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:

  • Where the Team Thomas Money Went
  • Sulaimon Brown Won’t Turn Over Records
  • The Mayor and Congressional Review

    • Good morning sweet readers! It’s Thursday, so that means a brand spankin’ new edition of Washington City Paper is currently being hand delivered to the Oval Office. In this week’s column, LL shares what he found in the bank records belonging to Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr.‘s nonprofit, Team Thomas. Was LL bound by professional obligation to lead off with the fact that Team Thomas, which the attorney general says got its money through improperly solicited corporate donations and illegally got public money, spent $140 at Hooters? Yes he was. Other charges include a satellite TV bill, pest control and a large purchase at a perfume store. In this week’s cover story, LDP looks at how Wal-Mart stormed the District’s beaches only to find little to no resistance: “The most sophisticated retail entrepreneur in the world brought its A-game to D.C. It probably didn’t need it.” The hard working LDP also has a column urging you to keep calm and carry on in the face of Shariah restrictions on liquor stores. News time:

    Hey, That’s a Good Idea: More strong words are coming from The Washington Post‘s editorial board on the sorry state of affairs at the Wilson Building. The Post wants comprehensive ethics reform, calls out At-Large Councilmember Michael A. Brown‘s recent “It’s all legal, and that’s the world we live in” comments to WAMU-FM, says a recent ethics bill from Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh and D.C. Council Chairman Kwame “Fully Loaded” Brown “was widely and deservedly panned,” and sings the praises of political consultant Tom Lindenfeld for his op/ed on ethics reform.

    AFTER THE JUMP: DYRS INVESTIGATIONS, VINCE GRAY’S COLUMN, LEW VS. BRIZILL, AND MORE…

    Mystery Investigation: An investigation by the District’s H.R. department into a senior-level hiring at the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services has come up short, says TWT. “The findings delivered by phone to council member Jim Graham late Tuesday do not reveal whether acting DYRS Director Neil A. Stanley tailored a job description for the superintendent of the New Beginnings Youth Development Center in Laurel to fit a candidate he knew socially.” Since that’s the meat of the question, Graham says he doesn’t yet know what he’ll do about Stanley’s nomination.

    Gray’s One City Column: “I pray that, 10 years hence, we will be citing places like Historic Anacostia and Skyland as development success stories the same way we cite U Street and Columbia Heights today,” writes Hizzoner.

    Scandal Fatigue: D.C. Republican Party executive director Paul Craney says that D.C. residents are “jumping for joy” because with the upcoming D.C. Council recess, we’ll avoid being bombarded with regular news about ethics misdeeds. “All we’ve seen is one scandal after another and people need a break.” But Freeman Klopott says that “news about those scandals isn’t going to stop just because the council is on break from July 15 to Sept. 15.”

    Not as Memorable as “Try Decaf:” City Administrator Allen Lew yesterday to D.C. Watch’s Dorothy Brizill, who was asking about a pair of watchdog reports that says Lew hasn’t always followed the rules: “I find your attitude a bit questionable, okay. Why you focus on this as much as you do, I have no idea what your agenda is, okay.”

    In Other News:

  • Police Chief Cathy Lanier will meet with LGBT leaders and “soothe [their] discontent” with her department’s handling of hate-crime reporting, Lanier says she’s “shocked” and “hurt” by comments made by LGBT community, and Councilmember Phil Mendelson and FOP boss Kris Baumann got into it.
  • District now partially off the hook in special education class action suit.
  • D.C. is No. 8 when it comes to being green.
  • GGW says Kwame Brown should put homeless funding before bond-tax funding.
  • Mayor Vince Gray changes mind on Dulles rail station’s location.
  • No Friday news dump going on with latest round of standardized test scores, says the mayor.
  • Gray to have community summit in Ward 8.
  • Informer says some of Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser’s constituents are unfamiliar with her.

    • Mayor’s sked: 10-10:30 a.m., National Cherry Blossom Festival Centennial meeting; 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., meeting with South African delegation and sister-city agreement signing; 1-6 p.m., desk work, JAWB

    D.C. Council sked: 10 a.m., Judiciary Committee hearing, Room 123; 1 p.m., Public Services and Consumer Affairs Committee hearing, Room 500

    Also: Board of Elections and Ethics hearing on Kwame Brown’s 2008 campaign finances at 10 a.m.