As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com.
Morning all. HAPPY HALLOWEEN and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jack Evans.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—-Strauss Arrested for Drunk Driving; Alexander Flips, Will Endorse Michael Brown; Hunter Takes Aim at Michael Brown; Bowser, Mendo Stand Up for Carol
Patrick Mara gets a third endorsement from the Washington Post. Here’s the first and second ones. Still not as good as a single LL endorsement, but still notable!
National interest in council race: Andrew Zajac of the Tribune national bureau reports this morning that Michael A. Brown has taken at least $4,800 from Gene and Nora Lum, who were “convicted of making illegal campaign contributions in a Democratic fundraising scandal a decade ago.” The Lums were involved in a campaign-finance scheme in which Brown pled guily to a misdemeanor in 1997. According to Zajac, the Lums “pleaded guilty to more serious charges and both received sentences of 10 months in a combination of halfway houses and home detention, plus $30,000 fines.”
Peter Nickles probably feeling cockier than usual today: Federal judge yesterday ruled that Trinidad check points are A-OK. From Judge Richard Leon‘s 31-page opinion: “Suffice it to say that the public’s interest in deterring violent crime of this type through a checkpoint program this carefully crafted is overwhelming. Simply put, to take this arrow out of [D.C. police’s] quiver on such a weak showing as to its unconstitutionality would be injurious not only to [D.C. police’s] ability to protect our citizens, but to the public’s overwhelming need to be protected from these mobile merchants of violence.” WaPo story; AP story; Fox 5 item; WRC-TV item; Examiner story, with reax from Mary Cheh, Kris Baumann.
We’re ready, the Board of Elections and Ethics says, according to Michael Neibauer in the Examiner. By the numbers: 143 precints, 2,400-plus trained pollworkers, 7,000 in person absentee voters. “As for Tuesday’s vote, be prepared to wait. Bring a friend or a book, [Board Chair Errol Arthur] said, ‘something to occupy your time.'” WJLA/NC8 story; WRC story. Meanwhile, WaTi reports from the line at One Judiciary Square. Also: Federal prosecutor will oversee District voting.
Bill Turque runs down yesterday’s schools hearing for the Post. A quick rundown: Vince Gray‘s pissed about the budget documentation. David Catania‘s pissed about the PE teachers. Marion Barry‘s pissed about everything. He complained to Rhee “that she had provided more information to the media about the fund shift than to the council. Rhee said that was not the case….’I disagree with that,’ she said….’You keep disagreeing with that and you won’t be around here too long,’ said Barry.”
Harry Jaffe breaks news of Adrian Fenty‘s first re-election fundraiser: “On Dec. 6, Fenty is kicking off his re-election campaign with a fundraising party at the home of a supporter in Forest Hills. Consider this an invitation: price of admission is raising $25,000.” This, Jaffe says, means no Obama job for Hizzoner. And how bout this Vincent Gray slam? “The only current politician mentioned as a potential challenger is City Council Chair Vincent Gray. But Gray had to be convinced to run for the chair, he lacks fire in the belly, and he’s having difficulty running the council.”
IN THE BLADE—-Schwartz staffers John Abbot and Jim Slattery stick up for their boss; Peter Rosenstein sells Patrick Mara.
—-Lou Chibarro Jr. covers council race; GLAA’s opposition to Nickles; changes made to Shaw murder charges; Bob Siegel‘s battle in Southeast ANC race; alleged hate crime near D.C. Eagle; anti-gay grafitti on 3D station house locker.
It’s officially a pissing match: DMPED Neil Albert announces to Biz Journal that Tenley library/Janney ES project will move forward, Mary Cheh and Kwame Brown be damned.
Nikita Stewart with the obligatory look-who’s-endorsed-Carol story. Here’s LL’s reporting on the matter.
In the battle of blogger endorsements, Mara’s got Matthew Yglesias and David Alpert. David Schwartzman has FixOurSchools.net and District, Schmistrict.
