Last week, we noted that Sikh-Americans can now become Metropolitan Police Department officers without having to take off their turbans.

It’s a big win for the Sikh advocacy group that helped get the new policy off the ground—even though there’s currently only one Sikh-American MPD trainee, and no active Sikh officers—because it makes D.C. the first major city to accept Sikhs who wear traditional turbans onto the police force without having to change their attire.

We spoke with Jasjit Singh, the executive director of the Sikh-American Legal Defense and Education Fund—the nonprofit that advocated for the policy change and stood with MPD Chief Cathy Lanier when she announced it.

“It was really a sign that this police department was progressive, willing to work with us, and that provided us with fertile ground to engage with this conversation,” says Singh. Read more Why MPD Changed Its Rules on Turbans

Via their Facebook page, the owners of Fojol Bros. have put out a statement apologizing to folks who have been offended by the food truck vendors' costumes:

The fojol bros. apologize to those who have been offended. That was not, is not, and will never be our intent. Fojol is a celebration of food and community, infused with creativity and entertainment. Fojol's owners were born and raised in Washington, DC, but our workforce includes women and men from around the world. Our mission is to embody a traveling culinary carnival. Our clothing and design have two distinct influences: the countries that inspire our food and the carnival’s whimsical nature. Our mustaches are a symbol across all three trucks, paying tribute to circus showmen of the past. Fojol’s aesthetic is in no way meant to be a caricature of any cultural or ethnic group. Fojol’s goal remains the same – to bring healthy, affordable food to the streets, in a colorful atmosphere that lifts people's spirits and encourages community.

Doesn't look like they have plans to change their schtick, but we'll keep you posted. (Also, as apologies go, this is kind of a classic non-apology apology.)

Gore-a-rama: Thomas Gore, Mayor Vince Gray's money guy, pleaded guilty today to "illegally steering funds from Gray's mayoral campaign to fringe candidate Sulaimon Brown's campaign, then destroying the evidence of the crimes in order to stymy an FBI investigation." LL takes a few lessons away, including: Don't take notes when you're doing illegal shit, and definitely don't destroy those notes. -2 Read more The Needle: Get A Room Edition

Finalists for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia's 2012 AltWeekly Awards were released today, and Washington City Paper scored four nominations. Highlights:

Theater critic Chris Klimek won Arts Criticism nominations for a trio of reviews: A Kennedy Center performance of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, Arena Stage's performance of Amy Freed's You, Nero, and a double-barreled July review of Studio Theatre's Venus in Fur and American Ensemble Theatre's Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them.

Staff writer Lydia DePillis was nominated in the Best Individual Blog category for her Housing Complex blog, which covers D.C. real estate, architecture, and retail and development.

Former staff writer Jason Cherkis was nominated in the Investigative Reporting category for a pair of lengthy examinations of kids in the District's dysfunctional child-welfare system: Outsourcing Troubled Kids, which looked at the city government's tendency to farm out troubled kids to distant residential treatment facilities instead of offering them services closer to home, and Is D.C. Neglecting Neglect?, which examined one particular facility that kept getting taxpayer-funded business despite some troubling allegations. Cherkis' nomination also features a lengthy list of related smaller reports, including a truly horrific video he dug up that shows a D.C. ward's arm being broken at the Minnesota facility that the city government had entrusted with his care.

City Paper's staff also scored a nomination for its year-end Annotated Guide to 2011 in the Innovation/Format Buster category. If the piece wins, it will mark the third consecutive year the paper has won in that category.

Bicycling magazine has ranked D.C. number four on its list of best cities for cyclists, a nine-place leap for the city, which ranked at 13 last year:

There is no clearer evidence of the urban-cycling revolution sweeping the United States than in the nation’s capital, where ridership jumped 80 percent from 2007 to 2010. The District opened the country’s first automated bike-share system, constructed separated bike lanes on key downtown corridors—including the stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue linking the White House and Capitol Hill—and installed more than 1,600 bike racks.

