Police are searching for a suspect in the rape of a woman Tuesday night near the Upper County Pool and Recreation Center in Gaithersburg. The Examiner says the victim had been taking a walk when a black male described as in his 40s, approximately 6'3", wearing a black shirt and black shorts pulled her into a wooded area and raped her. Montgomery County police did not find the suspect after a subsequent search. Anyone with......

America's Next Top Model just might be a transgender woman. Us Magazine reports that Isis, a former receptionist originally from Prince George's County, Md., will compete in the upcoming season of Top Model, which premieres September 3 on the CW Network. Isis told the magazine, "My cards were dealt differently," regarding her identity as a transgender woman. When pressed if she'll be a role model, she said, "I like to help people, but I'm here......

Hey Virginia, are you taking notes? Encouraging transit developments are happening in Maryland these days - mostly revolving around the MARC system. MARC's facing many of the same challenges that every other local transit system is: booming ridership, infrastructure in need of improvement, less than stellar performance, and waning public confidence. But lo and behold, things aren't grinding to a halt. First, MARC's administrator, Paul J. Wiedefeld, admitted that the public deserved a better way......

Back in February we were alarmed by reports of a man in Prince George's County who was using Craigslist to lure rape victims to various locations in the county. The Post reports that the man suspected of committing these crimes killed himself during a standoff with police yesterday. The suspect, Mark Antonio Humphries, 33, of the 4100 block of Suitland Road of Suitland, shot himself in the head after police began setting up a barricade......

...oh wait, they actually just spied on peaceful anti-war and anti-death penalty activists. The Post is reporting today that the Maryland State Police actively infiltrated meetings and demonstrations held by war and death penalty protesters during the administration of Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R). The kicker? "The surveillance continued even though the logs contained no reports of illegal activity and consistently indicated that the activists were not planning violent protests." And then there's this:A well-known antiwar......

From the AP via WTOP, it seems a Montgomery County man has pleaded guilty to holding a Nigerian teenager as a slave for five years. George Udeozor, 52, smuggled a 14-year-old Nigerian girl to the U.S. and used the girl as an unpaid domestic servant and child care provider. Sounds like that new Montgomery County law requiring contracts for domestic workers couldn't have come at a better time.......

Legislation protecting transgender persons in Montgomery County suffered another blow this week as a judge sided with groups opposing that legislation, reports the Washington Post. This brings the possibility that voters will be able to decide on whether the law stays or goes even closer. Last November, Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett signed off on bill 23-07, which would protect transgender persons against discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations among others. By February, a......

Rep. Albert Wynn may have served 16 years in the House of Representatives, but his announcement yesterday that he was retiring eight months before his final term ends may be the cheapest move in his political career. Wynn, who lost a hotly contested primary to Donna Edwards earlier this year, announced that he was leaving his seat for a job at a local law firm starting in June. His transition to a better-paying job comes......

Yesterday we took a look at our area NCAA basketball teams that have already secured a spot in the Big Dance. In our second installment, we examine the bubble teams, as well as those unfortunate enough to miss the postseason. American University Eagles (20-11, 10-4) The AU Eagles kept rollin' on Sunday against Army, downing the fifth-seeded Black Knights in front a rockin' Bender Arena by a score of 72-60. Junior Guard Garrison Carr went......

The Post reports on Virginia's move to ban the sale of dishwasher detergents that contain phosphates. Phosphorus has been found to be a major source of pollution in the struggling Chesapeake Bay. The ban won't go into effect until 2010, however. The Soap and Detergent Association successfully lobbied several states, including Virginia and Maryland, the latter of which which already passed a similar ban, to wait two more years to put their bans in place......

Considering online dating? The stigma of online personal ads has certainly waned in recent years, and giving it a shot has worked out really well for many D.C. area residents we know. But a story from NBC4 makes the whole concept sound a lot more harrowing than just being worried someone's picture might make them look 20 pounds lighter than they actually are. Police in Maryland are looking for a man who meets women through......

Written by DCist contributor Brett Gellman Last night's game against Virginia Tech (15-11, 6-6 ACC) was a pivotal one for the Maryland Terrapins (17-10, 7-5 ACC). It was an opportunity for the recently resurgent Terps to lock up an important home victory, notch another win in their ACC record, and improve their RPI. Prior to last night, Maryland would've been considered a lock for the NCAA Tournament (most pollsters had them penciled in as a......

Rodell Alton Colton couldn't have imagined his birthday would end up like this. According to a WTOP report, Colton, who just turned 72, had a minor fender-bender in a convenience store parking lot in New Carrolton, Md. on his birthday. As if that wasn't a big enough bummer, when police responded they discovered he was driving on a suspended license, and a subsequent search of his car turned up quite the payload: Police ordered him......

Maryland, like most other states, has some arcane laws still on the books (cf. Virginia's code outlawing the mixing of wine or beer with spirits), but none irks area oenophiles more than the one that prohibits the shipping of wine into or out of the state. The Post reports today that a bill proposed by two Montgomery County legislators would finally change all that. The Maryland legislature's House Economic Matters Committee met yesterday to hear......

Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler is now the first statewide elected official to support same-sex marriage. Gansler made his support known yesterday before the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee on the proposed same-sex marriage bill. Gansler's office -- under his predecessor, J. Joseph Curran, Jr. -- successfully defended Maryland against a suit brought by gay couples who wanted to overturn the 34-year-old state law defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. But......

Written by DCist contributor Brett Gellman The Maryland Terrapins (16-8, 6-3 ACC) travel to Durham tonight to take on #2 Duke (21-1, 9-0 ACC) in a nationally televised conference showdown on ESPN. The Terps, who have been red hot after a dismal December that included losses to Ohio and American, have won six of their last seven games. Their lone loss during that stretch was, yep, to the Blue Devils. The first time Maryland and......

The District, Maryland and Virginia are all heading to the polls tomorrow in a historic all-Potomac presidential primary. It's such an unusual primary schedule that, especially in the tight Democratic race, it's made the delegates up for grabs in the region significantly more important than they often have been in the past. If you haven't run in to an Obama or Clinton canvasser in the past three days, you apparently haven't been getting out at......

The Religious Freedom & Civil Marriage Protection Act will be introduced by two state senators today. Senators Jamie Raskin and Rich Madaleno, both Democrats from Montgomery County, will be named as the bill's lead Senate sponsors. They will fill the sponsorship void left by Senator Gwendolyn Britt, who passed away a couple of weeks ago. The proposed bill validates marriages between "two people, not otherwise prohibited from marrying" instead of the one male and one......

Written by DCist contributor Brett Gellman Well, who saw that coming? The Terrapins (12-7, 2-2 ACC) stunned the nation last Saturday by defeating the (now former) top team in the country, North Carolina, 82-80 in an instant classic in front of a nationally televised audience. And this was at The Dean Dome, no less. Gary Williams orchestrated one of his finest coaching jobs, as the future Hall of Famer guided his team to the program's......

Towleroad tipped us off to a Baltimore Sun poll that shows a majority of Maryland voters support same-sex unions in some form. Same-sex marriage is currently illegal in Maryland and it was only a week ago that the state defined domestic partnership, which applies to both gay and straight couples. Nearly 3 out of every 5 Maryland voters polled said the state should recognize same-sex unions; 19 percent support same-sex marriages and 39 percent back......

Late last week, a joint Maryland state House-Senate committee approved a new regulation that defines domestic partnerships. A state law passed last year required not only health insurers to offer domestic partner coverage to companies that request it, but also the Maryland Insurance Administration to define domestic partnerships. The law took effect January 1. The regulation defines domestic partners as a couple whose members are at least 18 years of age and "who for at......

Now that the 2008 presidential primary season has officially begun, it's time to make sure you're registered to vote. The District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia will all hold their presidential primaries on Feb. 12, which means voter registration deadlines are looming. In D.C., you must register to vote 30 days before election day, so your registration form will need to be postmarked by Jan. 13 (which is a Sunday, so make that Jan. 12......

The AP via Baltimore's WJZ-TV reports the issue of same-sex marriage rights in Maryland will pop up again next week. This time around, it's the state legislature and not the courts who get to rule on the matter. Back in September, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that laws banning same-sex marriages did not violate the state constitution. This contradicted a January 2007 ruling in the Baltimore Circuit Court that the laws were discriminatory and......

Good morning, Washington. It really is freezing outside, people are dropping like flies from this terrible cold going around town, and over in Iowa, we hear there's some kind of a fake election going on that's going to dominate the news cycle all day. It could all be enough to get us down, but yet, we carry on ... until we read this story about an 11-year-old boy in Burke, VA who has been......

Good morning, Washington. Well, this is it: the holidays are finally, tragically over. You're once again sitting at your desk. And now we begin the slow, terrible death march toward spring, with only brief, inadequate celebrations of Presidents' and MLK Day to sustain us. Stay strong, D.C. — we'll get through this. Can You Hear Me Now? Hello? Hello?: The ball dropped, the phones came out and... nothing. "Y2K8 Bug" doesn't sound very catchy,......

>> A man was hospitalized this morning after his Ford Expedition crashed into a Metrobus at 8th St. and Massachusetts Ave. NE. [WJLA] >> A 19-year-old Maryland woman got stuck in a two-story chimney about 12:20 a.m. Monday at her father's tire shop on Bladensburg Road. Firefighters were able to rescue her to safety. [WaPo] >> D.C. police responded to a shooting at an apartment complex at 6420 14th St. NW just after noon......

Good morning, Washington. With a new year less than 24 hours away and an improbable playoff berth for the Redskins suddenly a reality, we frankly expect you to have been skipping in to your offices today, in a total and joyous rapture. Even if you've had to work straight through the holidays this year, we will tolerate no whining on this, or really any other matter, on this particular New Year's Eve. There will be......

Good morning, Washington. With the Christmas holiday looming, things are slowing down in workplaces around the region. Well, most workplaces, anyway — D.C.'s firefighters seem to be keeping plenty busy. Yesterday, of course, there was the fire at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Since then there's been a two alarm fire at the Chinatown Red Roof Inn, and this impressive gathering of firefighters just south of Logan around 6 p.m. last night. Here's hoping......

It looks like Virginia's gunnin' for a fight -- pun intended. According to WTOP, Virginia has filed a brief in the Supreme Court challenging the District's gun ban, joining a number of states that are picking sides in what may be a historic decision on the reach of the Second Amendment. The case, which will be heard in March, could have a wide-reaching effect on gun laws and regulations nationwide. According to Virginia Attorney......

Earlier this month the Post revealed that the majority of mail sent from the District is bastardized with a postmark reading "SOUTHERN MD." or "SUBURBAN MD.," a practice imposed soon after a 2001 anthrax attack in a D.C. postal facility. District officials and voting rights activists were none-too-pleased -- after all, if they take our postmark, what's next? Our women and children? Today, the Post Office relented. Under pressure from D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton......