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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Judging Vince Gray Dancing Vince Gray Peter Nickles Suing Don Peebles
Good afternoon sweet readers! Today is Veterans’ Day, a day LL likes to think about his Grandpa, who spent five years in Europe fighting Nazis and lost a leg in the process. Thanks Pops. News time (note: this is an abridged LL daily because many usual readers aren’t at work today, and LL spent the morning at a staff meeting listening to words like “verticals” and “synergy”):
Don’t Judge Me!: LL continues his slippery slide into punditry with his column in this week’s dead tree edition of Washington City Paper. The topic: Vince Gray‘s first two months since winning the primary. LL won’t give too much away, but “in the weeks since he won the primary, Gray has given himself blueprints to follow that seem to predict both good times ahead and bad. Which one he sticks to more often might determine how the next four years go.” You may read it here.
AFTER THE JUMP: Nickles v. Peebles; Rubinson Speaks; Other News…
See Your Successor in Court: If you haven’t had a chance to read mega-developer Don Peebles’ full statement yesterday in response to the news that Attorney General Peter Nickles filed a civil fraud suit against him, then do yourself a favor and see it here. Dude does not hold back. The Post‘s Mike DeBonis adds some interesting background info to this whole saga. “The lawsuit is rooted in an effort by the city’s real estate department in the past year to scrutinize the government’s leases of private office space. Since the work began in September 2009, more than 30 leases have been reviewed by the Schonbraun McCann Group, a New York consulting firm. Many showed evidence of improper expenses and were subsequently settled, said Robin-Eve Jasper, head of the department, bringing more than $1 million into the ailing city coffers. Only Peebles’s company has been sued. ‘This one rose to the top,’ Nickles said. Nickles said he rejected the settlement, calling it ‘unsatisfactory’ and ‘not . . . in the public interest.’ Three lawyers from Nickles’s office had participated in the settlement talks, Jasper said.” The Examiner‘s Freeman Klopott says that the lawsuit “highlights the District’s systemic failure to track its bills.”
Rubinson Speaks: Gray’s former campaign manager Adam Rubinson shares his thoughts on Gray at a meeting covered by Washingtonian: “’Tony Williams took us to a point of respectability and professionalism, but he could only take us so far, and there was something lacking [with Still Mayor Adrian Fenty],’ Rubinson told the crowd of 30 community organizers, advocacy group representatives, and nonprofit founders. ‘Vince understands how important it is to respect process and people, and that ultimately, reforms will go nowhere if those things are ignored.'”
Groundbreaking ceremony for convention center hotel was yesterday.
Freeman plays psychologist, says Fenty is happy to be moving on.
Murder rate falling.
More on Chaffetz not being our boss.
Save our Safety Net is not going to be giving Tommy Wells a cape.