A maintenance worker found a grenade near the Carter Barron Amphitheater in Rock Creek Park early this morning. There's some confusion over whether the grenade is "live" or not -- the Post quotes a U.S. Park Police spokesperson as saying the grenade is genuine and not a toy, while WTOP has a source saying the grenade is live. An Army bomb squad is on the scene to deal with the device. 16th Street between Military......

View Larger Map A Hazmat team has responded to what's being described as a suspicious letter opened at the Deptartment of Veterans Affairs, located at 810 Vermont Ave. NW. There is a large police and EMS presence extending around McPherson Square, Lafayette Square and the White House as a result of the investigation. The letter is reportedly being tested for signs of anthrax as a precautionary measure. A decontamination tent has been set up, and......

Via a reader tip, Fox 5 reports that Greenpeace has taken responsibility for the polar bears that have been mistaken for suspicious packages around town over the last week. Indeed, if you go to the Greenpeace homepage, it turns out that not only was Greenpeace responsible, but they actually did it in collaboration with street artist Mark Jenkins -- so both of our guesses were correct! Greenpeace has unveiled a collaborative art project with well-known......

Flickr user benmiller23 spotted this polar bear installation, which looks very similar to the one that a bomb squad tore apart after shutting down surrounding streets and a Metro station in Columbia Heights today, on the National Mall on Thursday, Sept. 11. It's looking more and more like these bears are part of an elaborate campaign to raise awareness about the plight of polar bears amid global climate change. Another bear, spotted at what......

Metro says the Columbia Heights Metro station reopened at 11:45 a.m., "following a report of a suspicious package located outside the station." No mention of the bear at all. The station was closed for approximately an hour and 40 minutes. NBC4 says a neighborhood resident saw the bear between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. this morning, even though the police weren't called until 10. We've also heard that the bomb squad cut the bear open,......

Via the DCist tipline, we get this image from Irving and 14th Streets of an odd looking bear costume wearing tattered clothing and posed over a trash can. A lot of our readers are telling us this is the reason for the suspicious package alert. "Cops have the street blocked off and are standing around looking at it as of 9:30 am," the tipster wrote. Could this be another Aqua Teen Hunger Force moment?......

A suspicious package found outside the Columbia Heights Metro closed the station at 10:03 a.m. No one is being allowed inside the station, though WMATA says Green and Yellow line trains continue to operate, they just are not stopping at Columbia Heights. Free shuttle buses should be available between the Georgia Ave-Petworth and U St/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo stations.......

Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham sent the following email out to the Columbia Heights email list just before 1 p.m.: Dear Friends, At approximately 11:30 am, Target received a call there is an explosive device in the building. An off duty MPD officer working at Target received the call and reported it to Management. Management has evacuated the building as a result of what MPD says was a phone threat. 200 persons have......

The suspicious package incident that closed McPherson Square midday today is all cleared up as of about 3:45 p.m.. The park and surrounding roads have reopened after a hazardous materials crew found that containers left near a dumpster at 15th and I Streets NW did not contain anything dangerous.......

A suspicious package at 15th and K Streets NW has prompted police and hazardous materials responders to close off McPherson Square. The package in questions is reportedly some containers placed near a dumpster that appear to contain a chlorine-like substance. One reader tells us that fire trucks are lined up along 13th Street and that the MPD are clearing people out of the park. We'll update when we learn more. More: Current street closures due......

Hains Point is something of a peaceful getaway for the area's cyclists and runners -- generally free from vehicular traffic, the 3-mile loop also known as East Potomac Park is flat and affords views of the Washington Channel and the Potomac River. And while the park is nowhere near any of the city's office buildings or monuments, one cyclist recently learned not to assume that the U.S. Park Police that patrols it isn't sensitive to......