Yup, there's a new bunch of campers now staked out in front of the Capitol Quarter sales office at 4th and L, even though the next release of market-rate houses isn't expected until July.

If you're interested in what's happening with the proposed move of the Metropolitan Police Department to the old Post Plant at 225 Virginia Ave., the Committee on Workforce Development and Government Operations hearing is being simulcast on DC Cable 13 right now, and the streaming video is available here. I'll be summarizing the hearing later today (but first I have the big Douglass Bridge briefing to go to).

Both today's Post and Examiner cover a "scathing" new audit (which you can read for yourself at the DC Auditor's web site) about the money being paid by the city to law firm Venable for legal work tied to the still-going stadium land eminent domain cases going well above and beyond the $1.87 million initial budgeted. According to the Examiner, "Venable was awarded the contract in 2005, during Mayor Anthony Williams' administration, for one year plus four option years, at no more than $950,000 annually. But the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of Contracting and Procurement 'did not develop and document a realistic projection of costs, or the source and amount of funding available for such services,' the audit reported, and no one in any agency monitored the deal to ensure the firm's billings were appropriate -- many were not." And it wasn't just those offices that dropped the ball; the Post adds, "All contracts worth more than $1 million must be approved by the D.C. Council. However, it appears the Venable contracts were renewed several times without the matter ever appearing before the council, Nichols's report found."

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