The sole commenter really, really disagrees, though:

Has anyone doing the voting/ranking actually ridden in DC? We moved to the DC area in part because of the number of bike trails and perceived bike friendliness, but the reality is far less rosy. Awful traffic, badly fractured bike corridors and overcrowded off-street multi-use paths that cross multiple major intersections far too often make anything other than simply trying to commute to work an exercise in futility. The reality is, if your aim is to commute by bike, the infrastructure is good enough to make most commutes under six miles as fast by bike as they are by any other mode of transport (including by car), however cycling for recreation (especially if you're aiming for serious fitness) is just not all that great. And urban and suburban sprawl make getting to good training roads nearly impossible. The people working to make things better are certainly trying and strides have been made, but head to: http://bikewashington.org/routes/on-road.htm and you'll see that there is only one road bike route listed that even crosses into the beltway. Then check out: http://bikewashington.org/routes/work.htm for 'after work' rides – of which, only three actually enter the district. Maybe I'm spoiled from riding in New England, Chattanooga, TN and Gainesville, FL – all much less populated area, but having also ridden some in Portland, the culture in DC just isn't even in the same league.

I mostly use my bike for commuting/getting around town quickly, but this take on recreational bike use brings up a good point: What kind of cycling are we talking about here?

Photo by nevermindtheend via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 License

A morning roundup of news, opinion, and links from Washington City Paper and around the District. Send tips and ideas to citydesk@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Sign up: To get District Line Daily — or any of our other email newsletters — sent straight to your mailbox, click here.

Good morning from Washington City Paper! It's Tuesday!

LEADING THE MORNING NEWS: Top Vince Gray aide Thomas Gore charged with destroying campaign finance records. [Post] He's expected to plead guilty. [WAMU] Post ed board: Hopefully this means the investigation into Gray's campaign will be resolved soon. [Post] Chuck Thies: The latest allegations don't directly implicate Gray, and probably won't affect his ability to govern. [NBC Washington] Who is the president of Crispus Attucks Park? [Post] Fire department battalion chief says Chief Kenneth Ellerbe is a bully. [Times]

YOUR DAILY QUALITY-OF-LIFE MEASUREMENT: On Monday, City Paper's Needle plunged 8 points. The bad news: School bus fire. The good news: Nats pitcher Stephen Strasburg hit a home run to defeat the Orioles. Take a look here.

SIX CITY PAPER STORIES FROM THE LAST 24 HOURS TO HELP YOU MAKE SENSE OF YOUR DAY:

Is Vince Gray Screwed? And Other Questions: LL analyzes what the arrest of Thomas Gore means for the mayor. "Gray's always denied knowing of or approving any Brown-related shenanigans, and Gore's court records don't prove otherwise. But Gore's close association with Gray sure puts a big dent in the mayor's image, if not his story. Gore is a longtime friend of Gray who handled the campaign's day-to-day finances. It's not clear how close they've been since the election, but a Wilson Building source says Gore was spotted in the mayor's suite as recent as this past winter."

Why I’m Not Anonymous: Say hello to our new Young & Hungry, Jessica Sidman! She introduces herself and explains why she's forgoing the traditional food columnist subterfuge and anonymity: "The purpose of anonymity is to be able to relate the experience of the 'average diner.' But you don't need a professional critic for that anymore. There are thousands of 'average diners' sharing their experiences every day on Yelp. What a good food writer can give you is hopefully something more: storytelling, analysis, context, and news." Welcome, Jess!

Five Books I'd Read: If only Justin Moyer had the time.

Victor Albisu To Open a Taqueria: "After leaving his high-profile post at BLT Steak in March, chef Victor Albisu is finally re-emerging with a new project: an authentic Mexican taqueria in Falls Church. The dressed-down restaurant will be located two doors from a Latino market his mother owns called Plaza Latina on Pimmit Drive (right off Route 7). The 20-30-seat spot, which he's tentatively calling Taco Bamba, is expected to open in about a month."

Artomatic: Some Early Reactions: "The notion of creating a top 10 is a little preposterous, akin to flipping through a survey of art history text and picking out the top 10 artists of all time. That's not what this post is. These are merely a few works for which I urge you to keep an eye out. Artomatic runs through June 23 at 1851 S. Bell Street, Crystal City."

In Case You Missed It: Tourist Season. Darrow Montgomery shoots the tourists. They keep coming back.

ELLA-EH-EH-EH PHOTO OF THE DAY: Couple Under Umbrella by Matt Dunn

LINKDUMP AFTER THE JUMP!

Read more District Line Daily: Artomatic Reactions, How Bad is This News for Vince Gray?

