As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Good morning, and Happy Legislative Meeting Day to one and all. Stands to be a busy down at the John A. Wilson Building, what with emergency legislation on tap from Harry Thomas Jr. challenging Allen Lew‘s move into DPR and from Marion Barry making principals legally liable for school suspensions. And there’s this attorney general thing, too.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—-“Council Panel Votes to Disapprove Peter Nickles“; “Peter Nickles: Counting the Votes“

If LL’s blanket Peter Nickles coverage yesterday wasn’t good enough for you (harrumph), try these lesser stories, from WaPo, from Legal Times, from Examiner, and from WaTimes.

American Federation of Teachers prez Randi Weingarten tells WaPo’s Bill Turque that she wants to sit down with Michelle Rhee. Weingarten: “[WTU chief] George Parker and I are anxious to meet with the chancellor. I hope that will happen. There’s been a lot of buzzing back and forth trying to find a date.”

Ready for 4 million on Inauguration Day? “Officials are talking about opening large sections of the Mall east of the Washington Monument, a space normally used for staging the many components of the inaugural parade.” And it’s going to cost a lot, Examiner’s Leah Fabel reports. “Security and capacity measures recommended by the District’s congressional delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and others will almost certainly surpass the $15 million the federal government gives to the District each year to defray the cost of events.”

FINALLY AN END TO THE USED-CAR SCOURGE—-Fenty shuts down 23(!) used-car lots, reports David Betancourt in WaPo. “DCRA investigated 106 locations, and of those, only one was found to be operating within city laws, according to the mayor’s office. Fifty-one locations appeared to be nonoperational.” WTOP has video! As does NC8! And WUSA-TV!

Here you are, reading your morning WaPo, and you spy a headline reading “Former Tax Clerk Sentenced to 15 Months in Refund Scam.” And you think, Oh, another one of Harriette Walters‘ crew heads to the clink….how many more of these goddamn embezzlers can there be?. But you’d be wrong, because, the article notes, this $184,000 malfeasance “was not connected to the $48.1 million embezzlement scam uncovered in the D.C. tax office last year.” Scott McCabe‘s Examiner story is somewhat less confusing.

David Catania tells business owners, DCist that he’s gung-ho on gay marriage. And here’s a blog that reprints DCist posts, only it changes the word “gay” to “homesexual.” Just thought you might enjoy that.

ALSO LIKELY OF INTEREST TO DCIST—-Cute animal born.

Wilson Building luncheoners despair: Brasserie Les Halles is closing. Somewhere, Bernard Demczuk weeps.

MALIA AND SASHA WATCH—-Jennifer Lance at Eco Child’s Play has “8 Reasons Why the Obama Girls Should Attend Public School.” GothamSchools ponders Michelle Obama‘s 60 Minutes comments. The Ladner Report puts in a plug for the rarely mentioned NCS and Washington International School. Democrats for Education Reform wants Obamas to consider charters. Boston Herald opinionist Margery Eagan also says Obamas should go public.

IN RHEELATED NEWS—-Blog Cogitamus reacts poorly to news of Rhenty union-busting. Ezra Klein is somewhat more nuanced. The Frustrated Teacher says Rhee is “Worse Than A Union Assassin.” Duke grad student, former DCPS teacher Catherine Cullen calls out the Chance for blowing contract negotiations in the Duke Chronicle (Rhee spoke in Durham last night): “Contract negotiations have failed (so far) in part because the chancellor did two things wrong: She kept her evaluation system behind closed doors and she propagated the belief that she was out to fire veterans of the system regardless of their effectiveness….The chancellor also failed miserably at selling her plan to teachers and diffusing the mistrust that teachers in the system have.”

WaPo editorial board was warmed by Michelle’s 60 Minutes comments: “[A]s the Obamas’ new hometown newspaper, we have to admit that none of this gladdened our heart as much as their pledge to become true Washingtonians. Some presidents have feinted in this direction and then quickly lost interest; others have made no secret of the fact that they’d rather be living in, say, Texas. But Michelle Obama said, ‘I, both Barack and I, believe that we can have an impact in the D.C. area, you know, in terms of making sure we’re contributing to the community that we immediately live in.'”

AND—-Michael Neibauer squeezes 400 words out of that sentence and into the Examiner. And NC8 gets some community react.

Blogger Legion’s Fate has some unkind words for ID-flasher Paul Strauss. NB: These come from a guy into “Anything Guns, Knives, Military, Militant, and Dangerous with an overall feeling of impending apocolypse.”

Further proof of libtard bubble-dwelling (sorry, Riggs): Reason Foundation’s Shikha Dalmia calls Rhee the “hands down best person” for Obama’s SecEd.

LL colleague Housing Complex looks at Fenty and the Anacostia Waterfront.

Eleanor helped roast Stephen Colbert. And she talked with NPR about the inauguration festivities.

LL HAS A NEW NEIGHBORHOOD GROCERY—-DCmud reports on the ribbon-cutting of new Yes! Organic Market at 14th and W Streets NW, a half-block from LL’s domicile. Gee, thanks, Jim Graham, Monty Hoffman! (LL is actually more excited about the CVS.)

Pat Buchanan makes a good point, sort of: “We bail out the New York and D.C. governments of Abe Beame and Marion Barry….But the most magnificent industry, the auto industry that was the pride of America and envy of the world, we surrender to predator-traders from Asia and Europe, lest we violate the tenets of some 19th-century ideological scribblers that the old Republicans considered the apogee of British stupidity.”

ALSO FROM WINGNUTLAND—-WORLDmag.com’s Emily Belz ponders the D.C. power hairdo—-BALD!—-and cites two D.C. mayors to do it. (Only one, LL notes, actively chose the hairdo.)

Oh, and Bill Ayers was in town!

D.C. COUNCIL TODAY—-10 a.m.: Committee of the Whole meeting, with 36th legislative meeting immediately following, JAWB 500.

ADRIAN FENTY TODAY—-10:30 a.m.: remarks, Child and Family Services Agency progress announcement, Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative, 2041 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE