Wonderland Bandits: Five years ago, a gang of men rushed into Wonderland Ballroom, in Columbia Heights, wearing masks and carrying guns, and robbed patrons and employees alike. Apparently that sort of thing still works; three armed robbers held the bar up again last night, around 1:45 a.m. Police apprehended one of the suspects shortly afterwards, but two others remain at large. Perhaps the bar should implement a no masks allowed policy? -3

Fugazi Clan Ain't Nothin' To Fuck With: When it first appeared last month, the Fugazi/Wu-Tang Clan mashup "Sleep Rules Everything Around Me," by Wugazi, seemed like it had to be a one-off project. Sure, mixing the Staten Island rap collective and the Dischord Records stalwarts sounded amazing, but how many times could you do it? A few more songs trickled out of Tumblr, though, and today, a whole album, 13 Chambers, arrived. Maybe this means the long-hoped-for Fugazi reunion can also feature a Wu-Tang show! +2

Youth On Fire: Two summers ago, an alarming spate of robberies occurred, all with similar details—kids wearing blue Summer Youth Employment Program t-shirts would be mugged on payday, by people who knew they were in the District government-sponsored jobs corps and had debit cards loaded with cash. Now the city's trying to prevent a repeat: Firefighters will deploy on Wednesday paydays to help keep kids out of trouble. No word on what will happen if the firefighters are also mugged, or if they have to leave to put out a fire. -1

No We Can't: The White House did nothing about the fact that the District government would have closed along with the federal government back in April (the last time our national leaders teetered on the edge of a calamity). And when it came time to negotiate a deal to keep things operating, President Barack Obama bowed to GOP demands to ban local spending on abortions. They're at it again; the White House says House Republicans' plans to keep the abortion ban in next year's budget undermines Home Rule, but won't threaten to veto the D.C. spending bill over it. Keep it up, Mr. President, and Mark Plotkin will really be upset about the fact you won't put "Taxation Without Representation" license plates on your limo. -3

Yesterday's Needle rating: 48 Today's score: -5 Today's Needle rating: 43

"The unemployment rate in the District of Columbia for August was unchanged from the revised July rate of 9.9% reported the District of Columbia’s Department of Employment Services. The number of jobs decreased by 26,100 in August which were mainly due to the Mayor’s 2010 Summer Youth Employment Program ending. The August national unemployment rate was 9.6 percent, up 0.1% from the revised rate in July 2010."

One would think that all the paid volunteers on Fenty's Green Team would have made a dent in the unemployment numbers. Oh well.

A breakdown of the employment numbers after the jump.

According to DOES:

"Professional and Business Services lost 2,000 jobs, after a 4,300 job gain in July. With employment at 156,400, jobs are up 8,900 or 6.0 percent from a year ago.

Educational and Health Services lost 1,500 jobs, after a loss of 400 jobs the prior month. With employment at 97,600, jobs are down 2,800 or -2.8 percent from a year ago.

Leisure and Hospitality lost 800 jobs following a gain of 100 jobs in July. With employment at 58,500, jobs are up 1,100 or 1.9 percent over the year.

Other Services lost 1,200 jobs, after a loss of 300 jobs the prior month. At 63,000, employment is down 1,600 or -2.5 percent from a year ago.

Financial Activities gained 100 jobs, after having no over-the-month job change the prior month. With employment at 26,200, jobs are down 300 or -1.1 percent from a year ago.

Information had no over-the-month job change, after no over-the-month job change in July. At 18,600, employment is down 200 or -1.1 percent from one year ago.

Construction gained 400 jobs, after a gain of 100 jobs in July. At 11,600, employment is up 300 or 2.7 percent from a year ago.

Trade, Transportation, and Utilities lost 300 jobs, after a loss of 200 jobs in July. With employment at 27,000, the sector is up 200 jobs or 0.7 percent from a year ago.

Manufacturing had no over-the-month job change.  Employment in manufacturing has remained constant.  With employment at 1,400, there was no change from a year ago.  Manufacturing is the smallest sector in the District accounting for less than 0.2 percent of total payroll employment."

"The Fenty administration chose to cover the overspending in summer jobs by transferring funds meant to help vulnerable families with basic food and shelter needs. The Department of Human Services proposed to use those funds —stimulus dollars from TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families —  for other important purposes, including upgrading its case management system and expanding employment and training options for TANF recipients."

Fenty and Co. might have had the support of extending the summer job's program if homeless services weren't so badly in need.

City Desk has heard reports of homeless families having to be put up in hotels or sleep in cars because D.C. General's emergency is filled up. The number of homeless families has reached unprecedented levels.  On Aug. 2, Marta Beresin, a lawyer with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, testified at the hearing on the SYEP funding:

"As of two weeks ago, 543 families were on the wait list for emergency shelter, 27 of whom were sleeping in cars, bus stations, and other places not meant for human habitation....Since 2008, when the recession first hit, family homelessness has skyrocketed by 36.3 percent in the District...At this time last year there were 35 families at D.C. General, the overflow emergency shelter for families. Today, there are 135 and every unit has been full for many weeks."

The legal clinic has more details on the plight of homeless families on their new blog. City Desk caught up with Armeen Payne, 32. He became homeless on July 14. For nearly two weeks, he says, he and his two kids ages 2 and 4, were left to fend for themselves, knocking on neighbors' doors for places to stay. District social services workers told them the shelters were filled up. Some days, they walked to museums downtown or sat under a tree. Strangers gave them water. Payne's kids napped on buses or wherever they happened to be.

Most of the time, Payne and his kids hunted for shelter.

"It was miserable especially with the heat index as high as it was," he says. "It was just very hectic with the heat alone. I'm glad it was more of the heat to a certain degree than the cold winter days you know? It was very hectic."

All Payne could do was wait for shelter beds to open up. "I was well over qualified for being in the shelter with my kids," he says. "I understand that there's conditions and policies and processes and how you go about doing things. I try to be so patient with that. But it was just too much."

Payne says:  "I dealt with it the best way I could with the kids. I was more concerned with one of them falling out or just maybe frustrated with me and resenting me because we're just walking around, trying to find shade, you know kill time. Hoping that I'll get a call or some luck."

Payne found old neighbors willing to house them. He had food stamps; his extended family did provide them with an occasional hot meal. Payne says he was recently able to move his family into D.C. General. But he'd really like a job.

"I like driving jobs," he says. "I want to be a limousine driver, and one day own my own limousine company. I'm pursuing  getting my license...because my license expired."

*file photo by Darrow Montgomery.

Groomes isn't sure if the kids who were mugged this year were wearing T-shirts. She has recently suggested that the kids remain indoors during their lunch hours on paydays. Of the five muggings that have taken place on paydays, all of them occurred at 12:30 p.m.

*file photo by Darrow Montgomery.

Good morning, Washington! The weather gods have decided to mix it up a little bit today, blessing us with a little less humidity than normal. Don't worry about big meteorological shake ups, though—temperatures will still be in the familiar mid-90s range.

The Washington Times continues its reporting on the sketchy D.C. lottery contract with the news that the two councilmembers who most vocally supported the deal, Marion Barry and Chair Vincent Gray, also had personal connections to Emmanuel S. Bailey, one of the principals of Veterans Services Corp., the local firm awarded the majority stake of the contract. Both Barry and Gray also urged the Greek gambling company Intralot to partner with a local firm.

Federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested a Maryland man suspected of committing for two mother-daughter murders in Largo, Md. last year. This won't be the first serious criminal charge for the 27-year-old UPS employee (whose name is being withheld because he has not yet been formally charged); he already has gun, burglary and child porn charges on his record, according to the Examiner.

On the other end of the Maryland justice system, Charles County Circuit Judge Robert Nalley will be suspended without pay for five days for deflating a cleaning woman's car tire.

With its first payday out of the way, the beleaguered D.C. Summer Youth Employment Program has had fewer payroll problems this year than it did in previous years, the Post reports.

