Our little corner of the world has a certain charm - the picturesque avenues and the historic structures give it a somewhat timeless feeling. Perhaps then, it's fitting that we adhere to laws which reference to somewhat-antiquated 20th century guidelines. It's part of our local character, and something that we're always subject to navigate - for instance, the rules requiring parking spaces in new developments that don't necessarily need or want them. That said, it......

Good morning, Washington. Getting going on a Monday is normally difficult enough, but we were having a few technological difficulties this morning as well, so thanks for your patience and bear with this truncated Morning Roundup while we get up to speed. Tax Scandal Triggers Reviews in Counties: Neighboring jurisdictions are apparently taking D.C.'s tax office scandal to heart and initiating big reviews of their agencies. Property tax revenues are slated to be scrutinized in......

David Beckham made his long-awaited MLS debut last night at RFK stadium, entering the game in the 72nd minute but unable to help his Los Angeles Galaxy overcome a 1-0 defeat to D.C. United. We will have a full post on the game later this morning, but in the meantime, how was your evening commute affected by the 46,686 soccer match attendees crowding into Metro? Police Move Not Really Canceled?: So says the Washington......

It's not exactly a banner day for D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier. The Examiner takes the chief to task a bit this morning for her latest "All Hands on Deck" initiative: four people were shot in the course of an hour during the second night of the effort, which also coincided with National Night Out events, and the force is seriously short handed today as well as Wednesday and Friday to avoid spending millions on......

Construction of the temporary building at Eastern Market has begun, though somewhat behind schedule. The Examiner reports that the estimated opening date of the temporary building that will house the South Market vendors has been pushed back to mid-August, even though Mayor Fenty promised the vendors they'd have a new home by the end of July. According to the article, delays in construction have been caused by delays in manufacturing of the steel for the......

Welcome back to work, Washington. This week promises not only to feel longer than normal thanks to its coming on the heels of a holiday, but also hot enough that you might want to consider setting up an ad-hoc shower in your office, as there's little chance you'll get there without breaking into a sweat first. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments has issued a Code Orange alert because of the heat wave, and......

The DC Independent Film Festival kicked off last night at the UDC campus. Here's a look at three films playing there this weekend (all films showing in the UDC auditorium, bldg. 46): Intellectual Property (81 min. -- Sunday, March 4, 6:55 p.m.) Intellectual Property, from director Nicholas Peterson, is a grimy paranoiac thriller that should seem familiar to fans of Dark City, Pi and Memento. Set in a claustrophobic McCarthyite society that could be the......

Well D.C., if you're reading this it means you're not one of the 3000 or so people in our area currently without power. NBC4 reported the outage in Foggy Bottom last night, although they focused on the problems for four ritzy hotels, rather than the 790 other folks left in the dark. D.C. Superior Court and the D.C. Court of Appeals are also closed today due to the lack of power. Then, there's the massive......

Many schools are still closed and roads and sidewalks still dangerously icy this morning as the region struggles to dig out of the winter storm that passed through earlier this week. Most of the really bad news continues to come out of the suburbs, where many homes are still without power, and injuries and at least one death have been reported. The Post has a good rundown of the extent of the metro area's ice......

What a beautiful weekend, eh? Except for a bit of rain on Saturday, the weather was, if I may say so myself without sounding like my grandmother, delightful. We hope you got out during it, as the city played host to a number of activities - the National Book Festival, Crafty Bastards, and a bit outside of town, the continuation of the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Which I went to, mainly to gawk at the......

There's a weird little comment thread going on over at the Post blog Raw Fisher, where columnist Marc Fisher has highlighted D.C. CFO Natwar Gandhi's recent annual address to Congress. The District of Columbia makes little sense as a going concern. It can't tax most of the people who work in the city. It has enormous responsibilities, including a large poor population with overwhelming needs and a federal government that demands all manner of special......

Good Morning, Washington. Looks like it's going to be a beautiful, if a tad hot, day. Highs should be up around 90, with the humidity and rain we've all been hearing about holding off at least until tomorrow. Initiative for Slots Off Ballot: For those of you who have been waiting for electronic slots to hit D.C., looks like you'll be waiting a bit longer. WTOP tells us that the PAC that has been working......

Whether we like it or not, planned communities and multi-family condos are becoming the future of the American landscape. Vanishing are the rural houses and the vast stretches of farmland – the McMansion has arrived to replace such quaint lifestyles. Documenting this loss is photographer Anne Rowland, whose exhibit Private Property at Hemphill Fine Arts, is a rush of nostalgia for her childhood home and an era that seems to be coming to a close.......

Puck Picks Penn Property for Newsy Noshing The second time I ever visited D.C., I saw a sign for the Newseum on I-66 and thought that it was the New-seum. I figured it was some kind of reverse museum that showcased all the stuff that was new, as in the latest in technology, science discoveries, and what have you. It turns out that it's a museum about the news (as if those elitists in that......

