By Katie
‘April 036’
courtesy of ‘krisandapril’
Cornel West is at Union Station in the bookstore signing his latest book. I got a little teenybopper and squee-ish on him, cause I wrote my senior exit paper on his influence on Lupe Fiasco‘s Food and Liquor. So if you’re in the area, and love you some Mr. West, well then, you’re in luck. He’ll also be appearing at Busboys & Poets tonight.
By Rebecca
‘Battle of the Beltways’
courtesy of ‘brianmka’
The Nationals’ Screech? Or the Orioles’ The Bird?
Well, in the battle over D.C. TV ratings, our neighbors to the north have won. According to the Washington Business Journal, “D.C. is the only TV market in the country where a team from another city (the O’s) gets better ratings than the hometown team.” That’s sad.
What’s sadder still is that the two teams combined for 201 losses. :(
By Katie
‘We’re Cooking’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’
I’ll be honest with you, reader. I just didn’t feel like putting together foodie round-up today, but I didn’t want to leave you hanging. So instead, like a good food blogger, I decided to write about the flurry of restaurants expected to open this month. So on with you, we’ve got greek, latin-asian fusion, a gastropub, and beer drinker’s heaven coming atcha in October. Continue reading
By Tom Bridge
The Alexandria Police have caught the Wachovia Robber, according to their Facebook Page (now there’s a line I thought I’d never write.) After a 10:30am robbery of the branch on King Street in the Bradlee Center, a large police search took place, which included lockdowns at Frances Hammond Middle School, T.C. Williams High School Minnie Howard Campus, and T.C. Williams High School. Tweets indicated odd activity in the Bradlee center area, and it seems that the robber was caught shortly thereafter.
Crazy to see stuff like this go down in the neighborhood just next to mine! Glad they’ve got a suspect in custody.
By Tom Bridge
There are approximately 150-200 Anti-War Protestors in the intersection at 14th & I St NW, blocking traffic and obstructing free movement near the intersection. There are approximately 30 of DC’s Finest hanging out with them as well. No word yet how quickly they’ll be dispersed, but a several-block traffic jam is occurring at this time.
[Update by Ben H. Rome] I managed to get caught in the protest by the “Students for Democratic Society.” Supposedly it was against the war in Afghanistan, but I overheard several different reasons as to what it was about, depending on which student was being interviewed. The war, education reform, health care, “party rights” (WTF?), reefer legalization… All I could really figure out was that a bunch of students decided to make some signs, go marching down some erratic route with a police escort (that got larger as they progressed) and finally stop in the middle of Eye St. NW between 14th and 15th, blast some dance music from a portable jury-rigged setup and dance. Stupidly. In the middle of the rush hour.
Oh, and dressed as a farm animal, in one case.
Needless to say, several motorists let the kids know what they thought about their “protest.” In words I’d rather not repeat.
By Tom Bridge
‘metro’
courtesy of ‘spiggycat’
Metro announced this afternoon that the repairs of track circuits between Fort Totten and Takoma Park have been completed, ending the last of the emergency maintenance after the crash this summer. This means that trains will be permitted to operate at their usual speeds through the area, and not under the degraded speed that they have been using during the repairs.
It’s not immediately clear if this will permit a return to Automatic Train Operation mode, which would return the Red Line to full speed, but we’ve asked Metro to clarify the situation.
Metro will still be working at Fort Totten and Takoma Park on the weekends, however, as part of regularly scheduled maintenance, and trains will single-track through that area in the late evenings. With the longer delays between trains in the late evening, though, additional delays are unlikely.
Update: ATO is still off-limits until the NTSB Report comes back, which would give a conclusive ruling as to what caused the accident.
By Tom Bridge
The last few mornings in Chinatown have been interrupted just before noon with the sounds of a student protest walking by the coffee shop, with numerous students carrying signs and wearing their school’s colors. The loss of 400 staff members from DCPS is the issue, and the result of a $40M budget shortfall, as announced by Chancellor Michelle Rhee. The shortfall itself is the subject of controversy, with Councilmember Barry coming out to suggest that the Chancellor is lying about the shortfall.
Chancellor Rhee is trying to clear the record up, and appeared this morning in a 6 minute segment on NBC 4 displayed above. A few of the myths and legends associated with the situation are the subject of the interview. To be clear, one of the unaddressed questions appear to be: Did DCPS focus the reductions in force on teachers with some amount of seniority, or were these across the board cuts?
