The D.C. Council yesterday approved comprehensive ethics legislation on a first vote, moving the city closer to establishing a Board of Ethics and Government Accountability, tightening reporting requirements for elected officials and government employees, barring elected officials convicted of felonies from serving and giving the District's Attorney General additional powers to go after scofflaws. more ›

Ethics are good and all, but policing the unethical isn't cheap. more ›

Legislation that seeks to strengthen the District's ethics laws moved forward today, though its progress might be slowed by members of the D.C. Council who want more time to discuss, digest and debate it. more ›

The District needs ethics reform, but it also has an election coming up. It was only a matter of time before the two started to mix. more ›

When a D.C. Council committee gathers tomorrow to consider comprehensive ethics legislation, it will do so in the midst of continued disagreements as to how far the proposal goes in addressing ethics violations that have marred the District's government this year. more ›

Constituent Services Funds exist to allow D.C. councilmembers to help constituents in times of need. The problem is that the funds aren't really being used for that. more ›

The 58-page comprehensive ethics bill Councilmember Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) previewed late last week would certainly put some muscle into enforcing ethics in the District, but the measures she proposed don't go far enough for some. more ›

Just as she promised at a hearing in late October, a new three-person Board of Ethics and Government Accountability is the centerpiece of comprehensive ethics legislation Councilmember Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) has drafted and will put to her colleagues before the end of the year. more ›

Today, members of the D.C. Council introduced two measures which would put additional emphasis on pedestrian safety, including a law which would reduce the speed limit in residential areas to 15 miles per hour. more ›

During a lengthy hearing yesterday, members of a D.C. Council committee discussed how best to address the ethical scandals which have plagued the District's elected leaders this year. Still, little consensus emerged on the next steps to take. more ›

After what has been a rocky year for Mayor Vince Gray and various members of the D.C. Council, city legislators are sitting down today to start the work of sorting out how to improve the District's ethics-related laws and enforcement mechanisms. more ›

Did Vincent Orange (D-At Large) gain more in having his emergency ethics bill voted down than he would have had he won the support of the majority of the Council? more ›

I was off by an hour, but my Friday News Dump radar was close enough -- the Post Mike DeBonis reports that Mayor Vince Gray won't be sending Robert Mallett's nomination to chair the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics on to the D.C. Council for consideration. more ›

On "The Kojo Nnamdi Show" this afternoon, Councilmember Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) defended the D.C. Council's decision to meet privately yesterday, while at the same time laying out her vision for ethics reform and criticizing a colleague facing legal troubles. more ›

After news emerged yesterday that its nominee to lead the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics may not meet residency requirements for the position, Mayor Vince Gray's administration has said that it's exploring seeking a waiver to the law. more ›

The Examiner's Kytja Weir reports today that six of Metro's top executives and 116 Metro employees have access to a pool of take-home vehicles, some of whom use them to get to and from work, others not. more ›

D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown has been buffeted by scandal since earlier this year. In recent days, though, Brown has taken to flying the flag of ethics reform, proposing strict new internal disclosure rules for the D.C. Council and telling the Washington Times this week that he'd also like to see changes to how Constituent Service Funds are used. more ›

Last week, the D.C. GOP filed a complaint with the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance claiming that 10 of the 13 members of the D.C. Council had broken city regulations by steering money from their Constituent Service Funds to partisan organizations. It looks like some of the accused may be off the hook, though. more ›

In the wake of this morning's news that D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown plans to strip Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) of his chairmanship of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation, questions are flying as to the wisdom of the move, the impact it may have and if Brown even has the votes to pull it off. more ›

Campaign signage for the April 26 At-Large Special Election has only recently come down -- but it will soon be replaced by signs for candidates vying for seats on the D.C. Council in 2012. With a new election calendar in place for the year to come -- the primary date has been moved from September to April 3, while the general election remains in November -- campaigning is beginning earlier than usual. more ›

Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser is none too pleased about Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry's thoughts on Mayor Vince Gray's appointment of Dr. Rochelle L. Webb as the Director of the District's Department of Employment Services. But (perhaps) a more pressing concern: how in the world is there not a real -- or at the very least a reliably hilarious fake -- Marion Barry Twitter account out there? Someone's got a hold on the "MarionBarry" handle, but it's been updated once since November 2009. This really needs to be rectified as soon as possible, doesn't it? more ›

While we soak in Barack Obama's historic victory over Senator John McCain (who delivered a moving and honorable concession speech), we can't ignore the change that came to our own backyard. Few of the results caught any of us by surprise. We did, though, rid ourselves of a pesky ANC commissioner, though. more ›

In case you missed Friday's special episode of The Daily Show, check out the video excerpt above to catch D.C. Council member Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) being interviewed by John Oliver on the floor of Invesco Field on Thursday night. Bowser's short appearance begins around the 46 second mark. Oliver and his crew taped the segment shortly before Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech in Denver, and it appeared as though Bowser and several other members of the D.C. delegation had no idea who Oliver was when he approached her.
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Remember those billboards that popped up in the 1980s that counted up the national debt, dollar by dollar? Pretty scary, huh? Well, District voting rights activists want something similar for their cause. Today the D.C. Council held a hearing on legislation that would allow the city to place two large LED billboards -- one outside the John A. Wilson Building and the other outside the new Washington Nationals stadium -- that would display the amount... more ›

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... more ›

>> The District's poverty rate is the highest in nearly a decade, and the employment rate for African American adults is at a 20-year low. [WaPo] >> ACK! OMG! The Hair! The Hair! Blood on the Hair! [Princess Sparklepony] >> bam! smack!@ Pow! [craigslist] >> WASA says it has repaired the two holes that were leaking raw sewage into the Anacostia River. [WaPo] >> Adam Clampitt has filed papers to run as an independent... more ›

Good morning, Washington, and welcome to Friday. There's nothing like a nationally televised address about troop levels to put you in a mood for a sound night's sleep heading into the weekend, isn't there? Certainly we would never have tossed and turned contemplating the "sinister ingenuity" that allows President Bush to escalate a war and then de-escalate it a year later without ever having a plan to successfully end it, and yet be able... more ›

The Post's David Nakamura reports that Mayor Adrian Fenty plans to endorse Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. An official announcement has yet to come, but the actions of Fenty adviser Jim Hudson, who organized a fundraiser for Obama, suggest the mayor looks set to get behind the Illinois senator's campaign. Hudson collected $600,000 and endorsements from some of the mayor's more loyal D.C. Council members: Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7), Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4)... more ›

Good morning, Washington. Looks like we have two new D.C. Council members this morning: Muriel Bowser, a 34-year-old ANC, took the Ward 4 seat vacated by Mayor Adrian Fenty, and Yvette M. Alexander, a 45-year-old former insurance regulator, took the Ward 7 seat left behind by Council Chair Vincent Gray. Both women ran in extremely crowded fields, but received the endorsements of their predecessors which allowed them to stand out from the pack (and raise... more ›

Candidates in next Tuesday's special election to fill two open D.C. Council seats have collectively raised over $1 million in the course of the campaign. Voters will chose council members for Wards 4 and 7, after those positions were left empty by Mayor Adrian Fenty and at-large Council Chairman Vincent Gray. Voters in D.C. Public Schools' Second District will also elect a school board representative. In Ward 4, ANC Commissioner Muriel Bowser leads the pack... more ›