We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.

Unsubscribe any time.

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:

  • Cost to Break Kwame Brown’s Navigator Lease: $12,450

    • Good morning sweet readers! [Witty comment.] News time:

    Not What a Lawyer Would Advise: Cornell Jones, a former drug kingpin who is being sued by the city for allegedly using city AIDS funding to renovate a strip club, took to the airways to say he’s being targeted because he is black and because openly gay Councilmembers Jim Graham and David Catania are “a couple of gay guys who sometimes get to acting like little faggots,” TWT reports. Nothing like playing the race card along with the aggressive homophobia card at the same time. Cheers, Mr. Jones, stay classy. Also, how did the city ever get into business with this guy?!

    AFTER THE JUMP: Sulaimon’s Records; Clearing Catania; Pringle’s Problems…

    You’ll Have to Ask the FBI: Former mayoral candidate and city healthcare auditor Sulaimon Brown was back in the news yesterday because 1) he finally hired a lawyer! and 2) he told the D.C. Council he can’t answer their subpoena for bank and other records because he’s already turned those records over to the FBI, and apparently he didn’t make any copies to keep for himself before doing so. “The council is expressing to the courts and public that I’m being dilatory. I’m not being dilatory,” says Brown in a letter. Since the council has already released its report, what does everybody say to just letting this issue drop?

    Clearing Catania: The Post reports that Mayor Vince Gray is moving “to dilute some of [Catania’s] power over the direction of health policy” with the recent dismissal of a former Catania aide at the health care finance department. Kicker quote: “Before Genee Unger came along, Medicaid every year was a material weakness in our (budget), but she went there a couple years ago to right our system and … it appears she was fired for that,” Catania said. “It is interesting who this mayor has selected to bring into this administration. It seems to be based a lot on personal petty vendettas and not competence.”

    Not What the Doctor Ordered: LL is of two minds about new Deputy Mayor Andi Pringle and the disclosure that she voted in last year’s mayoral primary while living in Rockville (pro tip: “North Bethesda” is a made-up term realtors use to make southern Rockville more expensive-sounding.) One one hand, Pringle, as a veteran political operative, should have known better. On the other, it could easily have been a just simple mistake not worth getting bent out of shape over. In any event, the Post editorial board has its mind made up about Votegate: Guilty! The Post serves up a blistering editorial with the headline (“More Hiring Headaches for D.C. Mayor”) that Gray really didn’t want to see. Pringle didn’t do herself any favors by telling the Examiner that she didn’t vote in this year’s special election because “in my mind, I was in Maryland by then.” When you’ve lived in Maryland for 18 months, such a statement might deserves the Post‘s retort: “Residency may sometimes be a complicated legal issue, but it’s not a state of mind.”  Meanwhile, deputy chief of staff Paul Quander filled in for the mayor yesterday on TBD’s Newstalk with Bruce DePuyt and said that “we missed one” while vetting Pringle but the administration has no plans to dump her.

    In Other News:

    • Gray administration clearly made appointments without looking at sloppy, overly long resumes.
    • Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and former Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee tied the knot over the weekend. No word on whether “Thunder” Dan Majerle was there.
    • New speed cameras coming.
    • En fin, bike share to the Mall.
    • City breaks out $10 million to cover earthquake damages.
    • Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans apparently reads Post editorial page, writes letter to the IG over lottery contract non-investigation.

    Gray sked: Weekly presser at 10 a.m. WOL Radio With Bernie McCain interview at 4 p.m.

    Council sked: Roundtable on middle school at 10 a.m.