Good morning, Washington. Are ya ready for some embezzlement scandal news? Of course you are! This morning's update comes not from the embattled Office of Tax and Revenue, but rather from the D.C. Public Schools front office, as the Examiner reports that Eugene Smith, the former director of internal audits for DCPS, entered a guilty plea yesterday to charges of stealing nearly $50,000 from a charter school account. Smith was fired by the school system......

Last week, the Fenty administration announced an aggressive plan calling for the closure of 24 schools within the District of Columbia Public Schools system. Parents and concerned members of the community are now being invited to attend a series of public meetings where they can raise concerns directly with Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso. We've posted the full schedule below. Wards 1, 2 & 6: *Monday, Dec. 10 from......

One of these guys might be the next president, so it's good to try and parse where they stand on District voting rights. At least that was the thinking over at D.C. Vote, who recently recorded and sent in a number of videos of District residents asking the presidential candidates from the Republican Party where they stood on D.C. voting rights. The videos, eleven in all, were submitted to CNN for the upcoming CNN/YouTube......

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......

Written by DCist contributor Sara Mead The District of Columbia’s Public Schools open today for the 2007-08 school year, the first for DCPS under control of Mayor Adrian Fenty and the leadership of Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Questions that have become an annual start of school ritual in D.C.—Will students have textbooks? Will there be enough teachers? Will the bathrooms work?—take on added weight this year, because their answers offer the first tangible results by......

Good morning, Washington. It's just a gorgeous day outside right now, with temperatures currently in the 70s and only predicted to reach the upper 80s later this afternoon, which is about the best we can hope for in mid-August. Please make plans to eat your lunch outside accordingly, as this surely won't last through the week. Need a good story to gab about with your officemates as you head out into the sunshine? A......

After an interstate bridge collapse in Minneapolis killed four people yesterday evening, authorities in the Washington metro area are reassuring drivers that the region's bridges are safe, and there's no reason to think something like that could happen here. The Minneapolis bridge was in the midst of being repaired, and there are several major bridges in D.C. also undergoing construction, including the the Wilson Bridge and the Douglass Memorial Bridge -- though the latter has......

Good morning, Washington. Sure, there's some news to discuss, as usual. There's even a local weather update. But we're not going to sit here and pretend like you don't all want to talk about the numb emptiness inside you that resulted from the series finale of The Sopranos. My take? If they could give out penalties to TV show runners who can't decide how to end their series, David Chase deserves at least two separate......

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......

It was an awfully busy day for the D.C. Council Tuesday, so we thought we'd give you a quick glance at everything that went down in yesterday's session. >> As expected after a 9-2 committee vote earlier in the day, the Council voted by the same margin to approve Mayor Fenty's takeover plan for D.C. Public Schools yesterday. The council will need to give final approval in a second vote, and Congress is of course......

Mayor Adrian Fenty's plan to take personal control of D.C. Public Schools took one important step forward today, and may yet take another. In a 9-2 vote that took the proposal out of committee, the Washington Post reports the Council gave the takeover its first official blessing, paving the way for a first reading vote that could still happen in an extended session today. The committee vote took place after Lisa Comfort Bradford, a candidate......

Just when you thought the District's public schools were facing enough hurdles these days. The Examiner reports that most of the Ward 3 public schools were without telephone service yesterday, in what appears to have been an error on the part of DCPS. The outages ocurred after DCPS gave the District’s Office of Finance a list of phone numbers they supposedly weren't using anymore. The disconnects began March 8 under the city’s Zero Usage Project,......

It's that time of the year again, when people make resolutions they do not plan on keeping. Join DCist in resolving to see more art in 2007, but let's mean it. You could get started this week. >> Studio Gallery will have an invitational show featuring artists from the greater D.C. metropolitan area (January 3 to 28). This will include Suzanne Quinlan, whose work is shown at right. Open Wednesdays to Sundays, 2108 R St.......

UPDATE: WTOP is reporting that part of a building under construction in Rosslyn has collapsed, and that there are reported injuries, but at this point they don't know how severe. The building is at the corner of North Lynn Street and 19th Street. We'll update again when we learn more. MORE: "Arlington Police spokesman John Lisle says a slab of wet concrete partially collapsed on the 24th floor of the building on North Lynn Street."......

We'll have to check our calendars, but apparently this is official Teachers Go Crazy Week in D.C. Public Schools. Wednesday morning Shawn Hearn, principal at Eastern High School, was arrested after fighting with a student. Police say there was an altercation between Hearn and two students that quickly turned physical. Hearn and one teenager were charged with assault and released. Then NBC4 reported on another adult/student fracas in their 11 p.m. broadcast. A 15-year-old student......

