THE test scores of District Public Schools students have increased significantly. Inside the administration of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty there was a tug over who would make the announcement and who should receive the credit for improvements, according to government sources.

The standardized test scores are up reportedly in reading and math at both the elementary and high school levels. The increases are between 4 and 10 percentage points, say government sources. DCPS students may have performed better than students at  charter schools.

The State Superintendent of Education and the State Board of Education were poised to make the announcement of the improvements at a press conference on July 18^th. But Fenty and Chancellor Michelle Rhee have commandeered that event; the announcement will be made tomorrow.

Some board members are angry that Fenty will take credit for the students' improved performance. They argue that former Superintendent Clifford Janey deserves the praise. They say that there should be a detailed analysis of how students at schools that have been closed and where principals were fired performed on the tests. Others say that this year’s improvements may simply be that students are getting used to the test.

Undoubtedly, State Superintendent of Education Deborah Gist and the state board will determine exactly what caused the dramatic hike in scores.

As for who gets the credit? That’s easy: The man who controls the microphone.

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HE’s consistent. You have to give that to Ward 8 D.C. Council member Marion Barry. He created the operational premise of the District government as employer of first, second and last resort. That was his song, and he’s sticking to it.

Cotton anyone?

(Click the headline to read the full story)

NO one can even believe it was allowed to go on this long. But the United States retained Nelson Mandela and members of the African National Congress on its terrorists list for more than three decades.

Even after the former president of South Africa was released from prison and went on to create a peaceful government, serving as an example of how to meet the enemy in peace, the United States government kept Mandela on the list.

Even after he won the Nobel Prize for Peace, Mandela and his ANC were required to secure permission in the form of a visa waiver in order to enter the United States. This indignity continued even through the administration of President Bill Clinton, despite his famous tour of Africa. (Click the headline to read the full story.)

HE stood at the door--a medium built man with an angry brow, which, in hindsight, seemed the most threatening thing about him. Certainly, he wasn’t an imposing figure that would send anyone quaking. He had been at the house before, lodging some complaint about TBR.

Then, she was a professional, paid community organizer and volunteer political activist. Her friends were mostly subversives, intent on overthrowing the government or at least radically changing it. Sometimes the neighbors wondered about the dark sedan permanently parked whose occupants rotated and frequently took pictures of people going in and out of the house on California St. in Jackson, Ms.

That night he showed up, something got into TBR. She was tired of it all. When he came with yet another complaint at nearly 11 pm, she left him at the door, telling him to wait a minute, as if she had forgot something she wanted to give to him. Her boyfriend was drifting off to sleep. She walked calmly in the bedroom, opened the dresser drawer and pulled out the .22 pistol. (Click the headline to read the complete story.)

POLITICIANS and others have abused Georgia Ave. If the thoroughfare, which runs from downtown DC through Silver Spring, Md., were a woman, it would be a candidate for domestic abuse counseling.

While folks in Maryland seem to treat their part of the avenue with some respect, in the District, it’s another sad story. (Click headline to read the full story)