Photo by Scott Ableman

Good morning, Washington, or at least those of you who have either chosen or been forced to stay at work today before the official end of what’s been a pretty, but still pretty hot summer. Regardless, that summer humidity should make something of a comeback this weekend, so if you’re around, enjoy, or merely suffer through it.

Another Iffy Start for New Gray Official: She’s been on the job for less than a week, but Andi Pringle, Mayor Vince Gray’s new Deputy Chief of Staff, is already drawing controversy. According to the Post, local government watchdog Dorothy Brizill has accused Pringle of voting in the District’s 2010 mayoral primary while living in Montgomery County. Brizill filed a complaint against Pringle yesterday with the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, for which the new senior aide to Gray could face up to $10,000 in fines. In a statement, Pringle claimed that since she had only moved out of the city 18 months ago and “not severed ties with my community nor established residency in Maryland, I should vote at the precinct where I had voted for the past eight years.”

Even More on Those Constituent Service Funds: Once the local press starts digging into a controversy, there’s no limit to what they usually find. As much can be said about the suddenly controversial Constituent Service Funds used by members of the D.C. Council, which spawned yet another story today. This time, the Washington Times reports that of the 11,000 or so expenditures made over the last decade, 60 percent were simply filed under the category of “Other,” not giving much of a sense of where the money went. According to the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance, they can get more detailed explanations by checking the disclosure forms against bank records; the problem is that they don’t do such cross-checking very often. Yesterday the D.C. GOP accused 10 councilmembers of directing money from the funds to partisan organizations (some councilmembers fired back, saying the money was for scholarships or community events), while a few weeks back the Post found that Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) spends more money buying sports tickets than he does contributing to charitable causes.

About That “Ghetto”: The Root DC’s Robert E. Pierre takes on Councilmember Marion Barry’s (D-Ward 8) characterization of his own ward as a “ghetto” earlier this week, writing that “it doesn’t help one bit for our elected leaders to use such flip language.” Pierre, himself a Ward 8 resident, notes that Barry’s use of the term seems to have offended many, including Natalie Williams, a former Barry spokeswoman and candidate for the presidency of the Ward 8 Democrats. Jacque Patterson, the outgoing president of the group, was similarly disappointed with the comment, wondering on Twitter who Ward 8 voters should hold accountable for that status.

Briefly Noted: New skate park opens by RFK, and I wish I was still 13 … Hurricane Irene cost Maryland $2 million in revenue … Fewer confederate flags, promises one Virginia town … American University files paperwork to relocate law school … WaPo wants the MLK misquote fixed.

This Day in DCist: On this day in 2010, we learned that upgrades to Metro railcars wouldn’t be cheap and Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) became the sixth member of the D.C. Council to endorse Mayor Vince Gray. In 2009, a husband wearing a sign in public admitting that he had cheated on his wife turned out to be a hoax and Bishop Harry Jackson moved into the District to better tell its gay residents who they could and couldn’t marry.