What privacy laws? Wash. Post's devastating story on abuse of confidential govt. information by D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray's 2010 GOTV campaign, targeting public housing residents using private govt. info. HUD says use of official lists of residents would “constitute a substantial invasion of privacy”; @mikedebonis, @kitastew

For weeks now, Washington Post reporters Nikita Stewart and Mike DeBonis have consistently impressed on the ethical scandal and criminal probe involving Mayor Vincent C. Gray, while showing how talented and clever reporters who don't take anything for granted, can write informative and illuminating stories about what happens when political dynamite explodes in the hands of D.C.'s most powerful local politician, in a way that that shocks you from hundreds of miles away, even after you lived in the area for 15 years and, frankly, didn't think you could be shocked by anything going on in D.C. govt.

Their latest story concerns the use of confidential personal information in a government database and possible privacy law violations. 

The Washington Post

Mayor Gray’s 2010 campaign had database of public-housing residents

Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s 2010 campaign kept a database with the identities of nearly 6,000 public housing residents it targeted in get-out-the-vote efforts, which appears to be an unauthorized use of private government information.

By Nikita Stewart and Mike DeBonis

Published: July 22, 2012

The database, part of a cache of documents The Washington Post obtained from former campaign workers, includes residents’ names, addresses and telephone numbers. One of the documents designated “team captains” responsible for reaching out to tenants in specific housing complexes.

It is unclear who assembled the list or how the campaign got it, but two campaign workers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of an ongoing federal investigation, said it was used in the final week before the Democratic primary election to register residents and get voters to the polls.

Read the rest of the post at 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/mayor-grays-2010-campaign-had-database-of-public-housing-residents/2012/07/22/gJQAiumA3W_story.html


Listen to Mike DeBonis discuss this story on WTOP Radio earlier today:
http://wtop.com/774/2955956/Grays-2010-campaign-used-private-public-housing-data-for-targeted-campaigns


Nikita Stewart at Twitter: http://twitter.com/kitastew   
@kitastew


Mike DeBonis at Twitter is http://twitter.com/mikedebonis/
@mikedebonis


His blog at the WaPo is called District of DeBonis: "More than a city. Not quite a state. Enough for a blog" 

Her blog at the WaPo is DC Wire, where her latest post is that 48 percent of African Americans in D.C. think Mayor Gray should step down and that 44 percent think he should stay. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-wire

re The Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in action. Uh, make that inaction! Meanwhile, The Washington Post shows the true value to readers of having at least a few good reporters left who really know how to write with precision: Secret $653,000 effort helped Vincent C. Gray get elected mayor of Washington, D.C., U.S. prosecutor says

Above, today's Washington Post front page column one story about the Mayor of Washington, D.C.'s 2010 campaign having used over $650,000 in illegal and undisclosed funds from a city contractor: Guilty plea in District scheme.  

What's THAT story about asks the snoozing and sleepwalking South Florida news media... 

who sleep on stories about unethical government and corruption much closer to home.

For the first time all year, the Miami Herald has finally posted something about this ongoing story about public corruption on a large scale in an important American city.

As it happens, the nation's capital.

It was a nicely-done wire story by the AP's Ben Nuckols. 

Posted online.

Last night at 9:54 pm.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/10/2890300/aide-to-dc-mayors-2010-bid-admits.html#storylink=misearch

So, where were all the previous articles or essays in print this year about this story that led up to this courtroom drama yesterday? Yes, the predicate!

Missing-in-action...

And so it goes at One Herald Plaza...

The Sun-Sentinel has done...well, they posted the same AP story above 44 minutes before the Herald, but had nothing in print all year about it, either, and certainly nothing to brag about.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-dc-mayor-investigation-20120710,0,72471.story

Folks, that's how real news is "reported " where we live in South Florida in the year 2012.

The Washington Post 

Vast ‘shadow campaign’ said to have aided Gray in 2010

By Mike DeBonis and Nikita Stewart

Published: July 10, 2012

A secret $653,000 effort funded by one of the District government’s most prominent contractors corrupted the 2010 mayoral race and helped Vincent C. Gray get elected, the city’s top federal prosecutor said Tuesday.

U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. said the well-funded, well-equipped “shadow campaign” went to work for Gray but was not reported to campaign-finance authorities or disclosed to the voting public.

Read the rest of the story at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/gray-donor-admits-to-scheme-to-funnel-illegal-campaign-contributions/2012/07/10/gJQA0b5DbW_story.html