By Tom Bridge
‘All that remained from our block of hell’
courtesy of ‘tomeppy’
Borderstan was on top of things this weekend when a body was found inside a building that moonlights as a gay and bi-sexual male sex club at 14th and Corcoran near Logan Circle. One of the commenters on the entry suggests that the death may have been the result of an accidental fall on one of the staircases inside the building. Another is requesting anyone with information about the fall (which took place around 5am on Sunday morning) get in touch with Detective Patterson at 202-645-7065.
This isn’t the first incident at the club, a fire broke out in 2005. I had no idea that Sex Clubs were totally a thing in DC, but judging by this gridskipper map, I’m totally wrong. Huh. Who’d’ve thunk?
By Rebecca
Fire trucks arrive
At around 7pm last night, an elderly driver crashed into the underground garage entrance of the Whole Foods at 2323 Wisconsin Avenue NW. Details are still emerging as to what caused the accident, but The Examiner reports that the elderly woman driving the car had minor injuries, there were no other injuries reported and that the building structure suffered minor damages.
According to an eyewitness report, who was in the Whole Foods by the meat counter, there was a loud collision-like noise and a rumble from the impact. Immediately, a Whole Foods employee came running up the garage stairwell, yelling for the entire store to clear out and customers began heading (in a somewhat civil manner) to the Wisconsin Avenue exit.
When I interviewed a Whole Foods’ employee, who was a witness to the accident, they said the elderly driver had been coming down the garage entrance and had sped directly into the wall. The employee speculated that perhaps the driver had stepped on the gas instead of the brake. From the picture I took from the top of the garage ramp (which is as good as I could get from my pauper cell phone,) the entire front of the driver’s car was smashed in, indicating to me, that the car was going very fast at the time of impact. That no one was seriously injured in the accident is a great fortuity considering the amount of Whole Foods’ employees and customers present at this high volume shopping time. Continue reading
By Tom Bridge
”
courtesy of ‘Nicole Aguirre’
We’re late to the party on this one, and a lot of the supporting material for this post has been consigned to the Google Cache, but a video was posted to YouTube, and then removed, of two local guys, possibly students at Georgetown, jumping off the Key Bridge. The original video has been pulled, and a couple posts have been scrubbed from their original locations, at the request of third parties possibly related to the original jumpers. The conflict appears to be related to some negative attention due to the now-absent video, and the move to cover up a stunt that was caught on video.
That’s some serious height there, and you’ve got to think that someone willing to jump off is a little bit crazy, or a lot stupid. Either way, why the cover up?
By Tom Bridge
A suspicious package placed in the night deposit box of the Wachovia Bank at the intersection of 9th and Penn has the whole area shut down to traffic, from 7th and Penn to 10th and Penn and from 9th and E to 9th and Constitution. Avoid the area, and watch @dcfireems for updates.
By Rebecca
‘New Social Safeway Coming Soon to Burleith’
courtesy of ‘TreyDanger’
The Social Safeway has gone all social media on us, and got themselves a website. Yes, we’re still only about half way through the nine month long renovation, but now we can track progress and developments.
The site offers a real time WEBCAM with time lapse, split screen and overlay functions, schematics of the supermarket and commercial area, and photos detailing the new and improved department offerings.
As a regular user of the former Social Safeway, I am pumped for the new grocery store and the additional offerings it will bring to an already vibrant and awesome DC neighborhood.
By Tom Bridge
‘passenger’s view’
courtesy of ‘NCinDC’
The Post now has the details of Loza’s indictment:
The indictment says that Individual Number 1 hoped to limit the number of taxicab licenses issued by the District government and to create an exception for hybrid vehicles under D.C. law. Such licenses would become increasingly valuable if they were limited in number, the indictment says.
It’s not clear who Individual Number 1 is at this time.
By Tom Bridge
‘George Gordon Meade’
courtesy of ‘NCinDC’
DC Wire is reporting that Councilman Jim Graham’s Chief of Staff Ted Loza was arrested this morning on Federal Bribery charges. He’s due in court this afternoon.
More as this gets updated.
Update, 1:06pm: The Wilson Building is now playing host to several FBI agents who are searching Loza’s office and computers, with the assistance of the DC Government and DC Employees.
