In this week's column, LL spun a scenario whereby the D.C. Council might approve a same-sex-marriage referendum. That best-case hypothetical situation for gay-marriage opponents, LL wrote, would be if "Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., on the hot seat with an election a year off, convinces Chairman Vincent C. Gray and at-largers Michael Brown and Kwame Brown to join him, Yvette Alexander, and Marion Barry."

Not so fast! Gloria Murry Ford, a staffer for Michael Brown, called LL yesterday to protest mightily that her boss would never ever consider compromising on such a key civil-rights issue. Not even in some harebrained hypothetical scenario! Never!

Duly noted. And, it should be said that Kwame Brown is signed on as a co-sponsor of the marriage bill, and Gray is not only a co-sponsor, but offered strongly pro-marriage-equality comments in a Washington Times interview earlier this week.

So that leaves Alexander, Barry, and Thomas.

The Post reported Barry is "keeping an open mind" on the marriage bill. (Yeah, right.) Thomas has been waffling for a while. And then there's Alexander, who spoke to LL today.

Don't count on her vote, David Catania.

"I stand where the president stands, that the definition of marriage is a union between a man and a woman," she says, leaning heavily on the Obama civil-union crutch. She adds: "We give them just about everything that they would get [with marriage] with a domestic partnership."

And don't think any of those fancy terms is going to change her mind: "The word "marriage equality" for me doesn't make sensd. Marriage is between a man and a woman," she says. "How more equal do they want it?"

As for it being a human rights issue, Alexander thinks not. After all, she chairs the council's committee on again and community affairs, which has oversight over human rights matters. The bill isn't going to her committee, she points out, but solely to Phil Mendelson's judiciary committee. "No one can argue that it's a human rights issue if it's not going through human rights [committee]," she says, adding to her concerns that "I don't see how Congress is going to approve it."

As for a ballot initiative: "I think that would be the ideal situation."

Alexander says that Catania, the bill's sponsor, called her yesterday to ask whether she would support the bill. She was having lunch with Barry at the time. "When David asked me...he really didn't expect that I was going to cosponsor, but he gave me the courtesy of calling and asking."

And, no, she doesn't expect Barry to support the bill, either.

In our running poll of the D.C. Council's Judiciary Committee members regarding AG Peter Nickles' conduct, we finally reached Councilmember Yvette Alexander.

Nickles has come under fire recently for his office's conduct in a Pershing Park civil suit. District evidence has either been destroyed or lost and discovery continues to be a problem in that case. The discovery process has dragged on for years. The U.S. District Court judge in the case slammed the OAG, ordered Nickles to submit a sworn statement explaining his office's actions, and called on the D.C. Council to investigate the OAG's handling of the case. The issues before Nickles include one very false affidavit.

So far Councilmember Mary Cheh has called for Nickles to resign. Yesterday, Councilmember Phil Mendelson joined Cheh in pushing for Nickles to rejoin the private sector.  Councilmember Jack Evans still fully supports Nickles.

Alexander says she is reserving judgment on Nickles for the time being. She would like to see the council take up the matter. "I wouldn't have a problem with requesting an investigation," she tells City Desk. "You are innocent until proven guilty. I would want to know what happened with the evidence."

If there was purposeful or criminal mishandling of evidence, Alexander says, then Nickles should be ousted.

Alexander says that Nickles still hasn't accepted his role as the attorney general. "I have not seen the distinction in his role as the general counsel and attorney general," she explains. "It troubles me. That was one of my concerns during the confirmation."

*photo courtesy of Alexander's awesome website.

D.C. Wire's Marion Barry coverage leads the Post's site this a.m., wherein Councilmember David Catania "steps to the plate" (Barry loves that phrase) on the issue of granting and then yanking public contracts from his former ladyfriend. "These are public funds," he says. "There needs to be an accounting." Barry's spokesperson promises the good councilmember will actually answer some questions on that front today. Other Council react: Chairman Vincent Gray avoided the matter, issuing some boilerplate about how he's worked to increase the Council's ethics. Barry's across-the-river compadre's remarks were reserved for the kicker. Yvette Alexander: "The nine lives of Marion Barry, except I think he has maybe 11 lives." And, thanks, WaPo for giving City Paper credit on the voicemail tapes! The TV did the same last night, although funnily News Channel 8 cut off the last part of our cover image.

Speaking of: Get yours today! As the Sexist points out, they won't last long. Even Gawker thinks this week's cover is a thing of beauty, and they almost never say anything nice.

Only in D.C.: The anti Real World DC blog nerds out on the chances of former castmembers running for Congress and otherwise entering politics. Personally, I stopped paying attention after Puck. Why does this town care about these people? It's plain weird.

