‘Storm Damage’
courtesy of ‘Amber Wilkie Photography’

With the powerful summer storms over the last few weeks, several parts of DMV have been without power. The biggest outages occurred after the July 25th storms that left many Pepco customers without power for several days.

To prevent more outages of that scale, Pepco unveiled a $256.3m reliability plan that will be implemented over the next five years and help alleviate future concerns. Much of the plan (full PDF here) involves increasing the load capacity and substation improvements. Additionally, roughly 15 percent of that budget will be dedicated to “Enhanced Vegetation Management,” which may be the best euphemism in the world for yard work. Feel free to use it this weekend when you’re conquering your own backyard.

‘lobster being served’
courtesy of ‘ekelly80’

A hastily assembled Food Truck Tracker for Friday! Be sure to check in with the twitter list before you head out to the location.

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One of DC’s most diverse sounding and revered punk bands of the 80’s, Government Issue, is getting their final line-up back together again to play a benefit show at the Black Cat on December 11th. The benefit is to raise funds for DJ Stereofaith, a mainstay on the DC alternative-dance night scene with his parties “Sorted” and “Feedback”, who had emergency brain surgery earlier this summer.

Government Issue are no strangers to benefit reunions. In 2007, GI played a fantastic show to help their long-time lead singer John Stabb pay his medical bills after a viscious mugging. For this show the line-up will feature John Stabb, Tom Lyle, J. Robbins, Pete Moffett. Tickets are onsale now through the Black Cat’s website.

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Next month one of DC’s most anticipated events will hit Georgetown for an evening of food, fashion, and fun.  The District Sample Sale Foundation will hold its eighth installment of the District Sample Sale on Thursday September 16th from 5:30-9:30pm.

So I’m pretty much loving the sound of this…over 20 of the city’s designer clothing and shoe boutiques bring their end-of-the-season stock just for you and for up to 90% off!  You can even catch some current-season items for discounted prices.  You and your girlfriends can also enjoy cocktails, hors d’ouevres, and the Relaxation Station, a new addition that will provide the much-needed break that shopping till’ you drop can require.

Founded by Real Housewife of DC Mary Schmidt Amons, Shannon Haley, Liberty Jones, Barbara Martin and Jayne Sandman, the event has raised thousands of dollars for local charities.  This fall, the GW Mammovan is the chosen benificiary.  The Mammovan is a mobile digital mammogram screening service that has served over 19,000 local women to date (and detected 71 cases of breast cancer).

Tickets are going quick, so make sure you get yours today at www.districtsamplesale.com.  General admission is $40, VIP tickets are $100, Benefactress sponsor tickets are $250, and Corporate Benefactress tickets are $600.  If you happen to be VIP or a Benefactress guest (for only up to 200 guests), you will receive a paperless goodie bag and an extra hour of private access to get first dibs on all the goodies.  While you’re at the website you can also check out a list of participating stores and sponsors.  Happy shopping!

The Phillips Collection, in collaboration with Bluebrain and The Pink Line Project, is seeking your Snowpocalypse stories for a Bluebrain performance at their End of Summer White Party on August 26th. You can share your story via voice at 202-464-2260, or text at whiteoutdc@gmail.com

We get it. Our Washington is so awesome that you want to just assume that it’s what everyone means, even if they’re talking about that state that spawned that corporate coffee operation. But I have to say, I’m not aware of any time in the past we got mistaken for Kansas.

Etsy vendor themap makes cool stuff but it’s a little better with the crafting than the identifying. I can only assume the scrap of map they used to make their not-actually “Washington DC Map Stainless Steel Money Clip” wasn’t obvious where it was in the larger scheme of things. I forgive them – it’s not their beloved they’re mis-identifying.

Some of you whose tumblrs I found it on, however? Tsk. You can’t pick out our sweetie at a distance?

Inspired by How I Met Your Mother, Photoshopped by DL

Sure, it’s a band I’m in and often discuss way too often, but I’m still pretty excited to be one-third of The Greensides as we take the stage tonight at the Rookery. Come for the beers and the crowd, stay because the music is just fun. Here, I’ll even offer a sample to prove that we have some killer harmonies:

The show kicks off at 10 p.m., so it may be late for a school night, but, come on, it’s a Thursday in August in D.C. Find me at the gig and say your a We Love DC reader and I may dedicate a song to you. May. I’ll probably just toast you and thank you for the support and readership. But you won’t know unless you show up.

‘First Snap’
courtesy of ‘Tony DeFilippo’

If you’ve been stalking college football’s offseason, you’ll know that one of the biggest early season games is happening right here in town. Boise State, a mid-major powerhouse (isn’t that an oxymoron?) and a preseason darling that could contend for the national title will be making their way across the nation to face off with one of the strongest and most consistent college football teams of the last decade, Virginia Tech. The Hokies will have somewhat of a home game on September 6th as local fans will head out to one of the two NCAA games that FedEx will host this season.

