Admit it -- that's a look that says, "I want you to support the District's efforts in achieving voting rights, self-determination and statehood." more ›

We missed this City Desk report that D.C. Shadow Senator Paul Strauss pleaded guilty last Friday on charges stemming from his DUI stop in Adams Morgan last year. Strauss is one of the District's two elected shadow senators, a symbolic position charged with lobbying for statehood that carries few privileges and no pay. Following his guilty plea, Strauss received 11 months probation and must pay $400 in fines. The police account of Strauss's arrest stated that he had a 0.16 percent blood-alcohol level, twice the legal limit, that he "appeared confused" and that he flashed his U.S. Senate badge at the arresting officer. more ›

For several hours on Wednesday, the re-election campaign web site of D.C. Shadow Sen. Paul Strauss, paulstrauss.org, displayed the message, pictured at right, that it had been "taken down due to a lack of payment." We asked Strauss about it, and by the time he got back to us, the message had been removed. Several hours later, a new splash page, this time with the message "Site under construction," appeared. Then late last night, the web site was restored to its original state. more ›

Paul Strauss isn't the only senator in recent history to be brought up on criminal charges, but he may be the only one whose credentials as a senator are somewhat iffy. more ›

The City Paper sent two reporters down to D.C. Superior Court this morning to hear the 'not guilty' pleas of both recently re-elected Shadow Senator Paul Strauss and former At-large Council member Harold Brazil. Strauss's not guilty plea on DUI/DWI charges merited an exclamation point on the City Desk blog, while Brazil's not guilty plea on assault charges stemming from an altercation at a Georgetown tattoo parlor last month did not. Neither men were willing to comment on their legal troubles. 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 ›

Let's face it -- a local election in an off year and in the midst of a heated presidential campaign won't attract much attention, much less lots of voters. And tomorrow's District primary likely isn't much of an exception. more ›

For most of the year, D.C. Shadow Sen. Paul Strauss is a senator in name only. His elected position doesn't pay him a salary, he has no real standing in Congress, and he spends much of his time trying to educate as many influential people as he can about D.C.'s non-voting status. But at the Democratic National Convention, a shadow senator gets to play make believe. more ›

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 ›