Some sad news for local animal lovers: six guinea pigs were found in a trash can in Southeast; the three surviving rodents are being cared for by the Washington Humane Society. Also, illegal rat poison has been found in Georgetown. Jane Huelle, who runs The Dog Shop on Wisconsin Ave., says she knows of three dogs who have died from rat poisoning in Northwest this year.

Photo by Flickr user Lisa Brewster, used under a Creative Commons license.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—"No Last Call For SoberRide, After All," "Not Guilty! Judge Exonerates Defendants In Robert Wone Case," "Watch Fenty Dance To Go-Go," "World Cup Roundup," "Community Service Soon Over For Arenas"

Good Morning. Another summer, another round of problems with Mayor Adrian Fenty's Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). This time, the Examiner's Alan Suderman reports it may become a campaign issue: "The Summer Youth Employment Program got off to a rocky start this week when up to 800 kids found out on the opening day of the program that the city hadn't lined them up jobs, some adult supervisors hadn't passed a mandatory background check, and there was an investigation started into whether some program participants stole a cell phone from their new place of work. This comes on the heels of two bad years for the program, and Fenty's main rival in the upcoming mayoral contest, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, said the problems go to the 'heart' of what's wrong with the mayor's leadership style. 'We know that there's been chronic problems associated with it, so there's every reason to think that people will be interested in the issue and there will be questions raised about it,' Gray told The Washington Examiner on Tuesday. Fenty has made expanding the summer jobs program one his goals. The program has grown from 8,000 participants to 22,000 under his administration, and he boasted to WPGC that the District has the biggest summer program in the country and 'maybe in the entire world.' 'Have we eliminated all the kinks? No, but ... you're not going to get to a perfect system by just leaving it in the position we found it,' Fenty said. 'We're ramping up, we're working hard.'"

NC8 interviews kids about the state of the SYEP. Fenty should be glad they can't vote in the primary: "Youth are asking the D.C. Summer Employment Program where to go, where they will be reassigned and what's going on. Those questions are heard almost every year. 'It's my third year doing it and every year it's getting worse and worse,' said Dhemeer Gore. For the second time Tuesday Dhemeer Gore was at Gallaudet trying to resolve exactly where to go for his summer job. Like every other participant in the program he will get paid $8.25 an hour. Gore shared, 'First, they told me to go here, then there, then somewhere else, then to come here today.' He claims he got the wrong work address, which is something the staff corrected Tuesday. He says getting a simple location shouldn't have been so complicated. It was at the hospital. 'Yes, the hospital. Exactly,' said Gore. Another teen didn't get the wrong address, but was told his job wasn't part of the program. So he went to another location and had the same results. Even Tuesday, it's back to square one." More coverage via DCist.

At a recent hearing on SYEP issues, Councilmember Marion Barry, the Dean of Summer Jobs, admitted that it took his administration four to five years to get the program perfected. But Barry added: "Then two years ago, our program was the best in the nation became the worst in the nation." Barry has his reasons to hate on the program; Fenty pulled a number on him in 2008 after Barry started complaining about problems within the SYEP. Last May, Barry vowed to hold weekly hearings on the summer jobs program. Unfortunately, Barry was consumed with a little problem of his own making. Councilmember Michael Brown, who took over from Barry oversight over summer jobs, has vowed to hold regular hearings on SYEP.

AFTER THE JUMP—Fenty responds to domestic-violence rumors, Jonetta Rose Barras pens nominee for laziest column of the year, D.C. Council approves starting nonprofit to take over United Medical Center, and much, much more!

