Good morning, Washington. It turns out that House Pages don’t need lecherous congressmen’s help to make scandalous headlines: two have just gotten busted for inappropriate behavior in a House elevator. They’ve been dismissed, bringing the year’s total fired pages to five — two others were caught shoplifting, and one was booted for fighting. Needless to say, it looks like the program — the oversight of which has been in turmoil — will be getting additional scrutiny.
Fenty’s School Plans Get Complicated: Mayor Fenty’s and Chancellor Rhee’s effort to overhaul D.C.’s schools has hit some speed bumps, as the Post details. A recently discovered $100 million budget shortfall prompted Fenty to ask the city council for another $81 million, and sent Rhee scrambling to cut costs and find more revenue. But as those efforts proceed, others will have to be put on hold: planned expansions to art, language and music programs won’t occur this spring after all. There’s other trouble, too, as Marion Barry and Harry Thomas have introduced legislation aimed at stopping Fenty and Rhee from closing the 23 schools they planned to shutter unless they get the council’s okay.
GOP Retains Davis’s Seat: WJLA brings word that, as expected, the Virginia Republican Party has managed to hold on to deceased Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis’s spot in congress. Rob Wittman won the special election by about a 2 to 1 margin. Davis passed away in October after a lengthy battle with breast cancer.
Gun Buyback Program Announced: Via NBC4, the AP reports that MPD will be holding a gun buyback event this Saturday, in an effort to reduce violence — or perhaps to get in as much gun-buying goodness as they can before the Supreme Court rules on the gun ban. Guns can be turned in for payouts of between $10 and $100, and will be collected at Shiloh Baptist, Holy Christian House of Praise or Union Temple Baptist Church. Needless to say, participants will be given amnesty for the gun possession charges they would otherwise face.
Briefly Noted: Former FBI supervisor pleads guilty to abducting girlfriend… High school students charged for putting dilute hydrochloric acid in another kid’s lunch… Beltway racing ends with fatality… Albemarle man admits to UVa-area rapes dating back to ’97…
This Day In DCist: One year ago we announced the first DCist Exposed. One year before that the great church parking battle was heating up.
Photo by Eye Captain
