Yesterday Mike Madden said that the D.C. Council's trip to New Hampshire was ill-timed. Instead of taking advantage of the hundreds of reporters up there for yesterday's Republican primary, they've opted not to send anyone until tomorrow when the New Hampshire legislature votes.

NBC4's Tom Sherwood, on the other hand, thinks the whole visit is a bad idea:

The Live Free or Die state has been supportive in the past, but with the Thomas embarrassment — and two criminal investigations, of campaigns run by Mayor Gray and Chairman Brown, still going on — we hardly think it’s time to go democracy shopping.

We are the first to attack folks who decry wrongdoing in local Washington as an excuse to oppose congressional voting rights or even the right to govern ourselves. Those critics never seem to ask Illinois to give up governing despite its two former governors in jail now.

It just seems now is not the time for this trip.

Photo via Wikipedia Commons

That’s not to say readers will have to wait until the impending ebook release to get their Sherwood and Jaffe on. Plenty of copies are available online—for a price. If Dream City’s fate was the same as that of other tomes about race, power, and hometown D.C., its price on the secondary market underscores its lingering influence. A tale of the tape, via Amazon.com:

Book: The Secret City: A History of Race Relations in the Nation’s Capital

Author: Constance McLaughlin Green

Published: 1967

Current Price: $26.50 (used). New copies unavailable.

Book: Alley Life in Washington: Family, Community, Religion and Folklife in the City, 1850-1970

Author: James Borchert

Published: 1980

Current Price: $18.95 (new); $2.44 (used)

Book: Marion Barry: The Politics of Race

Author: Jonathan I.Z. Agronsky

Published: 1991

Current Price: $42.14 (new); $0.01 (used)

Book: Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington D.C.

Authors: Tom Sherwood and Harry S. Jaffe

Published: 1994

Current Price: $80 (new); $39.68 (used)

Book: The Last of the Black Emperors: The Hollow Comeback of Marion Barry in a New Age of Black Leaders

Author: Jonetta Rose Barras

Published: 1998

Current Price: $21.81 (new); $0.01 (used)

Snow began falling on Jan. 22, one day after Barry left on a trip to California to watch Super Bowl XXI (Broncos vs. Giants—New York won, 39-20). Barry had been in a semi-permanent celebratory mode since winning his third term. Three weeks before the Super Bowl trip, Barry had quietly gone to Jamaica for a four-day vacation.

After learning of the snowstorm, Barry chose to stay in California. After learning D.C. was about to be hit by a second, even bigger storm, some thought he might finally decide to return early and take the helm. But he instead stayed for the Super Bowl itself, 24 years ago today.

He stayed after the Super Bowl as well, to play tennis and get a manicure, before collapsing and being rushed to the hospital. As Harry Jaffe and Tom Sherwood recorded in their 1994 book Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, DC:

The day after the game Barry was in Oak View Park partying and playing poker with friends... that evening, after drinking several bottles of champagne and a quart of cognac, Barry and two women friends disappeared into a bedroom and closed the door. When the two women left the townhouse, Barry slumped to a sofa, head thrown back. His nose ran, and he made low grunting noises. The mayor clutched his chest and said he was having trouble breathing.... At Daniel Freedman Hospital Barry was given oxygen and immediately began to feel better. He told the hospital that blood tests and other exams weren’t necessary, and he was released.

The District ultimately got hit with 26 inches of snow.

D.C. newspapers, including Washington City Paper, roundly criticized Barry, who finally returned to the District six days after the first snowfall. City Paper ran a headline asking “Has Our Mayor-for-Life Gone Snow Blind?”

In a Feb. 6, 1987, Loose Lips column titled “Blizzard of Indifference,” the mayor was pounded:

The disaster in the snow brutally laid bare the grim fact that Barry intends to be a part-time mayor during his third, four-year term, which, unfortunately, is only month gone [sic].... Never has a mayor seemed more unwilling to fulfill the responsibilities of his office than Barry did last week.

City Paper compared Barry to newly-elected Baltimore Mayor Clarence H. Du Burns, who did a much better job. “With Du Burns in command, Baltimore cleared its main streets within hours after the snow had fallen, a period of time when the District’s snow trucks and plows were still as rare as the Tennessee snail darter,” City Paper wrote. (Snail darter? A reference a small fish endangered by the Tellico Dam in Tennessee.)

City Paper also attacked D.C.'s congressional delegate at the time, Walter Fauntroy, for similar negligence. Fauntroy was in D.C. during the 1987 blizzard, but we reported that:

“Fauntroy—who spends much of his time pouting because people won’t call him “Congressman” instead of “non-voting congressional Delegate”—is not about step forward... Fauntroy was more concerned with currying favor with his congressional colleagues by giving them expanded parking privileges in the District than he was in trying to help the city cope with the snow and ice that shut down the federal government and further frayed the already-strained relations between the District Building and Capitol Hill.

City Paper concluded the situation had dashed hopes of D.C. receiving statehood anytime soon:

Barry, and to a lesser extent, Fauntroy, have become liabilities rather than assets to the District’s political future. The attainment of statehood for the District, which Barry and Fauntroy cited as one of their goals for this session of Congress, suffered a serious blow in the chaos created by the city’s inadequate and uncoordinated response to the snow. Congress is not likely to give the city more control over its own affairs after city officials demonstrated they could not even clear the streets or and keep the subways running on time, which the federal government has come to depend on to get its employees to work.

City Paper did note one positive out of the whole affair. In a separate Feb. 6 article titled "Post Finds Its Voice," City Paper wrote:

The one bright spot out rising out of the frustrations and anger over the city’s meltdown method of dealing with ice and snow appeared on the Washington Post editorial page Jan. 28. The Post’s editorial writers have been so hamstrung by criticism from blacks and so ridden by their own white liberal guilt that they have been unable to produce little more than mush when criticizing the Barry administration. But editorial writer Bob Asher’s lashing critique of the failure of "Antarctica on the Potomac" to serve its citizens and daily visitors exudes real passion...

Asher’s editorial had lambasted city officials. In one section, he wrote:

What did the city government use to get rid of snow—spoons and matchbooks? What did it do all night with the plows it does have—park them next to those Metro subway cars that were hibernating in seclusion somewhere while trusting souls were jammed along wind-whipped platforms waiting for no-show trains?

New Mayor Vince Gray has been lucky, thus far, to have escaped a major test of his administration's winter weather response. But winter isn't over yet!

Brown is being sued by multiple credit card companies for unpaid debts, late fines and lawyer fees, according to Sherwood.

The documents show Brown owes the American Express company more than $8,000 in late payments and fees. Brown owes Visa more than $25,000 in late payments, penalties and fees for his Signature card. A second visa card has an overdue balance of $22,000.

Brown, who is running against Vincent Orange for D.C. Council chairman, told Sherwood that he takes “full responsibility” for the debts but that it shouldn’t affect his ability to lead the council. He says he and his wife have cut back their spending.

“We’re now living within our means on a very limited budget,” Brown told Sherwood.

Brown, who drives an Cadillac Escalade with his name plastered on it for the campaign, wasn’t shy about throwing money around at the Palisades 4^th of July Parade. Part of his “float” included a semi-like truck seen here.

In an appearance this afternoon on WAMU-FM's Politics Hour, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty made as stinging a rebuke to his political ankle-biters as he ever has.

"The difference, I think, between a councilmember and an executive is, you know, I'm the one making the tough decisions," he said in a lively conversation with host Kojo Nnamdi and reporter Tom Sherwood.

Shades of "I'm the decider" perhaps?

But, more than that, he gave what could prove an effective response to critics who say he's too arrogant, aloof, and personally out-of-touch to deserve a second term as D.C.'s mayor: "We're taking on issues that aren't just tough, we're taking on issues that are intrinsically not politically popular," Fenty said, citing D.C. Public Schools closings, mandating at-will employment for DCPS employees, and implementing taxi meters as examples.

In a version of an answer he deploys often, Hizzoner characterized concerns about his style, his bedside manner, as far removed from the concerns of everyday citizens.

"When they talk to me," Fenty said, "this is what they say: They say, Mayor Fenty, I want to you to keep continuing fixing the schools; I want you to keep driving the crime rate down; I want you to keep renovating schools, liberties, recreation centers. Keep building new construction in the city. I want you to keep the population growing. I want you to keep fixing up hospitals like Greater Southeast. Keep reducing the backlog in child welfare....They say deliver results because that's what we elected you to do."

In another portion of the show, Fenty addressed allegations of malfeasance involving allies Omar Karim and Sinclair Skinner and tens of milliions in parks contracting.

Without once mentioning Karim or SKinner's name, Fenty denied any wrongdoing and called for ongoing investigation by the D.C. Council and city inspector general to run their course. Any contract awards, he said, were "completely removed from the executive branch of government, completely followed the procurement law, and very high-quality work [is] being done."

Embattled developer Omar Karim, in a rare appearance, submitted to journalists' questions today on WAMU's Politics Hour.

Under fire for his ties to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, Karim answered questions from hosts Kojo Nnamdi and Tom Sherwood with thinly veiled outrage. Karim defended his own credentials and the record of his firm, Banneker Ventures, with an emphasis on the "defensive."

At one point, Sherwood asked to what LL's ears seemed to be a legitimate question: Name development projects you began or completed before Fenty became mayor. His initial response: "For you to ask me that is very insulting." He kept up with the bluster until finally naming a completed Silver Spring office project, as well as another project that's yet to move to construction.

Karim went on to deny aspects of a Washington Post story. In particular, megadeveloper R. Donahue Peebles therein accused Karim of approaching him at a 2007 event and telling him that "if I wanted to get to do a development deal with the District of Columbia government under Fenty, I'd have to do business with them and their circle...Essentially, the message was I was going to need him."

Karim denied the encounter ever took place, raised questions about Peebles' historical ties to Mayor Marion Barry, and in fact said he was considering filing a libel suit against Peebles. He went on to equate his ties to the mayor to certain D.C. councilmembers' apparent conflicts of interest.

But Karim made it clear he had another motive for coming on the radio: His own bottom line.

A project he's currently developing is in danger, he said, due to politics. Banneker had been selected by Metro to develop a parcel at 7th Street and Florida Avenue NW into a mixed-use project called "The Jazz @ Florida Avenue." That deal is now in jeopardy, he says, because the Metro board is refusing to extend a deadline to finalize its terms—a deadline that's already been extended twice, not unusual in a historically tight credit market.

He implied that his current notoriety has interfered with the deal, and Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, a member of the Metro board, is behind it. Graham told Washington Business Journal in September: "I know that the developer is dealing with a recovering real estate market, but we either have to move forward now, or take another look at who will do this job."

File photo by Darrow Montgomery

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—DDOT Starts Construction on 11th Street Bridge Project, Sort of; and what's up with Cathy Lanier's latest All Hands On Deck summons?

Morning all. Given all that's happening out there this week, choosing a top story of the day is a tough call, but I am going with this one: ST. Es STILL STRUGGLING—That's according to a new report completed by civil rights attorneys for the federal government and summarized by the Washington Post's Henri Cauvin. This is quite an issue. As the Post notes, the District's hospital for the mentally ill is "falling short in patient safety, nursing care and other areas covered by a court settlement intended to reform the infamous institution in Southeast Washington."

More: "Indeed, the findings reflect the steep challenges facing the District as it attempts to remake the hospital and the rest of the mental health system and to end the long-running class action suit over care of the mentally ill. From the new hospital building that is scheduled to open in March on the St. Elizabeths campus to the closure of the government's main outpatient treatment agency, the D.C. Department of Mental Health has hardly been still over the past few years.

But the pace of change has yet to satisfy the federal judge overseeing the class action suit or the Justice Department team monitoring the settlement agreement for St. Elizabeths, the only public psychiatric hospital in the city and a landmark with a long, sometimes troubled history."

After the jump: More on St. Es; what's up with the D.C. snow cleanup budget for the rest of the winter?; EPA talks tough on C-Bay pollution; can't someone generate a blog post at D.C. Wire?; and a little bit more.

One of the report's major concerns is a gang rape that occurred at St. Es in July. According to the report, the event wasn't even mentioned in "routine treatment reviews of three of the four alleged attackers. But while the documents failed to note the rape allegation, one of the alleged assailant's documents recommended, without explanation, that the patient be observed for 'sexually inappropriate behavior.'"

The bigger picture here is that the city, under the direction of Attorney General Peter Nickles, is seeking to pull St. Es out of the governance arrangement under which it currently operates—that is, with oversight from the courts and the Justice Department. No wonder that Nickles told the Post that the reform effort at St. Es "reflects real progress and a strong commitment to improving care." Examiner on same.

Older drivers are out there.

WARNING FROM THE FEDS TO CHES-BAY WATERSHED STATES: CURB POLLUTION OR ELSE! In years past, the EPA hasn't been too terribly tough on states around here that contribute to pollution in the glorious Chesapeake Bay. Now that's changing, according to Post reporter David Fahrenthold. Here's what could the feds could do if these states—and the nonstate District of Columbia—don't heed their watersheddy duties, according to the Post account: 1) "Object to state-issued permits for new sources of pollution, such as factories, sewage-treatment plants or suburban storm sewers." 2) "Require states to offset pollution in one area by cutting it in another. If a state can't find ways to curb pollution from farms, for instance, the EPA could require stricter cuts from sewage-treatment plants." 3) "Take tighter control of federal money that goes to states for antipollution programs, to make sure it is used to solve outstanding problems."

I'll bet these watershed states are quaking now! Examiner on same.

HOW MANY SEAT INCHES DO YOU NEED? That's the question at which Metro Columnist Courtland Milloy tilts. He laments that he can't get comfy on flights and he's not fat, either. Airlines assume 18 inches if good enough for a seat to accommodate the average American, whereas movie theaters and other industries are realizing that 22 is a better bet. Milloy says he measures 18 inches and still couldn't deal with his seat on the way home from Houston.

Better stock up on those quarters. That's the message from WaPo staff writer Nikita Stewart's piece on how area budget crises are going to affect parking and other activities around the region. The skinny for D.C.ites: "The District's fiscal year began Oct. 1 and brought increases in sales, cigarette and gas taxes. But there's more to come Friday, with the bag fee [five cents per plastic bag]. And by mid-January, the city will complete the conversion of 14,749 parking spaces to charge $2 an hour." Let LLD translate that for you: If you just want to make a quick stop to get a cup of coffee, you'd better scrounge up two quarters, at least. Because you're going to need 15 minutes for that ritual, especially in light of how many specialty coffee drinks are ordered these days. And 15 minutes, under these new rules, will cost you 50 cents. And don't think for a minute that you can duck in and get back out without detection by a parking goon: They're everywhere! Stewart gets some nice quote from Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans: "Nationally, people are fed up with the government nickeling and diming consumers. That's what we're doing. You can call 'em fees. They're all taxes. If it's a duck or a chicken, it's all a bird. ... Our challenge going forward is, with flat revenues, what are we going to do?"

More on the bag fee from the WaPo edit board: "The District is still days away from a new tax on plastic and paper bags, and the complaining has already started. That's understandable given the fundamental change in habit that people are being asked to make. Nonetheless, the new law is a worthy effort aimed at reducing local litter and cleaning up polluted waterways. Not only should it be vigorously enforced, but we also hope it spurs neighboring Virginia and Maryland to follow suit."

And letter writers to WaPo keep alive the great debate over the actions of D.C. Police officer Michael Baylor, he who drew a gun at a snowball fight at the corner of 14th and U Streets NW on Dec. 19. One Gerald E. Sheldon of Rockville responds to a previous letter writer who defended Baylor because he knew of someone who lost an eye during a snowball fight. Writes Sheldon: "There is not much danger to the driver after he stops his vehicle and is still inside his car. I suspect very little in the way of injuries due to thrown snowballs is inflicted on people inside Hummers. Once the car has come to a stop, the driver's exiting the vehicle and escalating the situation by drawing a gun is what causes danger, such as in the situation at 14th and U." And one Vincent M. Vacca of D.C.: "In all three Dec. 26 letters about the D.C. snowball fight and snowstorm, I noted a feeling of, if not forgiveness, then perhaps understanding of off-duty Detective Michael Baylor's pulling out his gun after his Hummer was pelted with snowballs. Is it that Mr. Baylor doesn't subscribe to the admonition that law enforcers never unsheathe a weapon unless they intend to use it?"

D.C. Wire STILL IDLE! Come on, this is getting embarrassing. I mean, it still features that Dec. 23 item on Nickles commenting on Fenty's security detail. Yeah, we all know this is dead week, but can't you just fake it or something. Yesterday, we here at LLD offered a few ideas on refreshing the blog, and nothing happens. Hasn't anyone else noticed that there's just no activity on this crucial blog? This is what it says on D.C. Wire's "about" page: "The D.C. Wire is live! Washington Post reporters will take you to the heart of the District's political life, from neighborhoods to the D.C. Council to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's bullpen." Please, D.C. Wire contributors, make all those words resonate. Get on the phone right now, and call a source. Just update this blog, today. The way I'm counting, you guys have six staffers on this blog. You can't all be skiiing this week. We'll check in with you tomorrow.

