Stories broke this morning in the Los Angeles Times and in the Examiner reporting that D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee took an active role in investigations of her fiance, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.

Allow LL to explicate a little more fully what this is and what Rhee is alleged to have done.

Read More "What Was Michelle Rhee’s ‘Damage Control’ for Kevin Johnson?" »

At 3 p.m. today, the House rules committee will take up the District of Columbia appropriations bill, and will decide which amendments will later be taken up on the House floor.

Amendments proposed so far include a number of social-policy riders that have been removed in subcommittee and committee actions. They also include attempts to prevent gay marriage in the District.

Here's a rundown:

Read More "Members of Congress Line Up to Tell D.C. How to Spend Its Money" »

A measure to once again ban D.C. from implementing a 1998 medical marijuana initiative failed in a House appropriations committee vote this evening.

The D.C. budget made it out of its appropriations subcommittee without the so-called Barr amendment---a rider, first introduced by Georgia Republican Bob Barr, which has graced the District budget since 1998. But this evening Missouri Republican Jo Ann Emerson attempted to put it back on.

After a short debate, with Jim Moran (D-Va.) standing up to defend District home rule, the Emerson measure failed by a voice vote. The bill still has to survive the House floor, Senate consideration, and conference committee.

Presently, the committee is debating an amendment that would preserve the rider banning the District from funding abortions. It's unclear whether an amendment regarding the District's gun laws will come up this evening.

UPDATE, 10:05 P.M.: The abortion amendment has failed, 26-33. If the bill as passed out of committee is made law, the District will be free to spend local funds on abortion.

As LL noted this morning, it seems young Jason Chaffetz of Utah is taking the lead in the House of Representatives in attempts to overturn the District's recognition of same-sex marriages.

His hometown newspapers, the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune, both published stories about his involvement today.

Here's what the latter wrote:

While Chaffetz agrees he would object to the federal government telling his hometown of Alpine to recognize or not recognize gay marriage, the freshman congressman says the District of Columbia is different because it receives federal funding as the nation's capital.

"People in Salt Lake City are paying for the operation and government in the District of Columbia," Chaffetz says. He adds that he believes Congress should vote on the issue.

Um, so, congressman, you did check whether your hometown of Alpine is receiving any federal funds, right?

LL is certain you made sure that your community received no community development block grants or police bulletproof vest money or any of that stimulus money and that none of those roads in your beautiful town were built with a portion of the federal highway trust fund, right? Because that would mean Congress should get a say over how your town is run, if LL understands you correctly. More to the point, it would follow that, LL, as a federal taxpayer, would be entitled to congressional representation he doesn't currently have.

And surely you made especially certain that your hometown fire department didn't receive, in 2006, a nearly million-dollar handout from the Department of Homeland Security in order to hire firefighters, right?

Wrong.

Flickr photo by wickenden

OK, so you're worried about that gun amendment the Senate attached today to the D.C. House Voting Rights Act?

According to LL's game-planning here, you probably shouldn't be that worried. Civics lesson time, people:

Read More "D.C. Voting Rights: It’s All About Conference Now" »