>> So Mayor Fenty and Schools Chancellor Rhee have scheduled 23 simultaneous school closure hearings at each of the proposed 23 schools to be closed. Logistics nightmare questions aside, what is a parent who has a child at more than one of the schools supposed to do? Pick which child they think is more important? [WaPo] >> The D.C. government has scheduled another gun amnesty buy-back on Saturday, only two weeks after the last......

Good morning, Washington. We're getting off to a late start this holiday week morning, which is really just as well, since there's not too much local news to report anyway. But let's get the ball rolling with a few stories ... Police have shut down yet another brothel operation in Glover Park. This time, it's the Venus Spa at 2352 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Where oh where will the guys who work at the Russian......

Good morning, Washington. It turns out that House Pages don't need lecherous congressmen's help to make scandalous headlines: two have just gotten busted for inappropriate behavior in a House elevator. They've been dismissed, bringing the year's total fired pages to five — two others were caught shoplifting, and one was booted for fighting. Needless to say, it looks like the program — the oversight of which has been in turmoil — will be getting......

>> The District's next sales tax holiday starts Friday, Nov. 23 and lasts until the following Friday, December 2. [WJLA] >> Mayor Fenty and Schools Chancellor Rhee announced today that every D.C. classroom will have a working desktop computer by February under a $4 million technology initiative. [WaPo] >> Maryland voters will get to decide in a special November 2008 referendum on whether to allow the state to install up to 15,000 slot machines......

Good morning, Washington. For those of you who were inconvenienced by yesterday afternoon's Red line mishap, we're sure you'll be glad to hear that the suspect who Montgomery County police chased into the tunnel got away. The whole incident started just after 2 p.m. when officers, acting on a suspicious-person call, spotted Michael J. Brown, a man known by area police and who is wanted in Baltimore for several charges of theft. After a chase......

Jonetta Rose Barras: "The District government is spending millions to send children to a controversial special education residential facility in Massachusetts that uses electric shock to discipline students." Wow. Talk about an opening sentence. Rose Barras dedicated her column this week to the 10 District students who have been sent to the facility -- the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, Ma. -- arguing that its unorthodox methods of treatment are reason enough to bring......

Good morning, Washington. It's just a gorgeous day outside right now, with temperatures currently in the 70s and only predicted to reach the upper 80s later this afternoon, which is about the best we can hope for in mid-August. Please make plans to eat your lunch outside accordingly, as this surely won't last through the week. Need a good story to gab about with your officemates as you head out into the sunshine? A......

Some D.C. Council members are dismayed at proposed $200,000 salaries that newly confirmed Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has offered to her deputy chancellor, Kaya Henderson, as well as her chief of staff. The pay range for District jobs at that level is normally $57,000 to about $153,000 at the most. Mayor Fenty's office is defending the salaries, claiming the administration now has the authority to hire staff at whatever level it chooses. Meanwhile, Carol Schwartz......

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. Over the past few weeks, events have conspired to place race squarely at the center of the debate over public education in the District of Columbia. After appointing Michelle Rhee the first ever Chancellor of District Schools, Mayor Fenty found himself faced with a barrage of criticism and innuendo from the Washington Post drawing attention to the fact that she was not......