The Washington Post is reporting that the now infamous anti-tax, anti-Obama crazy tea-baggers were turned away this morning by officials. Their protest at Lafayette Square and the dumping of a million tea bags had to be scraped. The Post reports:

"There will be no tea-dumping in the Potomac River -- that's illegal -- but organizers of today's national tea party tax protest found out this morning that so is their plan to dump a million tea bags in Lafayette Square to demonstrate displeasure at government spending and tax policies.

Protesters, using a rented truck to haul the million tea bags, began unloading their cargo at the park this morning but were told by officials that they didn't have proper permits and must move the tea. They complied with the order but are still considering what to do with the load."

Hilarious. Politico had reported that a lot of the establishment Republicans weren't so inclined to join the tea parties that are allegedly taking place all over the country. Paul Krugman has called the tea party fake trend "embarrassing."

12:07 update: MSNBC is reporting that organizers have told them that the presenting of the tea bags will take place at libertarian think tank instead of Lafayette Square. Big time letdown. Salon's Mike Madden is twittering crazy quotes from the protest(s).

12:35 p.m.: From Madden: "MCs now pleading with counterprotesters to clear out from in front of stage."

Yesterday, students at the University of the District of Columbia marched and camped in at the school's Van Ness campus to protest steep hikes in the school's tuition. Today the Board of Trustees for the University of the District of Columbia is voting on that plan, which would raise tuition for students in four-year programs from about $3,800 to $7,000 yearly.

Sounds shocking, but a few things don't get mentioned, or get mentioned very briefly, in most press accounts.

Read More "UDC Tuition Hikes: Get Over It" »

Turns out Ward 3 Councilmember Mary M. Cheh won't be moving emergency legislation tomorrow to put additional restrictions on residential protests after all.

LL reported Friday, and the Examiner reported today, about Cheh's proposed bill, which aimed to give police the ability to put the kibosh on allegedly hostile protests by a group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. Labor and civil-rights groups raised immediate questions.

She did not cite those concerns this morning, when, at a council press conference, Cheh told reporters she won't be pressing the issue at tomorrow's council meeting. She explained that she has met with police and there's been an effort to clarify how existing laws can be enforced. "Given that there's been movement there," she says, "what I will do is I will not move forward on Tuesday."

Cheh says she still plans to explore permanent legislation when the new council term begins in January.

LL continues to follow up on Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh's plans to impose new restrictions on protests at private homes in the wake of alleged intimidation by animal-rights protesters.

He just spoke to John Boardman, a leader with Local 25 of UNITE HERE, a union representing hotel and restaurant employees. He and his union's membership were key in getting the noise bill heavily amended.

Though neither he nor anyone else has seen the legislation that Cheh plans to introduce next week, he raised some general concerns about restricting protests at private homes. Says Boardman, "I can think personally of any number of times where on any given issue being in front of someone's house is very powerful."

Read More "More on Cheh’s Home Protests Bill" »

Remember the noise bill---when the D.C. Council attempted earlier this year to restrict amplified protests held in public space? After months of wrangling, restrictions were passed after being severely diluted thanks to labor community objections.

Now prepare to revisit some similar ground: Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh yesterday informed her colleagues that she intends to introduce emergency legislation at next Tuesday's council meeting that would "prohibit targeted picketing of an individual's home in a residential neighborhood."

The proximate reason for such legislation, the notice reads, is that "[r]ecently a series of demonstrators have targeted individual home[s] in the District with loud, harassing, and abusive picketing practices."

Cheh, in an interview, says the protests in question have been by allies of an animal-rights organization called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. The group seeks to shut down Huntingdon Life Sciences, a multinational corporation that performs product-safety testing on animals, by targeting the company's customers, investors, or various other parties connected to its operations.

Read More "Animal Rights Protests Have Cheh Mulling Restrictions" »

William Ayers' appearance last night at All Souls Unitarian Church last night has been well-covered---today's Post has a thorough accounting of Ayers' day in D.C., as does the Wall Street Journal. Neither story, though, mentions the biggest noise the audience made during the evening. When Jeff Smith, executive director of DC Voice and moderator for the evening, asked Ayers an audience member's question about the DCPS, the mention of Michelle Rhee's name evoked a prolonged hiss from the audience. Ayers is a scholar of public education, and though he professed ignorance of Rhee and the DCPS, he's not so big on Teach for America, of which Rhee is an alum. He described TFA as a "mixed blessing," arguing that its method of alternative teacher certification has a built-in classist subtext: that teachers in low-income school districts aren't qualified, requiring well-heeled college grads to be brought in to fix things.

If the sanctuary was largely filled with people concerned about the state of public education, the sidewalk outside the church was filled with folks who aren't letting go of Ayers' connection to the Weather Underground. Raoul Deming, a bearded, middle-aged man who drove to the event from Philadelphia, held up a sign reading, "AYERS LIED PEOPLE DIED NO JUSTICE NO PEACE." The end of the election cycle hasn't lessened his anger at Ayers' attachment to terrorist activity. "These people killed people," he says.

Conservative rageblog the Jawa Report has footage of Deming and a few other protesters in front of the church: