Yet another new job for a prominent Fenty administration figure: former D.C. Attorney General and Fenty consigliere Peter Nickles will be returning to Covington & Burling LP as senior counsel. Nickles had previously worked at the firm for four decades and sued the District on numerous occasions. more ›

Robert Hildum, the interim director of the city's troubled Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services agency, has announced he will resign from the post. Hildum's resignation will go into effect on December 17. more ›

The District's Attorney General, Peter Nickles, has drawn plenty of criticism for not being independent enough from the man who appointed him, Mayor Adrian Fenty. But just across the river, Virginians have had to deal with Ken Cuccinelli, the commonwealth's elected attorney general whose aggressive stances against everything from climate change to health care reform to anti-gay discrimination to the state seal have made even Republican Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell slightly uncomfortable.

Just two weeks from now, D.C. voters will be asked to decide whether they're rather maintain the status quo or elect the city's top law enforcement official starting in 2014. In essence, they'll have to decide if they'd rather have a Nickles or a Cuccinelli. more ›

Mayoral contender Vince Gray may not want to answer any questions on whether D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee would stay or go if he was elected, but he is clear on one thing -- someone has to get rid of Attorney General Peter Nickles, and soon. more ›

The Examiner's Michael Neibauer picks up on just the latest power struggle between the executive and legislative branches of the D.C. government: Mayor Adrian Fenty has decided he doesn't have to follow the D.C. Council's budget directive to put an end to the existing $19 maximum fare on all taxicab rides originating and ending inside the District. more ›

The D.C. Council today gave final approval to a bill that would change the District's Attorney General into an elected position, as the Post's Ann E. Marimow reports. The vote came after the Council rejected an amendment offered by Ward 6's Tommy Wells to instead transfer the powers of the U.S. Attorney's Office to an elected district attorney. The bill as passed would not take effect until 2014, so it wouldn't affect current AG Peter Nickles, and of course Congress would first have to amend the Home Rule charter. The bill would require anyone running for a four-year AG term to have practiced law in the District for at least five of the previous 10 years. more ›

D.C. Auditor Deborah Nichols will be allowed "immediate, unrestricted access to approximately 1,000 boxes of documents" related to real estate deals that came out of the now dissolved National Capital Revitalization Corporation and Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, thanks to a settlement agreement announced Wednesday. Nichols had been battling in court with D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles over access to the files, since Nickles had argued that the auditor's subpoena would place too big a burden on the city. Under the agreement, Nichols must provide copies to the OAG of all scanned or copied documents, and Nickles will be allowed to assert any privileges he sees fit. If the two end up disagreeing, they can consult a mediator or return to court. more ›

It's been at least a few years since we had a good crackdown on any of the city's "happy ending"-style massage parlors, but the wait is no more: D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles has ordered five such businesses shuttered, as D.C. Wire reported last night. If you've been frequenting any of the "technicians" at Orange Spa (617 Pennsylvania Avenue SE), Star Spa (1829 M Street NW), or VIP Spa (719 8th Street SE & 1429 Parkwood Place NW), you'll have to take your business elsewhere, because they're now closed. Also included in the closure list is the "D.C. Wrestling Club" at 1618 14th Street NW, aka the gay sex club where a man died in October. more ›

Oh, you thought that Mayor Fenty would actually be reimbursing the city for all that extra security he used while biking through Rock Creek Park back in November? District attorney general Peter Nickles says don't be silly! "It has never been the practice of anyone serving as mayor of the District of Columbia to refund the cost of his or her security detail," Nickles told the Council yesterday. Nickles also made sure to remind the Council that just because the Mayor is alone in his vehicle, it doesn't mean that "the mayor isn't adequately protected at all times." Obviously, this can only mean one thing: the EOM has invested in a small cadre of pre-crime sentinels, invisible to the human eye. Heck, the cost for such an operation might just be buried somewhere in that $47 million which the city has "recklessly" handed out to organizations who weren't following tax and business laws this year. more ›

Should the District's early-out/easy-out retirement payments be considered a "bonus"? This is the debate in the latest chapter of the overarching tiff between the Fenty administration and the D.C. Council. The Examiner's Michael Neibauer reports today that four District employees have been denied such exit payments by the Department of Human Resources, after the Council approved a 2010 budget which outlaws all "bonuses and special payments" to District employees. more ›

So D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles gave Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh (D) some flowers today (City Desk even has a photo of said flowers). He did this in an attempt to apologize for telling a Washington Post reporter he thought Cheh, who recently criticized the Fenty administration for trying to keep Ximena Hartsock in her job at DPR for a while longer, was "stupid" and "an angry woman," remarks that struck this writer as pretty sexist. So it's hard not to raise an eyebrow at least partially at the act of giving this "angry woman" some flowers to appease her irrational temper. more ›

Let's just say that the Fenty administration and the D.C. Council aren't planning any friendly get togethers any time soon. more ›

Yesterday, City Desk provided a juicy bit of news for late on a summer Friday: Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) seems to think that D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles ought to hit the road: more ›

