You are browsing the News category
August 29, 2008
The Nationals have gone 5-5 over their last ten games, which has to be considered an achievement. Their record is a Major League worst 49-85. With 28 games left in the season it doesn't look like they will get to 63 wins, thus staving off 100+ loses, or get out of last place in the whole league. This isn't a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to the team this year, but judging...
Continue Reading "Nats Roundup: Statistically Insignificant"
| 
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
Reader Michael Griffith sends us this picture and a report from his Metro ride this morning, where he encountered the new spring-loaded handles that Metro is currently testing. Older cars have gotten boring (but probably just as effective) vinyl straps, but the stainless steel is the wave of the future! From the looks of it though, they aren't really being used that much...yet. Said Michael:No one was using nor commenting on the handles...I also...
Continue Reading "Metro's New Handles In Action"
Every blogger in America is scrambling to pull together some kind of background information on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain named as his running mate this morning. The hits are generally these: She's been governor for a little under two years; she used to be a sports reporter and later mayor of Wasilla City; she took second place in the 1984 Miss Alaska contest; she's super pro-life. She's...
Continue Reading "McCain Picks Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin"As you know, traffic on the bay bridge this weekend is going to be a bear this weekend. They're performing emergency repairs after the tractor trailer accident a few weeks ago in which the driver that went through the guard rails and into the water passed away. As of 10:45 this morning, WTOP reports, the back up on the east-bound span is already a half-mile long. As more and more people try to get out...
Continue Reading "Bay Bridge Already a Nightmare"Metro will be using a Sunday schedule for Monday's Labor Day holiday. This means that trains will be running between 7 a.m. and midnight and that parking at most (if not all) Metro lots will be free. Metrobus will also be running on a Sunday schedule. MARC and VRE, as usual, will not be offering service on the holiday. Also, if you're travelling on the Blue and Yellow lines, don't forget that there will be...
Continue Reading "Metro Labor Day Service: Sunday Schedule"Advertisement: DCist Continues Below!
August 29, 2008
Good morning, Washington, and welcome to the first of the three days that you'll have that you won't need to spend glued to cable news - even though we know most of you probably still will. (Not to mention, that there's plenty of local coverage available if you just can't seem to pull yourself away for two freakin' minutes.) That said, let's peruse some headlines with non-Denver bylines, shall we? "Capital Gains" Schools Announced:...
Continue Reading "Morning Roundup: The Night Off From Speeches Edition"August 28, 2008
From left to right, Shadow Sen. Michael Brown, Dan Rather, Shadow Sen. Paul Strauss, Hayden Panettiere, Shadow Rep. Mike Panetta, and Melissa Fitzgerald. As promised, Dan Rather stopped by today's voting rights luncheon hosted by D.C.'s shadow delegation in downtown Denver. The veteran journalist shook hands and posed for pictures, and though he didn't make a speech to the crowd, he did answer a reporter's question about D.C. voting rights by explaining that he...
Continue Reading "Dan Rather Lends Star Power to Voting Rights Event"We warned you yesterday about emergency repairs the Maryland Transportation Authority announced for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, starting today. WTOP has a bit of an update on the situation for Labor Day travelers. MTA is assigning extra staff members to help with traffic over the long weekend, and will make sure there are enough EZ-Pass and cash toll booths open to accommodate the heavy traffic, though it's probably still a good idea to find alternate...
Continue Reading "Update on Bay Bridge Repairs"
We're heading over to a quickly thrown together luncheon hosted by the District's shadow delegation (Shadow Sen. Michael Brown said it was coordinated over the course of four hours) that will apparently feature Hayden Panettiere of Heroes, some other yet unnamed actor who has appeared on The West Wing, and minor character actor David Keith, whose most recent major role was over 25 years ago, in An Officer and a Gentleman. Regularly readers will...
Continue Reading "Actors to Appear at Voting Rights Luncheon"
Quite the gloomy morning, Washington. Bring your umbrella, because we'll have rain on and off for the next few days. It's not likely to somber the mood of most Washingtonians however, who are probably still atwitter from last night's DNC speeches. Sen. Hillary Clinton cut the roll call short by moving from the floor to nominate Sen. Barack Obama by acclamation instead, a move met with tears and squees across the hall. The act was...
Continue Reading "Morning Roundup: Almost Getting It Right Edition"August 27, 2008
D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton read the District of Columbia's nominating votes into the record in Mayor Adrian Fenty's absence. Drama during the roll call! As head of the D.C. delegation, Mayor Adrian Fenty was supposed to be the one to read the District's vote into the record at the Democratic National Convention -- but Fenty didn't turn up until at least 10 minutes after D.C. was called upon to cast its votes. D.C....
