The New Teacher on the Block sums up Rhee's testimony last week:

"So it boils down to this: Michelle Rhee intentionally and illegally fabricated a budget shortfall in order to fire teachers. Around the time of the RIF she blamed the City Council for the lack of funds, but all this shows that there was room and time for DCPS to make adjustments (not hiring 900 new folks?) to the system before a RIF became necessary."

Dee Does the District has their own reaction to Rhee's testimony:

"I don't know whether to throw my laptop off my balcony or weep. I think instead I'll just go to bed, speechless."

Read More "Our Morning Roundup Shocker: Teachers Not Pleased With Rhee’s Testimony" »

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

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

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

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

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McKinley Technology High School lost 15 staff members on Oct. 3 to controversial "reductions in force," an effort by Chancellor Michelle Rhee to fix what she says is a budget deficit in District schools. The teachers were escorted out of the school by police, as if they posed a danger to their pupils. Students were angered, and hundreds of them left school to denounce the moves, garnering the attention of the media, teachers advocates, and the D.C. Council.

Over a week later, the episode still casts its shadow at McKinley. “The whole atmosphere totally changed,” according to senior Jessy Beach, an organizer of the protests. “You can sense the dreariness,” says Kyler Jackson, a sophomore. "Overall, it's just very gloomy," says senior Ikechukwu Umez-Eronini.

Read More "Students: Post-RIF McKinley High School “Dreary”" »

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

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

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

Prince of Petworth posts on the effort/petition to save the Black Rooster. One reader's response:  "i LOVE the black rooster. if the peace corps really closes it down…i just…i might just not go to happy hour anymore, ever, anywhere. and that would make me terribly sad. save the rooster!"

Penn Quarter Living debuts a new column called High Rise Life. The first one is on elevator etiquette. It's not so much a column as bad comment bait of which I am sometimes guilty of. Here's a sampling from PQL's rookie effort on sharing an elevator: "Fob in and offer to push buttons or don’t offer and make sure others belong in the building? Remind neighbors that bicycles and their owners usually ride the freight elevator or zip it? Heel your dog or let him/her sniff around and be friendly? What is good neighborly elevator etiquette?" Fascinating.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: A Metrobus Strikes Again" »

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

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"Jack Evans Says He Still Supports Peter Nickles," "Councilmember Alexander Raises Concerns Over AG Nickles."

Morning all. Last night may have been National Night Out but for Mayor Fenty, it's Greek Week. WaPo breaks the stunning news that the District government actually paid the $37,000 tab for his Kappa Alpha Psi's welcoming party. The bash was held on Monday night and featured an open bar, crab cakes, red velvet cupcakes, and jazz bands tooting on two floors. The Post makes no mention of beer bongs and togas. The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development had put out the dough via a grant. AG Peter Nickles apparently has forced Fenty and Co. to reimburse the city for the shindig. But Nickles swears Fenty knew nothing about the city's involvement. Key graphs:

"Attorney General Peter J. Nickles said he looked into the matter Tuesday morning at the request of the mayor. 'I concluded immediately that this was not proper,' said Nickles, who said the society reimbursed the money that morning.

Although the mayor attended the affair and was on stage as fraternity members thanked him for paying for the event, 'he didn't put two and two together that this was money that had come from the city,' Nickles said."

SEX ED NEWS: The District plans to expand its STD testing program into all public high schools. WaPo has the full story on this progressive move. There are plenty of reasons to do this. Key graphs: "The program conducted last year at eight high schools found that 13 percent of about 3,000 students tested positive for an STD, mostly gonorrhea or chlamydia, according to the D.C. Department of Health. The expansion places D.C. public schools in the vanguard of a growing number of urban school districts that test adolescents for STDs. About 12,000 students attend public high schools in the District." The news came within hours of DC Appleseed releasing its report card on how the District is dealing with the HIV/AIDS crisis (for public education, the District received a C+). WaPo covers the DC Appleseed's findings noting the overall positive scores: "But the report took Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to task for failing to give the disease more visibility. 'While Mayor Fenty and his administration deserve recognition for the continued support of . . . numerous HAA initiatives, his public appearances and statements about the epidemic have fallen short of his enthusiasm for action inside the government,' it said."

THE NEW YORK TIMES IS ON OUR SIDE: The paper's editorial board comes down hard against Congress and its attempts to meddle in our needle exchange program. The editorial dubbed the meddling an "outrage."

NATIONAL NIGHT OUT: As we mentioned above, National Night Out happened. This meant another All-Hands-On-Deck effort from the D.C. Police Department. Police visibility was high! But News Channel 8 reports that the District still endured at least one violent incident. Three people were injured during a shooting in Southeast shortly after 10 p.m. News Channel 8 reports: "Fire officials say two 38-year-old women and a 17-year-old boy have each been shot in the leg."

