After a tough week that saw legislation to grant the District a voting seat in the House pulled because of a hostile gun law-gutting amendment, voting rights activists are pulling out all the stops in order to save the voting rights measure. The Post reports that activists and congressional proponents of the legislation are targeting 60 conservative legislators, including members of the Blue Dog Democrats, who hold the key votes on this issue. Congressional sources claim to have 190 votes rounded up for the measure, 28 short of what they need for passage. For our part, we hope that the Blue Dogs come to see how outlandishly foolish it is that the NRA just has to hint that they’ll score a vote before members of Congress come running to defend their pro-gun credentials.

Non-Resident Youths Participated in Summer Jobs Program: Remember the fiasco that was last year’s D.C. summer jobs program? Yeah, not only did it go wildly over budget, but the Post is reporting that it even took in a few non-D.C. youths. According to the Post, the 203 youths joined the program even though they lived as far away as Georgia and Texas, costing the city over $275,000 during the ten weeks that it ran. Sure, that’s a drop in the bucket for a program that took in over 21,000 youths and ended up costing $55 million, but it adds insult to injury for what has been Mayor Adrian Fenty’s biggest flop while in office.

Virginia GOP Heeds Our Advice: WJLA is reporting that the Virginia GOP may soon oust embattled head Jeff Frederick. The move comes a few months late, but better now than never, right?

Maryland Death Penalty Repeal Fails Senate Vote: A measure supported by Governor Martin O’Malley to repeal the death penalty in Maryland failed in a Senate vote yesterday, replaced instead by a compromise bill that limits the use of capital punishment. WTOP reports that the legislation passed by the Maryland Senate would limit the death penalty to murder cases where there is biological evidence or a videotaped confession. The measure next goes to the House of Delegates.

Briefly Noted: MoCo executive backs ignition breathalyzers … Manassas Chick-fil-a attracts job-seekers … Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) disputes beaten homeless man timeline … Harry Thomas (D-Ward 5) seems to threaten local publication’s advertisers.

This Day in DCist: On this day in 2008, we reported on crime around the DCUSA complex and saw some irate residents noisily take to the street in front of Jack Evans’ house. In 2007, Scooter Libby was found guilty and Metro’s platform lighting got more colorful.

Picture snapped by andertho