According to 5D Metro Police Commander Lamar Greene, a cab driver was found dead behind the wheel while parked at Hess Station at Rhode Island Avenue and New Jersey Avenue NW. A witness saw a medical examiner on the scene, investigating the taxi behind a white sheet draped by police. There is no information yet on the cause of death, but police are saying that they do not suspect foul play. District cabbies have recently…

Photo by Samer Farha Federal authorities believe former D.C. Taxicab Commission chairman Causton Toney participated in a long-running bribery scheme while he held that position from 2005-2007, the Washington Post reports this morning. A recently unsealed affidavit lays out the FBI’s suspicions against Toney, who has not been charged with any crime, but whose home was raided in October. The links between Toney and the bribery allegations stem from the same D.C. taxicab industry…

Photo by Sanjay Suchak If you’ve been following the large-scale FBI investigation into attempts to bribe public officials associated with the D.C. taxicab industry, you’ve got to read Jason Cherkis’s cover story this week in the Washington City Paper. Cherkis spent some time with a few of the 30+ men named in the indictment, and found that federal prosecutors may well be overreaching in their attempts to prosecute some of these guys. One of…

Photo by Samer Farha Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham is relinquishing his lead role in oversight of the city’s taxicab industry, despite an earlier determination from Council Chair Vincent Gray that Graham should keep taxis in his portfolio as chairman of the public works and transportation committee. Graham has asked Gray to transfer taxicab oversight powers to the Committee of the Whole. In a letter to Gray today, Graham wrote, “Though I…

That’s the word from U.S. District Court this afternoon, where the Washington Post’s Del Quentin Wilber was on hand for a brief hearing to set a trial date for Loza, the Jim Graham staffer accused of accepting cash and other gifts from a taxicab lobbyist. Writes Wilber: “Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb disclosed the existence of the plea offer during the hearing and said it would expire in two weeks. He declined to comment as…

Photo by drewsaunders A creepy new development today in the ongoing federal investigation into allegations of widespread bribery attempts inside the D.C. taxicab industry, courtesy the Post’s Del Quentin Wilber: court documents released today detail how one of the 39 men charged in the bribery ring, Yitbarek Syume, allegedly threatened to murder FBI informant Abdulaziz Kamus when his name surfaced in media reports shortly after the investigation became public.The papers reveal that Yitbarek Syume…

Photo by LaTur D.C. taxicab drivers made good on their promise to boycott the busy Adams Morgan nightlife district between the hours of 1 a.m and 4 a.m. on Saturday night. WJLA covers the reaction, and at least one friend of DCist told us he nearly managed to flag down a taxi on Columbia Rd. during that time, but then the driver, apparently suddenly remembering the strike, abruptly pulled away before he could enter…

Photo by andertho Federal authorities have arrested 27 people so far in a massive bribery case tied to the D.C. taxicab industry. Two indictments released today accuse a total of 39 individuals of conspiring to bribe city officials in order to obtain fraudulent taxi licenses between 2007 and 2009. Head to City Desk for downloadable .PDFs of the indictments. The documents reveal that D.C. Taxicab Commission Chairman Leon Swain was the man who first…

Photo by drewsaunders More than two dozen people have been indicted in the rapidly expanding federal bribery investigation into the D.C. taxi industry, the Post’s Del Quentin Wilber is reporting. That’s a whole lotta people. So who, besides Ted Loza, are they? They’re “cab drivers or others with financial ties to the industry,” most of whom will probably be arrested today, according to anonymous sources. Keep your eye out for handcuffed cab drivers this…

After first merely postponing a hearing on his recently proposed taxicab legislation in the wake of related federal bribery charges against his chief of staff, Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham has gone ahead and withdrawn the bill entirely, Tim Craig is reporting at D.C. Wire. In a rich bit of political theater, Graham is also apparently trying to sell reporters on the notion that this decision has “nothing to do” with the charges…