The Agenda's a little late this week, and we're awfully sorry to leave you hangin'. We've been expanding our regular visual arts coverage (hope you noticed), but in so doing got behind on our long-standing duties. Luckily, there's a slew of events this weekend to point out, so hopefully you'll forgive our tardiness and not throw any drinks in our faces when we see you at openings over the next few days. White wine may......

We spend plenty of time complaining about the state of the region's public transit network, be it delays on Metrorail, unpredictable arrival times for Metrobuses, or just too much traffic along area roadways. But at least we don't have to hitchhike to work. Today the Post features an entertaining feature on John Schindel, a Stafford County man whose decade-old DUI conviction has left him at the mercy of fellow motorists to get him to and......

Good morning, Washington. It looks like the dreary weather of the last few days has cleared out - today will be partly cloudy with temperatures in the mid 50s with no rain expected through the weekend. Unfortunately the dry weather came just a bit too late for this year's high heel race which nonetheless went forward last night in wet conditions. There are a few photos of the event already posted to DCist photos. Hearing......

Last Monday, the Post profiled ousted American University president Benjamin Ladner. Gina Maria Schulz, who served as "Personal Assistant to the First Lady" -- yes, Ladner's wife -- described the man as such: "He was the most ethical man I ever met." Ladner himself has this to say: "I do feel I've done what I've done with intentional integrity." How the Post's reporters didn't break out in hysterics is beyond us, given the emerging news......

District officials expressed relief last week when a Supreme Court ruling liberally interpreted the power of eminent domain to include taking private property and re-developing it to promote economic development -- a step seen as necessary for both the re-development of the Skyland strip mall and the construction of a new stadium for the Washington Nationals, both in Southeast. That feeling of relief may have been premature, though. Members of both parties in Congress have......

Thursdays seem to bring out the populist in many D.C. politicians, and heading into a sure-to-be contested 2005-2006 mayoral race, one can only think that it serves to shore up a candidate's credentials and their base of support. It worked for Juan and Eva Peron, at left, who ruled over Argentina from 1946-1955 with high levels of support from the country's poorest, so why not here? Mayor Williams and the Property Tax: The Post is......

The Howard University student newspaper The Hilltop has just finished its first week of daily publication. The change makes Howard University the first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to have a daily student newspaper. Editors at the award-winning 81-year-old paper told the Washington Informer they were inspired to switch from publication twice weekly to every weekday after meeting the editors of Wayne State University's South End. Editor-in-chief Ruth Tisdale told the Informer: "I thought......

Good morning. We start out this morning asking a question that Steven Pearlstein href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51558-2005Feb24.html">asks in his Post column: "Can someone explain to me why the capital of the richest and most powerful country in the world needs to be shut down by the mere threat of an eight-inch snowstorm?" Are we weather wimps? We think the answer is yes, but we grew up in a lake-effect snow belt, so we’re naturally critical when we see......

If you have any interest in the future of U Street and Shaw as a whole, the District’s Office of Planning and Economic Development and the Office of Planning is hosting a forum tonight on the future of planning in the neighborhoods, especially along the U Street and Seventh Street corridors in Northwest. The session will address "the redevelopment of key publicly-owned buildings and land, including the Howard Theatre and Grimke School on Vermont Avenue,......

Do you have any unclaimed property? The District has released its list of unclaimed property it holds, including "$14.5 million in cash and stock that needs to be returned to its rightful owners." According to the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, D.C.'s Unclaimed Property unit has a lot of other people's stuff, including: checking accounts, certificates of deposits, customer deposits and over-payments, gift certificates, paid-up life insurance policies, unpaid wages, commissions, uncashed checks, death......

Hotel Talks Off: The AP, via WJLA, reports that contract talks between the union representing hotel workers and their employers have gotten stuck and have broken off, a week before Inauguration Day when the city's top hotels will be filled with impressionable out-of-town visitors. More Moves for City's Homeless: The city will begin moving homeless families residing at the Federal City Shelter at Second and D streets NW to spots throughout the city. The Post......

(By DCist contributor Zoe Mitchell) According to a press release we've received, the activists who briefly occupied the Randall Shelter over Thanksgiving weekend are planning to drop by the Wilson Building today to listen in on a subcommittee's vote on the fate of the building, and perhaps take action. The Subcommittee on Human Rights, Latino Affairs and Property Management is scheduled to vote today at 3 p.m. on declaring the Randall Shelter surplus property. If......

D.C. Council Rejects Hazmat Shipment Measure: After there was a lot of support for legislation that would bar hazardous shipments from being transported through the District via rail, the D.C. Council rejected the emergency measure. The Post reports that the mayor's office believed that because of the way the legislation was written, it wouldn't have been able to survive a court challenge. The bill's opponents note that the most hazardous materials already bypass the city......

Landowners in Tysons Corner, Virginia are drooling over the development opportunities which an extension of the Metro might bring to their area. The federal government approved earlier this summer $59 million to conduct the engineering to plan an 11-mile Metrorail extension, which would run from Falls Church through Tysons Corner and then along the Dulles Toll Road to Wiehle Avenue. The extension, which could open as soon as 2009, would be the first part of......