The amount stolen may be lower, but the crime and provenance of the elected official committing it is the same. more ›

The D.C. Council could take Harry Thomas, Jr.'s name off of the office directory and website, but it won't be as easy to exorcise some of the demons his corruption have revealed. more ›

Shortly after pleading guilty to charges that he stole $353,500 from District coffers and filed false tax returns, former Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., who stepped down last night from the Ward 5 seat once held by his father, read a brief statement outside the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. more ›

"Guilty as charged, your honor" was all that former D.C. Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. (D-Ward 5) had to say at a hearing in federal court this morning, bringing to a swift close a political and legal saga that has convulsed his ward and the District's political class at large over the last year. more ›

In news that's likely to lead the day, WUSA9 reported late last night that embattled Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. (D-Ward 5) has told close confidantes and colleagues that he'll resign as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors over $300,000 in city funds he allegedly used on personal expenses like a luxury SUV and travel. more ›

Stuffing your underwear full of cash that your husband got as bribes does have consequences, after all. more ›

While we have a brief break between the breaking news regarding D.C. Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr.'s being sued for inappropriately spending city money and the upcoming testimony of Cherita Whiting and Sulaimon Brown, it feels appropriate to highlight the work done by Paul Schwartzman and Ovetta Wiggins in this long piece on the rise and fall of former Prince George's County executive Jack Johnson. more ›

Former Jim Graham chief of staff Ted Loza pled guilty this afternoon to two charges of accepting gratuities and one charge of filing a false statement. more ›

Ted Loza, former chief of staff to Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, is reportedly scheduled to appear in court for a plea hearing this afternoon. The hearing will be held at 3 p.m. more ›

Jack Johnson, the former Prince George's County executive who taken into custody last November on charges of evidence tampering and the destruction and falsification of records, was officially indicted on eight counts of conspiracy, bribery and extortion today in federal court. more ›

Finally, the Jack Johnson scandal gets the animated Taiwanese treatment -- complete with a computer-generated depiction of Leslie Johnson stuffing cash down her shirt. You know, I've really got nothing to add here, other than to suggest that the feds should probably try and locate that door leading to "Access and Approval." Then, you know, they'd really be on to something. more ›

Two of the three police officers who were arrested this morning in connection to the Jack Johnson corruption probe have been identified. The Post reports that Sergeant Rich Delabrer and Corporal Chong Kim were taken into custody at their precinct, though the police station itself was not searched by federal agents. It has also been revealed that Delabrer had an off-duty job as a security guard at Tick Tock Liquors in Hyattsville. (Sure has been a rough month for liquor purveyors near the University of Maryland, hasn't it?) A third officer, taken into custody in Beltsville, has yet to be identified. more ›

Former DCist editor Kriston Capps was on the scene at last night's Ward 5 straw poll, and he reports that Marion Barry was on the offensive for Vince Gray. more ›

You've read the stories and maybe even read the report detailing how D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) has repeatedly misused city money by doling it out to his personal friends and associates. That included his former girlfriend, Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, from whom he allegedly then asked for kickbacks. You may have already made up your mind about Barry's guilt. But give the man a chance to defend himself, OK? more ›

We thought that it would be close to impossible to dethrone Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) as the District's King of Hearts, for having said the scummiest thing related to D.C.'s non-voting status in Congress that we had ever heard. But ladies and gentlemen, we were wrong. Meet the new King: Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska). more ›

So Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has been found guilty on felony charges of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms. A jury today issued a guilty verdict in the corruption case, deciding that they did not believe that Stevens didn't know about the $250,000 worth of gifts he received from Bill Allen, the former head of Veco Corp., among others. The AP says that Stevens faces up to five years in prison on each of the seven counts, but will likely receive much less. Stevens is currently locked in a tight race with Anchorage mayor Mark Begich for his U.S. Senate seat. The question now is will he drop out, or continue running with a felony conviction which would most likely lead him to be expelled by the Senate anyway? Maybe he's counting on a pardon from President Bush? more ›

The Post is reporting that a guilty plea looks like it's been entered for former D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue employee El-Hadj Drame, who amazingly enough stands accused of corruption and bribery all on his own, without any help from Harriette Walters and her crew. Papers were filed that indicate a guilty plea for Drame, who is accused of receipt of a bribe by a public official for accepting a payment of $6,000 in exchange for lowering the tax liability of a business he was auditing. Doesn't seem like the business in question has been publicly named yet. Isn't it amazing that the recent tax office scandal makes this $6000 bribe seem like small potatoes? In case you missed the Post's big spread in Sunday's paper chronicling the full history of the $50 million, 20-year-long Walters-led embezzlement scheme, here's the link. more ›

