Photo by Corey Clarke

>> Patrick Mara, the lone Republican running in the April 23 special election for an At-Large seat on the D.C. Council, agreed to introduce a conservative policy shop to the donors in his 2008 race in exchange for a consulting fee, The Washington Post reports. Mara signed a contract in 2009 with D.C. Progress, a group promoting pro-business policies in the District, that offered him a monthly fee in exchange for raising money for the group from people who backed his previous bid for the D.C. Council. Mara describes the arrangement as having “lunch with a few people basically.”

>> The general equivalency diploma, which was launched as a way for American soldiers in World War II to finish their high-school educations, isn’t really that equivalent today, WAMU’s Kavitha Cardoza reports. Today’s program enrollees, including in D.C., face significant disadvantages when it comes to hiring, and are often viewed as “second-class” candidates for jobs.

>> A developer is building a 1,000-car garage on New York Avenue NE. Some people hate it, including D.C. Planning Director Harriet Tregoning. Now Housing Complex reports that the developer, Paul Millstein, is actually building the garage to be convertible into apartments if the demand rises in the next several years.

Briefly Noted: McAuliffe raises twice as much as The Cooch … Zimmermann gets first career complete game win … New Hyattsville NIMBY issue: sidewalks! … Metro launching anti-fatigue campaign.

This Day in DCist: Ian MacKaye turned 50 and the Huffington Post and Politico won their first Pulitzers.