Marion Barry had just been sworn in as mayor for the second time in January 1995, when a staffer told him that Abe Pollin, the philanthropist and entrepreneur who died Wednesday, had a belated Christmas present for Barry.

Then Pollin called.

"Mr. Mayor, Marion I want to take the Bullets and I want to put them in downtown Washington."
The then Washington Bullets were playing at the Capital Centre in Landover.

Barry said his first question was: "Abe do you think that this is a good investment?"

Barry recalled his 30 year relationship with Pollin as he stood outside the Verizon Center Wednesday night. He said the act was typical of the man. Pollin was a man who wanted to give back to the city he loved.

He built housing units for low income residents, and he led the way to revitalize the area around Gallery Place -- beginning with the effort to build an arena with his own money.

Pollin put up $220 million for what would become the MCI Center.

As fans flocked to see the Wizards play Wednesday night, Barry said Pollin's legacy would go far beyond the team or the building.

"He used to go to Calvary Baptist Church and serve meals to the homeless," Barry said pointing in the direction of the nearby church. "He changed the name of the Bullets because he was concerned about the name sending the wrong message. He was a great humanitarian."

A D.C. Superior Court judge has ruled against a bid by the Washington Teachers' Union (WTU) to roll back the Oct. 2 layoffs of 266 DCPS teachers and staff.

In an opinion issued late Tuesday morning, Judge Judith Bartnoff said WTU had failed to prove any of its core arguments against Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's decision to conduct a RIF (reduction in force) due to a $43.9 million budget shortfall. She said that given the District's financial situation, a reversal of the layoffs would force Rhee and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty to make other cuts in the DCPS, harming the public interest.

"The District asserts, and the plaintiff has not disputed, that in that event, other staff would be subject to a RIF--even further into the school year--or programs that have been deemed essential would have to be cut," Bartnoff wrote. "Such an action would not benefit DCPS, its teachers, students or staff, or the wider District of Columbia community."

No word yet on whether WTU plans to appeal.

The union argued that the RIF was not a budget-driven layoff but an illegal mass firing, and that the shortfall cited by Rhee was a sham and a pretext for dumping older teachers. As a mass firing, WTU contended, the action was subject to arbitration under the District's collective bargaining agreement with the WTU.

The union charged that Rhee, in essence, went on an illegal hiring spree over the spring and summer, bringing more 900 new teachers on board knowing that she would need to make cuts later.

But Bartnoff said the union failed to provide any substantive evidence that DCPS packed the system with teachers it could not pay for until the D.C. Council cut its 2010 budget by $21 million on July 31. In contrast, she singled out Rhee's chief of staff, Lisa Ruda, as "a very credible witness" in her testimony on DCPS' budget problems after the council cut.

Bill Turque

District officials have asked 12 public and public charter schools with irregularities in their 2009 DC-CAS standardized test results to conduct internal investigations.

That little news nugget was tucked into the seventh paragraph of a joint statement by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and State Superintendent of Education Kerri Briggs--released shortly after 6 p.m. Monday--announcing "improved and strengthened test integrity measures" that will be in place for the 2010 exams in March.

Fenty and Briggs said the names of the schools would not be released during the ongoing investigations.

The new test protocols--which include training for exam administrators--come after disclosure in September that Briggs' predecessor, Deborah Gist, had commissioned an investigation into the 2008 DC-CAS results at 26 public and public charter schools where reading and math proficiency increased markedly. That inquiry was based on "anomalies" discovered during an analysis of incorrect student answers that were erased and changed to correct answers.

CTB-McGraw-Hill, the firm that published the test and also conducted the erasure analysis, characterized the results of the analysis as "inconclusive." Gist nevertheless asked the schools in question to conduct their own investigations. Some did, but DCPS, despite two requests from Gist's office, did not. When Briggs took over in April, she informed DCPS that the probe wasn't necessary because the erasure analysis was inconclusive.