Ever since President Barack Obama announced that he would shut down the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, law enforcement officials and politicians across the country have been fighting to out-NIMBY each other in refusing to house the 241 detainees that would need to be tried stateside. Virginia officials have been especially adamant about the issue, lining up to oppose sending any of the suspected terrorists to a jail in Alexandria. The issue has even become a point of contention in the coming Democratic gubernatorial primary. more ›

WTOP's Mark Segraves gets the scoop every local reporter has been angling for: exactly where in D.C. does Attorney General Peter Nickles now live? Segraves says it's Chinatown, in an apartment on 7th Street NW. Nickles, a longtime Virginia resident, took his time about complying with District law that states that senior government officials must reside inside the city limits. The attorney general has said that he moved into his new digs on May 5, but refused to disclose where in the city his residence is located. So, Chinatown/Penn Quarter residents, say hello to your new neighbor! more ›

So D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles says he's finally moved into the District from Virginia, as he was required to do under D.C. law after he was confirmed as Fenty's replacement AG. "I have moved. I have a D.C. license plate. I have my picture on a D.C. license. I'm paying D.C. taxes," Nickles said. But he won't say where, exactly, he's living, and it sure sounds like his wife is not really living there, so we're guessing he won't actually be sleeping there all that often. It's not as though we think we ought have the man's home address, but it would at least be nice if he could say which neighborhood, or which ward even, he's moved into. So, DCist readers, if you see Nickles at the grocery store or parking his car in your neck of the woods, be sure to send in word of the sighting to tips@dcist.com. more ›

One more update on Firetruckgate from the Examiner's Michael Neibauer to end out the week. D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles is now defending the mysterious donation of an older D.C. government firetruck and ambulance to a resort town in the Dominican Republic, saying that the vehicles were properly declared surplus by the Office of Contracting and Procurement and lawfully donated to non-profit Peaceaholics, the group that arranged the donation. Even so, both vehicles have since been returned to the District, to "assure that this transaction raises no further public concerns." Fantastic quote from Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh: "If all rules and regulations were followed, we need new rules and regulations." more ›

Just more than one-third of the city's 1,027 bars will not be able to extend hours during the inauguration due to binding voluntary agreements with their neighborhoods, reports the Washington Post. Mayor Adrian Fenty and Attorney General Peter Nickles confirmed on Friday that no occasion — not even the election of the first black president of the United States of America — is too special to supercede voluntary agreements with neighborhood groups, many of which are 20 years old. more ›

It's understandable that the Metropolitan Police Department would be frustrated that a robbery suspect whom they have arrested three times has been continually released with little reason. But does that frustration warrant an email carpet bomb of newly confirmed D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles? more ›

Mayor Adrian Fenty this morning formally nominated Peter Nickles to be the District's permanent Attorney General. The move was widely expected; Fenty had been visibly lobbying D.C. Council members on behalf of Nickles, who has been serving as interim AG for almost six months, and the Post called it official on Tuesday. more ›

So there we have it -- the U.S. Supreme Court finally issued a definitive ruling on what the Second Amendment actually means. But what will it mean for the District in a more practical sense? For now, not much. more ›

In the face of so many other D.C. government corruption scandals, you'll be forgiven for having forgotten about former D.C. Department of Human Services employee Charles M. Brown, who was charged in 2006 for his involvement in a conspiracy with another employee to steal public assistance funds in 2004 and 2005. Interim Attorney General Peter Nickles today announced the conviction of Brown on 11 criminal charges, including identity theft, conspiracy, unlawful food stamp usage and fraud in obtaining public assistance. more ›

Good morning, Washington. Supporters of Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sen. Barack Obama are riding high off their caucus victories in Iowa last night, but locally, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty continues to suffer some bumps in the road after one year in office. Just weeks after the resignation of Attorney General Linda Singer, Fenty's former deputy chief of staff, Neil Richardson, has also resigned. Richardson, who was a key Fenty aide during his mayoral campaign, had been moved out of Fenty's "bullpen" in October and placed in an office called Serve DC, where he was tasked with creating a volunteer program to help the school system. Yesterday Richardson decided that the demotion, which came, according to the Post, after Richardson complained to the mayor that he was not listening enough to the public on key decisions, wasn't worth sticking around for, and tendered his resignation. WTOP has excerpts from Richardson's resignation letter, which reiterates complaints heard from others about Fenty's dictatorial governing style. more ›

As we mentioned at the end of the day yesterday, Acting D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles has fired Alan Morrison, the lawyer who had been preparing to defend the District's handgun ban before the Supreme Court in March. The timing of this move leads to all manner of questions about how seriously the Fenty administration actually takes this Supreme Court case, and whether the Mayor and the Acting AG are capable of putting important legal proceedings above personal disagreements. more ›

Big news from the Washington Post: D.C. Attorney General Linda Singer has resigned after less than a year on the job. more ›

Yesterday we threw together a list of the people in the District we considered influential, taking after a similar annual list put together by GQ that compiles the movers and shakers on the federal side of the city. One of our nominees was Dorothy Brizill, a well-known civic activist and political gadfly who runs DC Watch, the closest thing we have to a citizens' inspector general. And as we expected, last night she offered us... more ›