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Marion Barry—the controversial former DC mayor and current council member—had a successful kidney transplant last night, the Washington Post reports. Barry, 73, who had been on dialysis for 3 months, announced a week ago that he was experiencing kidney failure likely brought on by a 20-year battle with diabetes and hypertension. The donor was a 47-year-old female friend.

Questions about Barry’s potassium level postponed the surgery yesterday, and he underwent dialysis again in the morning. “We were checking and double-checking,” a hospital spokesman said. Still, Barry “is doing well. Everything went well.” During his third term as mayor, the FBI videotaped Barry smoking crack in a hotel room in 1990. He served 6 months in prison and won the mayor's office again in 1994.

(Read more Washington DC stories.)