For three months of the year---tax season---Don and his wife, Linda, move into an office above a jumbo slice shop in Adams Morgan. In the third-floor space, there's a futon where they sleep at night. By day, it's set up as a spot for clients to talk with Linda, who does the initial work on the computer before Don gets you your money back from the federal government (he has less luck with D.C., unfortunately).

Linda's lovely and about to be 60. Don got there a few years back. When they're not smelling pizza in the place they live and work, they've got a nice, big house near the Chesapeake in Virginia. When they're not in either of those places, they're at train shows (Don's the collector; Linda likes the hotels) or traveling around Europe. It's quite a life. This year, they've added a fat Jack Russell terrier to it and put him on a dry-food diet after finding him overfed fried chicken and other delights by Don's recently deceased aunt.

Visiting this operation this time of year is a quaint and adorable experience for the client. Unless you're white.

Read More "What Getting a Tax Refund Could Cost You" »

UPDATE, 3:35 P.M.: Nickles will pursue garnishment of wages---details at bottom of post.

Federal prosecutors this afternoon filed court documents saying not only did Marion Barry not file his federal tax return, but that he failed for seven months to repay back taxes owed the very government he's been elected to serve.

The revelations come in a memorandum [PDF] submitted ahead of a April 2 hearing before federal magistrate Deborah A. Robinson on prosecutors' motion to revoke Barry's probation.

After Barry pleaded guilty to tax violations in 2006, the IRS began garnishing $1,350 from his biweekly paychecks the following November, the filing says. But, according to sources consulted by LL, the District government chose not to garnish his wages but negotiate a modest monthly payment plan with Barry. According to the filing, Barry hasn't paid stopped paying the District government last July, and "it was only after motions by the government and the Probation Office [in February] that he renewed his repayment schedule" with the District.

Read More "Feds: Barry Stopped Paying D.C. Back Taxes in July" »

The FY2010 budget proposal submitted by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty on Friday contained a number of fee hikes. Many of those are intended to fall on businesses, but there was one that will fall broadly on District residents: A "Street Light User Fee," intended to "cover the costs associated with the operation and maintenance of streetlights in the District."

Details of the fee have been reveled in draft legislation submitted to the council today: The fee will be assessed on your Pepco bills. Residential customers, under the proposal, will pay $4.25 a month ($51 a year); commercial customers will pay $16.75 monthly ($201 yearly), and all others $42 monthly ($504 yearly).

Now, the proposed legislation pumps all of this money into a separate streetlight fund to be held separate from the city's general operating fund---so there's little danger the city will use your streetlight money to, say, pay for potholes. Also, the language provides that low-income residents can get assistance paying the fee from the city energy assistance office.

The D.C. Council, of course, has to approve this. Don't like it? Call your home councilmember, and you might also drop a line to Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, who oversees the transportation department---(202) 724-8181.

Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry's had a tough couple of weeks. The Washington Post reported that he never filed a 2007 tax return, reopening a longstanding drama; then federal prosecutors decided they wanted him thrown in jail. He even made Leno.

In these troubling times, Barry has a simple request for his council colleagues: Shut the hell up.

In a memo addressed to "Councilmember Members" on Wednesday, Barry asked his colleagues to "refrain from discussing the matter with anyone including members of the media."

Read More "Barry to Colleagues: Shut Up" »

Now, Marion Barry is telling Bruce Johnson that his new tax problem was a result of a serious medical condition. So yeah people now are going to quiz Barry about his prostate and poke at his bad kidneys, inspect his rusty pimp strut, and analyze his weak handshake (not sure about the handshake). All of this new spectacle involving our Councilmember for Life is just sad and annoying. Prosecutors now want Barry in the clink.

The request may be reasonable but it's not decent. It says way more about the prosecutors' ambitions than about Barry's screw up. I doubt Barry knows how e-mail works let alone Turbo Tax. Last time I FOIA-ed for his e-mails I got his chief of staff's e-mails.

I say leave the poor man alone. Make him do community service. And question his attorney Fred Cooke who walked Barry through the last fight over unpaid taxes. Is this guy still helping Barry? Or has Cooke given up on the man?

5:50 p.m. Update: Barry says he needs a kidney transplant.