Sam Smith declares Michael A. Brown and Eleanor Holmes Norton “CANDIDATES NOT TO VOTE FOR.”
Post editorial board also slams D.C. government on the Mr. Johnson scandal. But not Fenty: “What’s most troubling about the case is what it says about the mind-set of government workers. As Mayor Adrian M. Fenty acknowledged, they were preoccupied with dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.”
WUSA-TV has a short story on the demolition of H.D. Woodson SHS. Read LL’s considerably longer piece on the life and times of the Tower of Power.
DDOT announces it’s going to extend the Anacostia streetcar from the Metro station to MLK Avenue and Good Hope Road SE, writes Neibauer, adding six-tenths of a mile and $20M.
This is why LL doesn’t clean things: “A group of high school students from a private school in Northwest Washington discovered a body yesterday in the Anacostia River while they were cleaning up its shores as a community project,” reports Theola Labbé-DeBose. WRC-TV, as well.
Downtown deer! Animal dies near 16th and M after tranquilizer dart apparently doesn’t work fast enough, allowing Paul Duggan to flex his writing chops without venturing more than two blocks from Post HQ.
That $43 mil that Metro owes? They got an extension, writes Taryn Luntz in the Examiner. Also AP.
Banita Jacks will be in court today for a status hearing.
WJLA/NC8: Man, 19, being questioned in July 19 murder of 13-year-old Alonzo Robinson in Trinidad.
A break in the Robert Wone whodunit: Dylan Ward, who was in the Dupont Circle house when Wone was murdered, was arrested in Florida yesterday for obstruction of justice. From WaPo: “The arrest is the first in the case since Wone, 32, was stabbed three times in the chest as he stayed overnight in the home Aug. 2, 2006….Police have said that the crime scene was altered and cleaned and that they did not get full cooperation from the three men known to have been in the house at the time of the killing.” Also AP story; WRC-TV item.
More on commander swap at 2D.
Hypothermia season is upon us; city adds more shelter beds.
AsianWeek: “Michelle Rhee: Maverick for Change”
GWU hosts alums working in D.C. government for reception at Les Halles, Bernard Demczuk‘s fave restaurant!
Bruuuce Johnson is not down with Gilbert Arenas‘ political musings. “I must admit I have been a Gilbert Arenas fan….But this is as far as it goes. When it comes to Presidential politics, Gilbert sounds like an idiot!”
Screw you, Comcast! FiOS is coming.
So long, Chad Cordero.
Here’s the best picture LL could get of High Heel Race Carol, from Sanjay Suchak.
You probably want to stay away from Georgetown tonight. More holiday reporting from the Examiner: “‘It’s definitely an excuse to be drunk in public.'” Remember: Free cabs tonight!
SUBURBAN FLASH—-New Wilson Bridge nearly complete
BLIND ITEM—-Which council staffer asked permission from his boss to dress up as Jim Graham for Halloween?
DEBATE—-Tonight, the last at-large forum that LL knows about: 7 p.m. at Rock Creek Baptist Church, 4201 8th St. NW., hosted by the local chapters of the NAACP and the Urban League.
D.C. COUNCIL TODAY—-10 a.m.: Committee on Public Service and Consumer Affairs hearing on Bill 17-950, the “Approval of Verizon Washington, DC Inc.’s Cable Television System Franchise Act of 2008,” JAWB 500; Committee on Public Works and the Environment hearing on Sidewalk Assurance Act of 2007, Bill 17-0044, JAWB 123; Committee on Human Services hearing on Report on Supportive Housing Placements and Emergency Shelter Capacity in the District of Columbia, JAWB 412.
ADRIAN FENTY TODAY—-10:30 a.m.: remarks, Disability Awareness Month press conference, Smothers Elementary School, 4400 Brooks St. NE; 12:30 p.m.: remarks, Department of Disability Services update, JAWB Mayoral Press Room.