Via D.C. Education Blog, a story by NBC4 we missed last week concerning the allegations of grade fraud made by AP U.S. History teacher Erich Martel, who contends that perhaps as many as 1/3 of this year's graduation class at Woodrow Wilson High School may not have earned the grades they needed to get their diplomas. Erich Martel has been teaching at Wilson since 1987. He said that since that time he's become increasingly concerned......

Happy Monday, Washington. Looks like we might start the week with a little rain, no doubt the salty tears of a thousand schoolchildren as they tuck away the summer toys and fill their backpacks with clean notebooks and sharpened pencils. School is back in session this morning for the D.C. Public Schools, and just as kids everywhere feel unprepared in the face of a new year, the schools themselves may be just as unprepared for......

With the start of new school year upon us, the education debate is largely revolving around the fate of the District's charter schools. It's an appropriate time for reflection and analysis of the city's 51 publicly-funded charter schools: it has been exactly 10 years since Congress pushed the charter school program on the city, and earlier this summer the Charter School Board stirred up controversy by shutting down two if its schools, Sasha Bruce and......

Bring out your purple plastic beads and get ready for some king cake! Well, we wish. For obvious reasons, the District and surrounding areas are decidedly calmer than, say, Bourbon Street. But we've still got some action going on. If you'd like to experience some good ol’ Mardi Gras flavor, the Post's City Guide lists what's going on today, from galas to Zydeco. Of course, there is always Lulu’s in Foggy Bottom -- they......

If you're sick of pulling in a measly paycheck that doesn't seem to go very far in the District, you may want to think of a change of careers. And as Fox 5 reported recently in two separate investigative pieces, some of the biggest money may be in the District's government. According to their investigation, Fox 5 found that government workers putting in overtime may end up costing the city more annually than simply hiring......

Good morning, Washington. Today will be cloudy and cool with a 60 percent chance of rain in the afternoon. Today the National Zoo is releasing the first tickets to the general public to catch a glimpse of the baby panda - go to their website and get yours, if you can. If you work on the hill the AP is reporting the smoke which caused an evacuation of the Rayburn House Office Building this morning......

Good morning, Washington. It looks like the dreary weather of the last few days has cleared out - today will be partly cloudy with temperatures in the mid 50s with no rain expected through the weekend. Unfortunately the dry weather came just a bit too late for this year's high heel race which nonetheless went forward last night in wet conditions. There are a few photos of the event already posted to DCist photos. Hearing......

D.C. Public Schools start classes bright and early Monday, August 29, and the grounds (not to mention the interiors) of many District schools are in sorry shape. It's time to do a little weeding, painting, mulching and pruning. Schools, parents and community groups are joining forces and co-sponsoring a beautification day this Saturday, August 27, and asking for your help. Our area schools -- especially in Ward One -- need a little TLC to kick......

Too often, the words "Washington, D.C." and "public schools" are the precursor to another bout of bad press for the District. Not today - for the first time in the contest's history, a teacher from the District of Columbia has been named Teacher of the Year. The lucky winner is Jason Kamras, 31, math teacher at John Phillip Sousa Middle School. Kamras received his Bachelor's Degree from Princeton University and his Master's from Harvard. His......

Today will be partly cloudy in the morning then clearing, with highs around 80. Latte Driving: The Post analyzes the complications to the regular commute caused by coffee - what one researcher has dubbed the "Starbucks effect": "The two men represent what one researcher says is evidence that the national craving for gourmet coffee may be adding mileage to the morning rush hour." Nats Unveil Mascot: His favorite song? "Fly Like an Eagle," of course.......

(Editor's Note: And for the first part of our Nationals opening day coverage, we start outside the stadium.) As 46,000 anxious baseball fans filed slowly into Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium for the Nationals' long-awaited return to the District, 100 students, parents and activists protested the state of the city's schools. Standing behind a banner that boldly read "Millions for Stadiums, Peanuts For Schools," they denounced schools in disrepair and falling behind in most education......

A new website has been launched highlighting deteriorating condition of D.C. public schools. So far the website, FixOurSchools.net, only features photos of Eastern Senior High School posted by site founder Marc Borbely. This photo shows a hole in the wall "near classroom 352" at the Eastern Senior High School. According to Mr. Morbely, he "gave a photo of this hole to the school board on June 16, 2004. No repairs were made as of......