Guest List: Today’s Newsmakers

• David Donovan. The Redskins’ chief operating officer is making headlines—for threatening to sue the Washington City Paper over an article that harshly criticized Redskins owner Dan Snyder, as many of the alt weekly’s stories do. Our advice? Figure out the bigger operating question—namely, who’s going to play quarterback if there’s a 2011-12 season.

• Valerie Ervin. The Montgomery County Council president will have to grapple with a new report that calls for major changes to the way the county is governed. Some changes, such as creating an integrated police force or making changes to procurement processes, may not be particularly controversial. But Ervin and her colleagues will have to face tougher decisions about the report’s recommendations for making negotiating with public-employee unions more transparent.

• Steven Walts. The Prince William County superintendent of schools is facing an epidemic. Four students at Battlefield High School have committed suicide in 2011, a sad reminder that while debates about education can go on forever, schools often play a key role in students’ emotional as well as academic well-being.

• Barbara Wrigley. In a tough economy, steady business from the federal government has been particularly important to shielding the region from the worst effects of the recession. The executive director of the Women’s Business Center of Northern Virginia wants to make sure companies owned by women get their share of that profit—and to make sure the federal government meets the goal it set for itself of giving 5 percent of contracts to such businesses. And she’s got the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority backing her push.

• Charle Willoughby. The District’s inspector general has some work to do in the wake of an audit that suggests serious problems with the city’s personnel and financial management years after a $50-million embezzlement scandal. If Washington wants to avoid the return of a federal control board and to inspire confidence in city government, the best defense is a good offense.

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