Photo by LaTur

Good morning, Washington. And good luck driving around Dupont Circle today. (We’ll have a bit more about that in a little bit.) But don’t forget, free pancakes at IHOP today.

Early Warnings: One of the top officials at the Children and Youth Investment Trust Corp. raised concerns as early as 2008 that then-Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5) was up to something with the agency. At a hearing on the future of CYITC yesterday, the D.C. Council examined an email from the agency’s former vice president of finance that read that Thomas was using it as a “check-on-demand place,” the Post reports. At the same hearing, Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who chairs the panel that oversees CYITC, suggested reorganizing the agency in the mold of the D.C. Commission of Arts and Humanities. Others, such as Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), quickly dismissed that notion.

Turning Around: WAMU’s Kavitha Cardozo takes a long look at two D.C. high-school seniors who had very rocky paths toward their graduations later this year. Christopher Feaster, 17, has been periodically homeless during his school years with his mother frequently unable to pay the rent. “I would have to re-wear socks. They were white socks but they were so dirty that they were brown and at times sometimes they were starting to go black,” he told Cardozo. But thanks to his own academic determination and a support network around him, Feaster is headed to Michigan State University this fall. Cardozo’s other subject, 22-year-old Travaris Chambers, arrived along a much different route. He spent three years in prison on an armed robbery conviction that interrupted his high-school career. Since getting out, his old school wouldn’t take him back at 22, but he’s landed at Luke C. Moore Academy, which specializes in giving at-risk youths another chance.

Court Date: Linwood Johnson, one of three men charged in the death of Alexandria activist Lenny Harris, has a court date today, WTOP reports. Harris, a longtime fixture in Northern Virginia, disappeared last September. His body was found in a well in Upper Marlboro, Md. last month. Johnson, 49, is charged with first-degree murder. Also facing charges are Tyrone Lewis, 26, and Ivan Newman, 20.

Briefly Noted: District purchases 10 alternative-fuel vehicles … Richmond-area woman fined after faking cancer … No changes for the Capitals at the NHL trade deadline … Ted Leo to perform entirety of The Tyranny of Distance at Black Cat … Spike Mendelsohn puts fries directly on the burger, fails … National Harbor casino plan giving pause to D.C. lottery board.

This Day in DCist: Last year: Watch out for tornadoes and for Sulaimon Brown burning bridges. In 2010: A giant snow-melter and another travel nightmare.