Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter and local resident Tim Weiner won the National Book Award's nonfiction category for Legacy of Ashes: The History of the C.I.A., a sweeping 600-page critical history of the agency with a particular emphasis on the intelligence failures that have occurred during the agency's relatively short period of existence. "Legacy of Ashes," writes Weiner, “is the record of the first sixty years of the Central Intelligence Agency. It describes how......

Just a few days ago there was a flurry of sarcasm over the launch of DipNote, the comically named, poorly designed and dubiously intentioned new official State Department blog. It's fair to say that its arrival was met in the larger blogosphere with a resounding thud, though whether there might be anything worthwhile content-wise in its existence seems worth going back to check at least a few times. Now there's another new government blog being......

Though it is not yet recognized as such by the jazz audience at large, the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival's organizers have achieved their goals of mounting a world class festival by assembling a roster of top flight talent, which includes Latin jazz legend and festival artistic adviser Paquito D'Rivera (pictured). These jazz greats will grace stages across the city over the course of the nine day festival, which begins on September 9 with a Taiko......

So who do you turn to if you're an embattled administration facing an unpopular war, bitter criticism both at home and abroad, an exodus of senior staff, and the barrel of a long year's worth of lame ducked-ness? A retired general? Nope. A political mastermind? Nah, that would be too easy. Perhaps a captain of industry? They're too busy starting and running multi-billion dollar foundations. Well, then how about someone who made his name by......

>> Bobby Boswell sounds off with a strongly worded criticism against ESPN's refusal to acknowlege a fantastic game of soccer in favor of nonstop coverage from the "Beckham Cam." [D.C. Sports Bog] >> Fare thee well, Rock Creek Rambler. >> Late Wednesday afternoon, a portion of the ceiling on the underside of the outdoor overhang in the “lower plaza” area of the State Department's Columbia Plaza complex fell down, damaging several cars parked underneath.......

When you find yourself cupping the balls of a bull, you know your life has taken a turn for the weird. At least, that's what Stephanie Garibaldi found after spending time in a Mayan village, just after deciding Ivy League College was not for her. Garibaldi's is one of four stories involving faith and self-discovery showcased in Chocolate Jesus. The work is performed by regulars from SpeakeasyDC, a monthly storytelling night featuring seasoned regulars and......

The Associated Press has discovered the one thing State Department employees are more frightened of than a backlog of passport applications: wasps! Cicada-killer wasps to be precise, which have infested areas around the State Department's headquarters at the Harry S. Truman building on C Street NW. A memo obtained by the AP tries to calm the fears of Stateys regarding the menacing looking wasps by pointing out that they are "generally not aggressive and do......

Dear Hillary Clinton and Dick Cheney: feel free to do embarrassing things in public today. D.C.'s celebrity (and we use that term loosely) photogs are probably following around real celebs -- well, at least Angelina Jolie. Yesterday the Examiner gave us the heads-up on a litany of famous-outside-the-Beltway folks traipsing around town this week. So if you're a little tired of running into Nicolas Cage filming National Treasure 2, keep your eyes peeled for these......

The Examiner has a good news/bad news story today, reporting that while more D.C. students are taking Advanced Placement exams, they're failing in numbers much higher than the national average. Twenty-two per cent more students took AP exams in 2006 compared to the year before — quite a jump — but only 10% are passing. Our neighbors in Maryland and Virginia not only have near the highest participation in the country, but their students pass......

When architects, developers, and laborers set about transforming the former Columbia Hospital for Women into the massive Columbia Residences complex at the intersection of 25th Street, L Street, and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, they placed the area within a protective cocoon of chain-link fences. Inside the fences, just across L Street from the back door of Marcel's restaurant, went a little-known monument commemorating a joint international agreement to reduce military forces patrolling the Great Lakes. With......

Though we usually feature our Flickr photogs here, this one was too good to pass up. This morning at National Geographic downtown, folks from their Kids magazine went for broke — setting the Guinness World Record for number of stuffed animals gathered in one place. Two-thousand, three hundred and four, to be exact. Preciousness rose to new highs in the room lined on every wall with teddy bears and smiling gorillas, as the record verification......

What's better than happy hour? Maps with lots of happy hours. Thanks to Google Maps, there are a few drunken mashup sites that map bar specials in D.C. for that special time of day. The two we've found, Unthirsty.com and Drinktown.com show user-submitted happy hours around the country and detail the food and drink specials each day. Unthirsty even says if there's patio seating or wi-fi, in case you want to do some tipsy instant......

Two years ago, I heard an interesting piece on public radio about a one-woman play that was in the middle of a critically successful run at Manhattan Ensemble Theater. I had missed the introduction of the segment but listened raptly as the author, whose voice sounded very familiar, described how she had come to write a show about the lives of Iraqi women during the American military occupations. My jaw hit the floor at the......

As you know, DCist is a hungry media powerhouse. So, when we moved into our marbled Hall of Justice-like complex in Dupont Down Under, we insisted that our lair contain a state-of-the-art cafeteria. According to the internal memo sent to "All DCists," we included a cafeteria because we wanted our staff of thousands to have quick access to a reasonably priced meal. But you've got to realize that that's only partially true. Even though......

The weeks starts out right when a sucker punch on the field lands Chicagoist in the middle of a Sox/Cubs throwdown and the fists continue to fly in the comments. Despite suburban resident Ms. Pinney's best little try no books will be banned anytime soon and the El is really really gross. Houstonist is there to start compiling the punditry when when the guilty, guilty Enron verdict comes down. This guy seems to be able......

