1| Nancy Pelosi halts drilling vote
Megalomania, Madame Speaker?
The Details: The California Democrat said she’s got the speaker’s gavel and nobody can take it away from her. That meant no House vote before the August recess on lifting the ban on Outer Continental Shelf oil drilling. “I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet,” she told Politico.
2| Bureaucrats on the job with Mickey
Going to Disneyland
The Details: The Corporation for National and Community Service is sponsoring “The Magic of Connections National Mentoring Summit” in its work to support American culture, citizenship, service and responsibility. The tax-funded meeting is at Disneyland.
3| If you can’t impeach ’em …
Contempt! Contempt!
The Details: House Judiciary Committee Democrats voted to cite former White House aide Karl Rove for contempt. Meanwhile, gas remains around $4 per gallon and Congress’ public approval rating sank to single digits.
4| Must have been some cheeseburger
Whipped House whip
The Details: That House vote to recess for August won by one vote. Virtually all Democrats voted for it and all Republicans against it. But one GOPer was nowhere to be found — House GOP Whip Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri. Apparently, he was lunching.
5| Muslim Brotherhood-linked group gets greenbacks
U.S. funding its enemies
The Details: State Department officials have given nearly $500,000 to a University of Delaware group headed by Muqtedar Khan, the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, which is linked to the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood. State says it doesn’t screen such groups for terrorist links.
6| Feds won’t deport jailed criminal illegal aliens
Don’t make us do our job
The details: A new Virginia law requires local officials to notify federal immigration authorities whenever an illegal immigrant is arrested. But the feds only processed about 5 percent of the Virginia cases, so most foreign criminals are released back into local communities.
7| D.C. pols ask Democrats for help
Don’t tell us what to do
The details: A discharge petition started by Reps. Mike Ross, R-Ark., and Mark Souder, R-Ind., would force a House vote on what they say is the city’s defiance of the Supreme Court. If D.C. pols don’t want Congress telling them what to do, they should repeal their overly restrictive regs.
8| Fenty tries sneak attack on school contracts
Last-minute contracts
The details: Former mayor and current D.C. Councilman Marion Barry objects to last-minute contracts. Barry is an unlikely champion of city taxpayers. But he stopped $200 million in school-renovation contracts that Mayor Adrian Fenty tried to sneak past the D.C. Council right before its summer recess.
9| Fairfax judge OKs gerrymandering district
OK’ing school gerrymandering
The details: Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Gaylord Finch Jr. approves the school board’s gerrymandered boundary plan. The plan will send hundreds of students to underenrolled South Lakes High School in Reston but not to nearby Langley. That’s five redistricting changes in nine years for some of the students.
10| Not so fast on that new music hall
Bypassing the planners
The details: Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett wants to fast-track plans for a new Silver Spring music hall and bypass the county’s Planning Board. But board Chairman Royce Hanson said giving the developer “a blank check” could have “negative consequences” for other parts in the newly renovated Silver Spring downtown.
