Congratulations to everyone at DCist, which celebrated its fifth anniversary last night with a hilarious cake.

Photo by woodley wonderworks / CC BY 2.0

This is not a eulogy. Just because G Fine Art, the anchor gallery of the 1515 arts building on 14th Street, will be shutting its doors at the end of its current show, it doesn't mean that its influential director, Annie Gawlak, will disappear forever. But even though G Fine Art has a little more than a week left, its artists are already speaking in the past tense. Of the five stages of grief, it seems that they've already fast-tracked it to acceptance.

That may be because G Fine Art's closing, in a struggling economy, did not come as a surprise.
Read More "Farewell, G Fine Art" »

HAPPENING NOW: Judge Frederick H. Weisberg has found Banita Jacks guilty of the murder of her four daughters. The Post reports:

Weisberg convicted Jacks on four counts of felony murder in the girls' deaths. Weisberg also found Jacks guilty of first-degree premeditated murder in the deaths of the three youngest girls but acquitted her on the premeditated murder of her oldest daughter. She also was found guilty on lesser charges, including child cruelty.

No word yet on what happened with yesterday's last-minute insanity appeal. More forthcoming.

AFI'd out after Silverdocs? Let Cillian Murphy resuscitate your interest. His work in the British zombie film 28 Days Later, which kicked off the Unholy Zombie Cinema Revival, is cutting edge even by George Romero's indeterminable standards. City Lights contributor Matt Siblo digs a little deeper in his pick for tonight, arguing that the movie's zombies "managed to provide a chilling and timely rumination on a post-9/11 society—while scaring the living crap out of you."

Do yourself a favor--read the entire 28 Days Later pick and watch some film clips. Then go see the movie.

NBC 4 Washington has the live video.

Comes this dispatch, via Dr. Gridlock:

A Red Line Metrorail train derailed at 5:10 p.m. approaching Fort Totten in the Shady Grove-bound side. Trains are turning back at Brookland and Takoma....Metro says that shuttle bus service has been requested to bridge the gap between Takoma and Brookland.

There are reports of injuries. Developing.

UPDATE, 5:35 P.M.: This seems quite a bit worse than a minor derailment. WJLA-TV reports:

Metro confirms two trains have collided on the Red Line between the Takoma and Fort Totten stations. It happened close to the Fort Totten station, a Metro spokesperson said.

D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Alan Etter said one train was on top of the other train.

This is "developing into a mass casualty event," Etter said. "We're expecting a number of injuries. We're not aware of any fatalities at this point."

Update, 5:46 p.m.: ABC News/News Channel 8 is reporting one fatality. Reporter Brad Bell saw the fatality being taken from the accident scene. At least nine people injured. The fatality appears to be a male. Many passengers still stuck inside metro cars. Fire Department spokesman Alan Etter confirms one dead on WTOP.

Here is the official Metro alert:

"Metro reports that 2 train collided and one train is on top of the other train.  Metro reports massive injuries at this time. The green line and the red line are affected. Further information to follow."

It looks like the accident ocurred just beyond the Fort Totten stop.

Read More "Red Line Trains Collide Near Fort Totten: Deadliest Crash In Metro History" »

A timeless episode, in which Erik sifts through a deep pile to give props to the Post's Ready to Rent advertorial supplement ("a humdinger of a publication") and to Asian Fortune ("you can't beat this magazine, folks") for its snazzy, bloggy layout and its treatment of evergreen stories. The black sheep? None other than the InTowner, which Erik upbraids for flacking for a brokerage firm.

Inspirational quote: "Good on Asian Fortune for dealing with an ages-old issue here...this could be 1880 for all I know!"

This week's episode—a must-watch!—centers on the Examiner's super-late scoop on the whole "D.C. ranks number 1 in cocaine use" thing (hey, even we got there first!). Metro Weekly, meanwhile, gets dinged four times (count 'em!) for a.) an "ugly cover"; b.) a weak corrections policy; c.) an overly anonymous scene page; and d.) a shamefully male-centric masthead.

Inspirational quote of the week: "Get a woman on staff...women, women, women!"

At around 2:45 p.m., Mayor Adrian Fenty convened a short press conference on the Holocaust Museum shooting. Fenty confirmed that a single shooter entered the main entrance to the Holocaust Museum and immediately opened fire. A security guard returned fire. The gunman was hit. The gunman, who has not been identified officially, has been taken to G.W. Hospital and is in critical condition.

The security guard who was shot is said to be in "grave condition." He has not been identified.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier says all information is preliminary but she described the shooter as "what appears to be a lone gunman."

Read More "Breaking: Fenty Press Conference on Holocaust Museum Shooting" »

Sgt. David Schlosser just gave a briefing on this afternoon's shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Here are the key points:

*A lone gunman entered the building around 12:50 p.m. The man was armed with a long gun, and it's unclear at this point whether it was a rifle or a shotgun.

Read More "Latest on Holocaust Shooting" »

From tonight's pick by Caroline Jones: "One part kitsch, one part political satire, and one part glitter, the Kinsey Sicks, describe themselves as “America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet.” The group returns to D.C. on Saturday night with a new set of parodies, skewering everyone from Condoleezza Rice to Vanna White. What began 15 years ago with four guys attending a Bette Midler show dressed as the Andrews Sisters is now an off-Broadway revue that’s traveled around the country and the world."

Read the entire Kinsey Sicks pick for details.

In which Erik gives prop to former CP reporter Jessica Gould, scolds the Examiner for "buying the tort reformers' angle," refuses to read Baltimore Gay Life, and dings the auto section of the Washington Hispanic for overstepping its advertorial bounds.

PLUS: A stirring bonus segment in which Erik lobs a BIG ONE at CP's own glass house. No way are you touching that remote!

BIGGEST COMEBACK SINCE EMINEM: Erik Wemple is all sound and fury this week, taking down the Post for copy errors and showing some love to the Blade—for its investigative work on gays in the military—and the InTowner for one of its...distinctive headlines.

Don't touch that remote!

In her City Lights pick for today, contributor Maura Judkis wrote about "Behind the Velvet Curtain" at the Katzen Arts Center: "Many of the works aggressively comment on gender disparity and sexuality, from Lenka Klodova’s photographs of a disembodied nude female torso in various household settings, to Erika Bornova’s sculptures of bejeweled women with ghastly faces offering themselves up for sex. Best is Klodova’s “Structures,” a spherical photo diorama of couples like paper dolls. Each adult leans out of their space to give their neighbor a kiss—either as a condemnation of the breakdown of the family unit, or in support of the loosening of prudish social structures."

Read the pick for "Behind the Velvet Curtain" for more details.

Roque Gerald has served as the acting director of the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) for less than a year. In that short time, however, he has learned an important lesson about management. Say nice things about your underlings, that is.

In a youth conference today at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Gerald said that his staff was "the wind beneath my wings."

That wind, indeed, has generated some altitude for Gerald. Via the hard work of CFSA employees, Gerald cut the backlog of CFSA cases from 1,800 ten months ago to zero by December 2008. His agency also had a 25 percent staff vacancy rate, which he has slashed to four percent---more wind beneath his wings!

Gerald made clear that his agency still has some tough numbers to fight. Sixty percent of the kids in CFSA's care are 13 and up. Though clients have complex problems, Gerald insists they "have a right to a future." One of his primary objectives is to reduce the amount of home-hopping that the kids do. "Too many children are shuffled around in too many placements," he said. "Every time they move, we injure their future."

Reporting by Jason Cherkis