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non-partisan watchdog organization, announced today that it has asked the Department of Justice and the Senate to look into whether Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) violated federal bribery law when she earmarked $2 million for a reading program for D.C. public schools after receiving tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the executives of the company that designed the program. According to a release, Landrieu directed the earmark to Voyager Expanded Learning a mere four days after receiving the contributions. more ›

Sure, Harriette Walters might have stolen upwards of $44 million from the District's coffers, but at least she wasn't stealing directly from low-income school children. According to a WTOP report this morning, District officials have arrested and charged a city official with submitting false expense reports totaling $11,385 for big bills at local restaurants and strip clubs. Emerson Crawley, a program manager at After School for All at Shaw Junior High School, allegedly spent the... more ›

The thinly veiled sexism oozing out of today's Examiner column by veteran local politics observer Harry Jaffe is hard enough to take, but to whomever thought up this gem of a headline, be they copy editor or author, DCist salutes your willingness to go boldly where no human beings in the 21st century were thought to be capable of going anymore. Yes, if the recent Office of Tax and Revenue scandal has taught us... more ›

In most any public or private sector job, losing $31 million on your watch is a surefire way to get yourself fired. CFO Natwar Gandhi's reputation for saving the city's finances has thus far protected him from what is to date the District's biggest corruption scandal. But his fortunes might be changing. Buried towards the end of an article from the Examiner today on an investigation into the tax refund scheme that milked the city... more ›

Good morning, Washington, and welcome back to work after a nice long holiday away. We hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving vacation as much as we did ours. That is if you can take a long enough break from all the online shopping you'll supposedly be doing from your desk today to tell us about it. Stay tuned until the week before Christmas for your next update on the holiday shopping habits of Americans -- we... more ›

Still in the office, D.C.? Yeah, us too. We hope you're only sticking around because you don't need to travel this holiday season. If so, enjoy the empty halls, bask in the quiet, and call it a day early. If not — well, good luck on the roads and at the airport. It sounds like they're going to be predictably nasty. There Seems To Be Some Sort of Holiday Occurring: And consequently you can... more ›

Good morning, Washington. In case you didn't believe us when we first told you that this tax office corruption scandal was going to get bigger and badder as the week went on, just check out the trio of stories on offer from the Post this morning on the widening scandal. First and foremost, it turns out Harriette Walters and Diane Gustus allegedly worked together to steal $4 million more than originally thought, bringing the grand... more ›

>> The biggest D.C. government corruption scandal ever? [WaPo, updated from earlier story] >> Will there finally be enough places to lock up our bicycles? [WJLA] >> An Emerging Columbia Hts.-Petworth Food Split? [Free Ride] >> Bloomingdale Farmers Market not a given for next year? [In Shaw] >> Could H Street NE put a cap on the number of bars that can open there? [City Desk] Photo by sally henny penny... more ›

Add one more major D.C. government corruption scandal to the list. NBC4 is reporting that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington is set to announce a major public corruption investigation involving District city workers and the theft of about $16 million in property tax money. The Washington Post has the details on the indictments, which accuse two D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue employees -- Harriette Walters and Diane Gustus -- of fabricating tax refund... more ›

Welcome back to work, Washington. Perhaps you're struggling to focus this morning, having only barely recovered from the weekend's Halloween festivities. Perhaps you just had a difficult time extricating yourself from your bed on this first cold morning of the year. Whatever the case may be, DCist recommends a strong cup of coffee with a dash of Rumbler to get your motor running today. The Rumbler is described as a "high-tech blaster" being used in... more ›

Good morning, Washington. It looks like California's still on fire, and likely to remain so. Most versions of the aforelinked AP story include the phrase "firefighters all but concede defeat," and the Post is calling the resulting evacuation the largest in modern history. It all sounds pretty grim. Good luck, West Coast. Yet More Stadium Parking Controversy: The Post reports on the latest in a seemingly neverending series of deliberations over parking at the... more ›

We read all the local columnists, so you don't have to. This week we find meat-eaters being compared to Michael Vick, a lot of bum opinions on city schools and District residents being called "granola." Courtland Milloy: According to Milloy's Wednesday column in the Post, your choice to eat a hamburger isn't all that different than Michael Vick's decision to brutally fight, torture and kill dogs for money. "We'll kill a duck, deer, turkey --... more ›

Good morning, D.C. If you missed the news breaking yesterday, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts had a seizure on Monday while on vacation in Maine. While the cause of the seizure is unknown, doctors examined the Chief Justice and determined there was no cause for concern and that Roberts has already fully recovered. It's likely Roberts will now be prescribed some form of anti-seizure medication because he had another similar episode 14 years... more ›