Photo by Chris DiGiamo.

Good morning, Washington. The D.C. Council might be experiencing an ethical crisis, but who knew that at least one of its members harbored vigilante aspirations? Last night, after heading out of the Wilson Building for the evening, Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander witnessed a man running away after stealing another man’s Kindle — so she hopped behind the wheel of her Range Rover, helped chased the guy down, then gave him a verbal whipping while he was being arrested.

But Back To The Matter At Hand: Despite that brief diversion, there is still the fact that Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. stepped down from his post as chair of the Council’s economic development committee yesterday. Questions still remain about Thomas’ organization, solicitations from which reportedly contained a fake 501(c)3 tax-identification number.

The scrutiny now turns to Chair Kwame Brown’s decision to pull the economic development committee under his purview — technically, it could be argued that Brown now holds two of the Council’s most important assignments. (Brown also chairs the education committee.) Vincent Orange isn’t wasting any time lobbying for the job — in a statement released last night, the newest member of the Council requested to take Thomas’ place in charge of the committee. Insiders around the local press seem to believe it’s not going to happen, though it’s obvious that Brown should move some things around — keeping two committees under one person in the Whole is hardly a sustainable political idea. (Though, logistically, it’s not like the economic development committee has a whole lot going on between now and September.)

It’s also clear that the week of scandal might be getting to Mayor Vince Gray. Asked about it at a press conference yesterday by WAMU’s Patrick Madden, Gray snapped, saying “you ask me about how I feel about it, of course I don’t feel good about it, Patrick. Why would I feel good about it?” before shutting down the presser.

Ugggggggh: The record high temperature at National Airport for June 9 is 102 degrees. Will we break it today? Maybe! (The record at Dulles, 96 degrees, seems ripe for toppling toppling.) It’s going to be even more suffocating today than it was yesterday, though there is the chance for some rain to drift into the area this evening and cool things down a bit — but only slightly. Of course, the heat wave only means we’ll be reading more stories like this one, which makes us very, very sad.

Briefly Noted: Metro battling air conditioning issues…D.C. Inspector General says paramedics should have done more in Edward L. Givens case…Lydia DePillis tries to make sense out of local housing statistics…”Is the Waterfront DC’s New NoMa?“…City Paper ranks the 44 most powerful restaurants in the city…D.C. CFO Natwar Gandhi is a poet, don’t you know it.

This Day in DCist: While we’re on the topic of Council committees — last year, the Council killed the Special Committee on Statehood and Self-Determination. Also last year: we reviewed Stephen Strasburg’s burger and readers debated what should replace the soon-to-shutter ESPN Zone.