Borderstan's seeing the glass-half-full on stolen bikes: Registered ones are nine times more likely to be returned. (As a glass-half-empty blogger, I would point out that 9X0 still = 0. But, hey, give it a shot.)

The train's out of the barn now: Metro riders with video cams (i.e., every one of them) are going German Youth on operators. First, there was the texting-while-driving incident. Now we have a Fox 5 "Exclusive": a sleepy operator. The operators' union response to growing complaints from squished and pissed-off Red-Line riders? It's yesterday's news, but worth repeating: "At least you're alive."

You know you can't get enough. Pandacam is streaming live today on Butterstick's fourth birthday with the requisite "cake" made out of bamboo, beets, and other delicious-to-pandas ingredients. Happy birthday, Tai Shan!

(Pride Parade photo by LL Mike DeBonis.)

In the Wynn Las Vegas' Alsace Room:

Law firm Arent Fox (new employer of Tony Williams, as it happens) is hosting the signature event for local politicos at this year's Vegas confab.

Question is, how many "other District of Columbia officials" will show at an event headlined by Adrian Fenty? With council resentment inflamed by tickets, travel, and what have you---and the chance for a repeat of last year's Vegas conflict, when Fenty's people scheduled meetings separate from councilmembers---things could get, um, interesting. LL had heard late last week that Yvette Alexander had been the only councilmember to RSVP. For LL's sake, he hopes everyone shows up: Nothing like clashing personalities, booze, and a small room far away from home to create LL-caliber drama.

He'll be taking party reports.

To be fair, councilmember did not start the trend. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's budget proposal, LL was first to report, divvied up the NIF money into places seemingly not in keeping with the fund's original purpose of stimulating development in 12 target areas. Rather, Fenty wanted to money to go for capital improvements at a pair of Ward 2 nonprofits and a passel of arts grants---not to mention a hefty subsidy for the DCUSA parking garage.

Brown proposed dropping most of those directives and putting $10 million of the fund toward competitively bid grants in keeping with the NIF's original intent. But his colleagues had other ideas: Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans started by proposing to restore much of the mayor's proposed earmarks (most of which benefited Ward 2, unsurprisingly). So did Ward 4's Muriel Bowser. Then Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry got in on the action. And Ward 7's Yvette Alexander. Brown was the lone vote against each addition.

Barry tells LL: "I believe in earmarks...as long as there's accountability and transparency."

LL has gotten his hands on the list. He's still plowing his way through the earmarks contained in Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham's committee budget report. Will update with that soon. But this should be enough to get you started.

From mayoral proposal (totaling $2.9 million, via Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans):

• Rachael’s Women’s Center: $350,000
• D.C. Center: $500,000
• Bread for the City: $250,000
• D.C. Central Kitchen: $250,000
• CityDance: $250,000
• D.C. Jewish Community Center: $250,000
• Duke Ellington Jazz Festival: $250,000
• Kennedy Center: $250,000
• Washington National Opera: $250,000
• Washington Performing Arts Society: $250,000
• Dakshina Dance Company: $75,000

From Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser:

• Riggs Road reconstruction project: $2.1 million

From Councilmember Marion Barry (totaling $2.695 million):

• UNIFEST: $100,000
• Sasha Bruce Youthwork Inc.: $300,000
• Woodland Tigers Youth Sports: $100,000
• Jobs Coalition: $50,000
• Institute for the Prevention & Eradication of Violence: $50,000
• C.H.O.I.C.E. Inc., $100,000
• Concerned Citizens on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Inc.: $100,000
• Calvin Woodland Sr. Foundation: $100,000
• Behavior Environmental Academic Program (BEAP): $75,000
• Alliance of Concerned Men: $100,000
• ROOT Inc.: $100,000. Melvin Deal: $250,000
• the Parklands Community Center: $100,000
• Cultural Tourism D.C.: $100,000 ("for expanding the Anacostia Initiative, which will focus on education and leadership for Wards 7 and 8 youth, and build upon the African American Heritage Trail")
• Greater Washington Fashion Chamber of Commerce: $100,000
• Greater Washington Urban League: $100,000
• Ward 8 Clean and Sober Inc.: $75,000
• Ward 8 Clean & Green Inc.: $75,000
• Ward 8 Youth Leadership Council Inc.: $75,000
• Ward 8 Business Council: $100,000
• DC VOICE: $100,000
• Byte Back: $50,000
• Turning the Page: $100,000
• Cabel Foundation Inc: $45,000
• Byte Back: $50,000
• Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington: $300,000 ("for programming at Anacostia High School")

From Councilmember Yvette M. Alexander (totaling $1.8 million):

