Maybe every political debate from now on should be held on a night where pretty much everyone has somewhere more important to be. At last night's debate between the candidates competing for two At-large seats on the D.C. Council, the looming second-round meetup between Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama pushed moderators Tom Sherwood and Mark Segraves to throw as many questions as possible at the seven hopefuls in an effort to get the......

Earlier this year it looked like a measure pushed by some Ward 6 residents to impose volume limits on protests in residential neighborhoods was destined for failure. As we briefly mentioned yesterday, though, the D.C. Council endorsed an amended version of the legislation. According to the City Paper's Mike DeBonis, who closely followed the debate, yesterday saw some back and forth on the legislation, which was originally sponsored and pushed by Council member Tommy Wells......

Remember those billboards that popped up in the 1980s that counted up the national debt, dollar by dollar? Pretty scary, huh? Well, District voting rights activists want something similar for their cause. Today the D.C. Council held a hearing on legislation that would allow the city to place two large LED billboards -- one outside the John A. Wilson Building and the other outside the new Washington Nationals stadium -- that would display the amount......

A day after the Washington Post put a number as high as $2.46 million on the amount of money that was stolen from the Office of Tax and Revenue in 1999, the last year that current D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi was the head of the office, at least two D.C. Council members are starting to test the waters by suggesting that Gandhi ought to resign. At-large member Kwame Brown and Ward 1 Council......

Amid growing, vocal frustration over dilapidated, abandoned buildings on the part of residents in neighborhoods like Shaw and Petworth, a D.C. Council committee approved a measure to double the tax rate on abandoned properties. As the Examiner notes, the move could generate millions in additional revenue while at the same time serve as an incentive for land owners to either renovate and develop their properties or sell to someone who will. The measure, introduced as......

At a hearing before the Public Services and Consumer Affairs Committee yesterday, the D.C. Council heard testimony both for and against the so-called payday loan industry, which has often been criticized for predatory lending practices. The businesses market themselves as a way for lower income individuals who don't qualify for credit or a bank loan to get emergency cash. The industry's opponents charge that payday loans prey on our society's most vulnerable people by charging......

>> "Man, if I am ever refused service at a publicly funded institution for wearing a political shirt, I am leaving that fucking place in handcuffs. Someone gets their rights trampled on and she responds with a vegan cake? That is so fucking weak. Grow a pair." [why.i.hate.dc] >> "If you’ve always wanted one of Sen. John Edwards’ $400 haircuts, now’s your chance. Duvall’s Hair Co., in McPherson Square, put a sign outside its......

Welcome back to work, Washington. It's the Monday after a jam-packed weekend of fun for many of us, and we understand as well as you do that there's nothing so disheartening as reporting to your desk knowing that good times won't be in sight again for another five full days. It is therefore in the spirit of distraction that we present to you the weekend's funniest, and yet saddest headline for you to mull over......

Four hundred thousand people drive into D.C. each day for work and for fun, and the fact that none of them pays for the traffic and pollution they create has peeved more than a few city denizens. Asking drivers to cough up a few bucks to access our fair city is not a new idea, with everyone from local residents to the Post's Marc Fisher airing the idea out. Even Mayor Fenty (following the lead......

We hope you had a relaxing, if not warm, holiday weekend, Washington. Mixed in with the egg decorating and good cheer, we sure noticed a lot of grumbling about the ongoing cold snap (along with those flurries on Friday night), so let's get right down to the all-important question: When will this misery end? CapitalWeather.com is breaking it down like so: Most of this week will still see cold temps in the morning, with......

Last year ended on a bit of a sour note for District voting rights, but activists aren't letting a little bad news stop them. After being stymied by Republican leaders in the closing weeks of the 109th Congress, Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) and D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton re-introduced legislation on January 9 to grant the District one voting seat in the House of Representatives. The legislation, known as the Fair and Equal House Voting......

UPDATE: Sam in the comments points out that the WMATA web site has no current service alerts posted, so it appears the Mt. Vernon Square station is now open. Anyone been over there this morning? A few more details are available from the Post this morning about yesterday's Green Line derailment, though it's still not known when the Mt. Vernon Square stop will re-open. In all 20 people were injured, all of them minor except......

Boy howdy, yesterday sure was quite the hootinany over at the D.C. Council, as members scrambled to push their pet bills through before this year's session finally, finally comes to a close. Here's a quick rundown of what went on, gleaned from the WaPo and Examiner: >> We told you this was in the works before, but the council finally did pass a nice pay raise for themselves and incoming Mayor Adrian Fenty. From the......

Batten down the hatches, Washington. Proving that no good spell of weather goes unpunished, we've now got some major storms headed our way. Two separate storm lines, to be precise, are barreling down on the metro area as we speak, the first having just begun, and the second, more powerful system, expected between noon and 5 p.m. With winds at 30 mph, we'd suggest upgrading your umbrella to something more than cheap and crappy. District......

Though they left us with a good deal of thunder and lightning, the storms that hit our area yesterday cut a deadly path through other parts of the country, particularly Tennessee. We're not in the clear yet, though -- there is a wind advisory for the District and surrounding areas in effect until 1 p.m. today. D.C. Smoking Ban Really Goes Into Effect Today: Ahhhh, government efficiency. There has been some confusion to date......