>> The Washington D.C. Human Trafficking Meetup which tonight hosts freelance photographer Kay Chernush in the Langston Room at Busboys and Poets. Chernush will present photos she took while on assignment for the U.S. State Department in India, Thailand, Italy and Hong Kong in 2005 for their annual Trafficking in Persons Report which "serves as the primary diplomatic tool through which the U.S. Government encourages other countries to help fight forced labor, sexual exploitation, and......

It was a tantalizing prospect. The news that Walter Reed Army Medical Center would close in 2011 had District residents and officials dreaming of the possible uses for the 113 acres of land located between 16th Street and Georgia Avenue in residential Northwest Washington. Getting their hands on the land was always a longshot, however, and news organizations are reporting today that the Feds have lowered the boom on the idea -- deciding instead to......

Written by DCist contributor Andrew Wiseman A good-sized but not overly energetic crowd gathered on the National Mall this Sunday for the Save Darfur rally. Enjoying the beautiful Sunday weather, a few thousand ethnically and geographically diverse folks heard politicians, religious leaders, former basketball player Manute Bol, George Clooney and father Nick, and others talk about the need for action in the Darfur region of the Sudan. Darfur, the western-most province of the Sudan,......

The official date for the start of the tourist flood is but a few weeks away, but traffic here at Overheard in D.C. has already picked up and we have a steady stream of submissions coming in. For this, we thank you from the bottom of our cold, dark hearts. Hear something too good to keep to yourself? Share it with us at overheardindc (at) gmail (dot) com. Quote of the Week At a party......

District music fans – looks like someone has a case of the mundays! Nothing will cheer you up like a few rounds on the local music scene, and we’ve got your back. Monday >> Who says DCist doesn’t cover hip-hop? Be sure to check out the rhymes of Cool Cee Brown (pictured) and his CD release party tonight at DC9. Joining him will be Jamila, Heron Gibran, Asheru, and W. Ellington Felton, and DJ 2......

Driving up Massachusetts Avenue beyond Dupont Circle and Sheridan Circle one quickly comes across Embassy Row -- the expanse of real estate stretching up towards the National Cathedral occupied primarily by the embassies and residences of the many countries that maintain diplomatic relations with the U.S. And while the houses and buildings speak of stately tradition, what happens within may not. Law students at American University's Washington College of Law are taking to the courts......

Today Transit on Thursday will focus on one issue -- public officials and public transit -- to allow for an exclusive interview we are finishing up for tomorrow. We caught up with Dennis Jaffe, a Sierra Club volunteer whose tireless work all but created the newly-formed Riders Advisory Council. We're picking his brain, and we'll have that on tap tomorrow. In the meantime, can anyone guess to what metro system the above picture belongs?......

Feeling a little squeezed in on Metro these days? It's not just your imagination -- there really are more people riding the rails these days, according to the Examiner. High gas prices have pushed more and more people onto Metro, further crowding a transit agency already experiencing record high ridership. While eight-car trains have been tested on various lines in recent weeks and used during busy weekends, the crowd-thinning longer trains won't be in full......

Today will be mostly sunny with highs in the lower 90s. This photo was taken after a thunderstorm earlier in the week and was posted to DCist Photos by Olivia. Tonight is the monthly blogger meetup. In Virginia's primary yesterday less than 4 percent of registered voters turned out, Republicans selected Jerry W. Kilgore to run against Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine for governor. Post: Smoking Ban Gaining The Post (and the Examiner)describe today......

When we were walking up Wisconsin Avenue earlier today, we came across some protesters standing outside Studio Infinity at W Place in Glover Park. Our first thought was, what's the deal, are the people protesting cruelty to older people? (When this DCist used to live nearby, Glover Park residents often gawked at the large oversized posters in the window of the wellness center showing an older woman on an awkward wooden contraption that always looked......

[Editor's Note: We're happy to bring to you the long-planned-for DCist Interview. Many of our sibling sites have used their Interview to find, meet and write about some of the most interesting people who reside in their respective cities. And we plan to do the same, so if you know of a townie, other locals or interesting transient, e-mail staff [at] dcist [dot] com.] Name: Jeremy Barber Age: 28 Location: U Street Corridor Jeremy Barber......

Before the City Paper makes the web version of last week's cover story inaccessible for general viewing, be sure to take a look at its article "Don't Shoot." In it, the CP went around to the city's more secure federal facilities to see whether security officers would allow them to take photos. The CP had some interesting results. While they ran into problems shooting the Independence Avenue headquarters for the Federal Aviation Administration, DCist had......

We came across this image from some sort of University of Oregon research page on urban heat islands. While a political pundit may try to say that Congress or the White House is full of hot air, it may in fact be the Pentagon. Examining this undated map, here are some locations in near the center of the city that produce a lot of heat. - the Pentagon - Department of Agriculture - Department of......

There are shocking charges of espionage along the banks of the Potomac. A former State Department official is in a whole host of trouble for making secret trips to Taiwan (something that is sure to irk Beijing because of Foggy Bottom's official One-China policy), but also passing documents to Taiwanese agents in Washington. The Post's front page story indicates that the FBI observed Donald Keyser, "one of the nation's leading experts on China" passing government......

DCist is a big fan of Five Guys burgers. We're sure there are healthier things out there for you, but damn they're good. (Feel free to chime with your favorite burgers in town.) But the historian in us makes us feel sort of sad with the arrival of Five Guys in Georgetown for a piece of Cold War history has been lost: The Vitaly Yurchenko Memorial Bathroom. It was at the old Au Pied du......