Via Atrios, this little geographically motivated blog spat between Ben Adler at TAPPED and Brian Beutler, about whether New York or California has a better environmental record, misses the more important point: This study shows that it's Washington, DC that actually has the lowest per capita gasoline consumption of any place in the country, by an impressively wide margin. We've certainly explored issues related to the relative greenness of densely populated urban environments, compared......

>> Both the Examiner and the WaPo have stories today about the dreary work ahead for D.C.'s deputy mayor for education, Victor Reinoso. A recent report released by the Children’s Advocacy Roundtable which shows that 32 percent of children in the District of Columbia are living below the poverty line -- twice the national average. The report also highlights the high number of youth victims of violent crime and the high obesity rate among......

This stinks. Literally. D.C.'s Emergency Management email alerts report that a truck lost "its entire load of trash" on outbound Interstate 395 just before the 6th Street SW exit. They say "expect delays" and we assume some bad smells as well. Looks like a bad time for those drivers heading east from the city on 395, unless they can get this picked up. If you're in the area, let us know what they spilled. Hopefully......

>> Could an Evangelical group be forcing your kids to swap spit in school? We were just as shocked as some parents to learn that the answer may be "yes." Apparently, just such a program, aimed at teaching kids about STDs and peer pressure, has been in place at many Montgomery County schools for nine years. In the lesson one student is given a piece of gum to chew and then other kids are asked......

Tonight the Capitals will face the decisive game of their season. After weeks of injury troubles and youthful inconsistencies, the team finds itself in position to drop from twelfth in the East down to fourteenth, all in one night. The Capitals, who finished near the bottom of the league last season and retooled over the summer to perform better this season, are in a position to slip behind the Florida Panthers and Boston Bruins, who......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......

By DCist contributor Amy Monroe Today’s column will be about Champagne and sparkling wine. It will resemble Ben Giliberti's wine column in yesterday's Washington Post in that “It’s All About the Bubbles.” It will not resemble that column in any other way. If you’re looking for a laundry list of recommendations offset by non-specific tasting notes containing uselessly vague words such as “fresh” and “lively," stop reading now and take a look at the Post's......

Back to the feeding trough, all. After spending a weekend in the beautiful and delicious Bay Area, it's nice to be back to the reality of dirty campaigning, impossible political prognostications, and the constant braying that the turrists are going to blow us up. I wouldn't be here if I didn't love it… Restaurants in Anacostia? Is it time to put a sit down restaurant in the middle of Anacostia? That's the question Washington Business......

FRIDAY: >> Comets on Fire bring their detailed, funky prog sound to D.C., with openers Benjy Ferree(***) and (The Sounds of) Kaleidoscope at Black Cat. I (heart) music tells us that if you love Deep Purple, you'll like Comets on Fire. Listen to a few tracks over at Hype Machine to test the waters. $12, 9:30 p.m. >> Looking for a straight-up chance to dance? Venezuela's Los Amigos Invisibles always deliver, with DJ Afro at......

Named after an NES joystick, The Advantage tore apart the Warehouse Next Door on monday. The foursome from California plays instrumental Nintendo covers, but somehow aren't gimmicky. With no keyboards or electronics, the two guitarists, bassist, and maniacal drummer have to be blisteringly fast and precise - hitting the turbo button as video gamers might say. A good portion of the crowd seemed to leave after local openers Durga Temple and French Toast, and they......

DCist's hard-hitting grocery store coverage continues, but here's a new one: the non-corporate corner shop. Sure, we love Trader Joe's (and his internationally named alter egos). And Whole Foods fetishism can gives you a grocery high, yes. But if we're gonna pay extra, why not do it at a good corner shop every now and then? Yes, they close before the workday ends and their prices are often high, but there's something special about knowing......

Discussion of recent crime activity continues today, but not in an encouraging way. The Post focuses on Chief Ramsey's comments yesterday, which noted that criminals are increasingly leaving their own neighborhoods and coming to wealthier places in the city, including areas of the National Mall. Ramsey says this is new and striking behavior, but it's hard to imagine that no one saw this coming. Luckily for Ramsey, the mayor is back and ready to begin......

Sometimes you need to clean yourself up, get serious, and move in with daddie for a few months before you head to Latin America for a new gig. The District bids Jenna Bush adios. D.C.-based television shows have an elderly audience and DCist has some suggestions to fix that. They're also throwing Butterstick the panda bear a birthday bash. Yeah, we may have a few issues with our World Cup broadcasters here, but this guy......

The months since Hurricane Katrina have been filled with the fervor of apocalyptic millennialism for many weather geeks. The Weather Channel has been endlessly running a feature on how dreadful things would be if a Category Five storm trundled up the Hudson, leaving me, as a good Washingtonian, to mutter how Katrina on the Potomac wouldn't exactly be a bag of cupcakes. Newspapers carry, as the Post did yesterday, breathless stories on how the earth......

This week in transit, Metro answers calls to be more bike friendly and the bubble finally bursts in Virginia. Also, a new report says D.C. needs Amtrak more than it thought, and we give out some Memorial Day travel advice. Photo by matthewf1.8......

With so much of the District wrapped in a political bubble, sometimes it's nice to take a break and remember that there are things in this world not based on massive plumes of hot air -- science for instance. Café Scientifique, a monthly event organized by the National Science Foundation, (NSF) helps connect the scientific experts and the average viewers of NOVA. Held in Arlington last month, the first Café Scientifique had such a great......

