do with schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee's obvious preference for a Fenty win. LL prediction: Gray will keep pushing the education plan, even if DCPS says it's redundant; his camp knows he needs to demonstrate commitment to school reforms.

Love Letter:The Examiner's Harry Jaffe has the  news that CFO Natwar Gandhi is composing a letter to the mayor and the council about his recent visit to Wall Street and its bond rating agencies. "The good news is D.C. gets to keep its gold-plated rating for now; the bad news is that if our politicians add to the debt and keep dipping into the savings account, the ratings will go south and the cost of borrowing will go north and add millions more to the cost of government. Gandhi has tried to be a reliable 'Dr. No,' forcing the pols to spend within their means. He needs help now from the only council member to veto the budget: Jack Evans, chair of the finance committee. As a tag team, they might be able to rein in the pols freely spending our cash. Otherwise, the city goes broke—or we pay higher taxes."

Pay No Attention to What I Said Last Time: Speaking of Evans, on D.C. Wire, Nikita Stewart reports he pops up in the latest round of Fenty TV ads. "On Saturday, the Fenty campaign unveiled three new 15-second testimonials, including one in which Evans (D-Ward 2) addresses one of the criticisms of Fenty: 'Some people say that Adrian Fenty doesn't play well with others.' 'Some people' would include Evans. In November, he told The Washington Post that Fenty has always tended to 'operate alone.' In 2006, when Fenty successfully ran against then-Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp, who was endorsed by Evans, the Ward 2 council member made a number of unflattering statements about Fenty."

If You Build It, Pols Will Come: NBC 4's Tom Sherwood braved the heat to report on a library groundbreaking in Ward 8 yesterday.  Both Fenty and Gray are taking credit for the project. LL invites readers to check out the awkward bro-hug at the 10-second mark.

What's In a Name? The Post's Mike DeBonis has even more to share about Kwame Brown's boat, Bullet Proof:  "Brown insists the name is 'not about violence.' Rather, Brown said in interviews that his wife, Marcia, named the boat. He was somewhat fuzzy on the precise inspiration, but he said it was a reference to President Bill Clinton—'a comedy type of thing' involving either Chris Rock or Saturday Night Live. (Brown has worked in the federal Commerce Department during the Clinton administration.)"

Crash photos [NBC4]

Proposed pot site draws concern [NEWS 8]

Murder house for sale [FOXDC]

Mayor and the Council, no public schedule

"He started removing the fence last week," Gray campaign spokeswoman Traci Hughes tells City Desk.

Hughes says a city inspector visited Gray's property and told him that the fence at his Hillcrest home could be brought into compliance if the candidate merely tore down a piece of  it. "Just the portion of the fence at the front of the house," says Hughes. Gray began taking care of the task last Friday. According to Hughes, he had plenty of time. Though the politician was previously told that he was required to bring his illegal fence up to code by July 9, the inspector who visited Gray's property informed him the actual deadline is July 31. (Which puts Gray a couple of weeks ahead of schedule.)

Mayor Adrian Fenty's campaign has, occasionally, tried to make the fence into a political issue; Attorney General Peter Nickles has said Gray shouldn't have installed it without seeking a permit. Technically, Fenty oversees the Public Space Committee, which ordered Gray to tear down or modify the fence. Gray, for his part, probably wishes he'd never put the $12,600 thing up in the first place.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

• Dan Snyder bragged his wealth came from diabetes and cancer victims?
• Feeding the homeless has never been so sexy
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Good morning D.C.! How about "The Bachelorette" last night? Crazy, right? Well, don’t spoil it for LL—who was stuck at a mayoral forum in Ward 6, hosted by the Public Interest Civic Association Forum. If LL had to guess who would have been sent home without a rose based on their performance at the forum, he'd pick Mayor Adrian Fenty. Why? Because Hizzoner didn’t show up. Or maybe he was there, maybe he’s everywhere, in our hearts, like somebody else we all know...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Speaking of hospitals, a potential buyer? [DeBonis]

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

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

Cindy Sheehan cleared. [AP]

Reagan statue maybe coming to Reagan Airport. [FOXDC]

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

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

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

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still, the councilmembers had a cathartic couple of hours, in which they expressed how “deeply disappointed” and “extremely concerned” they were about the settlement payout to a company that’s owned by a frat brother and friend of Mayor Adrian Fenty and is currently under council investigation. “I’m not appalled at anything Peter Nickles does anymore, he’s so outrageous in his conduct,” said Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry. (Which reminded Loose Lips of a certain word... What is it? Ah, yes: irony!)

But while the council ranted, the 71-year-old Nickles was enjoying a dip in the Atlantic.

Reached by LL on his cell, Nickles said the water was “a little cold, it’s about 60 degrees.”

For his part, Nickles faulted the council for trying to score political points when they knew he was on vacation, by bashing a settlement that he says is totally legit and a great deal for the citizens of the District of Columbia. LL isn't sure yet about the total legit-ness of the settlement, or whether it's a great deal for D.C. citizens, but Nickles does seem to be onto something with his critique of the timing—leave it to the D.C. Council to schedule a hearing designed to provide political theater and a venue for outrage when everyone involved knows the subject of the outrage won't be there!

Then again, Nickles could have tried to play along, and sent one of the "experts" he said helped him negotiate the settlement. But he said he wasn’t going to subject any of his staff to the council’s “ridiculous harassment” in his absence.

“If they want to hear from the horse’s mouth, they can wait until Monday,” he said.

And as to Barry’s criticism, Nickles said: “He doesn’t know anything, he’s a has-been.”

Ouch.