Nearly 90 District government employees were placed on leave Monday in a prelude to their potential firing and prosecution after officials determined they had received fraudulent unemployment benefits while holding their city jobs. Read full article > >

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D.C. workers face firing for unemployment fraud

Basildon District Council spent about £4.8m on clearing the Dale Farm travellers’ site in Essex, it is revealed.

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Council Dale Farm bill tops £4.8m

Unemployment levels in December continued to fall in the District and Maryland but remained steady in Virginia, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Tuesday. As government employment declined amid uncertainty over anticipated cuts in federal spending, the three jurisdictions showed sizable private-sector growth: Maryland and the District gained health-care positions, while Virginia added restaurant jobs. Read full article > >

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Maryland, D.C. unemployment levels dipped in December; Virginia remained steady

A new think tank launched in the District Monday with the goal of reducing the cost of health care through research and entrepreneurship. The West Health Policy Center is the latest project of Gary and Mary West, the two billionaire philanthropists behind the West Wireless Health Institute and the West Health Investment Fund, a pair of California-based organizations that develop and fund health technology products. Read full article > >

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New think tank wants government to see gold in health technology

The founder and president of a non-profit group that played a key role in allowing former D.C. Council member Harry Thomas to embezzle just over $300,000 in District funds was charged Thursday with a felony that accuses him of concealing and failing to report the theft. Read full article > >

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Marshall Banks is charged as part of Harry Thomas investigation

Police in the District and Montgomery County say they suspect that the same pair of armed men may be responsible for a spate of as many as 12 street robberies since late November in Upper Northwest and within blocks of the Bethesda-District line near Western Avenue. Read full article > >

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Two Md. home invasions linked to same suspect; woman assaulted in one incident

In the first year of Race to the Top, the Obama administration’s signature effort to reform education, Maryland met its obligations, but the District has fallen behind schedule because of leadership turnover within its school administration, according to a report card to be released Tuesday by federal officials. Read full article > >

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D.C. behind schedule in meeting Race to the Top promises

The rat population around the two Occupy D.C. camps at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza has “exploded”since protesters began their vigil in October, according to Mohammad N. Akhter, the director of the District’s Department of Health. Akhter said in an interview Monday that city health inspectors have seen rats running openly through both camps and spotted numerous new burrows and nests underneath hay-stuffed pallets occupiers are using for beds. Both campsites had working kitchens for weeks until last week, but protesters at McPherson Square voluntarily closed down theirs after health inspectors pointed out unsanitary conditions during an informal monitoring visit. Read full article > >

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City: Rat population has ‘exploded’ around Occupy D.C. camps

D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. was charged with embezzling more than $300,000 in city funds and filing a false tax return, according to court papers filed Thursday in the District’s federal court. The charges came in a “criminal information,” a type of charging document that can only be filed with the defendant’s consent and generally signals that a plea deal has been reached. Read full article > >

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D.C. Councilman Harry Thomas Jr. is charged with theft; plea likely

Public schools in Tucson, Arizona, face millions of dollars in penalties after a ruling that the district's Mexican-American studies program violates state law.

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Ethnic studies in Tucson ruled illegal

Whew. That was one helluva barbecue year – and we still have a few days to go. Who knows? Maybe somebody will open yet another barbecue restaurant before the new year comes around. In the Washington area, more than a half-dozen new barbecue restaurants opened in 2011, at least a couple of them long-awaited major players, including the Penn Quarter outlet of the New York City-based Hill Country Barbecue . Several barbecue trucks started trolling the District’s streets, and barbecue even made inroads at some of the city’s top restaurants. I’m not one to shy from a horn to toot: In May, I inaugurated the Smoke Signals Barbecue Sauce Recipe Contest . Read full article > >

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Smoke Signals: The Golden Rib Award

Virginia Tech place kicker Cody Journell was denied bail Thursday afternoon during a preliminary hearing in Montgomery General District Court in Christiansburg, Va., after he was charged and arrested Wednesday night with breaking and entering following an alleged home invasion at the residence of Virginia Tech basketball player Dorenzo Hudson. Read full article > >

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Virginia Tech PK Cody Journell is denied bail after alleged break-in at home of Hokies basketball player Dorenzo Hudson

Oh, the things Bruno Frohlich can scan. Ancient whale skulls. Smashed human ones. Stradivarius violins. Violas. Cellos. Guitars. Stringed instruments from Mongolia. Apollo spacesuits. Eagle feathers. Mummified birds from Egypt oddly missing their heads. Dinosaur leg bones, fossilized. Thigh bones, hip bones, arms bones, teeth. An infant’s iron casket dug up in the District. Live turtles. Dead crocodiles. Mummy after mummy from Egypt. And one from Peru. Read full article > >

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Smithsonian’s scan man in high demand

I met with a couple of dozen civic activists from Northwest Washington this week to get some feedback on The Post’s coverage of the District. I got an earful. Maybe 10 earfuls. These leaders, all in the Federation of Citizens Associations of the District of Columbia , represent every northwest neighborhood from Crestwood to Georgetown. This was a largely white crowd and not representative of the city as a whole. But collectively, the activists have several hundred years of knowledge of this city’s neighborhoods and its government. Read full article > >

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Community activists give The Post a failing grade

Oh, to have been in the next room when Herman Cain arrived home Friday to talk with his wife, Gloria, about what he called a longtime “friendship” with Ginger White, the Atlanta woman who claims the two had a 13-year affair. “He should come with security,” said Queen Aishah of Bowie, who performs at the Riot Act Comedy Theater in the District. “He should wear a helmet, and he should not speak because he’s said too much already.” Read full article > >

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What should Herman Cain tell his wife? Ask the comedians.