Photo by Lindeberg Feller.

Good morning, Washington. There’s more big trouble for the Gray administration, as a review of the Mayor’s 2010 campaign finance documents by the Washington Post revealed that donations above the $25 legal limit were accepted, in some cases from people who claim they didn’t contribute and organizations that don’t exist. The crux of the issue stems from the campaign’s improper exchange of cash donations — which are subject to the $25 cap — to money order contributions, which have a higher ceiling. Of course, Gray’s opponent, Adrian Fenty, had raised an incredible amount of money for the mayoral race. But Gray was no slouch — even without the questionable $56,000 uncovered by the Post, he was still able to raise more than $2.5 million. Given that, the real question is why the Gray campaign felt the need to take such action for what, in the grand scheme of things, was hardly a game-changing sum of money. “Taken together [with Sulaimon Brown’s claims], the allegations suggest that officials in Gray’s campaign either didn’t know the law or disregarded it,” concludes reporter Nikita Stewart. Gray tried to distance himself from the impropriety, telling Stewart that “it was a truncated campaign,” and that “it was very chaotic.” “You had to trust people to run what they were responsible for,” Gray said.

Questions About Pershing Park Evidence: I’m starting to think that this case may never die. The attorneys representing four people who were arrested during a massive police roundup in Pershing Park in 2002 are alleging that a police employee destroyed evidence related to the case. The lawyers have filed a request with a federal judge to refer the deletion of details on the arrests for criminal prosecution; the deletions, in the electronic log of police actions, are alleged to have occurred after a 2003 Council hearing on the Pershing Park arrests. The identity of the person who allegedly deleted the details is unknown.

Incidents of Corporal Punishment Increase in DCPS: The Examiner reports on an increase in incidents of public school teachers and staff shoving, striking, grabbing, shaking, hitting, throwing objects at and using unreasonable restraints on students inside D.C. Public Schools over the last school year. 64 such incidents were recorded this year, a rise over 36 in the previous school year. As a result, 12 DCPS employees were fired (including former Johnson Middle School principal Pamela Ransome), while 12 were suspended. About half of the incidents are still under investigation.

Briefly Noted: Man shot and killed at Georgia Avenue and Randolph Street NW…We’re going to have to wait until Friday to hear Harry Thomas, Jr.’s side of the story…Departure of Scott Kubly has transit advocates worried about brain drain at DDOT…Crash involving police car shuts down portion of Colesville Road…The District will launch a “sweat equity” program to help house people by giving them a job building houses…Rent a room, get a Bikeshare membership…Shocker: the First Lady visiting your restaurant is good for business…

This Day in DCist: Last year, we tried to figure out why the Columbia Heights Metro station had neighborhood-specific signage, and a local journalist went to the South Pole.