Monday's announcement said that the 12 schools targeted for their 2009 results were identified on the basis of erasure analyses and two other criteria: growth in test scores and "item pattern analysis," a statistical method of detecting excessive similarities in answers on multiple choice exams.

Schools that showed irregularities on two of the three criteria must conduct internal investigations and report back to Briggs' office by March 1.

Asked why parents aren't entitled to know that their schools are investigating problems on the DC-CAS, Chad Colby, Briggs' deputy chief of staff, said the schools are free to inform parents. But he said the state superintendent's office will name the schools only if the allegations are proven.

Bill Turque

Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) would topple Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) in a potentially tight 2010 election, according to a new poll by the nonpartisan Clarus Research Group, based in the District.

In a head-to-head contest, 41 percent of those surveyed in live telephone interviews said they would vote for Gray while 37 percent would vote for Fenty. An additional 22 percent were undecided. Gray has said that he is considering challenging the first-term mayor.

The poll of 501 self-identified registered voters was conducted Nov. 15 to 18. Stories about possible ethical lapses by Gray appeared in The Washington Post and The Washington Times on Nov. 18.

The Times article probed home repairs and architectural services provided to Gray by mega-developer Chris Smith. The Post article reported Gray's use of official stationery to solicit a contribution from Comcast for the D.C. Democratic Party.

Ron Faucheux, president of Clarus, said he could not say whether the recent stories about Gray would have significantly impacted the poll. "You can't ever tell. There's no evidence whether something like that would make a difference," he said. "Something like that has yet to play out. ... [Voters] have to see how he responds."

According to the poll, just 35 percent of voters approved of how the mayor is handling "living up to high standards of ethics."

Over the past year, Fenty has been criticized for tapping friends and fellow athletes for boards and commissions. Most recently, his administration is grappling with routing millions of dollars to the D.C. Housing Authority, which awarded construction contracts to a firm with personal ties to the mayor.

The poll shows Fenty's approval rating at 43 percent, and 53 percent of voters said they would like to see someone new elected.

Faucheux said in a statement that Gray appears to be benefiting from an "anti-Fenty vote."

"It doesn't mean [Fenty is] down and out. He's got the time and the resources to make a comeback," Faucheux said in an interview. "But he's got a lot of work to do."



In a mayoral race that added council members Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large) and Michael A. Brown (I-At Large), Fenty would come out on top, with 34 percent of those polled saying they would vote for the mayor. Gray follows with 24 percent, while Kwame Brown and Michael Brown trail with 13 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

According to a summary of the poll, Fenty's most supportive demographics are "men, whites, voters under 50 years old, and those in the area comprising Wards 2 and 3."

"Fenty loses women, voters 50 and older, African Americans and the other two areas of the city."

"You've got some big differences," Faucheux said. "Voters in the city look at the mayor in very different ways."

The poll also looked at police Chief Cathy L. Lanier and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. Seventy-one percent of voters approved of Lanier while 47 percent approved of Rhee.

Their approval ratings were reflected in the voters' opinions of how the mayor is handling certain issues: 54 percent approved of how he is "protecting the city against crime and violence" while 43 percent approved of how he is "improving public education."

Brynna McCosker of Clarus said the firm paid for the poll itself for "internal purposes and public use."

The poll was the first Clarus conducted on the mayor, so the firm did not have a benchmark for comparison, but Faucheux said the "honeymoon" is over when looking at other surveys of the mayor's first year in office. A Washington Post poll in 2008 showed that he had a 72 percent approval rating.

"The issues have gotten more difficult, and there is controversy surrounding them," Faucheux said.



Faucheux said Fenty is not unlike other leaders whose approval ratings have been affected by the economy. "Washington is not immune to that," he said, pointing to the city's 11 percent unemployment rate. "You've got public discontent."

UPDATE: Gray addressed the poll in a statement:

"I was pleased to learn that a poll by the Clarus Research Group reports my approval rating at 46 percent and disapproval at 16 percent. There is no greater calling than public service. And I am honored to serve the city in which I was born, raised and live. I look forward to even higher ratings, no matter what elected position I hold."



