After a day on which he was charged with two federal crimes, Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. (D-Ward 5) resigned the seat he had held since first being elected in 2006. more ›

Mayor Vince Gray, who has been historically prickly regarding media requests for comment on the Harry Thomas, Jr. scandal, unsurprisingly refused to call for Thomas to step down today. more ›

Rokey Suleman, who had served as the executive director of the District's Board of Elections and Ethics since 2009, resigned today. more ›

Leslie Johnson, the wife of former Prince George's County executive Jack Johnson and a member on the county's legislative Council, is set to announce she'll resign from her position today. more ›

Earlier this afternoon, Sahil Kapur, a Washington reporter for Raw Story, tweeted what could well be the biggest news in the District since, well, Mayor Adrian Fenty lost his re-election bid -- that D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee had resigned. According to an unnamed source, Kapur wrote, "Michelle Rhee just quit via a 4-line email to the DC public school staff, source says. Yet to officially submit resignation." I checked with a DCPS source, and this was news to her -- no email from Rhee announcing her intention to leave. TBD has gotten confirmation from Rhee's spokesperson that she hasn't resigned, but that she did produce a statement endorsing the need for continued reforms. No surprise there, really. Rhee may have campaigned for Fenty and threatened not to work for Gray, but she's not so politically tone-deaf to up and leave at the beginning of a school year -- with four months left of her current boss's term to boot. I mean, Rhee resigning now would be so monumentally stupid that even her most fervent supporters wouldn't be able to justify it. But Rhee's not that stupid, and no, she hasn't resigned. more ›

The president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, Jackie Jeter, offered this reaction to John Catoe's resignation.

"It is with some measure of trepidation that I look to the future of Metro’s management. With the sudden announcement that John Catoe will be leaving his position in four months, my concerns center on my membership and the riding public. Catoe’s imminent departure will only exacerbate the state of flux affecting those working to provide mass transportation to the Washington, DC metropolitan area and the customers who rely on Metro. more ›

Here's the statement from D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton upon learning of Metro General Manager John Catoe's decision to step down: "When the last General Manager of Metro was forced out, John Catoe inherited a Metro system in deep crisis. He showed considerable skill in keeping a floundering ship afloat while Congress waited for years, despite the urging of the region, to authorize funding essential for beginning to resuscitate Metro’s aging infrastructure, appropriated the first 10 percent only a few weeks ago. In stepping aside, Mr. Catoe has taken a principled step based on his view that new leadership would better focus the public on the challenges at hand. He may be right that the time has come for a crisis manager, but considering the perfect storm of a recession, decreasing ridership, increasing capital costs and the need for new revenue, Metro will be fortunate, indeed, to find a new General Manager not only equal to the task, but desirous of taking it on." more ›

Like several other local bloggers, I was on hand for a roundtable discussion on Wednesday evening with Metro General Manager John Catoe. My story on the meeting was basically done earlier today, and I had planned to post it just as soon as I gave it a polish after I got back from a lunch meeting. I was by no means expecting to return to my computer to discover that Catoe had suddenly resigned. more ›

Big breaking news this afternoon: WMATA general manager John Catoe has tendered his resignation, effective April 2. According to the Washington Post's Lena Sun, Catoe announced his decision to resign after a special board meeting this morning, saying that it would allow the transit agency to "move beyond distractions." Stay tuned for more. more ›

It's a breaking news kinda Wednesday, apparently. As best we can tell, Marc Steiner was actually the first person to report that embattled Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon has agreed to resign as part of a plea agreement reached with state prosecutors. The AP has since confirmed the news, noting that the mayor's resignation comes shortly after she entered an Alford plea today on a perjury charge. Dixon was convicted last month of embezzling gift cards that were supposed to go to needy Baltimore residents. The AP says the mayor's resignation is effective Feb. 4. more ›

In a move which should surprise no one, D.C. United head coach Tom Soehn removed his name from consideration for the team's head coaching position in advance of his contract's expiration yesterday, effectively ending six years of service with the club. Soehn, an assistant coach from 2004 to 2006, was promoted to head coach for the 2007 season and started brightly, leading United to the MLS Supporters Shield in his first season. But after two consecutive years in which United failed to make the MLS playoffs, it was obvious that the club would not be extending his three-year contract, which was due to expire at the end of 2009. Soehn finished his tenure at United with a 55-48-31 record in all competitions. more ›

Alexandria Police Chief David P. Baker resigned this afternoon, everyone in town is reporting. Baker's decision comes amid growing criticism due to his arrest over the weekend on DUI charges, after causing a car accident in Arlington that injured at least one person. In a letter to his entire department, Baker, 58, called the resignation a "retirement." more ›

Well, that was quick: less than 24 hours after we relayed the news that Nationals General Manager Jim Bowden was on the hot seat, Bowden resigned from his post, citing that his "ability to properly represent the Washington Nationals has been compromised because of false allegations contained in the press." The Nats have not yet named a replacement or an interim GM. Bowden's resignation comes less than a week after the team fired of his longtime assistant, Jose Rijo, who was helming Nationals' operations in the Dominican Republic. Rijo and Bowden -- who maintains his complete innocence -- are both involved in a federal investigation over the signing of Dominican shortstop Carlos Alvarez Daniel Lugo, who, after receiving the largest signing bonus in team history, turned out to be four years older than believed. With spring training well into full swing, the Nats are keeping the wheels moving with assistant general manager Mike Rizzo at the helm. There's no word on what strategy the team will take to replace Bowden. more ›

The questions surrounding the sudden resignation of Dr. Michael Williams, Medical Director for the District's Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, continue. As we mentioned in today's Morning Roundup, no one seems to know why he resigned, even though Williams intimated there was a specific reason when asked by the Washington Post. more ›

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