Continue Reading "Mayor Fenty Misses D.C.'s Roll Call Vote at the DNC"3:42 p.m.: I just arrived on the floor of the Pepsi Center to watch the roll call at the Democratic National Convention, and went directly to the seat I've been using all week when I'm sitting with the D.C. delegation. I'm supposed to be able to sit in this particular seat because it's the only one that reaches the ethernet cable allocated to me as the official blogger for the District's delegation. But when I...
Continue Reading "Bonds to DCist: You Can't Sit Here"Word came down today that more staff cuts are coming for Washington City Paper. According to a newsroom insider, Creative Loafing—which acquired the City Paper along with the Chicago Reader alternative weekly in summer 2007, and proceeded to lay off many production and editorial staffers by the end of that year—told City Paper staff that they would need to cut the publication's budget by $170,000. City Paper ran a profit for 2007, apparently, but with...
Continue Reading "More Staff Cuts at the Washington City Paper"
Tuesday was Hillary Clinton Day at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The senator and former presidential candidate gave a rousing speech that most pundits agreed accomplished what she had promised to do: leave no doubt that she is fully behind the candidacy of her former rival, Sen. Barack Obama. Before the speech, all any journalist trolling for stories inside the Pepsi Center wanted to do was figure out any sort of fresh angle on...
Continue Reading "Conventionist: Lessons Learned from DNC Day 2"
Some D.C. politicians say they're miffed by what they perceive as a snub against the District of Columbia by Sen. Hillary Clinton during her marquee speech at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night. "I will always be grateful to everyone from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the territories, who joined our campaign on behalf of all those people left out and left behind by the Bush Administration," Clinton said during her nationally televised address....
Continue Reading "Clinton Snub Irks D.C. Politicians"Advertisement: DCist Continues Below!
August 27, 2008
Voting rights activists and members of the D.C. delegation to the Democratic National Convention held a small rally in front of the U.S. Mint in Denver this morning, but the Mint's location on the edge of downtown made for a not particularly visible event among the throng of other convention-related activities going on here. Rather few pedestrians passed by to receive the wooden nickels that voting rights advocacy group DC Vote had planned to give...
Continue Reading "D.C. Voting Rights Rally at U.S. Mint in Photos"
Good morning, Washington. Did you catch Hillary's speech last night? If you didn't, spoiler alert!: she did not, in fact, encourage her imaginary armies of PUMA dead-enders to tear the Democratic Party to tiny, bloody shreds. During their post-speech analyses, cable news' legions of seemingly astonished commentators were able to hide their disappointment at this relatively unexciting development, but just barely. Bay Bridge Traffic About to Get Worse: The Post has bad news for...
Continue Reading "Morning Roundup: Bay Bridge, Beachgoers' Bane"August 26, 2008
D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton delivered a speech calling for passage of the D.C. Voting Rights Act, which would grant full voting rights for the District's elected representative in the U.S. House. With delegations from most other states yet to take their seats in the Pepsi Center, the District of Columbia's delegation did their best to make up for the relatively empty house during D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton's speech by cheering loudly and...
Continue Reading "Norton Calls on Senate to Pass D.C. Voting Rights Act"
D.C. Council chair Vincent Gray, left, and Ward 5 Council member Harry Thomas Jr., waiting for the opening of the second day of activity at the Democratic National Convention. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is set to open the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Unlike Monday, the D.C. delegation has shown up bright and early to watch Norton speak. Most of D.C.'s section of the Pepsi Center is full at...
Continue Reading "D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton Set to Speak at DNC"If you're headed out to the airport, be sure to check your flight status. A "communications breakdown" at the Federal Aviation Administration is causing delays at nearly every single major airport in the country right now. WTOP helps us out with some specifics: flights out of BWI are grounded this afternoon, Reagan National is experiencing delays, while Dulles still seems to be humming along just fine. Although the FAA says their computers are having problems...
Continue Reading "Flight delays due to FAA computer problems"
Via WashCycle and Greater Greater Washington comes some discouraging news about MPD's priorities when it comes to bicyclists. Nat Wilson says he was biking in Georgetown when the driver of a commercial van decided he didn't like traveling behind slower traffic and not only ran Nat off the road but nearly struck another cyclist who happened to be riding nearby. The driver got stuck at the next light, though, and when Nat caught up...
Continue Reading "Driver Runs Cyclist Off Road; MPD Uninterested"