We mentioned it briefly at the end of the day yesterday, but more details are available about the charges against a Georgetown University student accused of committing a hate crime against another student in September, which were dropped by the U.S. Attorney's office due to a lack of evidence. The victim, who today remains unidentified in news reports, said he was followed September 9 by two men who yelled homophobic slurs at him; one of......

The Hoya is reporting a major security breach at Georgetown University which exposed the personal information of nearly 40,000 students and faculty to identity theft. An unencrypted hard drive containing billing information, including Social Security numbers, was stolen on Jan. 3 from the Office of Student Affairs. The information pertained to students enrolled at the university from 1998 through 2006, as well as some faculty and staff members. The theft is under investigation by D.C.......

Good morning, Washington. We're getting off to a late start this holiday week morning, which is really just as well, since there's not too much local news to report anyway. But let's get the ball rolling with a few stories ... Police have shut down yet another brothel operation in Glover Park. This time, it's the Venus Spa at 2352 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Where oh where will the guys who work at the Russian......

After yesterday's preview of the endless list of holiday concerts in the area in December, it is time to discuss the piece that must not be named, Georg Friedrich Händel's Messiah (1742). Yes, it is a masterpiece of music history, but the lamentable annual round of weary performances at Christmas time (in spite of the fact that Messiah is an Easter work), makes me want to run screaming for anything else this time of......

After two hate crimes this fall and a foiled attempt by a student LGBT group to deliver a petition to him, Georgetown University President John DeGioia announced last night that the school will have a dedicated LGBTQ resource center by next fall. Scott Chessare, co-president of Georgetown's LGBT student group GU Pride, called the announcement a win and said to the Georgetown Voice, "I don’t think we would have believed less than two months ago......

Written by DCist Contributer Josh Kramer The Eagle – American University: >>AU students lamented losing their Hollywood Video this week, which is holding a giant closing sale and selling all of its movies. It's unclear what will become of the space, conveniently located next to the AU shuttle bus stop and the Tenleytown-AU Metro station. >>Sgt. Zachary Tellier, a 1998 AU graduate, was killed by enemy fire while fighting in Afghanistan on the 29th of......

Good morning, Washington. It's only the end of September, but if drug store candy aisles are any indication, many of you are probably already thinking ahead just a little bit to the holiday season. What will you be for Halloween? Will you stay in town for Thanksgiving? What kind of Christmas bonus will you be getting this year? For some D.C. government employees, the answer to that last question is now up in the air.......

>> The Classical Music Agenda will return this Sunday, after hibernating all summer, but there are already a few developments to note this week in local classical news. Robert Shafer is a legend in the local choral music scene, as the long-standing director of the Oratorio Society of Washington, known in recent years as the Washington Chorus. Shafer's particular gift is to inspire a huge group — some 200 singers, none (or few) of them......

Though it's an open question as to whether D.C.'s rock scene has sacrificed quality for quantity, there is no denying a time when there were not that many places for a rock band to play in this city. "During college, the music scene was a bit struggling, especially in the Georgetown area," says The Bravery's guitarist and Georgetown University alum Michael Zakarin, "but I was at the Black Cat or the 9:30 every weekend. It's......

Welcome to June, Washington. Also welcome to the end, at last, of your short post-holiday work week. We do hope it wasn't too painful. Even if it was, the good news is that it's going to be relatively pleasant, if a touch on the hot and humid side, most of the weekend. So spend some time sitting on your front stoop sipping iced tea. Just remember to slather on the sunblock, and of course, invite......

If you work on the Hill you might still have time to run over to the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Rm. 342 for the hearing Equal Representation in Congress: Providing Voting Rights to the District of Columbia before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The hearing, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., will include testimony split into two panels, the first with Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), Mayor......

After a rocky road through the U.S. House of Representatives, legislation granting the District a voting seat in the lower chamber will get its first hearing before a Senate committee tomorrow -- and pretty much everyone and their mother is set to testify. In a hearing scheduled to start at 10 a.m. before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, eight witnesses will discuss the legislation that was passed in the House on......

FRIDAY: >> Attention all nerds: This is like our Lollapalooza or something. First Person: Stories from the Edge of the World is an event being held tonight by National Geographic Live, which features some sort of "collaboration" between NPR's Neal Conan and Liane Hansen, the Celtic/early music crossover group Ensemble Galilei, and actor Bill Pullman. Together this crew will narrate excerpts from the journals of great explorers such as Jacques Cousteau, George Mallory, and Charles......

We love the quiet, calm concentration in Flickr user smleon's photo of two Buddhist monks working on a sand mandala, with the Dalai Lama looking on approvingly. The monks are creating the mandala at Georgetown University as part of the school's inaugural "Children of Abraham Arts Week," an interfaith arts festival. They began work on Tuesday, and are scheduled to complete it for a community celebration this Saturday, after which the mandala will, as......

The nation is still transfixed on the latest coming out of Blacksburg, especially the startling images and words that have come out of the package Cho Seung-Hui apparently sent to NBC News between his two shooting sprees. It's also of course talking about the day's two biggest stories coming out of Washington: The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the so-called partial-birth abortion ban, and the start of Congressional testimony by embattled Attorney General Alberto......

As an alert tipster told us earlier this morning, a D.C. Circulator bus has crashed into a building used by Georgetown University. The Harris Building, on the 3300 block of Whitehaven St., was occupied by about 200 people when the bus hit a minivan and careened into a window of the building. From this photo it looks like the back end of the bus became lodged in a basement-level window. Everyone was evacuated and......

Last week's Classical Music Agenda omitted an excellent concert opportunity that just came to my attention, annual concerts of Schubert's music called Schubert, Schubert, and Schubert. The final installment is this evening (March 18, 8 p.m.), at Georgetown University's Gaston Hall (37th and O St. NW), when the Auryn String Quartet will play Schubert's Quartetsatz, D. 703, and the "Death and the Maiden" quartet, D. 810. Pianist Kyoko Hashimoto will also play the four Schubert......

FRIDAY: >> Print out this PDF and take it to Local 16 between 6 to 9 p.m. tonight to receive a free drink, courtesy the Not For Tourists Guide to Washington, DC 2007. They'll also be giving away free copies of the Guide. >> Local rockers The Pharmacy Prophets are brewing up a high-concept hootenanny at Iota tonight. When the band takes the stage, they'll simultaneously be filming live concert footage for a multimedia project......

>> Mark this day, D.C. It took a full 37 days for us to use the "Marion Barry in trouble with the law again" keystroke in 2007. Federal prosecutors are asking that the Councilman's probation in his tax-evasion case be revoked. They say Barry has failed to meet the terms of his plea agreement by not paying back taxes and not filing again in 2005. After being convicted on federal charges of not paying......

Valentine's Day is approaching, which means it's a time of passion....the Passion of the Crawford, that is.Yes, the drag sensation Lypsinka's ode to the famed movie star, opening at Studio Theater Feb. 7, may be the closest thing D.C. theater has to Valentine's themed content this month. Well, Arena's doing Frankie and Johnny at the Clair de Lune, a story of lonely, middle-aged people coming together (Feb. 23)...and that's about it. We may be a......

As if we needed more rain and clouds in the forecast, today the District gets...more rain and clouds. There seems to be at least some hope of sunshine for the weekend, at least. Homeless Want Help, not Handouts: Yesterday, a task force comprised of government and private agencies had the first of many hearings to come about helping the city's homeless, with a particular focus on finding them shelter for fast-approaching winter. As NBC4 reports,......

Most of us can fondly look back on our college days and remember feeling intellectually invigorated and rebellious, hoping to use time between classes to protest against any institution that stepped in our way. Whether sweatshops or affirmative action, there was always something to rage against. Students in a number of District-based universities are carrying on that fine tradition, and in big ways. Early last year a group of Georgetown University students launched a hunger......

Neal Katyal is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center. He's been a visiting professor at both Harvard Law School and Yale Law School. Last year, the former law clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer was named one of the National Law Journal's top 40 lawyers under the age of 40. He was co-counsel to Vice President Al Gore during the 2000 election fiasco in Florida. For most people, that'd be enough. But not for Katyal.......

Does it seem like there have been a lot of student protests recently at area universities? Fear not, tells us the Richmond Times-Dispatch, college students aren't about to march on Washington and demand the president's head. Sayeth the paper in an article published earlier this week: Students marched at Virginia Tech, chanted at Radford University and camped in a building at the University of Virginia last month. They also protested at the College of William......

Ask and ye shall receive, right? Some Chevy Chase residents are wishing it weren't so. Residents of the Northwest neighborhood are a little angry that increased police patrols -- caused by a rash of thefts -- have led to a higer number of parking tickets, or so writes the Washington Times. And what does the police have to say about that? Writes the Times: An official in the police department's 2nd District, which includes......

The debate now seems to be settled -- Maryland has the worst drivers out there. According to the Washington Times, last month alone Marylanders were responsible for 64 percent of the traffic violations caught on the District's traffic cameras, while D.C. residents accounted for 20 percent, Virginia 9 percent and all other states 7 percent. Of course, we are just kidding that this number may say something about Maryland's drivers. Some of them seem......

Reviewing the week in DCist can't go without mentioning what is now the news of the week -- George Mason today toppled the nation's best basketball team, UConn, 86-84 in a nail-biting overtime upset. The victory caps what has been a surprising rise through the NCAA ranks for George Mason, and with Georgetown out of the picture, gives the Washington region someone to cheer for. This week we saw the Post's newest conservative blogger......

FRIDAY: >> We're definitely planning on checking out a new performance series called Take That Hill that's looking to turn in to a semi-regular evening of short films and short story readings presented by local lit mag Barrelhouse. Sounds promising, and we'll have the rundown on how it went down for you come Monday. At Warehouse Theater's screening room, $5, 8 p.m. >> Dude, free Yeah Yeah Yeah's listening party at Cue Bar, plus the......

One candidate for president wins the popular vote, but his competitor is eventually declared winner of the election. Sound a little like the 2000 election debacle in Florida? Well, it should. But this time it's happening in our own backyard, and it's students at Georgetown University fighting for the political careers. According to an article published in the university's student newspaper, The Hoya, a dispute has arisen from a contested election for the presidency of......

The Post takes a quick look today at "older, close-in suburbs," which have apparently been falling through a policy crack nationwide, between the road hungry exurbs and the development-needy central cities. Based on a report set to be released today by the Brookings Institution, the Post story finds that Washington's OCIS are doing better than many others across the country; in particular, Arlington's strategy of developing densely near Metro has generated praise.. Striking fact from......