If you're following the ongoing saga of Vince Gray's home improvement debacle, the Washington Times's Jeffrey Anderson has filed yet another doozy. Apart from the more recent work supervised by William C. Smith & Co./WCS Construction, there's also long been the question of the big metal fence that Gray had installed around his property in 2008. That work turns out to have been performed by Mid-Atlantic Deck and Fence Co., of Gambrills, Md., a company that also does not possess a license to work inside the District. This quote, from company president Bruce Beauchamp, is fairly fascinating:

"How we got into this, I have no idea," Mr. Beauchamp said, adding that his company rarely, if ever, works in the District and did not obtain a permit. "Our contract says the buyer will obtain the permit. I don't even know where to get a ... permit in D.C."

The Washington Times just keeps hammering away at D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray. After reporting last month that Gray had some unusual repair work done on his Hillcrest home by mega-developer William C. Smith & Co., a company with a long list of city contracts that does not normally do such small jobs, today there's this addition: Gray voted in July to award an $86 million contract to Smith & Co. to develop part of the Northwest One project. more ›

Tom already told you about Tim Craig's story in today's Washington Post, which outlines how D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray used council stationery to solicit a $20,000 contribution from Comcast to help pay for Democratic Party activities at last year's national convention. But potentially even worse news for Gray also came today in the form of this story by Washington Times reporter Jeffrey Anderson, which alleges that some questionable work was performed on Gray's Hillcrest home by developer William C. Smith & Co. – a huge company that has a long list of contracts with the District government, and doesn't usually offer basic home repair services. more ›