Mayor Vince Gray met with shadow campaign conspirator Jeanne Clarke Harris in January, reports the Post.

Last night, Mayor Vince Gray officially responded to allegations, uncovered in the Washington Post on Tuesday, that his mayoral campaign improperly shifted campaign donations from cash to money orders in order to skirt legal caps and accepted donations from organizations that don’t exist.

Well, this makes things a little more interesting: during a hearing regarding an audit of current D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown’s 2008 campaign finances, the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance revealed that the United States Attorney’s Office has begun investigating the claims.

Many of us with loans through Sallie Mae have nightmarish stories regarding our dealings with the company, but we’re hearing word of a new, special kind of financial screwing of which our readers may want to take note. Yesterday a college friend sent me this article, screaming that her FICO score suddenly dropped 120 points overnight. Apparently Sallie Mae switched the way they describe the “status” of loan holders who use the graduated payment plan…

The Post is reporting that in an 8-2 vote, Metro’s finance committee has approved a series of fare hikes at their full meeting today. The plan they approved was the one recently offered by Maryland members of the board, which is less expensive for suburban customers who park and ride. The vote basically guarantees that the full board will approve the fare hikes later today. Here’s how the new fares will break down: >> The…

In most any public or private sector job, losing $31 million on your watch is a surefire way to get yourself fired. CFO Natwar Gandhi’s reputation for saving the city’s finances has thus far protected him from what is to date the District’s biggest corruption scandal. But his fortunes might be changing. Buried towards the end of an article from the Examiner today on an investigation into the tax refund scheme that milked the city…

Mark down an initial battle victory to the owners in the long and strained D.C. doggy wars. The Examiner reports on a change in the regulations governing the establishment of off-leash dog parks in the District that should make it easier to create fenced-in spaces for dogs to play. Dog owners in the city have long complained about a dearth of spaces where they could legally let dogs off their leashes to get exercise. Among…

Just like with the late-night votes in the D.C. Council on whether or not to finance the construction of a new stadium a few years back, we all hoped to wake up this morning and find out that the Senate had voted again and decided that voting rights for the District was a go. No such luck. We did, however, pick up a new champion for the cause. Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) was the only…

Tom Knott: Once again, Tom Knott has managed to take what seems to be an isolated incident and turn it into evidence that liberalism of any sort is just evil. This week, Knott recounts the badly-handled trial of a Liberian immigrant accused of raping a seven-year-old girl in Montgomery County. Due to some bad decision by the trial judge, the charges were eventually dropped, though the county has stated that it will appeal. Regardless, it’s…

There seems to be no end to the drama playing out at the Smithsonian Institution. The story so far: Former Secretary Lawrence M. Small resigned back in March amidst allegations of gross financial expenditures and poor management decisions. He was replaced by acting Secretary Cristián Samper, and the Board then began an overhaul of the Institution based on a scathing report on the state of museums issued earlier this year. Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating…