Get ready for the Trout Report.
Nope—not referring to conditions of backwoods Montana streams here. LL refers to the investigative findings of attorney Robert P. Trout, whom the D.C. Council has engaged pro bono to investigate the irregular award of $80 million or more in parks projects to firms with ties to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty.
Trout [...]
In their probe of the discovery abuses, plaintiffs lawyers in one of the Pershing Park cases may have found new evidence of alleged criminal conduct by District employees. In early February, a District employee admitted in deposition that they destroyed materials at the order of their supervisor, according to court records.
Plaintiffs lawyers in the Chang [...]
LL bets that Ben Jacobs, the principal owner and chief executive of developer JBG, fancies himself a guy who can play hardball. After all, in order to settle a business dispute with Marriott Corp., he filed a lawsuit against the city that's held up the long-awaited convention-center hotel project. That's hardball.
Well, Ben, meet Peter Nickles. [...]
On Feb. 8, plaintiffs in the last remaining Pershing Park case filed a request that would broaden the scope of the U.S. District Court's inquiry into the case's discovery abuse. Plaintiffs attorneys are asking the judge to look into the alleged issues with the D.C. Police Department's video coverage of the mass arrests at Pershing [...]
Everything's closed, we got tons of snow, there's more in the forecast. Yeah, we know all of the above.
What we really want to know is what happened within the administration of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty between roughly 5 pm and 9 pm. At the former hour, his people put out the word that the [...]
The snow has us wholly obsessed
But lest we get bored and depressed
I've taken the time
(Surprise! It'll rhyme)
Assignments, for some, I'll suggest:
How loudly the bell seems to toll
Yet Fenty has not read that poll!
I know, there's this storm
But seems like poor form
Ain't being informed, like, your role?
Seems AG will soon be elected
An outcome P. Nickles rejected
I [...]
After yesterday's 12-1 D.C. Council vote to turn his job from a mayoral appointment to an elected position, Attorney General Peter Nickles called the legislation a disaster.
Councilmember Phil Mendelson says Nickles flip-flopped on the issue.
During yesterday's run up to the vote, Mendelson circulated a memo to his colleagues on the dais providing a timeline of Nickles' [...]
Today, the D.C. Council passed legislation that would make the city's Attorney General an elected position. By a 12-1 margin, the council approved the measure. If enacted, the AG would serve a four-year term and must have significant experience litigating in the District. The Home Rule charter would have to be amended by Congress before [...]
A top union official isn't satisfied with Michelle Rhee's explanations thus far of her controversial comments to Fast Company magazine.
Yesterday, Rhee explained that when she described "teachers...who had had sex with children," she referred to a teacher that was being investigated for sexual misconduct at the time of the layoffs. But George Parker, president of [...]
Yesterday, Kristopher Baumann won another two-year term as Chairman of the FOP/MPD Labor Committee.This will be his third term playing the sharpest thorn in the side of police brass. The preliminary vote tally shows that the rank and file more than approve of Baumann's work. Out of the 1800 or so that voted, Baumann received [...]
Talk about sending the lamb to the slaughterhouse. On January 7, Office of Unified Communications employee Denise Alexander sat down for a deposition in the last remaining Pershing Park case. Let's just say she was ill-prepared for any questioning.
But first a little background on Alexander: Two years ago, she had submitted an affidavit [PDF] swearing [...]
A few months ago, Det. Paul Hustler came forward and stated in his sworn affidavit that he had heard D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey give the order to arrest the 400 individuals in Pershing Park on Sept. 27, 2002. The testimony had contradicted the former chief's sworn-statements in which he denied ordering the arrests.
Ramsey [...]
Selena Walker, the D.C. emergency medical technician who decided to take a gravely injured man to a distant hospital so she could run some errands afterward, was fired illegally by the city, the District's high court ruled today [PDF].
That man was David Rosenbaum, the New York Times reporter who was assaulted on a Chevy Chase [...]
"As I walked closer, about five or six feet away from them, I heard Chief Ramsey say, 'We're going to lock them up and teach them a lesson.'"
This quote taken from Det. Paul Hustler's affidavit filed in mid-November in the Pershing Park case didn't just contradict former Chief Charles Ramsey's previous testimony that he did [...]
5. Attend couples' counseling with Peter Nickles. The attorney general, quite simply, does not like us very much. The District's top lawyer—the man who called Councilmember Mary Cheh an "angry woman"—seems kind of angry himself, if you ask us. He won't speak to certain members of our staff (i.e., Jason Cherkis), whom he recently dubbed, [...]
