Magazine sellers and Bible studiers—especially those who are well-dressed and African-American—beware. The people of Cleveland Park are onto you. For months they’ve been posting suspicious interactions with you and your efforts this week? They are well-documented on the all-knowing Listserv.

To wit:

Read More “Cleveland Parkers Refusing to Open Doors to Well-Dressed African-American Men” »

Wake up, Metro. It’s morning time! Also: Two of your employees are telling WJLA-TV that they not only knew about the circuit problem that likely caused the June 22 crash five days before it happened, but that they reported the problem to their supervisors. This seemingly contradicts GM John Catoe’s statement yesterday, in which he assured the public the circuit’s intermittent inability to detect trains on tracks was “not an issue that would have been easily detectable to controllers in our operations control center.” Metro had no comment on the unnamed technicians’ allegations, citing the ongoing investigation.

In case you missed it: City Desk reported last night that one of the crash victims’ families lawyered up with local institution the Cochran Firm, which won the business over another firm based, partially, on its willingness to file suit before the investigation’s over. Attorney David Haynes called today to correct my mistake. The family of Veronica DuBose actually has two law firms lined up, one from Florida already familiar to the family, as well as the Cochran Firm, which was brought in as lead counsel by the Florida lawyers. Haynes also notes that his firm is representing five people injured in the crash.

City Paper’s fresh online and in the stands. Of note: Carman on Breadline’s closing and reopening, Graham on The Year of Magical Thinking, Olszewski on the new Transformers, Leitko on Meow vs. Meow, and West on the theory of everything.

Elsewhere in D.C. Blogolands:

Read More “Our Morning Roundup: Did Metro Know It Had a Circuit Problem Before the Crash? Edition” »

A man living in an apartment at 1907 Good Hope Road SE set up a bug bomb early this a.m. that blew out his windows.

Alan Etter, spokesperson for D.C. Fire and EMS, writes in an e-mail: “There was no fire. Just a pressure-release explosion from using too much of the product.”

The man received a “minor burn, but that’s about it.”

WJLA has photos from a guy who lived in the building. Looks like the explosion happened on the second floor of a four-floor complex.

Washington City Paper, finalists in five of the highest-circulation categories for the 2009 Association for Alternative Newsweeklies Awards, has been named the first-place winner in three of them: arts criticism, media reporting/criticism, and innovation/format buster. In addition, this blog received second-place honors and staff photographer Darrow Montgomery, who received honorable mention in the 2008 awards, was named as the third-place winner for photography at the annual convention, where winners are announced each year. More about the first-place winners:

Read More “AAN Awards Update: Washington City Paper Brings Home Three First-Place Wins” »

Loyal City Desk readers (all four of you), please direct your attention today toward Housing Complex. It’s another of the all-day reporting blitzes by the vast Washington City Paper newsroom (see Food Day, Average Day) if, you know, you got the time.

Watch for architectural/vocab dispatches from Beaujon, “jump squad” efforts from Cherkis and Montgomery, doings at the landlord-tenant court from Housing Complex’s regularly scheduled columnist Samuelson, Wemple doing whatever Wemple’s doing, Scheinman on pricey condos, DeBonis on the new and improved (?) DCRA, Carman on crummy and otherwise restaurant designs, and I’ll be on the critter beat with the animal shelters, as well as other random stuff, including a shaky real-estate angle from GoRemy, the infamous Arlington rapper. 

It’s all real estate, all day. Got a tip? Got a crappy landlord? Got something to say about D.C. house porn? Hit the twitter (@housingcomplex) and the comments.

Brandon Burgess, who was standing by the glass partition in the middle of the Red Line car mangled in yesterday’s crash, gives an interesting account of what happened to the Knoxville News Sentinel (he’s a former student at the University of Tennessee).

Burgess, on his way to U Street and planning to change trains at Fort Totten, describes climbing over the rubble in the smoke-filled car, seeing sky, losing his shoes, and trying to dislodge a teenager whose leg appeared to be broken. A roommate picked him up in a cab after the crash.

After all of it, Burgess says Metro’s still the safest way to get around D.C. “but from now on I’ll be sitting in the middle car of the train where, hopefully, this will never happen again.”

WaPo’s Dr. Gridlock blogged the identities of seven of the nine who died in yesterday’s Red Line crash:

• Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield (train operator)

• Major General David F. Wherley, Jr., former commanding general, Joint Force Headquarters, District of Columbia National Guard, and his wife Ann, both 62
• Lavonda King, 23
• Dennis Hawkins, 64
• Mary Doolittle, 59
• Anna Fernandez, 40

Per Cherkis, per WTOP, as well, with more on where they lived and one alternate spelling (Lavanda King).

Councilmember Phil Mendelson put out a statement about the Wherleys:

Read More “Seven Metro Crash Victims Identified” »

In a posh hotel in downtown D.C., Dixie, a beagle mix, is sniffing out bed bugs. She can find them in walls, under carpets, and mixed up with cockroaches inside a spinning training device. Mattresses, the most common hiding place for these seed-size suckers of human blood, pose little challenge.

“She only gets fed if she finds a bed bug,â€� says her trainer and handler, Blaine Lessard, as he reaches into his belted pouch for a piece of kibble. Read More “How To Figure Out If You Have Bed Bugs: Get This Dog To Come Over” »

The pending chaos at 2000 S St. NW is on the agenda for tomorrow’s ANC2B meeting at the JCC (16th and Q streets). Among topics up for discussion: How MTV’s washed-up reality show (really: Is there supposed to be life after Puck?) will reduce parking in front of the building from 12 spots to four. According to Community Matters DC, Commissioner Michael Feldstein also reports that “no parties will be allowed at the house, the number of residents in the house will be limited to eight or less, and that visitors to the house will be strictly controlled.”

Read More “Dupont ANC to Dig In on Real World House” »

Smokey

Princess

Mike and Ginny Spevak, the well-known Friendship Heights couple murdered in their home last November, left behind a daughter and son, their spouses, a grandson, siblings—a loving family. They also left behind three cats they adored. Two of them now need homes.

Read More “Murdered Couple’s Cats Need Homes” »

The Association for Alternative Newsweeklies recently announced finalists for its best blog category, naming the City Desk staff blog among the top four for highest-circulation papers. City Desk was also named as a finalist in this category last year. The latest nomination brings Washington City Paper’s AAN awards total this year to five. The paper was also nominated in Photography, Arts Criticism, Media Reporting/Criticism, and Innovation/Format Buster categories.

Blog judges evaluated three individual posts and the overall blog. So which among our much-loved, never criticized blogposts made the cut?

Read More “Blog About This Blog: City Paper Adds Another AAN Award” »

“[D]iscarded commencement tickets, crushed party cups, a wadded receipt for $28.57 in Hallmark graduation cards, bloodstains and broken glass.” WaPo this morning has a sad and well-written account of the post-graduation shootout in Prince George’s County, which left one young mother dead and three wounded.

Also in our local paper of record: A 12-year-old boy died after being struck by lightning near Fredericksburg.

Fresh content on our site and in the boxes today: Longtime contributor/sometime fan Justin Moyer mails things so  you don’t have to in his quest to rate D.C. post offices. His entire series appeared first on City Desk. Young & Hungry’s Tim Carman abandons the tasting spoon. The Sexist’s Amanda Hess notes teen sex scandals ain’t what they used to be. Housing Complex’s Ruth Samuelson figures out that pretending to know Tom Tancredo will take you only so far. Plus, movies, music, theater.

Voice on the Hill has the lowdown on the city “saving” three Boys & Girls Clubs by buying them.

And in the D.C. blogoworld:

Read More “Our Morning Roundup: Found at the Crime Scene Edition” »

Paying out-of-pocket for medical procedures like an MRI sucks. Paying for them in, say, Chevy Chase, Md., sucks even more. According to a release put out today by the Angie’s list of medicine, Healthcarebluebook.com, the disparity between what you’d be charged for an MRI of the cervical spine (no contrast) at a Rockville imaging center vs. a Chevy Chase center is more than $1,000 (it’s $1,056 vs. $2,710 and a geographical difference of about 14 miles). Add this to the travesty that both places charge well over what the consumer-oriented site says is a fair price for the procedure: $628.

“There’s no rhyme or reason to it,” says Aimee Stern, who handles PR for the site and is based in D.C. “It struck us because people in Washington are talking about healthcare reform, but no one is talking about this enormous disparity.”

Stern, however, is also not talking about certain topics that could be helpful to consumers. When I asked her which centers in Chevy Chase and Rockville her release referred to, she said, “I wouldn’t feel comfortable” getting specific and that calling out over-chargers on Healthcarebluebook.com would take tracking them over time.

Read More “How to Get a Better Deal in D.C. Healthcare” »

This is rich. If you’re among the first 50 people to bring a “pink slip” or some other document that explains you were recently shitcanned, plus a resume, to a plastic surgery clinic in Pentagon Row this Friday, a licensed technician there will give you shots of Botox. Why?

“A study published in the journal of Dermatologic Surgery found that women who had undergone Botox® injections in their brows, foreheads and eye wrinkles accrued higher attractiveness scores—a quality that lead researcher Steven Dayan says improves the first impressions people make when meeting a potential employer. Dayan…also posits that the confidence inspired by Botox® could give job–seekers a confidence boost and competitive edge in the interview process.”

The recently shitcanned are invited to Reveal, 1101 S. Joyce St., Suite B6, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. along with recruiters looking for people desperate enough to think plumping up their worry lines will land them a job.

photo by gruntzooki.

Nearly a year to the date since two young Northern Virginia men died after standing up on a double-decker tour bus, two 22-year-old men from the Chicago area were killed in a similar fashion. All four of them were fatally wounded while standing on the bus’ second-level as they traveled under an overpass. In D.C., the two men died after hitting the underside of the 11th Street Bridge while going to a Nationals game. Near Chicago on Saturday, the victims passed under I-57 on Illinois Route 16. In 2006, a similar accident involving a bus full of Kansas State fans killed one and seriously injured another.

Last year, DDOT transportation director Emeka Moneme said he wanted to take a look at clearance and safety issues after the investigation was completed. That investigation concluded Michael Feiock, 35, of Centreville and Joshua Stoll, 24, of Sterling ignored safety instructions and were standing on their seats with their backs to the bridge. A call’s out to DDOT to see what, if any, changes have been made or will be made in regard to the city’s two-tier buses.