The Redskins announced their training camp schedule yesterday: "MIKE SHANAHAN AND THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS TO OPEN REDSKINS TRAINING CAMP PRESENTED BY RE/MAX ON JULY 29" is how the press release is headlined.

"Mike Shanahan and the Washington Redskins" are opening camp? And not just "the Washington Redskins"? The head coach's name now comes before the team in official announcements?

There is no "I" in team; but there is in "Top Billing!"

Good for Shanny. But this name change could cause problems with the TV people. NBC will now have to bill the opening game as "Dallas Cowboys vs. Mike Shanahan and the Washington Redskins."

Though, to be fair to the new coach, there is precedent for moniker switches of this sort. Just not in football. This stuff happens all the time in pop music, when the lead singer's head gets too big. Like when the Supremes went to"Diana Ross and the Supremes"? (And who can't forget "Scandal featuring Patty Smyth"?)

And for all these years we thought John Elway was the Diva!

The "presented by Re/Max" portion of the camp announcement, meanwhile, is nauseating, but not surprising. I don't know if anybody's ever sold naming rights to a football practice before. But this is a Dan Snyder Production, after all. And Snyder sells more naming rights than Re/Max does three-bedroom ramblers. My fave: Snyder wasn't satisfied with just having a scoreboard on his game broadcasts, not without a commercial attached to it. So he went out and got a sponsor for the scoreboard. Then one sponsor wasn't enough. So to get the scores from around the league, listeners first had to put up with “The GMRI scoreboard brought to you by McDonald's Restaurants."

A commercial within a commercial! Brilliant!

Yeah, for all Snyder's talk about the Redskins tradition, you know he'd have his team's uniforms looking like a Nascar fender if he could get away with it.

Here's the full release, as posted on Snyder's web site:

MIKE SHANAHAN AND THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS TO OPEN REDSKINS TRAINING CAMP PRESENTED BY RE/MAX ON JULY 29

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA – Head Coach Mike Shanahan will kick off his inaugural training camp with the Washington Redskins on Thursday, July 29, at Redskins Park in the heart of

Loudoun County, the team announced today. Fifteen practices will be open to the public, highlighted by Fan Appreciation Day on Saturday, August 7, at noon.

Before coming to training camp, Redskins fans should fill out their Training Camp Fan Invitation, which will be available on www.redskins.com beginning on July 6. Fans should print out the invitation and bring it with them when they visit Redskins Park.

The practices listed below are open to the public free of charge. Parking lots will open approximately 90 minutes prior to the scheduled start of practice and gates will open one hour prior to the start of each practice.

Thursday July 29 4:00 p.m. Practice

Friday July 30 8:30 a.m. Practice

Saturday July 31 8:30 a.m. Practice

Sunday August 1 8:30 a.m. Practice

Monday August 2 8:30 a.m. Practice

Tuesday August 3 8:30 a.m. Practice

Wednesday August 4 8:30 a.m. Practice

Thursday August 5 8:30 a.m. Practice

Saturday August 7 Fan Appreciation Day at Noon

Tuesday August 10 8:30 a.m. Practice

Wednesday August 11 8:30 a.m. Practice

Sunday August 15 Practice (TBD)

Monday August 16 8:30 a.m. Practice

Wednesday August 18 8:30 a.m. Practice

Thursday August 19 Practice (TBD) – Camp Breaks

One indictment concerns three individuals: Yitbarek Syume, Berhane Leghese, and Amanuel Ghirmazion. They have been charged with bribing and conspiring to bribe the chairperson of the taxicab commission—Leon Swain Jr., who then cooperated with authorities. If convicted, the three each face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. These three individuals are alleged to have:

knowingly and willfully conspired and agreed together and with each other, and with other persons both known and unknown to the grand jury, to commit the following offenses against the United States: that is to directly and indirectly, corruptly give, offer, and promise things of value to the Chairperson, with intent to influence official acts....[they] agreed to give approximately $220,000 in cash to the Chairperson in return for the Chairperson's agreement to issue numerous multi-vehicle taxicab company licenses.

