In a surprising reversal, D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray has agreed to put a contentious lottery contract on today’s voting agenda.

In a surprising reversal, D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray has agreed to put a contentious lottery contract on today’s voting agenda.

The D.C. Council is scheduled to vote today on the District’s $5.7 billion fiscal 2009 budget, which will likely include tax relief for small businesses, though not nearly as much as the council had previously sought.

D.C. officials flagged a “suspicious” attempt to log on to the city’s lottery system, and District officials are worried that, two years after the network was gamed by hackers, the system may still be vulnerable, The Examiner has learned.

Mayor Adrian Fenty’s budget chief suggested Tuesday that the answer to a growing 2009 budget deficit may be raising a tax on corporate property and delaying tax relief on local businesses.

D.C.’s anticipated budget deficit for fiscal 2009 has soared to more than $130 million, Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi will tell city leaders today, placing further strain on already-tense budget deliberations.

Nearly eight months after a legislatively set deadline, Mayor Adrian Fenty has submitted to the D.C. Council the names of two education researchers chosen to serve as independent judges of the city’s public school reform.

After D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty was elected with a mandate to reform the city's chronically failing public education system, the District of Columbia City Council gave him extraordinary powers to get the job done, including authorization of an unprecedented takeover of the city's school system last June.

D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said Wednesday she wants Congress to eliminate the District’s federally funded school voucher program, and route kids using the stipends into charter schools.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty is warning city council members against the transfer of funds from the public schools budget to the school modernization plan.