• East River Family Strengthening Collaborative: $100,000
• National Kidney Foundation: $100,000
• Marshall Heights Community Development Corporation: $100,000
• Ward 7 Arts Collaborative: $100,000
• Lifepieces to Masterpieces: $100,000
• Northeast Performing Arts Group: $50,000
• Ward 7 Business and Professional Association: $100,000 ("on the condition that a new Executive Director and Board of Directors are appointed")
• GreenSpace: $200,000
• Groundwork Anacostia DC: $50,000
• Fort Dupont Kids on Ice: $250,000
• East of the River Boys & Girls Steel Band: $50,000
• Washington East Foundation: $50,000
• Ward 7 Education Initiative: $50,000
• Lifting As We Climb Foundation Inc.: $50,000
• African American Music Association: $100,000
• Keeley's Boxing: $100,000
• Set Point, Inc.: $50,000
• Champs: $50,000
• Fiesta DC: $50,000 ("through the D.C. Commission on Arts and Humanities")
• Latino Economic Development Corporation: $150,000
• Educational Organization for United Latin Americans: $50,000

Yvette Alexander is the Ward 7 councilmember.

Favorite Restaurant: "I have to say, the best place in Ward 7 is MoRuss Seafood on Minnesota Avenue." MoRuss, owned by a pair of former chefs from Ruth's Chris Steak House, is in the Twining neighborhood. Her go-to dish? "Blackened salmon. They know when the Ward 7 councilmember comes in, they get the blackened salmon going." Get the cabbage and mashed sweet potatoes on the side, she says. (2902 Minnesota Ave. SE, 202-583-2722)

Power Lunch Location: "Denny's (at East Capitol Street and Benning Road)! I get the waffle slam. And they have turkey sausage."

Trusted Political Caterer: Fat Face BBQ, on East Capitol Street

Quick Wilson Building Nosh: "I like either Corner Bakery or Au Bon Pain." At the latter, she says, she goes for the Southwestern Corn Chowder.

Beverage of Choice: Alexander's a Starbucks girl. She picks up a "grande extra-hot 200-degree skim caramel macchiato" at the 8th and Pennsylvania SE location on her way in to work. Why so picky about temperature? "When you make the mixed drinks, it gets cool."

Council Breakfast Story: Before monthly legislative meetings, councilmembers take turns catering a buffet-style breakfast for their colleagues. Usually it's a pretty standard affair, with eggs, potatoes, bacon, coffee. Not so for the first breakfast Alexander hosted: "We had linen tablecloths, fresh-cut flowers, jazz music, waffles to order, omelets to order," she says. That spread, courtesy of event planner George Worrell was to celebrate a double event: Alexander's first council breakfast and her birthday.

D.C. Councilmembers Harry Thomas Jr. and Yvette Alexander are elected officials. People must have seen something in them that they liked. Maybe in Thomas' case, it was his famous name. Maybe in Alexander's case, it was her sunny personality. But since joining the council, both have gained reputations as lightweights.

Last Wednesday, on February 18, Thomas and Alexander earned their reps.

The two presided over an oversight hearing on the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR). For the first hour-plus of that hearing, the two focused on the Therapeutic Recreation Center, located at 3030 G Street SE, and the non-profit Positive Nature. This past fall, the non-profit, which specializes in providing services for at-risk youth, moved into the TR Center as part of a public-private partnership with the rec department.

If there was ever a need for a safe place for at-risk kids, now would be it. Child and Family Services is only now climbing out of a backlog with a director yet to be confirmed. Last week, City Lights Public Charter School, which educates troubled kids, announced it was closing. A parent recently won a huge hurdle in his lawsuit against the city over its treatment of his son who needs special-ed services. Of course, there's Banita Jacks. These are just recent events. Pick any year and you will find many more sad stories about troubled kids not getting the help they need from the city.

Pick a topic: Funding. Education. Therapy. Counseling. After-school support. Chances are the District is failing a troubled kid or a thousand troubled kids in one or all of these areas.

If you happened to attend this hearing or watch it online, you would have thought that there are no at-risk kids in the District. All you would have heard from is an entity known as the Concerned Seniors of the Therapeutic Recreation Center. They were bused to the hearing dressed in brand new matching red t-shirts. They were there to hijack the proceedings.

For that first hour or so, they blasted the hearing with ignorant nonsense. The seniors aren't "concerned." They are furious that they now have to share the TR Center. They want their rec center back.

"I have never met any of these people," testified La Verne Hall about Positive Nature. I guess she missed the non-profit's open house last fall. Among the grievances Hall lists are the disappearance of the center's "Boo House" for Halloween and an extra lifeguard for water aerobics.

Of Positive Nature, Hall asked: "What have they offered? So far I have seen little or next to nothing."

There are few things worse than a senior-citizen turned NIMBY. In Hall's calculation, troubled kids who have been shuffled through the broken foster-care system or who have been neglected by their mothers or who suffer with learning disabilities aren't worth a few rooms in a District rec center.

