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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:

  • Ground Officially Broken

    • Good morning sweet readers! Forrest Gump must be loaded by now. News time:

    Second Day Spin: The rest of the local media world was playing catch up today to the Post‘s scoop that Mayor Vince Gray‘s campaign was allegedly reporting over-the-legal-limit cash donations as money orders. The TV networks showed up at an H Street NE groundbreaking to ask the mayor about the Post‘s story. The Examiner notes that the same names, Howard Brooks, Reuben Charles, and Lorraine Green, keep popping up whenever bad news rolls around for Gray, and TWT notes that some of the excuses being offered by the Gray camp sound a lot like what Council Chairman Kwame “Fully Loaded” Brown has said about his own campaign finance troubles.

    AFTER THE JUMP: More Questions; Not a Flip Flop; Wells Against Gambling …

    Questions and Questions: The Post editorial board writes its 57th story on local politics this year with the words “More Questions” in the headline. Sayeth the Post: “Confronted with a series of unsettling disclosures about his campaign for mayor and the start of his fledging administration, D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) has had some stock answers. ‘Missteps’ were made; he wasn’t aware of wrongdoing; he couldn’t recall certain events; he put his trust in others. So his reaction to the latest disclosure is disheartening but not surprising.”

    Not a Flip Flop: The Examiner‘s Jonetta Rose Barras calls out the business community for not standing up to Brown after his committee reshuffling. “Barbara Lang, president and chief executive of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, initially seemed to challenge the chairman’s actions. ‘It’s a little unsettling. Businesspeople like things to stay put,’ she said, according to the Post. By week’s end, she appeared to have flipped, however: ‘We think this reorganization will provide appropriate oversight needed to advance the city’s agenda,” she said in a prepared statement. Lang couldn’t be reached. But her chief of staff Marco Aguilar said she ‘fully supports’ the reorganization and that the statement was ‘not a reversal of her [earlier] position. Barbara stands firmly by her remarks.’ The Greater Washington Board of Trade parsed its support, celebrating the selection of Vincent Orange for a small business committee and Muriel Bowser as the city’s new representative on the Metro Board. Their vocal opposition could help alter the city’s declining course.”

    No Online Gambling: Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells says he’s against the District’s plan to legalize online gambling. Councilmember Michael Brown says he’s not heard from any other councilmember who are ready to pull the plug on online gambling.
    In other news:

    Gray sked: 8:40 a.m. Opening remarks at Councilmember Michael Brown’s youth summit. 10 a.m. D.C. University Consortium Job Fair at GW. 11 a.m. Press briefing. Afternoon interviews with Bloomberg TV and Huffington Post.

    Council sked: Recess.