Don’t have tickets? SBNation has a pretty sweet deal that is worth checking out this week: club seats that normally run for $100 are available for only $60. Both of these teams are top ten ranked to start the season, and if you are interested in going, head over to footballticketpad.com and book your LFC tickets as early as possible.

‘my lobstah roll’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Those of you who love food trucks (and who doesn’t, really?) have probably heard by now that there are some dealings afoot that would restrict where food trucks can park and potentially threaten the ability of food truck proprietors to operate.

The regulation in question is Title 24, Chapter 5 of the DC Code. Right now, most of those regulations pertain to stationary food carts, the ubiquitous hot dog stands. Aside from rule 516, which specifies that a mobile vendor can’t stay in one place longer than it takes to complete the transaction with a customer and that businesses like ice cream trucks that attract children have to park near crosswalks when possible, there’s just not that much attention paid to mobile vendors. Continue reading →

”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

If you can’t tell from the deafening silence, there’s not a lot going on here at WLDC HQ. Maybe it’s people bailing out their basements after all the rain or perhaps all our writers are putting together their resumes for the next round of rampant online news hiring, this time by Bloomberg.

So go catch a flick at a seriously discounted price. I hadn’t realized that KGB had expanded beyond the annoying television commercial market and into the burgeoning online discount sale business, but whatddaya know – today they have $4 AMC/Lowes tickets for DC-area theaters. It’s a great deal and there are several spots to use em – Georgetown, Shirlington, the Uptown and more.

Maybe when you’re done with that overrated Inception thing we’ll have something else to tell you…

‘Census #4’
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

It’s not really the point of the story so I can’t blame the WaPo for putting it at the end of the article, but I do take issue with their phrasing. “Police declined to release their booking photos.”

“Declined.” Like when you ask your neighbor if you can borrow his lawn mower. Except that this isn’t their lawn mower, it’s everyone’s – or at least every Virginian’s. The Virginia Freedom of Information Act is very clear that information up to and including mug shots are to be released upon request, minus this exception:

Adult arrestee photographs when necessary to avoid jeopardizing an investigation in felony cases until such time as the release of the photograph will no longer jeopardize the investigation;

Since the names of the arrested women were released there doesn’t seem to be a danger to the investigation – just more of Fairfax’s long tradition of ignoring FOIA law.

It is a bit of a break from tradition for them to hold back the name of the “victim” in this case, a man who was blackmailed only after he tried to trade sex for money. I.e., solicitation of prostitution, something Fairfax is normally delighted to tie to a name to even before conviction.

Why are you protecting this person, FCPD? Why wasn’t he charged? You’re comfortable charging both parties when a john is assaulted, what gets this sleazy landlord a pass?

‘Papa, Mama & Baby Bombs’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’

Did you realize that Virginians are subject to laws regarding missile use? No chemically-propelled rocket was in play here, fortunately for Ms Sturge but unfortunate for those of us reporting interesting incidents. It seems that the Virgina code simply calls thing flung at folks “missiles.”

MISSILE INTO AN OCCUPIED DWELLING-ARREST 08/11/10, 5100 block of S. 8th Road. On August 11 at 10 pm, a woman threw a ring of keys through the living room window in an attempt to hit the male inside. Makeba Sturge, 23, of Arlington, was charged with Throwing a Missile Into an Occupied Dwelling, and given a $500 bond.

I guess “throwing stuff at people through windows” lacked legal panache.

Images courtesy of the Shakespeare Theater Company

As we told you earlier, Free for All starts tomorrow and you can put your name in the hat starting at midnight. Which doesn’t get you any more of a shot at winning than putting it in tomorrow at 12:59p right before the drawing, so get some sleep, huh?

If you’ve got rugrats impeding your sleep already then you might want to come by the Harman on Saturday, little one(s) in tow. From 10a to 2p there will be “free, family-friendly activities” which the STC describes as:

Project Shakespeare, an activity station where young people can audition for, design and rehearse some of Shakespeare’s most dramatic scenes. Budding directors will have the opportunity to design their own set and costumes to fit the concept they choose to apply to Twelfth Night, whether it’s set under the sea or in outer space. Some of STC’s directors will be present to help run rehearsals, as they would before any Company debut. Headshots will be taken and the novice actors and actresses will complete their experience with a walk down the red carpet to greet their fans and paparazzi!

Based on my experience with kids I’d say that this proves that “family friendly” isn’t necessarily the same as “child entertaining,” but you know your sprog better than we do. I know kids who would love this and others that would chew their own arm off to get away. If you’ve taken your little one to this event in the past let us know what you thought of the entertainment factor – who’s going to want to take their kid and who should steer clear?