UNITED MEDICAL CENTER: The D.C. Council approved the creation of a nonprofit to take over the Southeast hospital. WaPo's Tim Craig reports: "After months of wrangling between the city and Specialty Hospitals of America, the hospital's owner, Attorney General Peter Nickles plans to auction the Southeast Washington hospital on the steps of the John A. Wilson Building on July 9. Nickles has accused Specialty, a for-profit company that took over the hospital then known as Greater Southeast in 2007, of defaulting on its loan agreements with the city. Officials do not expect any bidders, and Nickles and council member David A. Catania (I-At Large) have drawn up plans to convert the long-troubled hospital into a quasi-city-managed facility until a new owner is found. 'The District believes it's in its best interest to foreclose to protect the District's substantial investment,' Catania said, noting that the city has spent more than $70 million on the facility over the past three years. 'I believe, and this council believes, we have a special obligation to continue the operation of a de facto safety-net hospital in the District.' Attorneys for Specialty will be in court July 6 to try to block the foreclosure. Company Chairman Jim Rappaport predicted that city officials would fail in the hospital business if they wrestle control. Rappaport noted that the city-run D.C. General Hospital closed in 2001 after myriad problems. 'The District of Columbia did such a great job with D.C. General, I am surprised at the process they are undertaking,' Rappaport said. 'They can't run it well because they haven't run it well. . . . It's a very complicated process to run and manage a hospital.' Under the emergency legislation moved by Catania on Tuesday and approved by a vote of 12 to 1, the city wants to create a 14-member board to oversee the Not-for-Profit Hospital Corp. The corporation 'would receive the land, improvements on the land, equipment, and other assets of United Medical Center' and 'operate and take all actions to ensure the continued operation of the hospital.'" More coverage via WBJ.

STREETCARS: The D.C. Council paved the way for overhead wires along the H Street Corridor/Benning Road. WBJ's Michael Neibauer reports: "The legislation repeals a pair of 120-year-old federal laws barring overhead lines in historic Washington, generally bounded by Georgetown to the west, Florida Avenue to the north and the Anacostia River. They are poorly written, 'ancient statutes' that no longer apply, [Councilmember Jim] Graham says. The Home Rule Act, adopted by Congress in 1973, bars the council from enacting any law or repealing an act of Congress that concerns federal property, changes the organization or jurisdiction of the D.C. courts, imposes a tax on a non-resident, or permits a building taller than existing-height restrictions. It makes no mention of overhead wires, so some D.C. lawyers conclude that those statutes can be repealed by the local government. The emergency bill needs to be implemented immediately, council members say, to ease any skittishness on the part of the Federal Transit Administration on the overhead wire issue. The FTA is deciding now whether to provide $25 million for the H Street streetcar line. The District is dueling with the National Capital Planning Commission on aerial wires. NCPC Chairman L. Preston Bryant of Virginia last week asked the Federal Transit Administration to withhold the $25 million grant until the overhead wire issue is resolved." More coverage via the Examiner.

THE REASON JONETTA ROSE BARRAS NEEDS AN EDITOR: The Examiner columnist decides to do NO REPORTING in her attempt to takedown At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson. She writes: "What is Mendelson's strange magnetism? Most people, who follow local politics and council antics, often talk about Mendelson's indisputable affection for minutiae and nitpicking. A political ad in the 2006 campaign turned that negative into a positive, asserting his attention to detail makes him a conscientious and thorough legislator. It's true, Mendelson is dedicated to the fine print — even when none exists. But his weakness isn't that fixation. It's the fact that his political and public policy arcs are late 20th Century. Often he's an obstacle to change." Barras goes on to site his opposition to the mayor's silly anti-gang legislation [which wanted to bring gangs in to civil court], and his investigation into that donated fire truck. Oh yeah, he's also a big friend of unions. I guess the unions really loved his grilling of the Fire Chief about overtime abuses. And  shouldn't Mendo question AG Peter Nickles re: that fishy fire truck deal? And didn't Mendo help lead the D.C. Council's passage of a same-sex marriage bill? Then again, this is a columnist who isn't afraid to be homophobic. If Barras had actually gone out and watched Mendelson campaign, she'd realize why he keeps on winning. Sure, he's a total wonk. But he's also a truly gifted campaigner who actually doesn't sound like he's full of empty rhetoric when he's out greeting citizens. He actually remembers their names, and can talk eloquently about their concerns. And guess what? Residents respond to that.

