Alan Blinder

Updated: Mon, Feb 25, 2013

Marion Barry's name was nowhere on the printed agenda as the D.C. Council weighed whether to reprimand Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham. But that didn't stop Barry from using the circumstances of Monday's special legislative meeting to litigate the council's 2010 decision to censure his conduct...

Alan Blinder

Updated: Mon, Feb 25, 2013

Blowing past his history of vigorous denials and cries that the process flouted the Constitution, the D.C. Council issued a rare reprimand to Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham on Monday for seeking to tie his vote on the city's lottery contract to a developer's pledge to withdraw from a major...

Jonetta Rose Barras

Published: Mon, Feb 25, 2013

Contracting and procurement. Show those words to average citizens and their eyes glaze over. Yet, each year the District spends billions of taxpayers' dollars purchasing goods and services. Many transactions escape scrutiny. Contracting and procurement is the place where waste and abuse hide...

Updated: Mon, Feb 25, 2013

Councilmember Jim Graham became just the second councilmember to ever be reprimanded by the D.C. City Council.

Alan Blinder

Updated: Sun, Feb 24, 2013

D.C. Councilman Jim Graham is poised to become a footnote in the city's political history Monday when lawmakers consider a reprimand of his conduct. But the looming vote has implications for another lawmaker: Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who ascended to the city's No. 2 post last year amid...

Alan Blinder

Updated: Fri, Feb 22, 2013

A D.C. judge refused Friday to require the city's ethics board to withdraw its opinion that said it had "substantial evidence" of misconduct by Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham. "Mr. Graham has not met the standards for the issuance of a temporary restraining order," D.C. Superior Court Judge...

April Burbank

Updated: Fri, Feb 22, 2013

At a D.C. Council oversight hearing Thursday, representatives of the D.C. Board of Ethics and Government Accountability said they could not sanction elected officials for conduct that occurred before the board was formed in July 2012, citing a provision in the U.S. Constitution. "Because the...

Alan Blinder

Updated: Thu, Feb 21, 2013

D.C. Councilman Jim Graham sought Thursday to defuse the threat of a rare reprimand by District lawmakers, locking himself into an extraordinary legal and political drama that pitted him against the city's ethics board and D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson. "We need to set aside this...

Updated: Thu, Feb 21, 2013

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson says he wants a formal reprimand for Councilman Jim Graham over ethics issues. Meanwhile, Graham is suing the ethics board. Video by Steve Doty.

Alan Blinder

Updated: Thu, Feb 21, 2013

D.C. Councilman Jim Graham, seeking to avert a newly threatened reprimand from his legislative colleagues, asked a judge Thursday to order the city's ethics board to withdraw the opinion it issued that set off a firestorm about his conduct earlier this month. In a D.C. Superior Court filing,...