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......

If the powers that be think we're going to go easily or quietly, they're wrong. The Post today exposed a devious little plan to chip away at the District's identity, starting with phasing out the city's postmark and replacing it instead with one bearing the name of our northern neighbor, Maryland. According to a Post study, of 235 letters mailed from every quadrant and zip code within city limits, only 24 -- 10 percent --......

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness – we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did a little research and found that Massachusetts......

Flickr user wyntuition took this wonderfully lit long exposure from the top of 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue. The Old Post Office has a fantastic haunted feel here. What a great view from your office, but we have to hope our photographer won't be working nearly as late tonight! EXIF.......

It's a good year to be a last-minute tax filer in Washington. (As if there's ever a good time to send your hard-earned dollars to the government.) First there was Emancipation Day, now the District Office of Tax and Revenue is granting an automatic two-day extension for filling your D.C. income taxes. This short reprieve is in response to yesterday's wind and rain, which knocked out power around the area. Local tax forms are now......

It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend... Gothamist spent the week writing about New Yorkers behaving badly: at the post office, at the Garden, and at the fertility clinic. Calvin Klein may not be misbehaving, but he's just a little dirty, and in a completely different way than some NYC kitchens. SFist had its share of misbehave-rs, too, like......

Morning Washington. Animals everywhere are breathing sighs of relief this morning after one giant creature makes a recovery and five little creatures get some justice. Ambika, the Asian elephant at the National Zoo was found with a blood clot yesterday, worrying the vets with what could have been a life threatening condition for the 59-year-old female. Luckily, the clot isn't dangerous, and Ambika looks to live will beyond the typical 50-ish year elephant life expectancy......

In the comments for our post about the fire at the Columbia Heights Metro station, another CH problem caught our eye - mail. Apparently some Columbia Heightsters (or Height-ites?) have been having issues with their snail mail. Much of the thread is spent wondering about which post office actually serves the Columbia Heights neighborhood. Is it the station at 14th & T, or the one on 18th St. at Kalorama? (answer: depends on your address,......

>>You are hereby ordered to step away from the desk and immediately proceed to the DAM! venue of your choice. >>If you're way too cool for that, check out the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum's event tonight. The best part? The inventor of the majestic Klingon language will be on hand. Qapla! >> Apparently it's hard to run for president without being master of your domain. [Yeas and Nays] >>Get ready to find those horny......

So suddenly it's chilly? Yesterday we were all sweaty messes, but today, with highs predicted to stay in the 60s, we're wearing sweaters. All this temperature-related confusion has led us to look longingly at the Southwest Airlines web site, since the airline finally began service from Dulles this morning. Cheap flights to Vegas are looking pretty sweet. And while we're of course very sad to be reminded of the demise of our hometown airline, we......

Earlier this week Matthew Yglesias took us to task for referring to a "Mid-City" part of town when discussing a campaign for a new Trader Joe's near U Street. Matt is actually quite wrong to suggest "shady real estate cabals" are the architects of the term Mid-City, but the fault for his misinformation is likely ours. You see, last winter we ran a post mocking the MidCity Business Association's moniker, basically accusing them of trying......

Remember when you used to go to a classmate's birthday party and Mom would hand out lists with things like "a red paperclip" and "an oak leaf," and then you'd break in your new Reeboks tearing around the streets and pestering the elderly neighbors so your team could make it back to homebase first with your collection? Well it seems the ever-growing community of Flickr users have found a way to recreate that game......

Members of the Kirov Opera and its Orchestra, normally in residence at the historic Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia, come to the Kennedy Center periodically to present touring productions of operas and other great pieces of music. Last night, we were in the Opera House to see the first performance of their staging of Giacomo Puccini's last and perhaps greatest opera, Turandot. It was an excellent show, with well-performed music and a splashy, colorful......

The U.S. government is soliciting bids for a potential renovation of the Old Post Office building, the Pennsylvania Avenue landmark which has held government offices since 1899. The General Services Administration is soliciting bids from companies interested in "redeveloping the OPO and its annex, the OPO alone or the annex alone," but the press release makes clear renovation by the private sector is anything but certain: "If GSA determines through its review that redevelopment is......

President Bush in his most recent State of the Union address said that he wanted to support the development of an "ownership society" where every American stands to benefit from the pride of owning something, whether it be a strong investment portfolio or a ranch with lots of brush to clear. In New York, D.C., and elsewhere, this ownership society includes the giant real estate conglomerates that hold a great deal of power in how......

Good morning, Washington. This photo is from KimTheWolf who posted the shot of a bed of yellow daffodils near the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 25th Street NW in DCist Photos. Although temperatures will be pleasant approaching 70 degrees, Capital Weather says that for Sunday, temperatures will be "downright chilly" in the low 50s. Kansas Senator Warns D.C. to Watch Its Step: Sen. Sam Brownback, the Kansas Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on......

Tomorrow is the dreaded day on which tax returns are due. But for District residents filing at the last minute, the grudging march to the post office is coupled with the indignity of knowing that the 600,000 some-odd residents do not enjoy full Congressional representation. Tomorrow the local pro-democracy activists at DC Vote will highlight the fact that District residents pay taxes ($14.6 billion in 2003) and serve in the armed forces (they have fought......

Considering the shocking violence at this weekend's Bhangra Blowout, it's safe to say that future such events, especially those held at federal buildings involving heavy drinking, will be placed under intense scrutiny. Three people were stabbed -- one fatally -- following a fight outside the Old Post Office Pavilion on Pennsylvania Avenue at 12th Street NW (at right). Here's the latest from the Post: A 5-foot-8 man of either Hispanic or Indian ethnicity, wearing a......

If you think this photo of the Navy Memorial and the Old Post Office Tower looks a little grainy, there's nothing wrong with your computer. It turns out part of Legoland California is an attraction called Miniland USA where the good people at Lego have built Lego versions of parts of New England, New York City, Florida, California, and Washington, D.C. (We discovered Miniland after reading on Gothamist they were planning on building a......

Two weekends back, DCist took a trip to the Old Post Office Pavilion. We weren't there to mingle with tourists in the food court, we went for the view. With the Washington Monument closed for security upgrades, the tower of the Old Post Office is the next best thing. Its free access and normally low traffic is one of the best relatively low-key tourist sites in the city. (Please note that the National Park Service's......

As part of security upgrades to the Washington Monument, the grounds will close until early next year, the Post reports. The multi-phased project to erect concentric rings of low concrete walls around the monument began last summer. The upcoming phase of construction aims to replace the monument plaza and regrade the grounds west of the obelisk. And if you're one to ride the Tourmobile around town, the Washington Monument stop has been moved to Madison......

No, this weekend's Ku Klux Klan rally in Sharpsburg didn't get this big of a turnout as this historical photo of a Nebraska KKK gathering suggests. In fact, only nine members of the KKK showed up on Saturday, the AP, via WTOP, reports. Why Sharpsburg? A Klan leader said they came because of a local uproar over the Klan's use of a Sharpsburg post office box for their mail. "If you're going to run your......