Remember those billboards that popped up in the 1980s that counted up the national debt, dollar by dollar? Pretty scary, huh? Well, District voting rights activists want something similar for their cause. Today the D.C. Council held a hearing on legislation that would allow the city to place two large LED billboards — one outside the John A. Wilson Building and the other outside the new Washington Nationals stadium — that would display the amount…

The overwhelming consensus so far at today’s D.C. Council hearing on the recent theft of what looks to be $30 million-plus from the District’s tax coffers? The scandal has damaged the reputation of the city government, and the council members are pissed. While most statements have clung to the nasty tidbits of information we already know (the enormity of the crime, that an auditor’s warnings may have been ignored) and palliative cliches, council members provided…

>> The District’s poverty rate is the highest in nearly a decade, and the employment rate for African American adults is at a 20-year low. [WaPo] >> ACK! OMG! The Hair! The Hair! Blood on the Hair! [Princess Sparklepony] >> bam! smack!@ Pow! [craigslist] >> WASA says it has repaired the two holes that were leaking raw sewage into the Anacostia River. [WaPo] >> Adam Clampitt has filed papers to run as an independent…

Good morning, Washington, and welcome to Friday. There’s nothing like a nationally televised address about troop levels to put you in a mood for a sound night’s sleep heading into the weekend, isn’t there? Certainly we would never have tossed and turned contemplating the “sinister ingenuity” that allows President Bush to escalate a war and then de-escalate it a year later without ever having a plan to successfully end it, and yet be able…

The Post’s David Nakamura reports that Mayor Adrian Fenty plans to endorse Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. An official announcement has yet to come, but the actions of Fenty adviser Jim Hudson, who organized a fundraiser for Obama, suggest the mayor looks set to get behind the Illinois senator’s campaign. Hudson collected $600,000 and endorsements from some of the mayor’s more loyal D.C. Council members: Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7), Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4)…

Good morning, Washington. Looks like we have two new D.C. Council members this morning: Muriel Bowser, a 34-year-old ANC, took the Ward 4 seat vacated by Mayor Adrian Fenty, and Yvette M. Alexander, a 45-year-old former insurance regulator, took the Ward 7 seat left behind by Council Chair Vincent Gray. Both women ran in extremely crowded fields, but received the endorsements of their predecessors which allowed them to stand out from the pack (and raise…

Candidates in next Tuesday’s special election to fill two open D.C. Council seats have collectively raised over $1 million in the course of the campaign. Voters will chose council members for Wards 4 and 7, after those positions were left empty by Mayor Adrian Fenty and at-large Council Chairman Vincent Gray. Voters in D.C. Public Schools’ Second District will also elect a school board representative. In Ward 4, ANC Commissioner Muriel Bowser leads the pack…

When we spied a fire truck driving down Georgia Avenue on Saturday morning with a banner promoting Muriel Bowser, we were confused. After all, Bowser is a candidate in the coming special election for Ward 4, and last we checked, city vehicles are stricly off-limits for campaign purposes. Well, we weren’t the only ones miffed by the emergency vehicle’s use as a campaign tool. From yesterday’s installment of themail, D.C. Watch’s bi-weekly online newsletter: On…