HILL EAST: The District is set to take over the Hill East property. WBJ's Michael Neibauer reports: "The District now has the $5.8 million it needs to close the books on a 12-acre land buy that will finally allow the federal government to transfer its Hill East property to D.C.’s control. The congressionally-approved transfer of the 67-acre Reservation 13, also known as Hill East, could not go forward until the District provided 12 acres to the Architect of the Capitol for use as a mail-sorting facility. That condition has hung up the deal, and the much-hyped Hill East redevelopment, for four years. The property is roughly the size of Howard University’s campus. After years of fruitless searches for a location in D.C., the architect and the District recently settled on a site adjacent to the Joint Base Andrews Naval Air Facility at Suitland Parkway and Interstate 495. The District agreed to buy the plot from Jackson Shaw/Andrews LP and immediately turn it over to the federal government. Closing is scheduled for Wednesday. The money only came available Tuesday, after some last-minute wrangling that nearly scuttled the deal."

TEACHERS CONTRACT: D.C. Council signs off on deal that was years in the making.

FENTY RESPONDS TO THOSE RUMORS: Amazing. A reporter brings up those rumors concerning marital strife—including domestic violence. WaPo's Nikita Stewart reports Fenty telling WPGC: "It borders on libel and slander, to be perfectly honest with you. Every time something is raised, I send it right to my attorney because none of it is true."

D.C.'s CHILDREN: are still overweight.

FENTY VS. GRAY: The two main candidates for mayor receive endorsements from Big Business.

COLUMBIA HEIGHTS: Is there a more messed-up street than 14th Street NW in Columbia Heights? It's a total disaster zone, and traffic nightmare. NC8 reports that residents are fed up with it.

MANUTE BOL: Eulogized at Washington National Cathedral.

BP SPILL: Maryland prepares for slight chance the Gulf oil spill will reach its shores.

NE DOUBLE HOMICIDE: The Metropolitan Police Department have charged a suspect in the murders.

ABDUCTED GIRL: Is found in New York.

VINYL DIPLOMACY: Russian Prez sends two envoys to Som Records for a little vinyl shopping.

WATCH: Peter Rosenstein's interview on NC8's NewsTalk.

ROBERT WONE: Conspiracy trial ends in not-guilty verdicts for all three defendants. But you already knew that.

FIREWORKS: WTOP offers a list of places to see 'em. NBC4's Tom Sherwood has "your fireworks game plan."

CLARIFICATION: Yesterday, LL credited Councilmember Phil Mendelson with proposing legislation aimed at fixing DYRS  by making certain juvenile cases open to the public. Councilmember Tommy Wells actually introduced the legislation aimed at reforming juvenile confidentiality rules last year. A hearing was held in November but the law remained stuck in Mendelson's Judiciary Committee. Mendelson pushed forward an amended version of Wells' bill.

MAYOR'S SCHEDULE: No public events.

D.C. COUNCIL'S SCHEDULE: A Committee on Human Services roundtable, Parks and Rec business, Judiciary committee addresses ambulance chasers, and more.

Well, gangs and violence, anyway.

A City Desk reader captured this sight with a cell phone cam yesterday morning, around 10:30 a.m., on the 1500 block of Marion Street NW:

The reader explains: 'Took some photos yesterday of 6 kids from the Mayor's Conservation Corps rolling [a] joint and smoking pot....I did call the police but they didn't show up before the kids finished up. You can see a lighter and smoke in the photos. You can tell what he's smoking from how he's holding it. :-) I could smell it...(don't ask me how I know what it smells like).'

(Because the alleged tokers are likely minors, City Desk has blurred their faces.)

Plenty of folks at this point (hat tips: Scott's Take, DCist) have pointed out that the Mayor's Conservation Corps—part of the city summer jobs program—have spent their first days on the job handing out paper doorhangers.

Many of them have ended up on the street and sidewalks, and then there's the obvious irony of promoting a green initiative by distributing tons of thick paperstock around town.

LL called up the D.C. Department of the Environment, which runs the Green Summer Jobs Program, and asked spokesperson Alan Heymann about the doorhangers and the ironical elements at play.

The point of the doorhangers, Heymann says, is "to announce to the community that the conservation corps is going to be out doing this type of work" and to solicit project suggestions from residents.

But why use dead trees to do so?

"Not every resident of the District of Columbia is on a listserve or a blog," he explains.

In any case, they're printed on 100 percent recycled paper with vegetable inks, 100,000 of them have been printed, and they're being distributed everywhere the corps operates—which is pretty much everywhere but Ward 3. (Not as much work there, Heymann notes, but if you have a suggestion for a project there, call 535-2325.)

Soon the kids will move on to more substantial work—some have already started tree box inspections. "This is kind of by way of introduction," Heymann says. "It's a long summer."

And in any case, Heymann says, kids shouldn't be tossing the hangers on the ground. "When we get a report [of littering], we send the kids back out to fix it," he says. "We certainly don't want any litter on the ground."

Fenty has committed to accommodating all comers, even though last year's program went more than $30 million over budget under a similar lack of constraints.

In recent days, the spiritual godfather of D.C. summer jobs has made it clear he doesn't share Hizzoner's expansive view of the program.

"I'm not going to participate in this craziness," says Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry, who started the Summer Youth Employment Program as mayor in 1979. It's widely regarded as one of Barry's political masterstrokes, engendering almost unanimous and endless goodwill from an entire generation of Washingtonians.

Barry, however, is not sold on Fenty's plans, he tells LL.

For one thing, through his council committee, he has proposed cutting $20 million from Fenty's proposed $42.9 million budget for the 2010 program. To do that, he recommends that the program be scaled back from 10 weeks to 6 weeks, that registrations close on April 1 rather than continue through the summer, and that participation be capped at 21,000.

And, as far as this year's program goes, he wants to see a spending plan. Two weeks ago, Fenty announced he was seeking to double the $21 million he'd originally budgeted. To do that, he's asking the council to tap a "community benefit fund" associated with the Nationals Park authorization, though no spending plan has yet to be submitted.

"You're asking for trouble," Barry tells LL—intimating a tough council fight to get the supplemental spending approved.

Fenty's approach to the program, Barry says, "teaches these kids bad habits"—that anyone who applies is simply handed a job. Some of the placements are made in the private sector and federal government, but the vast majority of kids are employed by the District government.

Barry's objections come at the same time that the Brookings Institute's Greater Washington Research program has raised questions about summer jobs—a effort providing "uncertain, uneven, and sometimes really bad outcomes"—sucking up the vast majority of the local dollars spent on employment programs in the city.

No matter what happens with the funding, Barry says he vows to hold weekly oversight hearings into the operations of the program—all 10 weeks of the program, "even during the council recess."

"I'm gonna put pressure on him," Barry says of Fenty. "I'm gonna blow the whistle if it ain't right."

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Just look at the program's Web Site: "Welcome to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's Summer Youth Employment Program for 2009," reads the banner headline.

Politicians are know for attaching their names to everything in sight, but not usually to programs which nine months ago had imploded in a cloud of overspending and fraud. Others might have scaled back expectations, but not Fenty. At a press conference at Ballou Senior High School this afternoon, he announced it's full steam ahead on summer jobs.

The details for SYEP 2009, such as they exist so far, are impressive. The registration process is online-only.Three times as many slots have been offered by private employers. All sorts of database checks are in place to prevent mass fraud. A top private contractor will be handling payroll. And 3,000 kids have already signed up.

Joseph P. Walsh, director of the Department of Employment Services, was hired to make this thing work above all else—he replaced Summer Spencer, who was forced out after last year's debacle—and Fenty pumped up the "sweat equity" Walsh has poured into the program in his three months in office.

Perhaps most impressive is the fact that private employers have increased their commitment after last year—from less than 400 positions to more than 1,000 this time—after some business types expressed sotto voce disillusionment with what happened last summer. Walsh says he's been on a speaking tour of local business groups—he namechecked the Federal City Council, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the D.C. Hospital Association, and Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington—to ease concerns. "A lot of them wanted to hear what was new this year, what we're going to do differently, to sort of restore that confidence," Walsh says.

After the presser, Fenty joined a group of Ballou students in a computer lab as they went on laptops to sign up for jobs. The computers worked fine, but the building didn't: As reporters filed into the room with Hizzoner, a tile fell from the ceiling onto a table, breaking apart.

Hope that isn't an omen.