-- Nikita Stewart

(Cross-posted from Crime Scene)

It was a day of disagreement between D.C. police and gay activitists over how the department handles hate crimes, and whether the gay community is being served by changes to the Gay and Lesbian Liason Unit.

At a hearing Friday chaired by Councilmember Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier gave more details about changes to the GLLU, a popular special unit in the police department made up of openly gay officers who respond to crimes and incidents in the gay, lesbian, and transgender community. Lanier testified that her plan to supplant the unit with officers from across the city -- she called them "affiliates" -- will begin in earnest Nov. 30 when 57 officers who volunteered for the assignment will receive five days of training.

But Chris Farris, Co-Chair of Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV) testified that the gay community has not received up-to-date information on hate crimes and that calls to the unit's special pager have gone unanswered since the sergeant of the unit was transferred to patrol. A sergeant who oversees several specialized units including the Latino Liason Unit, took over the administration of the GLLU.

Some other interesting facts to come out of the hearing:

- A new report from the police department, Bias-Related Crime in the District of Columbia, says that while a majority of gay and lesbian hate crimes still take place in Wards 1, 2, and 3, there has been an increase in assaults in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia river, with gay-related hate crimes jumping to 32 percent in the last year, up from 19 percent, Lanier testified.

- The Office of Police Complaints, an independent agency that looks into police misconduct complaints, said it has retooled its tracking of inadequate police service complaints and will tag those that are related to hate crimes. That information will be sent to D.C. police on a weekly basis so both agencies can better track police response to hate crimes, testified Philip K. Eure, the agency's executive director.

(Cross-posted from Under God)

A highly influential group of conservative Christian leaders are releasing a document today that they have been working on for more than a year, an attempt to unify disparate religious conservatives. Even as political conservatives in the United States are fractured and the Republican Party in a period of soul-searching, you can see some religious conservatives attempting to coalesce, such as Pope Benedict's recent outreach to conservative Anglicans.

The document, called "The Manhattan Declaration," is embargoed until noon (when we'll have it for you) but it calls for Christians to regroup around opposition to abortion (and other "life" issues) and to recognition of same-sex marriage. The document calls for 'religious liberty' but people connected with the document say that is a reference to courts and civil authorities who are allowing gay marriage and abortion availability to advance and expand.

The positions aren't new here; what's new is the teaming up. On the stage at the National Press Club today will be Catholic leaders Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl and Philadelphia Archbishop Justin Rigali, Pentecostal leader Harry Jackson of Maryland and evangelical activist Tony Perkins. Signers include Chuck Colson and academics Timothy George and Robert George.

People involved with the document cited as evidence of their concern the current standoff between the Washington Catholic archdiocese and the D.C. City Council over a same-sex marriage bill, and the archdiocese's position that it won't be able to agree to the bill's requirements without violating Catholic teaching. They also noted the recent decision by Catholic Charities in Massachusetts (the charity arm of the church) to stop helping place children for adoption rather than comply with the state's ban on discrimination against same-sex couples.

Read Michelle Boorstein's full post.

When schools opened in August, the Fenty Administration proudly showcased the latest results of its $1 billion overhaul of DCPS buildings. Students at School Without Walls High School, Deal Middle School, Wheatley Education Campus and H.D. Cooke and Savoy elementary schools returned to facilities handsomely renovated under the guidance of construction czar Allan Lew. They are part of an accelerated five-year capital plan that is supposed to give every DCPS student the chance to attend a new or improved school building sometime in his or her academic career.



At the bottom of this to-do list is 50-year-old Ballou High School, not due for its extreme makeover until 2014, under current plans. While the school has had some attention from Lew's shop during summer breaks it's difficult to imagine what kind of shape it will be in five years from now, given the conditions we saw during a midday visit Wednesday.

Three first-floor electrical panel boxes were open. Exposed wiring hung from the ceiling where panels were missing. Other cable or wiring was jerry-rigged along walls and ceilings.The smashed out remnants of exit signs hung at the ends of at least two corridors. Bulletin boards and ceilings were in deep disrepair.

After inquiries Wednesday, Lew's office dispatched workers to the school. Lew spokesman Tony Robinson said the District did $4.4 million worth of work at the school over the summer of 2008. "Every year we go in and remediate what we can," he said, but added that vandalism is a serious problem.

Ironically, top Lew deputies from the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization joined Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee Wednesday evening at Cooke for a community forum entitled: "How does physical learning environment impact student learning?" Rhee affirmed "how important the physical environment can be in terms of communicating the right message to our students."

Bill Turque

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee had several conversations last year with a federal inspector general investigating Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson for alleged financial misconduct and inappropriate behavior with female students at a charter school he operated, The Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

The paper said Rhee, who once served on the board of the St. Hope school, spoke on behalf of Johnson-- whom she is now engaged to-- calling him "a good guy."

Rhee's previously undisclosed involvement in the investigation is described in a 62-page congressional report on the White House's firing earlier this year of Gerald Walpin, the inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service. The report is scheduled to be released today by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif) and Sen Charles E.Grassley (R-Iowa).

Johnson has not been charged with any crimes. Republicans contend that Walpin's firing was politically motivated because Johnson, a former NBA star with the Phoenix Suns, was a high-profile supporter of President Obama. Administration officials said the corporation board had lost confidence in Walpin, 78, who appeared confused and disoriented at a May board meeting. The paper said Walpin is receiving free legal help from a conservative public relations firm associated with the "swift boat" ads that attacked Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry in the 2004 campaign.

The report includes a 30-page criminal referral Walpin prepared for the U.S. attorney in Sacramento in August 2008. It described three allegations of inappropriate actions on Johnson's part involving a female minor, who reported being fondled, and two young volunteers, who reported that Johnson went to their apartment and climbed into bed with one of them. Federal and local officials declined to prosecute on the basis of the information in the referral
.
According to The Times, Rhee met with St. Hope teacher Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez after hearing the allegations and promised to "take care of the situation." Wong-Hernandez said she was later called to a meeting with Johnson and one of the alleged victims and was told by Johnson that he and the 18-year-old girl had spoken privately and "everything was OK between them." Wong-Hernandez left St. Hope in June 2007, telling Rhee that the handling of the incident was a major reason.

Phone and e-mail messages to Rhee's office had not been returned at midday.

Walpin began the probe in 2008, centered on what happened to $848,000 in grants and payments to Johnson's school, St. Hope, from AmeriCorps, the national service organization overseen by the corporation.

Bill Turque

The District dumped Watkins Security from its contract to safeguard D.C. public schools in 2005 after an inspector general's report found that it was overpriced, underqualified, ineffective and employed some guards with criminal records. It awarded a new contract to Hawk One.

Turns out Watkins is back, this time as a subcontractor to U.S. Security Associates, one of the two firms hired to replace Hawk One, which went belly up in October. Watkins is supplying security for at least some of the District's "Cluster 3" schools which include most of its elementary buildings. A guard with a Watkins patch was seen Wednesday at Langdon Education Campus, a pre-K through 8 school in Northeast.

Watkins president Richard A. Hamilton Sr. declined Thursday to discuss the details, referring all questions to U.S. Security Associates, which did not return phone messages.

"I don't want to get into opening old wounds," Hamilton said. "I don't need any adverse publicity. I want to go about my business."

MPD spokesman Kevin Palmer said he had no information on how Watkins ended up as a subcontractor. "We weren't at the table," he said, referring questions to the office of contracting and procurement.

In series of reports on school security by the inspector general's office in 2004 and 2005, it concluded that DCPS wasted as much as $8.8 million by awarding the three-year, $45 million contract to Watkins in 2002. It said that the company was the most expensive, yet least qualified, among several bidders.

The inspector general faulted Watkins for high rates of absenteeism among its guards. Another report was critical of the police department, which cleared for work guards with arrest records for such crimes as possession of cocaine, assault and delivering counterfeit money.