Examiner columnist Harry Jaffe makes a strong statement in favor of increasing penalties for PCP-related crimes. Using two anecdotes of possibly PCP-related mayhem, Jaffe says that the bill of Phil Mendelson to up penalties for PCP possession is inadequate. "Mendelson has introduced legislation to make PCP possession a felony, and to suggest jail time of 'not more than five years.' Mendelson makes a good start, but as often happens with this city council, he doesn't go far enough. Rather than 'not more than,' the language should read 'a minimum' of five years. We know that PCP causes random mayhem, violence and homicide. Let's take people who use it — and make it — off our streets."

And Examiner reporter Kytja Weir has this little nugget in a piece about snow removal and budgetary difficulties: "The snow budgets could be tapped again this week. The National Weather Service is forecasting light snow or freezing rain from overnight Wednesday into Friday. The District said Tuesday it was preparing to battle slick roads when revelers descended on the city for New Year's Eve. The city has spent $4 million of its $6.2 million snow removal budget, said District Department of Transportation spokeswoman Karyn Le Blanc." WaBizJo on same.

Ben Conery and David C. Lipscomb of the Washington Times get out of the gate with the first year-end crime roundup. And the data looks good, as we've been expecting: "The year is drawing to a close with homicides in the District at a 45-year low, reflecting a national trend that law enforcement officials are attributing to multipronged crime-prevention strategies that include advances in communication and coordination. With just two days left in the year, according to preliminary numbers from the police department, the District has had 138 homicides compared with 184 at the same time last year, setting up the city to record the lowest number of homicides since 1964, when 132 were reported killed. Metropolitan Police Department officials attribute the decline to a "perfect storm" of crime-fighting strategies, including a new culture of communication within the police department."

LLD's apologies to NBC4's Tom Sherwood, for failing to link to his excellent billboard-removal story of earlier this week. As is often the case, Sherwood comes up with angles and facts that aren't in other accounts.

Police have ID'd the pedestrian killed at the intersection of 16th and Park Road on Monday morning. Also: Man arrested for 1998 murder in Northeast.

Fenty Today: 2:30 pm, Remarks: Uniform Grantmaking Procedures Announcement. Location: 441 4th Street, NW

While some team lawyer nobody ever heard of named David Donovan did radio and print interviews attempting to counter James Grimaldi's well-told tales of ticketing malfeasance, Snyder stayed quiet in some undisclosed secure location.

Snyder's refusal to personally rebut the awful press reminded me of a conversation I had a few months ago with crisis PR guru Eric Dezenhall. I asked Dezenhall what, if Snyder were a client, he'd do to improve the Skins owner's public image among the locals.

But Dezenhall, who worked on image rehab for Enron's Jeff Skilling and alleged-molester-era Michael Jackson, guessed that Snyder might not want any such help from him or anybody else.

“Some people may like to be liked by the community," Dezenhall told me, "some people just like to be liked by fellow billionaires."

Sure seems the latter's the case here.

***

Will all the talk about the Redskins waiting list please stop?

In the instant-classic Washington Post series, there were frequent references from the team that the list was "160,000" strong.

Yet earlier this year, the Redskins put out a press release with Mitch Gershman, the team's chief operating officer, offering a much bigger number.

(AFTER THE JUMP: Lying about demand for tickets isn't consumer fraud? Lindsay Czarniak doesn't have to take off her Redskins logo any more? The Skins PR staff knows what goes on at Redskins Park? That deadbeat grandmother's got the real Dream Seat? Did fan love save Colt and chase Chase? The Redskins still have a white guy on defense? Williamses and Hoyas take a beating on Cutdown Day? DeMatha has how many guys in the NFL? The Nats lose when I leave town?)

“We work hard to hold the line on price increases," Gershman said in the release, "and are obviously sensitive to the economic realities faced by our fans. We have fantastic fan support as evidenced by the more than 200,000 people on our waiting list for season tickets."

The 160,000 figure is just as phony as Gershman's "more than 200,000."

There is no waiting list the Redskins follow when selling tickets.

The Redskins were sending junk mail during the offseason offering anybody who wants tickets — general admission seats, not club seats — the chance to buy them. And, anybody who thinks ANY Redskins games sell out: Just go to the damn box office at FedExField on game day, see all the tickets for sale, and get back to me.

