District Links

Happy Monday. Political analyst and DC statehood champion Mark Plotkin died Sunday at the age of 72, his former station WTOP reported …

TGIF! Muriel Bowser continued the week’s statehood theme by unveiling mayoral-commissioned statehood art at noon:

Happy Thursday. At the first House hearing on DC statehood in 26 years, Republican detractors brought criticisms ranging from constitutional arguments down to the nitty-gritty.

Happy Wednesday. DC Council members signaled they support drastic cutbacks on vaping, introducing bills with widespread support yesterday to ban the distribution of flavored electric cigarette products and restrict where products can be…

Happy Tuesday. A group critical of Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans staged a theater protest outside the Wilson Building this morning, dubbed "Shark Tank: Wilson Building Edition." Sitting on a creme rug, three clients heard Evans serve…

Happy statehood week. Just past noon today, statehood supporters arrived once again at the foot of Capitol Hill, where countless previous bids for DC autonomy and full voting rights have gone to die. It marked the culmination of a march…

TGIF! The District will rebid the massive, $1 billion-plus Medicaid contract that provides health care for the city’s neediest residents, the Department of Health Care Finance announced on Wednesday.

Happy Thursday. Columnist jonetta rose barras reported this morning that the law firm hired by the DC Council to investigate Ward 2 member Jack Evans may be having trouble completing its report on time.

Good Wednesday afternoon. Opponents of the District-approved redevelopment of the McMillan Sand Filtration Plant site demonstrated at Attorney General Karl Racine’s event on wage theft yesterday, interrupting him to demand a meeting.

Good Tuesday morning. Attorney General Karl Racine has rolled out a new report on payroll fraud in the District this morning that found construction companies save at least 16.7% in labor costs by illegally misclassifying workers as…

Happy Monday. Monument Academy Public Charter School — operating this year after its board agreed to a partnership with Friendship Education Foundation, reversing a June 4 vote to close down — had many “serious” safety incidents last year:…

TGIF! There is an ongoing turf battle between the arts community and the Bowser administration, and for days DC arts commission staff members found themselves locked out of a vault with artists’ work …

Happy Thursday. Taxpayers paid at least $41,000 for District officials, including the mayor and some council members, to go to a big annual shopping center conference in Las Vegas last spring, City Paper reports this morning.

Good Wednesday morning. Ward 4 DC Council hopeful Janeese Lewis George has raised $17,994 since launching her candidacy on Aug. 1, her campaign announced yesterday.

TGIF! DL is back from vacation and has a lot of catching up to do. While gone, developer Doug Jemal and Mayor Muriel Bowser feuded over the prospect of an immigrant children shelter in DC, there was talk of renaming Good Hope Road SE after…

Good Tuesday morning. There’s a new date for the congressional hearing on statehood: Sept. 19.

Good Monday morning. The Ward 5 family homeless shelter will open next month, Curbed reports …

Happy Wednesday. DC Office of Planning chief Andrew Trueblood is proving adept at tiptoeing around the city’s development polemics when facing a skeptical, potentially hostile crowd.

Good Tuesday morning. There is a new citywide tenant union, launched during a town hall at All Souls Church in Columbia Heights on Saturday.

Happy Monday. At the mayor's press conference today on crime, a reporter counted seven murders in four days — a grim tally that recalls the violence of the 1990s and early 2000s.