Hall told me in an interview on Sunday that she'd like to see Positive Nature evicted from the facility. She really misses that Boo House. Nevermind that the TR Center still offers programming for seniors. Hall has just never bothered to figure it out. Nor has she apparently bothered to visit the three other DPR facilities dedicated to senior programs in Southeast.

Hall was joined at the hearing by Alice Love, who claims to have organized the concerned seniors group. Love admitted that she doesn't patronize the TR Center nor live anywhere near the center. This did not stop her from spouting off.

Both Alexander and Thomas then proceeded to gush over these seniors. Alexander showed up late. But this fact didn't prevent her from commenting on the testimony she hadn't heard.

“I really take seriously any concern that you have," Alexander stated, adding later: "Please know you have me as an advocate for you."

Thomas told Love: “I am so pleased you’ve taken up this charge.”

Then things turned real ugly.

A DPR employee who works at the TR Center had testified that he had received a written threat on his windshield. The threat apparently warned him about speaking out against the non-profit or something like that. There was no evidence that anyone from Positive Nature made the threat.

This did not stop Alexander from putting on her detective's badge and slandering the non-profit. “It points the finger directly at them whether it was through them directly or indirectly…that sickens me that we have a partnership …." But she added: "[There's] No evidence that it comes from them."

No evidence. We also heard Thomas introduce into the record some mysterious checks ($15 from Alexandria? Wha?) that Positive Nature may or may not have received. I wasn't sure what Thomas was talking about. He never did explain himself. Thomas also mentioned that the city has paid Positive Nature money for services. He just didn't know what those services were for.... Maybe he should have skimmed this story before holding his hearing.

Maybe Thomas should have talked to one of the city's social workers. Here is what one told me in an e-mail last night:

"PNI is one of very few providers that offers services to some of the most challenging youth in the city. Not only do they do it, but they do it well. PNI's level of commitment to each individual child and his/her family is a rarity in service provision today. I have referred several children to this program...children that no one else could reach. They are able to make the connections that are so vital to our young people's lives."

Let's see: the money is payment for running after-school programs for District kids, for taking in kids at 10 a.m. and taking them home at the end of the day, for advocating on their behalf in Family Court, etc. For being there when no one else will.

But then again, seniors vote. What pull do foster kids have with big-time D.C. Councilmembers?

Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander has been waiting in the wings, a back-bencher, for nearly two years. While colleagues presided over important council committees, Alexander held no such portfolio.

But today that all changed. Alexander is chairing her first hearing as the new chair of the Committee on Aging and Community Affairs. On the docket is an examination of mayoral nominees to the Commission on Human Rights. "I feel pumped!" she exclaims.

When asked to explain her take on her job in vetting the mayor's people, Alexander states, "I understand the mayor's vision, but I want to understand the individual nominee's vision."

And what about chairmanly conduct? Does the new committee chief take cues from colleagues with respect to running a hearing? Any role models? "I'm a very compassionate person. I don't use my chairmanship as an interrogation," she responds.

So you're not going to be David Catania? "I didn't say that."

By Mike DeBonis

If you pick one federal building in which to have you inaugural fete, make it the brand-new U.S. Department of Transportation. The D.C. Democratic State Committee's bash, the D.C. Presidential Inaugural Gala, is drawing a lot of gravitas from its surroundings alone. Trouble is, there's not a whole hell of a lot to keep the illusion alive. The Democratic State Committee is a chaotic and cash-poor organization with a different set of accounting problems each reporting period. So even though it's throwing a bash in these swank confines, the fare can be categorized charitably as "light refreshments"---i.e., cheese cubes and fruit. And the only notables on this evening have been Tommy Wells, Yvette Alexander, and Vincent Orange. No titles necessary with those names. Plus, the downside of running a shindig in a federal building is that you can't get rid of the security folks. They're like Bill Rice--everywhere you look, there they are!

Reporting by Mike DeBonis, writing by Erik Wemple

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia commons

• Jack Evans
• Cary Silverman
• Muriel Bowser
• Baruti Jahi

And here are the lame-o's who didn't:

• Patrick Mara
• Carol Schwartz
• Yvette Alexander
• Marion Barry
• Charles Wilson

And here is the candidate whose e-mail box was too full to receive the questionnaire:

• Villareal Johnson

Silverman, who says cycling is his primary MOT, said he's in favor of striping bike lanes, adding bike boxes, increasing the number of racks, among other things. Evans likes bike lanes and thinks cycling should be taught in public schools. Bowser blew a bunch of hot air about encouraging cycling blah blah blah. Jahi said he used to be an avid cyclist but doesn't have much time for it these days.

Fair warning: The word Klingle is used frequently in this post.

You can read Loose Lips' primary endorsements here.