Up until last year, the D.C. Council’s weekly breakfast meetings were closed to the press and the public. The meetings, which then council Chair Linda Cropp claimed were merely social in nature, were thought of by local reporters as the place where city politicos hammered out sensitive deals — and did so away from the prying eyes of the District’s residents. Even though that has now changed, we’ve never really gotten much of a sense…

As we are still recovering from the gluttony that was Thanksgiving, and since it was pretty slow news week in, well, everything, we are light on the transit news, too. But first, which D.C. Council Member likes to ignore laws? You get one guess and the answer is after the jump. Photo by AlbinoFlea…

Howard Kurtz’s WaPo column today concerns the kerfuffle over Tim Page’s angry email to Ward 8 Council Member Marion Barry’s office that we told you about yesterday. As you’ll recall, Page, who writes about classical music for the Post, received an unsolicited press release from Barry’s office about the city’s deal with Specialty Hospitals of America to purchase the Greater Southeast Community Hospital. Page then fired off an angry email in which he called the…

Interesting story in today’s Examiner, which tells the story of Logan Circle resident and dog owner Daniel Greenberg. Greenberg likes to let his dog off its leash inside Logan Circle, even though the practice is against city code. He was caught with his dog off-leash by an MPD officer back in May, and was actually arrested on criminal charges — even though the D.C. Council has passed legislation that makes having a dog off its…

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. It wasn’t easy to keep up with the business flooding through the Council as the latest session neared its end. Amid the bills dealing with Greater Southeast Community Hospital, authorizing development bonds, addressing land deals in the West End and over the Center Leg Freeway, and placing moratoria on new Adams Morgan taverns, an interesting pattern nonetheless emerged. In just this past…

A few more tidbits keep trickling out about decisions made during the D.C. Council’s action-packed final summer session earlier this week, and this one is ripe for a cascade of debate. Running enthusiast Mayor Adrian Fenty is determined to see the Nation’s Triathlon, scheduled for Sept. 29, go forward this year, complete with a one-mile swim in the Potomac River. Last year, the swim part of the event was canceled after the health department determined…

Via the DCist Tipline, we get this photo and story from a reader who spotted D.C. Council chairman Vincent Gray running over to speak to a U.S. Park Police officer in the hopes of talking him out of towing his car Wednesday evening. While playing softball down by the FDR memorial this evening, my team was a little shocked when we saw a park policeman not only issue a ticket to an illegally parked…

Chances are, if you live in or near the city and are not fantastically wealthy, you probably have roommates. Maybe you live with friends, maybe with some folks you randomly found on craigslist and barely talk to, but sharing your living space with other people is a fact of life for most people under 30 in D.C. And in this kind of heat, any sort of odd personal odors emanating from your roommates’ bedrooms might…

Good morning, Washington. Still can’t get enough post-Pants Proceeding wrap-up? The Post’s Henri E. Cauvin has a nice write-up and a video of the Chung family’s press conference for you, conveniently located on A1. Still no word yet on whether Pearson will appeal yesterday’s decision, but given the sheer volume of news stories published about this case all over the world, he can be sure whatever he decides to do from now on, people…

The controversial plan authored by Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham to relocate a number of strip clubs displaced by the new Nationals stadium into Ivy City, a neighborhood in Ward 5, got even more interesting this week. The D.C. Council on Tuesday agreed to spend $3.6 million to reduce the “impact” of the relocated clubs, in a rare earmarking of funds for a specific neighborhood. Ivy City is bordered by Bladensburg Road, New York…