AFTER THE JUMP: A power outage, more Metro news, Harry Jaffe pens a quick profile of the judge in the Pershing Park case, and much, much more.

Read More "Paying For Fenty’s Frat Party: Loose Lips Daily" »

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

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---"Pershing Park Case: Now It's All About The Coverup; Nickles Faces Huge Test In U.S. District Court," and "Councilmember Cheh Calls For Nickles To Resign."

Morning all. LL has biked to Dewey Beach leaving me to takeover the LL Daily franchise for a week. LL was kind enough to e-mail me a handy rundown of what he does to fuel this beast. I am no LL. So please, take it easy on me. It's also August.

Mayor Fenty was involved in a car accident on Sunday evening. Thankfully, he wasn't driving his Le Car. Fox is reporting that "No injuries were reported in the crash on Broad Branch Road in northwest Washington. A spokeswoman for Fenty says he was behind the wheel of a sport utility vehicle when another vehicle apparently went through a stop sign and pulled in front of the mayor's SUV. There was minor damage to the vehicles." (WTOP has same).

Columbia Heights is again the focus of a potentially controversial shooting. WJLA is reporting that a Special Police Officer (i.e. a private security guard) shot and killed a resident during a confrontation on Friday night. WUSA9 is also on the story. The D.C. Police Department has issued more info on the shooting via a press release:

"At approximately 9:06 pm on Friday, July 31, 2009, officers from the Third District responded to the 1400 block of Girard Street, NW, to investigate the report of a shooting. Upon arrival they discovered an adult male lying in front of a building at that location suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. The victim was transported by personnel from the DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The decedent in this case has been identified as 31-year-old Michael Dwayne Parker of the 4000 block of Livingston Road, SE.

A preliminary investigation into this case indicates that the decedent may have been fatally shot at the above location during an alleged confrontation with a Special Police Officer employed by a private company. It must be noted that all of the circumstances surrounding this case remain under active investigation and that all facts will be subsequently presented to the United States Attorney’s Office for their review."

Last week, the D.C. Council gave its OK on that huge hotel development near the Convention Center. The Post offers a fine rundown of the development's lengthy backstory and its major selling point---that it may revive Shaw. Key graph: "The hotel, promised when the District broke ground on the convention center in 1998, will stretch more than 1 million square feet at Ninth Street and Massachusetts Avenue NW. It will rise 14 stories, a mix of modern glass and steel and brick dating to 1916 in a design that incorporates the old headquarters of the American Federation of Labor, a landmark building on the otherwise vacant property." Honestly, how many major projects does it take to develop Shaw? Not sure if a big shiny hotel is it.

The D.C. Council also voted to increase unemployment benefits (Washington Business Journal, WTOP , WJLA, NC8).

Hope and change remain the main narratives on the education front. The Post's Bill Turque breaks down the different groups taking over a number of District public schools this coming year. NYC's Friends of Bedford is set to takeover Coolidge and Dunbar. Friendship Public Charter Schools is taking over Anacostia High. Key graph: "Experts say one of the lessons learned is that starting a school from scratch is usually easier than taking control of an existing one, where political feuds, bureaucratic inertia and scar tissue from past reform attempts can make change difficult." And then there's this: "Friendship and Friends of Bedford will face that challenge at Anacostia, Dunbar and Coolidge. Although they have autonomy on matters of curriculum, instruction and teacher professional development, the schools' staff." Meanwhile, the Post reports that MOCO expanded its summer school programming.

AFTER THE JUMP: More Fedex Field controversy this time over this past Saturday's Paul McCartney show, an upcoming hearing is scheduled over the fire hydrant-water-flow issues, and so much more!

Read More "Mystery Shooting In Columbia Heights: Loose Lips Daily" »

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

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

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

This morning, LL was all over Fenty's announced District gov job cuts. Our aggressive political scribe reported: "Of the remaining 776 employees the mayor is proposing to lay off, 250 are in DCPS—mostly teachers aides and support staff, Tangherlini says." This may not seem like scary news, but it is.

I know what your thinking: teachers aides and support staff seem like easy cuts. What the hell do teacher aides do? What does support staff mean? Let me guess what they do: they help handle over-crowded classrooms, offer tutoring, lesson planning and generally help teachers get through the day. I'm not sure about support staff. But it could mean social workers, guidance counselors, secretaries, and librarians.

Do we really want to cut funding for these jobs? These cuts are coming on the heels of all those school closures last year. Catania made the argument today on the Politics Hour that enrollment is down at DCPS and that more and more kids are going into charter schools. But for every successful charter school, there are stories like City Lights Public Charter which recently had to close its doors before the school year even finished.

Read More "Fenty’s Proposed Layoffs Should Avoid DCPS" »