A federal judge said this week that long-running cooperation with law enforcement earned him a reduced sentence.

Did Hurricane Irene wash away your memory of last week’s earthquake? Well, the Earth is moving and shaking — while Irene was doing her thing above ground over the weekend, five aftershocks were reported from underground in Virginia.

An attorney with the D.C. Office of the Attorney General claims that the student who brought cocaine to Thomson Elementary School and shared it with several other students last Thursday was in possession of “large amount of crack cocaine,” Mark Segraves reports. The boy, who is ten years old, told police that he had found the crack in his stepfather’s car — the total amount was small enough to fit in the boy’s sock, but “it was enough to share with six other students.”

Just a few days from now, the critically acclaimed HBO series The Wire will kick off its fifth and final season. Considered one of the best and most realistic portrayals of crime and corruption in a struggling city (Baltimore, in this case), the show traces the thin line that divides the good guys from the bad. Whether cops stealing stacks of cash during drug busts or thieving dockworkers pooling together money for a stained-glass window…

>> “More than 50 nonunionized workers rallied against the new Nationals ballpark this morning, angry that more District residents did not receive construction jobs.” [WaPo] >> “I saw firsthand the fragile relationship that exists between Mayor Fenty and the City Council Members. I heard tales of a delayed Comprehensive Annual Financial Review , rising murder rates and a Chief of Police who feels burdened by a system that won’t help her, proposals to close…

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…

Channel 9 reporter Bruce Johnson has broken the story on the dust-up at the Washington Post this past week. Classical music critic Tim Page, winner of a Pulitzer prize, has long been one of the best writers in the Style section, making the paper’s shrinking coverage of classical music all the more shameful. In response to a mass email from the staff of Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry, which was sent to Page apparently…

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THE FOLLOWING LINK IS INCREDIBLY NSFW. Please do not follow it if you are squeamish, are in a public place, or have any other reservations about seeing graphic photos of public sex and drug use. D.C. resident Kevin Keith Eby, of the blog Knee Deep in Mud, recently came home to a rather rude surprise in the alley that faces his kitchen window: two individuals engaging in sex acts and…

Via WTOP’s Adam Tuss, looks like Metro General Manager John Catoe is worrying about more than just budget shortfalls. Catoe says he’s about to launch a new initiative to crack down on eating, drinking and chewing gum on Metro trains. “I have noticed (myself) and have received calls and letters that there has been an increase,” says Metro General Manager John Catoe. “We are going to have a focused campaign from the standpoint of…

Via Wonkette, we get this mind-blowingly angry letter to Examiner columnist Harry Jaffe (text doc) from Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry’s chief of staff, Keith Andrew Perry. As you’ll recall, Jaffe published a column last week wondering why Barry couldn’t have used a rather expensive collection of watches and cuff links, which were recently stolen from his home, to pay some of his tax burden in the years when he was known not to…