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A deliberative roundup of one city’s local politics. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. And get LL Daily sent straight to your inbox every morning!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Good morning sweet readers! It’s Thursday, and you all know what that means: Washington City Paper staffers will spend most of the day huddled around an oil drum fire trying to stay warm. It also means the dead tree edition is out. This week’s cover belongs to LDP, who examines the dysfunction, both past and present, of Union Station. Dave McKenna reports on chess powerhouse UMBC. Chris Shott profiles One Lounge’s new chef. And LL reports on more than two dozen retired police officers who have been improperly double dipping for the last few years, including the chief of D.C. Protective Services Police Department, at a cost of likely millions to taxpayers. What did MPD Police Chief Cathy Lanier do when the city finally got wise? She gave three of her double dipping subordinates giant raises. News time:

Beepers are Out, Burners Are In: Are members of the city government behaving like drug dealers and using private emails and  disposable phones to conduct city business while skirting public records laws? That’s what D.C. Watch’s Dorothy Brizil is saying. Per DC Watch: “Within the Gray administration, the mayor, City Administrator Allen Lew, and Chief of Staff Christopher Murphy have regularly conducted city business using private E-mail accounts and cell phones. In the city council, Chairman Kwame Brown and Councilmember Harry Thomas have become so paranoid that they have been replacing their disposable cell phones on a nearly weekly basis.” It’d be nice to see some proof to back those statements up. We do know, however, that CFO Nat Gandhi uses private emails sometimes and former Mayor Adrian Fenty used private emails pretty much all the time.

AFTER THE JUMP: Lotto Mystery; Dancing Mayor; Income Gap…

Lotto Mystery: TWT reports that the forthcoming iGaming will not use the city-owned “high-speed fiber-optic network that carries data, voice, video and wireless telecommunications for government and public safety purposes” as initially planned. “D.C. Lottery director Buddy Roogow said Wednesday that officials opted for other forms of technology to secure the system, but he declined to elaborate on the technology. Mr. Roogow said the lottery is ‘very confident’ in its systems, adding that ‘we don’t want to give away everything we’re doing’ in respect to the intellectual property involved in the first-in-the-nation effort to offer and regulate online gambling.”

Dancing Mayor: Why did a go-go video director force the mayor to dance from behind a desk? No one looks good dancing while seated!! Let the man move.

In Other News:

  • Income gap in D.C. between blacks and whites has grown since 1990. Whites make more than three times what blacks make. D.C. also has largest black/white test score gap in the country.
  • Chief Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. agitator Tim Day takes a victory lap.
  • Ofield Dukes and Joe Robert lived full lives.
  • Herb Miller wants mayor’s help with zero tolerance policy at Gallery Place, and homeless shelters.
  • Post says Gray to appoint Brenda Donald to head “troubled but improving” Child and Family Services Agency. It’ll be her second time at the rodeo.

Gray sked: 10:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.: Mayor’s Holiday Celebration for D.C. Seniors at the armory; 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.: Media Interview: NBC 4’s Viewpoint with Tom Sherwood (Segment also known as “Two old dudes.”); 1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.: New Child & Family Services Agency Director Press Announcement; 5:00 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.: Labor Heritage Foundation 22nd Annual Evening of Labor Awards Reception; 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.: D.C. Office of Human Rights International Human Rights Day Observance; 7:15 p.m. – 7:45 p.m.: D.C. Congress of Parents and Teachers President’s and Principal’s Meet-and-Greet; 8:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.: Washington, D.C. Association of Realtors Annual Meeting, Holiday Party & Installation of 2012 Officers and Directors; 8:45 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.: Metropolitan Women’s Democratic Club Annual Holiday Celebration; 9:45 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.: East of the River Family Strengthening Collaborative 15th Anniversary Awards Gala.

Council sked: Councilmember Vincent Orange makes every city department testify on how it’s living up to set-aside goals, starting at 9 a.m.