I'm a mite perplexed by this AP notice on Mayor for Life, Marion Barry (I'm on the Barry beat so you don't have to be). Here are the questions I find most concerning:

Barry has not been fined. He owes $195,000 in federal taxes and $54,000, plus penalties and interest, in District taxes.

Barry pleaded guilty last October under an agreement reached with federal prosecutors which required him to acknowledge his failure to file returns for the five-year period.

Aside from these acknowledgments, is Mr. Barry under any obligation to pay these debts? Because, well, really?


I'm listening to: still listening to the Belle and Sebastian concert. I'm at the encore. One of my favorite concert moments ever was when Pinback ended their concert by saying, "This is the part where we would normally duck off stage before our encore, but we'll just skip that if that's ok," or something to that effect. Of course, it was already 2 by that time, but I still appreciate not having to clap pointlessly for a band to come back out and play their programmed encore.