Bill Turque

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee likes to say -- and did so again Tuesday at a CEO gathering sponsored by The Wall Street Journal--that "collaboration and consensus building are quite frankly overrated in my mind."

So who better to participate in a national town hall to search for common ground on complex social issues?

Rhee is one of the big names confirmed for the USA Network's "Characters Unite National Town Hall," to be hosted by Tom Brokaw on Dec. 2 at the Newseum. She'll join such notables as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, former U.S. Senator Max Cleland, Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson, Politico's Mike Allen and singer Jon Bon Jovi.

"People across the country are making tough decisions every day and working to maintain their own unique American character. Too often, instead of coming together to address conflicts, groups demonize each other because of their different beliefs and opinions," Brokaw said in a statement.

It's part of the promotional rollout for his new documentary, "American Character Along Highway 50," in which Rhee appeared.

Rhee has had a turbulent autumn defending budget cutbacks and teacher layoffs, decisions that led to a confrontation with the D.C. Council and the resignation of her chief financial officer, Noah Wepman.
To be completely fair, her point is that too much collaboration and consensus building can lead to paralysis when trying to transform troubled institutions such as DCPS.

"I am not unwilling to collaborate," she said last week on yet another panel, this one for the Bloomberg Washington Summit. But, she added: "If the end goal is collaboration and cooperation and feeling good among adults, then oftentimes what you end up doing is not a whole lot of anything. You've got people on one side who want you do do one thing and people on the other side that want you do the another thing.

"You can't make everybody happy all the time. So in my opinion often when people are keeping everyone happy they're not changing things very much."

Bill Turque

Two whistleblowers in the ongoing investigation into how the D.C. Democratic State Committee raised and spent money for last year's Democratic National Convention are rebuffing requests from party leaders to handle the matter internally.

On Thursday -- the same day the Washington Post wrote a story about Councilman Vincent C. Gray's (D) role in the matter -- the president of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club reached out to two Democratic state committee members to try keep the story from growing.

The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics is currently investigating why the local Democratic party failed to report more than $100,000 in contributions it raised from corporate and other sources for the convention in Denver. In a preliminary audit, the board's Office of Campaign Finance has discovered that several council members solicited or gave donations that exceeded the $5,000 donation limit for a political committee.

Jeffrey D. Richardson, the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club president, who also is an at-large member of the Democratic National Committee Youth Council, sent his e-mail Thursday to Lenwood Johnson and Philip Pannell, who both have been critical of the party leadership regarding the convention fund.

"I am writing out of concern for the future of the D.C. Democratic Party as a result of the actions affiliated with the Denver Convention fundraising and lack of reporting that has come to light as a result of the (campaign finance) audit," Richardson wrote. "On multiple occasions you both announced that you had either already or were planning to file complaints with the (Federal Elections Commission) and U.S Attorney.

"In light of today's press in the Post and the CityPaper and given the direction this investigation is going with the intense response by the D.C. Republican Party, I am personally requesting that you both consider delaying your action to allow DCDSC members to hear your specific concerns with the hopes of outlining a plan of action to address your specific concerns without further public embarrassment to the D.C. Democratic Party and D.C. Democrats."

E-mail traffic supplied by Pannell provided Johnson's response.

"I understand your concerns, but I have already filed my request for a criminal investigation with the U.S. Attorney," Johnson wrote. "This is a very serious matter, and I believe we are not moving toward resolution with all the continuing 'katydidding.' "

In an interview today, Richardson said he was surprised his e-mail has been made public.

"I wasn't aware a member of the party forwarded that e-mail to the press," Richardson said. "The true extent (of the e-mail) was the desire of the the state committee as a whole to move forward making sure we are in compliance with the letter and spirit of the law."

Richardson also stressed his email "definetly was not an attempt to block" a potential federal investigation into the local party's fundraising.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Richardson is a member of the Democratic National Committee. He is a member of the Democratic National Committee Youth Council.

-- Tim Craig