According to the indictment, they agreed to pay the Chairperson approximately $10,000 per license for multi-vehicle taxicab companies.

The indictment states:

The principal role of Ghirmazion was to raise money for the scheme; the principal role of Leghese was to prepare documents associated with the corruptly obtained multi-vehicle taxicab company licenses; and the principal role of Syume was to arrange for and make a series of bribe payments to the Chairperson.

The indictment goes on to state:

It was further part of the conspiracy that attempts were made to obtain corruptly large numbers of licenses for multi-vehicle taxicab companies from the Chairperson.

It was further part of the conspiracy that the DEFENDANTS intended to sell some of the licenses for multi-vehicle taxicab companies that they had corruptly obtained to finance their scheme, and to hold the balance of the licenses in anticipation of the licenses becoming more valuable.

*The bribery began in September 2007 with Syume giving the Chairperson a list of seven cab companies which he requested "licensing without proper authorization." That same day—Sept. 5, 2007—Syume gave $14,000 in cash in exchange for the requested licences.

*On Sept. 6, according to the indictment, Syume gave two more envelopes of cash to the chairperson totaling about $8,000.

*On Sept. 25, Syume received the licenses from the chairperson.

Syume continued to give the chairperson thousands of dollars in cash through October. For example:

On or about October 17, 2007, Syume again put a folded newspaper containing approximately $3,000 in cash into the Chairperson's automobile as partial payment for multi-vehicle taxicab company licenses.

On Nov. 8, 2007, Syume and Leghese, the indictment states, discussed via phone selling the licenses at $150,000 a piece. Less than a week later, Syume "gave a shopping bag containing approximately $59,880 in cash."

The bribes continued into the spring of 2008. The indictment ends in July 2008. But not before producing this chilling entry into the court record:

On or about July 5, 2008, Syume and Leghese spoke by telephone, at which time they discussed their concerns about the Chairperson; Leghese stated: 'We have to be careful that [the Chairperson] will not play any games, do you understand?'

The second indictment contains a whopping 37 defendants. It appears that much of their allegedly illegal activities are of a more recent vintage—last month:

From between Sept. 3 to Sept. 28, 2009, the defendants allegedly conspired to "directly and indirectly, corruptly give, offer, and promise things of value to the Chairperson, with intent to influence official acts, that is the DEFENDANTS agreed to give cash in various amounts to the Chairperson in return for his agreement to issue taxicab operator licenses to the DEFENDANTS.

Let's just say, the indictment paints a picture of a very well organized crew. The taxicab industry has failed to influence the public and, say, Mayor Fenty on meters. But they had this bribery thing down:

On or about September 3, 3009, Yitbarek Syume and Suraphel Ayalew met the Chairperson, at which time they discussed the method by which they would obtain corruptly taxicab operator licenses, including the preparation of applications, the location for meetings, and the amount of the bribes to be paid to the Chairperson.

On Sept. 11, a huge number of the defendants met the chairperson "at which time they paid cash to him for taxicab operator licenses that they were attempting to obtain corruptly."

A week later, Syume handed over $51,000 in cash to the chairperson. That same day, Syume and others received licenses. They repeated this several more times.

The final bit of action listed in the indictment took place on Sept. 28, 2009:  "Yitbarek Syume met the Chairperson at which time he discussed the logistics for the receipt of taxicab operator licenses by himself and the other co-conspirators."

The defendants have been charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, aiding and abetting, and "Causing an Act to be Done." If convicted, each of these defendants face up to five years in prison and a five of up to $250,000.

"The allegations contained in these indictments are serious–describing alleged corrupt activities at the heart of our taxicab industry–and reflect our determination to root out corruption in our government," stated Acting U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips in a press release. "Working closely with the FBI, we will continue to investigate this matter fully."

Twenty-seven defendants have been arrested so far. Five search warrants have been executed as well.

Chenille Spencer, once a regular ladyfriend of Marion Barry's—and a regular with him at Player's Lounge—described her connection to Barry in 2006 as "loyal." She remains so. In a phone call to Washington City Paper to "speak on the the police and the way Mr. Barry was treated," Spencer defended her former flame and current friend.

"Mr. Barry is like a tree and all of us are the branches and leaves," she says. "I am just one of the apples that never fell off." Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, the woman at the center of the latest Barry scandal, "needs to know that she has to accept certain things. She will never be able to have a public dinner with him....She needs to accept the fact that Mr. Barry is loved by reverends, bishops, friends, me....You'll never have him all to yourself."

But in speaking of Watts-Brighthaupt, Spencer got off track after prefacing her comments with: "I have nothing to say about Donna whatsoever."

Her main concern, she says, is how Barry was treated by the U.S. Park Police, who arrested and booked him for stalking Watts-Brighthaupt on the night of July 4. (The charge was later dropped by the U.S. Attorney's Office.) "When he came home from jail, he did not have any shoestrings [in his shoes]. They still have his car. They still have his cell phone....It's been a major inconvenience for him."

The ex-mayor and Ward 8 councilmember was detained for "well over an hour" and did not get home until 4:30 a.m., she says. "They took it too far. It was jut a simple domestic dispute," Spencer continues.

Watts-Brighthaupt didn't understand that and didn't understand Barry. "When you're with that man, you want him all to yourself," she says, but that's not how it is going to be. "That's just his personality."

Spencer signed off with a label previously given to her—"arm candy"—and a final message for Watts-Brighthaupt: "Tell her to come correct or don't come at all. We want a drama-free life. Believe me she is going to be scrutinized."

*Reported by Mike DeBonis. Photograph by Darrow Montgomery.

As luck would have it, the W.T. Woodson grad and Auburn University star signed a contract with the Texas Rangers and left the Cape to mere hours before game time to start his pro career.

But while I was at the game and talking with locals about the Kettleers' history, more than one fan mentioned that Bill Richardson, the current New Mexico governor and burgeoning scandal magnet, was on the team in the 1960s.

Richardson, I was told, was so good that he'd been drafted by the Kansas City Athletics.

I'm no scout, and had never seen Richardson, who I was told still hangs out in Cotuit in the summer and catches Kettleers games, perform in anything other than street clothes. But I can't say the guy ever struck me as pro athlete material.

But I Googled him when I got home and found references to Richardson's being picked by the A's and being headed for the Majors before injuries derailed his baseball dreams and sent him into a political career.

In one profile about his days playing with Cotuit, Richardson uses the old "boast-disguised-as-self-deprecation" tool that all good politicians have at the ready, treating the interviewer for a small New England publication to a remembrance of the time that future New York Yankees great Thurman Munson jacked a monster home run off him during a Cape Cod League game.

Well, Richardson's been in the headlines lately for an investigation into allegedly peddling his influence for campaign contributions.

And if nothing else comes out of the inquiry, my lack of faith in the politico's athletic potential has already been confirmed: Richardson, amid the blood-in-the-water convergence of media types since he withdrew his name from consideration for a cabinet post in the Obama administration, has been forced to admit that the baseball draft portion of his bio is phony.

An investigation into Richardson's baseball claims by the Albuquerque Journal uncovered that the only source for all the A's stories was the governor himself.

When confronted with the fact that no evidence to confirm his oft-told tale exists, Richardson gave as pathetic a confession as possible: "After being notified of the situation and after researching the matter," he said, "I came to the conclusion that I was not drafted by the A's."

(Munson died in a plane crash in 1979, so he isn't around to say Richardson never really served him a gopher ball all those years ago on the Cape. Pity.)

Briefly back to Cotuit guys who really were drafted by Major League teams: After leaving the Kettleers in July, Bianucci hit .316 in 31 games with a Rangers rookie league affiliate in Spokane, Wash.

He keeps that up, and he'll never be a governor.