You Weren’t Invited to Michelle Rhee’s Wedding: “Glamorous” invitations have been going out by mail lately to the Sacramento social event of the year—the Labor Day weekend wedding of DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. A big suburban real estate developer/Johnson supporter, Angelo K. Tsakopoulos, will host the reception. (Which may prove Rhee’s buddy Adrian Fenty isn’t the only capital city mayor who’s got cronies.) School will have already started two weeks before the wedding; so much for the honeymoon! +3

Board of Elections and Ethics Still Missing One Member: The D.C. Council resisted voting on Mital Gandhi‘s nomination for a long time, but after today, he may wish they’d kept punting. The council sent Gandhi packing, in a 7-4 vote that means the three-member board may still only have two seats filled by the Sept. 14 primary—which sets up the prospect of a deadlock should any disputes about the election arise. Gandhi, meanwhile, didn’t exactly take the news lying down, e-mailing councilmembers afterwards to rant at them. How’s that for ethics? -4

Summer Jobs Program Won’t Be Extended: After voting against Fenty’s nominee to the BOEE, the D.C. Council moved on to voting against Fenty’s proposal to extend the city’s summer jobs program. This one was even less popular than Gandhi, losing on a 9-2 vote. The move means the District won’t have to divert $4.3 million from federal poverty funds to pay for the summer jobs, but it probably mostly means the council wanted to show who was boss. Still, since the city hadn’t solved the persistent problem of muggers targeting kids working for the program, Fenty can probably count on a bump in the crime stats. -3

Wale Rediscovers His Inner Seinfeld: Maybe it’s all the minor, lame controversies he’s endured this year (plus one medium- to major-sized one), or the initially sleepy sales of his major-label debut in 2009, but Wale‘s trying to recapture some of his blog-rap glory days. That means crafting a sequel to the release that made him D.C.’s Great Rap Hope, The Mixtape About Nothing. More About Nothing promises more of the same, which is actually quite something: If you can you find a working download of the tape, released for free today, you’ll find Wale at his best and loosest. He’ll be at Commonwealth tonight at 7 p.m. handing out 300 physical copies. +4

Metro Basically Plans to Take Labor Day Weekend Off: Feel like taking the Red line to the eastern side of Montgomery County over Labor Day weekend? Too bad! Metro announced more details today of a massive track work project that will close the Glenmont, Wheaton, Forest Glen, Silver Spring and Takoma stations from 10 p.m. Sept. 3 to 12 a.m. Sept. 6. Delays on that part of the system are so common, though, that riders may or may not even notice the difference between regular, inconsistent service and a total lack of it. -4

Yesterday’s Needle rating: 49 Today’s score: -4 Today’s Needle rating: 45