Ted Loza, a former aide to D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham who pled guilty to a federal charge of accepting an illegal gratuity in February, was sentenced to eight months in prison this afternoon. more ›

Some pretty damning video here: Ted Loza, the former Jim Graham chief of staff who pled guilty to felony bribery charges in February, is clearly seen on tape accepting money from an FBI informant outside the District's city hall. more ›

Sure, let's get totally crazy! Sinclair Skinner, the Adrian Fenty confidant who was a key figure in the D.C. Council's special investigation into the city's recreation construction contracts, sent out a long and winding press release this afternoon, calling for an investigation into Jim Graham's role in the Ted Loza bribery scandal. more ›

Former Jim Graham chief of staff Ted Loza pled guilty this afternoon to two charges of accepting gratuities and one charge of filing a false statement. more ›

Ted Loza, former chief of staff to Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, is reportedly scheduled to appear in court for a plea hearing this afternoon. The hearing will be held at 3 p.m. more ›

Two pieces of courtroom action to keep track of from today. more ›

The U.S. attorney's office filed a new indictment Thursday that spells out additional charges against Ted Loza, D.C. Council member Jim Graham's former chief of staff. Loza was arrested in September and charged with two counts of bribery on allegations he accepted $1,500 from taxicab industry lobbyist Abdulaziz Kamus. But as the Washington Post reports, Loza now stands accused of accepting a total of "more than $30,000 in benefits, including cash, trips, transportation and other gifts." The charges against the former staffer now include one count of conspiracy, an additional count of bribery, one count of extortion and one count of making false statements. more ›

Looks like a grand jury will soon hand down additional charges against former Jim Graham staffer Ted Loza, D.C. Wire reports. Loza was indicted on bribery charges last fall after he allegedly accepted $1,500 in cash and other favors and trips from a taxicab lobbyist. No word yet on what the new charges might look like, just that we should expect them in the "next two to four weeks." more ›

Federal authorities believe former D.C. Taxicab Commission chairman Causton Toney participated in a long-running bribery scheme while he held that position from 2005-2007, the Washington Post reports this morning. A recently unsealed affidavit lays out the FBI's suspicions against Toney, who has not been charged with any crime, but whose home was raided in October. more ›

As expected, D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) today formally announced that he will be seeking re-election in 2010. The announcement was coupled with the launch of his campaign web site. more ›

Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham is relinquishing his lead role in oversight of the city's taxicab industry, despite an earlier determination from Council Chair Vincent Gray that Graham should keep taxis in his portfolio as chairman of the public works and transportation committee. Graham has asked Gray to transfer taxicab oversight powers to the Committee of the Whole. more ›

That's the word from U.S. District Court this afternoon, where the Washington Post's Del Quentin Wilber was on hand for a brief hearing to set a trial date for Loza, the Jim Graham staffer accused of accepting cash and other gifts from a taxicab lobbyist. Writes Wilber: "Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb disclosed the existence of the plea offer during the hearing and said it would expire in two weeks. He declined to comment as he left the courtroom." Loza's attorney said he still needed to review the offer. more ›

When D.C. voting rights advocacy organization DC Vote launched its "I Am DC" ad campaign earlier this summer, it placed posters featuring the faces and stories of 10 D.C. residents (including our own Martin Austermuhle) on Metrobuses and other visible spots around the city. But recently we noticed that images of the posters available for download on the DC Vote web site now number only nine. Who was on that 10th poster? It was embattled Jim Graham chief of staff Ted Loza. more ›

Federal authorities have arrested 27 people so far in a massive bribery case tied to the D.C. taxicab industry. Two indictments released today accuse a total of 39 individuals of conspiring to bribe city officials in order to obtain fraudulent taxi licenses between 2007 and 2009. more ›

More than two dozen people have been indicted in the rapidly expanding federal bribery investigation into the D.C. taxi industry, the Post's Del Quentin Wilber is reporting. That's a whole lotta people. So who, besides Ted Loza, are they? They're "cab drivers or others with financial ties to the industry," most of whom will probably be arrested today, according to anonymous sources. Keep your eye out for handcuffed cab drivers this afternoon! more ›

Even though a new Washington Post report today suggests D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) may not actually be a target of the corruption investigation that ensnared his chief of staff, the D.C. Republican Committee keeps hounding him like he definitely is. more ›

After first merely postponing a hearing on his recently proposed taxicab legislation in the wake of related federal bribery charges against his chief of staff, Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham has gone ahead and withdrawn the bill entirely, Tim Craig is reporting at D.C. Wire. In a rich bit of political theater, Graham is also apparently trying to sell reporters on the notion that this decision has "nothing to do" with the charges against Ted Loza. "Graham said he is pulling the bill because of confusion and opposition within the taxicab industry to a medallion system." Suuuuuure. more ›

Two big updates today on the ongoing federal bribery probe into Ted Loza, chief of staff to Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham. more ›

Last week's arrest and indictment of Ted Loza, Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham's chief of staff, continues to put Graham in a rather unpleasant spotlight this morning. After WUSA9 first reported on Monday that the FBI investigation was also targeting the councilman, FOX-5 followed up last night with its own story, noting that Graham refused to go on the record all day on Monday in response to the allegations (earlier that morning when we saw him, Graham claimed he still hadn't read the story). more ›

Dimmed luster, my ass! Regardless of the brewing Ted Loza/Jim Graham scandal, the folks who participated in this year's Fiesta DC did a great job putting on a colorful, fun, well-attended event that deserves to be judged apart from anything else. Here's just a few of the shots our Flickr contributors grabbed on Sunday in Mt. Pleasant. more ›

Freshly delivered to our inbox is a press release from the office of D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1). The title? "Councilmember Graham Postpones Hearing on Taxicabs." Yeah, good call. more ›

D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray just released his official statement regarding today's arrest of Jim Graham chief-of-staff Ted Loza on bribery charges: "Consistent with the standard practice in criminal investigations not to reveal in advance the issuance or execution of an arrest warrant or a search warrant, I was not made aware of the arrest of Mr. Loza nor the search of his office in the John A. Wilson Building before that happened. I will leave the criminal investigation in the hands of law enforcement authorities and let the justice process take its course. I plan to have a conversation with Councilmember Graham to determine if the investigation will have any bearing on the broad operations of the Council, and how this may affect the work of his office and the Committee on Public Works and Transportation, which Mr. Graham chairs." more ›

Major, major news from D.C. Wire:

The chief-of-staff to D.C. Council Member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) was arrested Thursday morning by federal agents on bribery charges, according to a source familiar with the investigation. more ›

We've become used to the routine -- violence breaks out at/near District bar; Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) publicly demands that bar's liquor license be pulled in the name of public safety/the children/puppy dogs; bar goes under. So reliable has Ward 1's representative on the D.C. Council become in his ability to appear before the cameras after a violent incident at a local bar that the City Paper has even coined a term for it -- Grahamstanding. more ›