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A deliberative, process-oriented 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:
Wal-Mart Bumps Up Lobbying HTJ Promises to Release Records
Good morning sweet readers! You call that a snowfall? Weak! News time:
The Mess at Hardy: Hardy Middle School continues its stay in the news for all the wrong reasons. The troubles started when then-schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee reassigned the Georgetown school’s popular principal, Patrick Pope, and replaced him with Dana Nerenberg last year. A group of Hardy parents say Nerenberg, who is also the principal at another school, isn’t up to the job and the once great magnet school has fallen into disarray under her watch. The Georgetown Dish reports that parents are upset over a letter Nerenberg and interim Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson sent home last night to parents, promising various new task forces to deal with the schools problems. Bill Turque has some details about three allegations of corporal punishment involving the same teacher. (Side note: one of LL’s assistant principals in Texas was canned for spanking a kid 32 times. The limit when LL went to school was three times.) And Jonetta Rose Barras asks why DCPS can’t just admit they made a mistake and put Pope back in as principal. It certainly seems like that would be the easiest move to make politically, but Henderson said in November she has no plans to remove Nerenberg. And when Mayor Vince Gray was questioned by a scary-smart Hardy student during his town hall forums about bringing Pope back, he said he wasn’t going to micromanage the school system. Deadlock!
AFTER THE JUMP: Top Park Cop Get Job Back; Team Thomas Mystery; Clear Your Sidewalk … Or Else …
You’re Hired: Former U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers is set to get her old job back after she was fired in 2004 for speaking to the media about her department’s budget problems, WTOP reports. Chambers will get back pay and have her legal fees covered, according to a ruling from the Merit Systems Protection Board. The feds can still appeal the decision. From WTOP’s story, it looks like Chambers got the short end of the stick on several occasions. “In 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a claim from Chambers that records exonerating her may have been illegally destroyed by Bush Administration officials.” Barring an appeal, Chambers should be back on the job within 20 days.
Team Thomas, Classified: Both LL and LL No. 6 Mike DeBonis had the same question for new A.G. Irv Nathan yesterday: Did Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. respond to a subpoena for financial records of Thomas’ non-profit by a court-ordered deadline? Nathan, however, isn’t talking. Thomas says he’s got the documents ready, but isn’t sure whether his legal team has handed them over (they met Monday afternoon), and his lawyer, Fred Cooke Jr., is also not commenting. We do know the attorney general’s office did not go back to court yesterday, which is what former Attorney General Peter Nickles would almost certainly have done if Thomas hadn’t handed over the documents by Monday’s deadline. What that means? Who knows.
Did You Clear Your Sidewalk?: If not, you could be staring down the barrel of a $25 fine thanks to new regs proposed by CM Mary Cheh. “Pedestrian safety should be a priority no matter what season it is,” Cheh tells the Examiner. CM Jim Graham is scared old people who can’t physically shovel will get hit with a fine. (LL’s Ward 4-residing editor shoveled his sidewalk and his elderly neighbor’s sidewalk, a task made a bit more difficult by the freezing rain that preceded the puny snow display. And by the fact that LL’s editor is, like most journalists, not exactly buff.)
You Passed!: It seems like there’s no easier way for a mayor’s approval to drop than a crummy response to a snow storm. Fortunately for Gray, he got off easy on his first one. D.C. Wire recalls former Mayor Adrian Fenty‘s verve for holding news conferences without news during storms. Not to be outdone, Gray held his own news conference despite the minimal snow fall yesterday “because we already had everything in place,” spokeswoman Linda Wharton-Boyd tells the Examiner.
Gray’s new digs: the article.
Did you lose out in your bid to nab a city contract? Now you can find out why.
Bar owners discuss non-violence.
Cool pictures of Georgetown, back in the day.
LL’s favorite White House reporter remembers D.C. in the ’80s.
Gray schedule: Lunch with Rotarians at noon, University Club. Former City Administrator Neil Albert‘s farewell party, 6:30 p.m., Shakespeare Sidney Harmon Center.
Council: Comms on Health and Finance have their organizational meetings.