By Tom Bridge
‘TaylorFire1-8-17-09-MikeChaveas’
courtesy of ‘Coconino National Forest’
This is what it looks like when planes drop fire retardant. Load after load into the forests of the Western US when there’s a forest fire burning not far away. The difficult conditions of fighting fires in the west, where forests can be millions of acres, have lead to airplane tankers, smokejumpers who parachute in to fight the fire, and all manner of difficult and expensive techniques to prevent rampaging forest fires. However, the US Forestry Service has shunted $3M from wildland fire management to creating green jobs in DC.
While I am certainly thankful for jobs in the District, wouldn’t it make more sense not to steal them from areas that need the funding to make sure their houses don’t burn to the ground?
By Tom Bridge
A suspicious package has closed Massachusetts Avenue between California Avenue NW and 24th St NW. MPD is responding now. DC Fire & EMS has tweeted the object is a backpack, but there’s “no associated threat”, which I take to mean there’s been no one calling in threats related to the backpack or the area.
There’s also a second evacuation taking place at 901 7th Street: “susp package envelope @ 901 7th st NW some evac taking place” according to DC EMS. Ah suspicious packages, I really do loathe you.
Update, 9:52a: Massachusetts Avenue has now been reopened after both packages were evaluated and neither deemed a threat.
By Kirk
‘chauffeur’
courtesy of ‘NCinDC’
As of yesterday, 1000 DC cabbies, about 1/8th of the city’s drivers, are on strike. They are protesting the Council’s proposal to instate a medallion system, similar to that of New York City, on taxi drivers in the district. Medallions are essentially a system of licensing for cab drivers. The city will offer a set number of medallions that drivers will have to pay for on a monthly basis. The Council asserts that this will limit the number of taxis in the DC and is important to protecting the transport industry in the city (or maybe its just a simple revenue generator for the city?). The striking cabbies fear that medallions will cut their profits and make it impossible for individuals and small businesses to operate. Public hearings on the proposal are scheduled for October 1.
By Kirk
‘Cosmos Club’
courtesy of ‘NCinDC’
Carol Joynt of the New York Social Dairy thinks that she may know who the “Real” Housewives of DC will be. Based on her inside knowledge, she has a list of five socialites that are likely to be on Bravo’s upcoming reality show. The ladies in question are: Mia Abdo, supposedly one of DC’s best dressed; Mary Amons, founder of “District Sample Sale”; Lynda Erkiletain, owner of DC’s top modeling agency (we have modeling agencies?); Michaela Salahi, a former model and wife of a wealthy vintner; and Lisa Spies, wife of Republican fundraiser Charlie Spies. That fact that I’ve only heard of one of these women is a badge that I wear with honor. Hopefully, reality TV will leave us alone sooner rather than later.
By Kirk
‘meaty goodness’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’
Sadly, an icon of my childhood is no more. Generous George’s Positive Pizza and Pasta Place closed the doors of its Alexandria restaurant for good, on Sunday. Fortunately, George’s maintains a second location, in Herndon, which will stay open. The legend will live on, even if the more convenient location doesn’t. When I was younger, Generous George’s was a frequent after-church lunch spot for my family and I. I honestly haven’t been back in years, so I can’t really say whether the place was good or not, but to my 11-year old taste buds, the pizza was excellent. Plus, the individual pitchers of soda were awesome. Farewell, Alexandria location of Generous Georges’s Positive Pizza and Pasta Place. You will be missed
By Tom Bridge
‘A shotgun story’
courtesy of ‘tombothetominator’
Okay, I get that people need to transport guns all over the place, and I definitely support their second amendment right to do so, but there’s appropriate ways to do it, and then there’s stupid ways to do it. This is a blog post, so you can guess which way Delonte West of the Cleveland Cavaliers chose to do it.
That’s right. He was carrying a handgun in his waistband, another on his ankle, and he had a shotgun in his guitar case. And he was on his motorcycle on the beltway when he was pulled over for erratic driving. He will face charges for carrying a handgun while driving come November. Apparently the police decided his shotgun in a guitar case doesn’t face a charge. Seriously, why don’t these people hire someone to transport their weapons for them safely? This is such a no-brainer. Why the hell would you need to carry three guns on your motorcycle? Isn’t a sedan more appropriate? Then you can put them in cases so they don’t go off inside your pants, Plaxico Burress-style.