If you didn't know, today is National High-Five Day. And as weird as that may sound, there is something mildly satisfying in giving strangers on the street the surprise high-five. And best of all, there is a local tie-in here -- it was a group of students at the University of Virginia that kicked off the celebration five years ago. Security Aides Come to Adams Morgan: Concerned with rising weekend crime, business owners in......

For George Mason, Selection Sunday was a relief. For George Washington, it was the worst-case scenario. The Patriots -- a bubble team thanks to two recent losses to Hofstra -- didn't have to sweat too long on Selection Sunday, as they were named the 11 seed in the second bracket announced. This was much to the dismay of CBS basketball announcer Billy Packer. The Patriots' regional will be played in Washington, but GMU has plenty......

Though ranked sixth in the country, George Washington has been characterized as an overrated team. Given the opportunity to prove that their 26-1 record and 18 game winning streak wasn't just a house of cards, the Colonials instead folded, losing 68-53 to Temple in the first-round of the Atlantic Ten tournament. The loss is not only disappointing and gives fuel to the team's critics, but it likely cost them a couple of seeds in......

>> Oh those clever Redskins. First they use the NFL labor talks as an opportunity to buy out disgruntled linebacker LaVar Arrington and then while the area media whips itself into a frenzy over the move, the club quietly announces that, much like the Wizards, ticket prices will be going up, up, up next season. Surprising no one, the 'Skins attributed the increases to putting the team more in line with other teams in......

There isn't much to say about this week other than it was Stapptastic. We did, though, catch up with Vegetate, check out Stars at Black Cat, introduce our first Metro Map Mashup, and welcome Anna Nicole Smith to D.C. We covered a labor dispute at WJLA, reviewed Afterwar, interviewed Hera McLeod of "The Amazing Race," and worked out with Condi. We visited Chawky Frenn's studio, analyzed the slow-bursting real estate bubble, reported on a......

For those of you that don't know, Six Points is a D.C. music festival in its third year, hosted at venues in and around the city, including the Black Cat, Jammin Java, the State Theater, The Mansion at Strathmore and more. This year's lineup was announced yesterday on the festival's blog. The GOG Blog has an interesting take on the festival, namely, that the bands selected are all homogeneous and don't represent the full spectrum......

Good morning, Washington. We imagine that by now you may have already heard about the fallout over 84 year-old Maryland Comptroller William Schaeffer's inappropriate remarks to one of Governor Ehrlich's female staffers. Schaeffer was initially unapologetic, but Ehrlich says that he later expressed regret — although it's not clear whether he has yet apologized to the young woman in question. The Post covers the issue here; ABC 7 has video of the incident here. Spotsylvania......

Editor's note: This top ten list was compiled by local art blogger and man-about-town Kriston Capps. Let’s be forward about it—top ten lists don’t really make a lot of sense. Especially for a field as diverse as contemporary art. Really, how much better is the sculpture of the giant Cheetoh than the digitally manipulated photograph? A true accounting for the decision-making process behind a hierarchical ranking of art shows would make the BCS computerized college......

Good morning, Washington. Like every other publication in town, we can't resist a good cover photo of the baby panda. We know how little Tai Shan feels: sometimes we also feel a little apprehensive and just want to peek around corners. The photo was posted along with two other by Flickr user randomduck. Today will be cloudy with highs in the 30s. Kaine Announces Slow Growth Plans: Virginia Governor-elect Tim Kaine announced he's serious about......

Welcome to Opinionist! On Sundays, starting today, DCist will publish opinion pieces about life in D.C. The views expressed below are solely those of the author. Six months ago, I plunked down what meager savings I had and purchased a few hundred square feet of condo in the Brookland area of Northeast Washington. I had been living in a Columbia Heights rowhouse, surrounded in coffeeshops and bars by the newly rich, made wealthy by......

Written by DCist contributor Rob Birgfeld This week, the Post ran an article focusing on the trend of young home buyers eager to make a quick dollar -- or escape the landlord and build some equity -- through investing in real estate. The story profiles a variety of twenty-somethings from around the metropolitan area who have purchased or sold homes, sometimes relying on somewhat creative financing schemes including loans from parents and adjustable rate mortgages.......

MONDAY >> Who can forget T.C. Boyle's memorable turn in the movie Kinsey? Most of you, probably. Well, look: if you're an enthusiast of short stories, stop by Olsson's in Arlington this evening to meet T.C. Boyle, whose recent collection, Tooth and Claw, travels to the four corners of the globe to reveal men and women on the edge of primal fear, weird nature, and the threat of untimely death. 2111 Wilson Boulevard, 7 p.m.......

Good morning, Washington. This DCist was up early enough today to beat the heat -- which, by all accounts, is set to be severe. The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory lasting from noon until 8 p.m., during which temperatures could well hit 105. And while those of us lucky enough to have central air might feel some relief, it seems that prisoners in a District jail annex do not enjoy similar fortune......

Back in the days when this DCist was a lowly art history grad student at American University, we were relegated to a few rooms in a dank basement with a couple of antiquated slide projectors. But now there is a fabulous, 130,000-square-foot facility that sits atop Ward Circle. Art history can come out from underground. The new Katzen Arts Center, which encompasses all the arts, opens this Saturday. Performing arts events will begin this......