Photo by lovedc

Good morning, Washington. Did you celebrate the National Night Out? At least a couple of DCist staffers embraced their civic obligations and met for beer on a pleasant summer evening. Were you similarly dutiful?

Fenty Fraternity Pays Its Way: The Post brings word of some improper city spending that was caught with impressive speed. On Monday night a reception was thrown by the city for members of Mayor Fenty’s fraternity, who are in town for a conference. Fenty was in attendance, but says he didn’t understand that the city was paying for the affair. The next morning he asked AG Peter Nickles to investigate; Nickles quickly concluded that the city shouldn’t have been picking up the tab; and by the afternoon the fraternity had cut a check for the $37,000 price of the event. Scandal averted! But who approved this obviously bad idea in the first place? The city government isn’t saying, but the Post article does mention that Sinclair Skinner — who is already in hot water for his role in Dominican-firetruck-and-ambulance-gate — is a member of the fraternity in question, and was thanked by fraternity members during the event, along with Fenty, for making the celebration possible.

Falling Power Poles in Northeast: Yikes. Fox 5 is reporting that three utility poles toppled over outside of the Deanwood Metro station, sending sparks flying, oil leaking, and cutting off power to the neighborhood. The apparent culprit is a cement truck that backed into one of the poles. NBC4’s account is especially scary, with witnesses saying they narrowly dodged the falling live wires.

District High Schools Will Offer STD Testing: Grandstanding politicians, get ready: according to the Post, D.C. is going to expand a pilot program aimed at identifying and treating high school students with sexually transmitted diseases. Perhaps the outrage will be kept in check: participation is voluntary and secret, and similar programs are in place in a number of cities across the country. But then again, other cities haven’t had quite as much trouble implementing a needle exchange program as we have.

Briefly Noted: D.C. man struck and killed while on foot on BW Parkway… Alleged shoplifter pepper-sprays guard, may have actually been a man… Three shot in Southeast… Catoe appeals to Senate for funds… Speed cameras vandalized in Montgomery County… Man charged with Oxon Hill shooting… D.C. gets high marks on HIV report card despite extremely high infection rate…

This Day In DCist: One year ago the kickball lawsuit finally came to an end.