The overwhelming consensus so far at today's D.C. Council hearing on the recent theft of what looks to be $30 million-plus from the District's tax coffers? The scandal has damaged the reputation of the city government, and the council members are pissed. While most statements have clung to the nasty tidbits of information we already know (the enormity of the crime, that an auditor's warnings may have been ignored) and palliative cliches, council members provided......

Harry Jaffe: In writing something of a goodbye column to RFK Stadium, Jaffe recounts the many struggles the District overcame to attract a baseball team. And though plenty of people played important roles, he feels that one deserves extra attention -- former Mayor Anthony Williams. "The hero of the piece has to be Williams, an unpopular mayor who — despite his wandering attention span — kept swinging away at an unpopular crusade to use public......

Jonetta Rose Barras: In a powerfully introspective column, Rose Barras details a recent trip to her destroyed family home in New Orleans. In recounting her visit to the site, Rose Barras writes of the struggles endured by her mother and sister in trying to return and rebuild, drawing comparisons to the District's own troubles. "Truth told, New Orleans looks and feels like Ward 8 circa 1985: few quality retail outlets, high crime, high unemployment, poor......

Marc Fisher: As the Senate gets ready to debate the District voting rights legislation, Fisher lists the dozen top reasons why senators from both parties should vote to enfranchise the city's residents. The more and more we look into it, the better the case looks. Let's hope the Senate agrees. Tom Knott: You know Knott's verbal insanity is in good form when the title of his weekly column is "It's Gathering of Eagles vs. nitwit......

Tom Knott: Once again, Tom Knott has managed to take what seems to be an isolated incident and turn it into evidence that liberalism of any sort is just evil. This week, Knott recounts the badly-handled trial of a Liberian immigrant accused of raping a seven-year-old girl in Montgomery County. Due to some bad decision by the trial judge, the charges were eventually dropped, though the county has stated that it will appeal. Regardless, it's......

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 --......

Since they were apparently sick of all the best scoops going to the Post, the folks at the City Paper have been nice enough to grant us a little nugget of information -- Mike DeBonis, currently Senior Editor at the alt-weekly, will become the newest Loose Lips columnists. As you may recall, in late June James Jones stepped down as author of the vital local politics column, choosing to move on to a stint at......

Since 1983, Loose Lips, the City Paper's weekly local politics column, has been the place to get quirky news and commentary on the District's political figures. But today, James Jones, Loose Lips columnist for the last two years, bids farewell to the paper. Jones came to the City Paper after a stint at WAMU, and his first column was published on March 11, 2005. According to the folks at the City Paper, Jones has taken......

Cue sounds of cats hissing at each other. The latest issue of the Washington City Paper contains not one but two tongue lashings of Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham. The first, a lengthy cover story by Jessica Gould, nicely summarized in the subtitle: "Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham never met a misbehaving nightclub that blanket legislation couldn’t fix," details Graham's latest crusade against nightclubs -- an issue we've certainly talked about before.......

Does this mean we're a real city now? The Washington Post reports some fantastic news today -- they're teaming up with The Onion to provide free print versions of America's Finest News Source in news boxes and by newspaper sellers around D.C. starting in April. Washington will be The Onion's 10th city for paper distribution. The Onion, self-described as "America's Finest News Source," claims a national print circulation of 599,000. It says 67 percent of......

>> Normally, Adrian Fenty hearts the press, and the feeling goes both ways. So why did he assiduously try to keep the media out of his official swearing-in Tuesday? The City Paper has the skinny on the secrecy surrounding the event, including secret entrances for councilmembers, who were told to "arrive alone." [Loose Lips] >> Just in case there weren't enough stereotypes of women in power, new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hosted a tea party......

Everyone else has taken their shot, so why not the City Paper? Today the weekly's local politics column, Loose Lips, threw its support behind a number of candidates for next week's D.C. primaries. But more surprising than the picks was the biting tone in which they were delivered -- this is no Post endorsement, they seemed to remind us. Columnist James Jones sided solidly with candidates that bucked the establishment and railed against those beholden......

FRIDAY: >>Today is Bastille Day, which commemorates the Fête de la Fédération of 1790, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille July 14th, 1789 — basically it's all about sticking it to the man and rising up as a French nation. But as all noble foreign holidays seem to be celebrated in America, we've turned it into an excuse to eat and drink too much. Last year we put together a......

Today the City Paper's Loose Lips column draws our attention to something we have suffered for far too long -- comment spam. And no, it's not the Jonathan Rees and his inane ramblings (or those of his curious aliases). It's the real stuff. According to LL, At Large D.C. Council candidate A. Scott Bolden's blog has been quite popular with comment spammers, so much so that the comment sections of some entries feature little else......

Washington Times columnist Tom Knott uses his column inches today to address the curious commenting habits of certain Ward 3 Council candidates. The piece (which magnanimously mentions this site and quotes my co-editor) focuses on alias-in-chief Thelma Roque and, I think it's safe to say, teases the inspiration behind her and her grammatically-challenged siblings. Mr. Knott, we hope you know what you're doing. Many have trod this ground before and suffered the consequences. The Post......

So the Pope-watch late last week distracted us from keeping an eye on neighborhood news. We'll do a quick summay. Forgive our tardiness. First off, Loose Lips in the Washington City Paper is massively confused about Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham. The lede says it all: "You can count on one thing from Ward 1 D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham: He's a tough guy to count on." From supporting to opposing Mayor Williams' take-over of the......

It's not clear if Elissa Silverman, the City Paper's Loose Lips columnist, knew that her "Secret Santa" column late last year would be her final piece criticizing and poking fun at D.C. political figures. If she had known, we would have liked her to 'present' us with an announcement of her upcoming departure. Then we could have immediately applied for her awesome former job. According to the today's print version of the City Paper, applicants......

We can't get enough of Marion Barry and there is so much more to dive into. And he hasn't even been officially elected to the council yet. Courtland Milloy in his column in Sunday's Post questions whether Marion Barry can survive himself. Barry is, after all, a tired, ailing champion of the people. Barry is now 68. He has hypertension and diabetes and has been treated for prostate cancer. Those who love him ought to......