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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Good morning sweet readers! Yeah, those Benetton ads are a little weird. News time:

Just the Beginning: Rep. Darrell Issa is apparently very serious about giving the District budget autonomy, promising yesterday to “keep the light on this issue until we have a law.” Rather than dropping the issue after District officials told him they couldn’t support a deal that restricted local spending on abortions, he essentially said: No problem, let’s keep at this. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton told Fox 5 that we’re just at the beginning of the process, but things are looking good. Meanwhile the Post editorial board says the initial tradeoff wasn’t worth it—though abortion was the only caveat mentioned by Issa, the editorial suggests that the final measure might have involved other medding that would have actually altered the status quo on things like gay marriage. “There’s a bright line between compromising and selling out,” it concludes. And Mike DeBonis wonders why District politicians don’t raise money to help low-income women afford abortions if they feel so strongly about the issue.

AFTER THE JUMP: Pretty Smile; Ugly-ass Parking Meters in Anacostia; Debt Cap Lifting?…

Pretty Smile: Republican Ward 7 challenger Ron Moten does a Q&A with the Georgetown Dish. Asked what Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander has done for her ward, Moten says: “We have to go outside the ward for anything we want. We have gotten nothing in the ward. It’s terrible. What she’s done—she’s been a great failure. She has a pretty smile.” (Moten may call himself a “Civil Rights Republican,” but lines like that suggest he has a ways to go before becoming an “Don’t Sound Sexist Republican.”)

Meanwhile, in other Ward 7 news, the Rev. Willie Wilson of Union Temple Baptist Church is endorsing the Rev. William H. (Bill) Bennett, who is also challenging Alexander. No, it’s not that Bill Bennett. Fun fact: According to Tom Sherwood‘s report, Bennett’s spokeswoman is Raymone Bain, the PR person who has repped Michael Jackson, Babyface, and—in D.C. politics—Marion Barry.

In Other News:

  • Congress Heights on the Rise has some righteous anger about Anacostia not only getting parking meters where parking used to be free, but getting some nasty old hand-me-down non-credit-card-accepting meters from richer parts of the city. Check out the pictures. This is what citizen journalism is all about.
  • Occupy Key Bridge fails to make news.
  • DPW ticket writer has been arrested twice for PCP-related charges.
  • Former DDOT chief of staff who said that he was canned for trying to blow the whistle about Fort Myer Construction’s outsized influence loses lawsuit.
  • Mayor talking about lifting debt cap to spur economic development (like a Redskins training facility?).
  • Livingsocial expands into Shaw.
  • Is there a plan afoot to sell off the MLK library?
  • Harry Jaffe wants a Wal-Mart in Ward 3.
  • Man now works construction job on same block where he once killed a dude. Fewer District residents using food stamps. Transgender activists protest alleged mistreatment.

Gray sked: 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.: CityMarket at O Street Demolition/Groundbreaking; 3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.: AIDS 2012 Promotional Video Taping; 6:30 p.m. – 6:50 p.m.: Washington Parks and People’s D.C. Green Corps Graduation Ceremony; 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.: Washington, D.C. Veterans Administration Medical Center Ladies’ Night.

Council sked: Judiciary and Housing: Hearing on re-entry programs at noon.