We've mentioned it briefly before, but it's worth reminding everyone that a D.C. neighborhood is in contention to win a makeover from HGTV, and a lot of local bloggers are asking you to cast your vote to help make it happen. In partnership with Rebuilding Together, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, HGTV's Change the World, Start at Home contest has identified D.C.'s Anacostia as one of ten needy......

Good morning, Washington, and welcome to Friday. There's nothing like a nationally televised address about troop levels to put you in a mood for a sound night's sleep heading into the weekend, isn't there? Certainly we would never have tossed and turned contemplating the "sinister ingenuity" that allows President Bush to escalate a war and then de-escalate it a year later without ever having a plan to successfully end it, and yet be able......

Let's start with the good news this morning: this excessive, unrelenting, soul-sucking heat is expected to come to an end tomorrow, say the guys at Capital Weather. And we say they better not just be leading us on. However, today is yet another day in Scorcher '06 -- and may even be the hottest one yet -- with highs once again flirting with triple digits. Heat-related Problems Continue: With near record temperatures, people are......

There are two water-related stories of note: First, the Los Angeles Times reports of an authoritative study released by the National Research Council that has concluded that perchlorate (a chemical most often associated with the military, NASA and related contractors) poses "a health threat because it can interfere with the human thyroid gland, which controls how the brain develops in infancy." That's pretty straightforward. But the story gets a bit more complicated, when you consider......