From the Post stories, it's clear the only ticket waiting list the Redskins have is a list of fans the team is waiting to serve with subpoenas for not keeping up with the payment schedule in premium seat contracts.

On a related note: How can the Redskins get away with using these fictional waiting list figures while marketing the club seats? Doesn't that distort the demand for their product?

If that ain't fraud, what is?

***

I have a hard time feeling sorry for Pat Hill, the deadbeat grandma that got the legal ground-and-pound from Dan Snyder.

I mean, have you seen the photo of Hill's living room that ran alongside her story on the front page of the Washington Post?

Why would Hill or anybody else pay money to leave that couch?

Forget club seats at FedExField. I want to sign a long-term, high-dollar contract for a spot on Hill's couch, just to watch Skins games on television.

That's my dream seat!

***

Other than ticket scams, the Skins' roster cuts were the big news. A non-cut, of Colt Brennan, might be the biggest of these stories. Tough to think that the lovefest between the backup-QB wannabe and the fans didn't factor into the team's decision not to release Brennan.

Brennan had a quarterback rating of 49.5 during the preseason games. That's awful. But "The Cult of Colt," a thread in his honor on Dan Snyder's message board, extremeskins.com, has received 398,119 hits and had 11,282 comments appended, making it the most popular live thread on the board by about tenfold.

So Brennan sticks around on injured reserve while rival Chase Daniel gets cut.

Daniel, remember, registered a QB rating of 115. But his personal extremeskins.com thread, "The Church of Chase," had only about 20,000 hits as of this morning.

The moral: If you're going to ride Snyder's bench, you gotta sell jerseys.

***

Reed Doughty shrugged off back injuries from last season that threatened his career last year and made the team.

So...the white safety streak lives on!

Plainly, for years and years paleskins just haven't played defense for the Redskins — except at safety. You can look it up. The only white defenders to crack the lineup in this century have been safeties.

Doughty is the latest in a string of white boys — Curtis Jordan, Brad Edwards, Pat Eilers, Matt Stevens, Matt Bowen and, ahem, Adam Archuleta before him — to white man the Skins last line of defense.

I'm intrigued!

***

An actual bulletin on the front page of Redskins.com over the weekend: "Larry Weisman has learned the team plans to put Colt Brennan on injured reserve."

Larry Weisman is a Dan Snyder staffer who does PR for the team. So, the bulletin could just have easily read: "The team has learned the team plans to put Colt Brennan on injured reserve."

Which, now that I think about it, could be newsworthy this week, at least to those folks who think Dan Snyder didn't know his team was selling thousands and thousands and thousands of tickets to a couple scalpers, and didn't know that his team was suing grandmothers and other fans into bankruptcy.

***

Speaking of Dan Snyder's news operations...

WRC has dropped the phoniness: Redskins' worker-bee/WRC sportscaster Lindsay Czarniak delivered her sports report during last Thursday's 11 p.m. newscast wearing the same licensed Redskins shirt she wears when she moonlights for Dan Snyder's Redskins Broadcasting Network.

In previous post-game newscasts this preseason, Czarniak had changed into something without a colorful Redskins logo, better to camouflage her relationship with the team, and to hide the sort of conflict of interest that news organizations used to regard as poisonous.

But, based on the logoed attire she sported after the Skins/Jacksonsville game, WRC management no longer minds if the world knows its news department is in bed with Dan Snyder.

Tom Sherwood? Jim Vance? You guys OK with that?

***

Eddie Williams got released, bringing the number of Guys Named Williams cut this preseason to a team record three, or two less than the team record (five) for number of Guys Named Williams signed this preseason. The survivors on the main roster: offensive linemen Edwin Williams from Maryland and Mike "Biggest Loser" Williams.

Mike Williams hung on by the skin of his waist, which is actually substantial, as he's dropped 100 and some pounds by dieting and exercising. Speaking of lost LBs: Biggest Loser couldn't pick up rushing linebackers or anybody else in pass protection this preseason.

If he didn't have such a great backstory, he'd have been dropped.

***

Real life imitates Madden Football: The human Alex Buzbee got cut over the weekend, a couple weeks after Madden '10 dropped the digital Alex Buzbee from its video game roster.

This means Georgetown's half-century-long streak of not having any players in the NFL will continue.

Big Jim Ricca, who signed with the Redskins in 1951, was the last Hoya footballer.

