*PRETTY SOON THEY MIGHT START REPRODUCING: After victories in Iowa and Vermont, "[gay] momentum...could spill into other states," the New York Times speculates.  Closer to home, the D.C. Council voted resoundingly to recognize same-sex marriages from other states.  Jason Cherkis has some comments on that, as well as some intriguing internal polling, here.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Gay Momentum & Stagnetti’s Revenge" »

As you may have noticed, Washington Huffington City Paper rolled out a spankin' new site design this a.m. This required some ad shuffling, which in turn created some unfortunate juxtapositions. To wit:

Courtesy of I.T. Director Jim Gumm, who titles his screengrab: Mommy, what's a dildo?

Happy Wednesday, D.C.! You might remember City Paper's kind-of-a-big-deal Inauguration Photo Contest, whereby we elicited "dope" photographs from readers across the land. Two weeks later, we announced the winners. Recently, we even decided to send the winners their super-special swag, inspiring fourth-placer Aziz Y. to photograph his pooch in our delightful knit cap (above right). I think Beaujon's was more of a statement, natch (above left)—but hats off to Aziz and his BFF, regardless.

Newsier stuff below the jump.
Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Front Pooch Edition" »

I understand that every publication on the interwebs is trying to crack the whole 'monetizing' nut, but these scrollovers really take things too far.

Take Slate. This a.m., I stole three minutes from actual work to read up on the essentials—you know, my daily dose of counterintuitive rhetorical questions and columns on the best way to break one's leg. Before I could click through to a piece on "why you should let your kid suck his thumb" or a Jack Shafer column asking, "prithee, does we need newspapers?" a ginormous Volkswagen ad swooped in, flashing sleek images of a black sedan and dropping catchphrases like "ART GALLERY QUALITY INTERIOR" and "POSITIVELY OOZES CLASS." Yum! Before I knew it, I had accidentally clicked on an article asking whether socialized medicine had killed Natasha Richardson. I did not read this article.

Read More "Scroll Over, Beethoven" »

*Big presser from the President last night.  The New York Times says, basically, farewell orator, hello professor; the Post has video and the transcript; Wonkette live-blogged; I just watched.

*10 months after the brutal murder of Jasmine McCray in the 4800 Block of G Street SE, D.C. Police announced yesterday that they have made an arrest in the case:

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Clouded Leopard Cub Edition!" »

Well, perhaps not exactly. From the New York Times:

Speaking with reporters, Mr. Holder provided few specifics but said the Justice Department’s enforcement policy would now be restricted to traffickers who falsely masqueraded as medical dispensaries and “use medical marijuana laws as a shield."

Read More "A.G. Eric Holder Saves Medical Marijuana Industry, Considers Extending the Same Courtesy to Newspapers" »

In the most heated bracket-based throwdown since Man Madness, Holy Taco has launched its 2009 National Douchebag Tournament, whereby d-bagz compete against other d-bagz in four categories (sports, entertainment, politics, and business) en route to the ultimate prize (as yet unspecified).

Notable matchups include A-Rod vs. Bellichick and Beckham vs. Bonds in the sports division, and Octomom vs. Dane Cook in the entertainment division.

All of which is good clean fun, to my mind. But the Politics Division is a real letdown. I mean, there's a pretty disappointing pattern here: Slightly loudmouthed (OK, sometimes more than slightly loudmouthed) leftist goes up against some sort of heinous, far-right succubus. Observe:

Read More "The 2009 National Douchebag Tournament: DOES THE OCTOMOM HAVE WHAT IT TAKES??" »

Top o' the morning, folks! Hope everybody enjoyed a whomping St. Patrick's Day. Lotta environmental news out there, so in honor of the collective hangover, City Paper presents a mean, green batch of news.

*WHAT'S HARDER TO SELL THAN A HYBRID? A three-wheeled, fully electric supercar from outer space.

*AMSTERDAM GOES GREEN! NO NO, NOT IN THAT WAY: Business Week hails the capital of the Netherlands as the sustainable city of the future!

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Post-Saint Patrick’s Day Edition!" »

Ciao, D.C.  Hope you're staying warm & enjoying the recession!  Now, some "news":

*Oh noez! Barista at the U & 16th Starbucks shoots self in leg, accidentally.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Caffeine and Bullets Edition" »

I don’t want to see my father’s picture near any picture of a guy I am attracted to, especially if we haven’t even had dinner yet.

From Meghan McCain's Daily Beast confessional, "Looking for Mr. Far Right."

(Second place goes to the same piece:

Any guy that has a fetish for older women in pantsuits and large pearls obviously only finds my last name attractive about me. )

What ho, D.C.! And, er, Happy Lent.  Here's what's new:

*The Hill: Obama speaks before congress; gets a big treatment from the Washington Post and a weird, semi-positive lede graf from the Washington Times.

*Crime: WUSA9 reports that D.C. Police are searching for Alice Raffner, a 56-year-old white female who is "5'2" tall, weighing approximately 140 pounds, with blue eyes and blonde hair."

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: “Obama Will Rebuild” Edition" »

More footage from the National Zoo, where Baraka and the other gorillas got involved in a bit of a dust-up!

Some very special footage from our visit to the National Zoo.

Good afternoon, Washington. Below the links, City Paper is pleased to announce winners in its 2009 Inauguration Reader's Choice Contest.

*Ben Smith touches on the New York Times-Politico spat; Greg Sargent, meanwhile, mediates between the rhetoric of NYT Exec. Editor Bill Keller and that of Politico's John Harris.

*Farm Fresh Meat, hoping to cure his blogger's block, escapes to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

Read More "Our Lunchtime Roundup: Bloggers, Booze, and Our Winners in the Readers’ Choice Photo Contest" »

Sharing a bicentennial with Abraham Lincoln is a bit like celebrating one's birthday on Christmas. Unless you're Charles Darwin, that is, in which case the playing field is much more level. Sure, Newsweek gives Lincoln precedence—not entirely surprising for an American publication—but rankings like that are totally beside the point when you're talking about giants.

Let's hope President Obama set aside a few moments to think on Darwin today—he certainly shows Lincoln enough love.

Read More "Lincoln, Darwin, and a Nice Day for Obama" »