Photo by dmclici

Good morning, Washington. You still have a little time left (the deal ends at 10:30 a.m.) for what has to have been one of the most well publicized corporate giveaways we’ve run across in some time: the Starbucks free pastry offer. Click here and print out the coupon offer in order to get your free pastry at any participating SBux. All you have to do is buy any beverage. We’re guessing a lot of the popular locations are probably out of pastries at this point, so let us know if you find a hidden stash.

Lions and Tigers and New Taxes, Oh My! It’s come down to considering any number of new taxes for the D.C. Council, Michael Neibauer reports in the Examiner. The estimated budget shortfalls looming over the next three fiscal years are forcing city government to get more and more creative in order to make ends meet. Some of the ideas being floated: a big tax increase on D.C. residents earning more than $500,000 a year; a three-cent gas tax increase; a special tax on snack foods; or wage cuts across the board for city workers.

Fenty Proposes Cutting Independent Review of DCPS: Speaking of budget cutting, Bill Turque reports in the Post that one of Mayor Fenty’s proposed methods of trimming the FY2010 budget is to eliminate funding for an independent evaluator assigned to assess the progress of public school reform under Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Given how acrimonious the topic of oversight of DCPS has been between the Council and the Mayor, we’d be surprised if Vince Gray didn’t find a way to restore that funding when they vote on the revised budget on July 31.

Briefly Noted: Watergate Hotel goes up for auction today … Manatee makes its way to Chesapeake Bay from Miami … Gruesome crime scene photos shown at Banita Jacks trial … First daughters visit Madame Tussauds.

This Day in DCist: In 2008, WMATA unveiled its new blue, red and silver Metrobuses, and in 2006, we interviewed big deal attorney and law professor Neal Katyal.