***

From our Hyattsville bureau: At least six DeMatha alums stuck around in the NFL as of cut day — Brian Westbrook, of course, stays with the Philadelphia Eagles; little brother Byron Westbrook and Edwin Williams make the Redskins active roster; Seattle keeps John Owens and Josh Wilson; and the Atlanta Falcons have Quinn Qjianaka.

Think about it: Six guys from one high school football program — DeMatha's — are in the NFL this season; yet no player from one college football program — Georgetown's — has been in the NFL in MORE THAN FIFTY SEASONS.

That's amazing.

***

Nats’ record with Tom Boswell on vacation: 14-6

Nats record with me on vacation: 2-9.

We now return you to football season...

***

Story tips? Wanna Play the Feud? Tube amps for sale? Send to: cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com

Local TV isn't likely to expose a crooked mayor, as the Detroit Free Press did.

Arguable point, especially to Tom Sherwood, the dean of reporting here in municipalDCworld. Sherwood quickly banged out an e-mail to Kurtz asking, "[W]hat prompted the wholesale, gratuitous slap at "local tv" not being worth anything when it comes to investigative, serious reporting?"

The tall, baritone-voiced local from WRC-TV has some bona fides in this area. As his missive points out, his reporting has gotten people fired and had policies changed in local government. And Sherwood advises Kurtz to look at the best reporting of local TV stations—you'll find some fine investigative work in there, he says. "A wholesale dismissal, I believe, was uncalled for in your otherwise important story."

"Important story" is a bit too much praise for this particular Kurtz piece. The Post's top media reporter, a very responsive soul, had this to say about the assertion: "I should have qualified the statement a bit; there are a relative handful of stations that do good investigative reporting. But I was talking about the big, sweeping, labor-intensive investigations that topple a mayor or expose sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Given the cutbacks in the broadcasting, those are rare indeed in local TV."

Hoyer acknowledged that "we've been distracted by the gun issue and a couple of other issues that haven't gotten as much publicity" but said he's been "talking to the mayor, talking to Vince Gray, talking to members of the city council...trying to get this done."

DCist's Sommer Mathis asked Hoyer whether he saw a way forward. "Yes, there is," he replied. "I don't want to go deeply." He did note the possibility of "taking the gun thing then getting the vote, then dealing with the gun issue as we go along"—though he said "that is not my preference."

In response to question from Tom Sherwood of WRC-TV, Hoyer said there was no "drop dead deadline" for getting the bill passed. "I don't expect we'll get past May and not get it done," he said. "Ultimately, we're going to create a sense of how we can do this."

Sherwood asked if it would help if President Barack Obama spoke out on the issue. Said Hoyer, "We're talking to the administration about that, and we're getting a read on what the city wants to do about that and what [Eleanor Holmes Norton] wants to do about that."

Venerable WRC-TV correspondent Tom Sherwood, the dean of the D.C. local politics reportocracy, is working on a piece about fire hydrants, and how they don't work. So he's skulking around in the John A. Wilson Building and has managed to collar a couple of residents who live near dysfunctional fire hydrants. Next step is to head out into the field to check out the scene. One wonders what kind of NBC4 footage such outings will yield. After all, it's not as if Sherwood is going to, like, test a hydrant with one of his very own wrenches.

On Washington City Paper's theme for Feb. 19: "TV doesn't have an average day."

Of course, we're burying the lede a bit here: Sherwood has nailed down the story that Ward 8 Councilmember Marion S. Barry Jr. will undergo kidney-replacement surgery tomorrow.

Since Jonetta Rose Barras left the Friday noon talk show on WAMU-FM last May over a pay dispute, the show has been rotating in guest analysts (including, now and again, yours truly). But in recent months, Sherwood, best known as a reporter for WRC-TV, has pretty much become a fixture. Nnamdi, indeed, has been referring to him as "permanent guest analyst" on recent shows.

Says Sherwood, "I've been a guest on Kojo's show occasionally over the years. I've got the highest respect for him." Late last year, he says, he was approached about doing something more permanent, and "my TV station decided to give me the time on Friday afternoons. I appreciate that they asked me."

When Barras was on the show, it was billed at the "Politics Hour With Kojo and Jonetta"; with Sherwood on board, however, the name will remain as plain-ol' "Politics Hour," says producer Diane Vogel.

Tune in to Sherwood's "resident" debut tomorrow noon at 88.5 FM—LL will be guest analysting!