In regards to the much talked about possible elimination of the current rent ceiling system here in the District, there will be a public roundtable on the issue today at 5:00pm at the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Two weeks ago, the City Council's Committee on Consumer and Regulatory Affairs voted 4 to 1 to overhaul the system. Right now, the cap is based on a particular unit's "rent ceiling", while the......

D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams may not be mayor for much longer, but he does have a few wishes for his successor's benefit, writes the Post today. First off, that the title be changed from "mayor" to "governor," a recognition of the fact that the District serves both the functions of a city and a state. Second, a good retirement package. Third and final, a mayoral house. Williams quickly backed off of asking for a mayoral......

As the clock rolled through midnight, there sat Marion Barry, hunched over in his too-big suit, red Nationals cap pulled low over thick glasses, interrupting the chair. He spoke haltingly, with long pauses, as he made his roundabout point, while Linda Cropp alternately reclined in exasperation and leaned forward over the desk, glaring at him in incredulity. Barry hushed Kwame Brown and David Catania by their first names as they attempted to clarify his statement,......

As Ryan wrote earlier this morning, much of the District went to sleep last night thinking the stadium lease had been voted down, fearing that they may wake up to MLB announcing it was defecting to across the river. And surely enough, local newspapers thought much the same -- the Examiner's headline this morning reads "Council Rejects Stadium Lease Deal; Mayor Williams Cries Foul" while the Washington Times similarly proclaimed "Council Rejects Stadium Lease." We......

When we last checked in on them, the Washington Wizards were 8-11 and facing a tough five game road trip that would go a long way in deciding the outcome of their season. After losing their first three in L.A. (to the Lakers), Portland and Seattle, the team pulled out the last two games in Denver and Phoenix, giving them some much needed momentum when they returned home to face the Lakers last night.......

The Washington Wizards started last week one game below .500 and facing four games in a span of six days that threatened to send their season into a tailspin if things went badly. After an overtime win at home on Tuesday against the woeful Raptors, the team failed to gain any momentum, losing three games to Eastern Conference rivals Indiana, Chicago and Miami. Getting destroyed on national TV to the Pacers was bad, but......

In a sign of troubled times to come for the D.C. City Council, first term council-member Kwame Brown (D-At Large) has announced that he is endorsing council chair Linda Cropp in her run for mayor, notes the Examiner. In exchange for his support, Cropp has named Brown co-chair of her campaign. This is significant on a number of fronts. First off, since launching her campaign, Cropp has been seen as lacking the young blood that......

Politics can be dirty. And with the advent of the internet and its power to spread messages far and wide at almost no cost and at surprising speed, politics in these times can be anonymously dirty. While in decades past candidates and political activists had to act under cover of darkness and under threat of being caught red-handed, today they benefit from the ability to post and publicize information, rumors, and accusations with no......

The Washington Wizards, fresh off of their first playoff trip in many moons, return to action tonight when the team travels to Toronto and tips off against the Raptors at 7:00 p.m. The Wiz had quite the offseason. They lost Larry Hughes, Juan Dixon and DCist fave Steve Blake in free agency and traded star-crossed former No. 1 pick Kwame Brown to the LA Lakers for Caron Butler and Chucky Atkins. Free agents Antonio......

After college, most twenty-somethings move their way into the working world of offices and cubicles for the first time, alternately laboring furiously, scouring the internet for entertainment during slower hours, and attending any number of post-work happy hours. Sam Brooks bucked this trend -- at 24, he ran for public office. Surprising the District's political establishment, Brooks jumped in the race for an at-large seat on the City Council, coming in third to challenger and......

It wasn't long ago that D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and police chief Charles Ramsey were celebrating a murder rate that looked to be falling relative to years past. Oh, how they must be pining for those optimistic days now. Yesterday marked the unceremonious day during which the District's murder rate came to match that of the same time last year -- 156 dead. And it came after a spate of killings that left four dead......

The Wizards and Nationals made a pair of deals last night, attempting to plug big holes in their respective rosters. That Nats picked up center fielder Preston Wilson in exchange for right hander Zach Day, outfielder J.J. Davis and future considerations. Wilson led the majors in RBI's in 2003 and should supply some power to the lowest scoring team in the league. Hopefully this will bring an end to the experiment that was Carlos......

The first rule of the NBA offseason? Resign your own free agents. Dealing a major blow to the team's playoff aspirations for 2006, today Jeff Wechsler, agent for Wizards guard Larry Hughes, told ESPN.com that Hughes will not return to Washington next season, opting to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers instead. Hughes, a free agent, was expected to return to Washington to build upon the team's first appearance in the 2nd round of the playoffs......

We awake this morning knowing that Londoners are slowly recovering from the terrorist attacks that yesterday killed at least 50 and left hundreds more injured. We here at DCist are with them in thought, and can't do enough to thank our peers at Londonist for their continuing reporting. For more reaction from the D.C. blogging community, check out DCBlogs, the source of the above image. As for us, well Washington, brace yourself -- what's......

Starkly contrasted against each other, the ballot boxes stood surrounded by a barbed wire barrier and in full view of the U.S. Capitol, the very building in which District residents have been denied voting representation for the better part of 200 years. This contrast seems to have been the point of the day -- in the country whose government is actively crusading for democracy abroad, was it not a wonder that the 600,000 residents of......