7th and H Street, NW.  May 20th.   © 2012 Matt Dunn

Gray Gored?: Maybe all that time listening to Sulaimon Brown babble in front of the D.C. Council wasn't wasted, after all. Federal prosecutors say the former chief money man for Vince Gray's victorious 2010 mayoral campaign, Thomas Gore, gave money orders for $535 to Brown's campaign using fake names and cash from Gray's own campaign account—and that he destroyed a notebook with records of the payments once Brown took his allegations that the Gray campaign helped him stay in the race public. The mayor, meanwhile, was off in Las Vegas today with most of the council, trying to attract businesses to the District; no word on how the news did or didn't affect their ability to get meetings with retailers. -5

Read more The Needle: Bus Blaze Edition

Maybe the most amusing part of this story about whether the American Rivers list of the "Top 10 Most Endangered Rivers" is actually meaningful is this quote in the Post:

“Any time you have a list, whether it’s the top 10 movies of the year, or the top 10 endangered rivers, there’s always some subjective judgment applied,” President Bob Irvin said. “If our list were solely a list of what does the chemistry tell us is the most polluted river in the country, that probably would not change from year to year.”

Setting aside the weird comparison of endangered rivers to the year's best movies, apparently the Potomac topped the list this year, thanks to its symbolism, or something. The Post's Robert McCartney argues that when the group comes up with a new list of rivers every year, it dings the credibility of environmental protection groups. I'm not so sure about that—it may offer more ammunition to the anti-climate change types, but they're also not going to suddenly be swayed because of a list of endangered rivers published on the Internet.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

A morning roundup of news, opinion, and links from Washington City Paper and around the District. Send tips and ideas to citydesk@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Sign up: To get District Line Daily — or any of our other email newsletters — sent straight to your mailbox, click here.

Good morning from Washington City Paper! It's Monday! Let's do this.

LEADING THE MORNING NEWS: Mayor and councilmembers head to a Vegas retail convention. [WAMU] They'll be talking to restaurant groups about getting eateries at the St. Elizabeths site. [Times] A wet week ahead. [NBC4] Virginia voter ID bill passes. [Times] D.C. may have trouble getting out of No Child Left Behind thanks to poor accounting of grant money. [Examiner]

YOUR DAILY QUALITY-OF-LIFE MEASUREMENT: On Friday, City Paper's Needle shot up 7 points. The bad news: Justice Stephen Breyer robbed again, this time in Georgetown. The good news: Bipartisan appreciation of Chuck Brown. Take a look here.

SIX CITY PAPER STORIES FROM THE LAST 24 HOURS TO HELP YOU MAKE SENSE OF YOUR DAY:

Bill Clinton, George Stephanopoulos Subpoenaed in D.C. Lottery Case: The hits on this case keep coming. Now the former president and his advisor have been subpoenaed by the city, because former city employee Eric Payne—who's suing the city because he says he was unjustly fired—said he talked to Clinton about finding new work.

Dupont Underground May Go Temporary: LDP continues to find that temporary is the new permanent. The folks who have the rights to the space want to turn it into a "world-class" art space, but they don't have the money, so they're looking to retrofit it into a space more welcoming to temporary art while they figure everything out. Maybe.

Trent Franks on Abortion Bill: “D.C. Is Not the Issue”: Sudip Bhattacharya talks to Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) about why he's introducing an abortion ban bill in D.C. “It’s the pain of the child, and when people make the District of Columbia the issue they’re missing the point," Franks said before escaping into an elevator.

Flying Dog v. Marion Barry: Sigh, there are so many things one could make fun of Marion Barry for, that it's a shame people keep relying on old jokes about crack. Flying Dog brewery used the decades-old tale to advertise its first canned beer—and was summarily requested to stop advertising with Barry's image attached to the product.

New Korean Bell Garden Opens Near Wolf Trap: "The enormous bells used for such monuments trace back to the Shilla Dynasty, are made of bronze and other metals and can weigh as much as 17 tons. The bell at Meadowlark was cast in Korea and shipped to the U.S., and is housed in a pavilion with traditional upward arching eaves. A sign in Korean labels it the 'bell of peace.' The garden also includes a gazebo, pond, woodenjangseung totems from Jeolla Province and stone harubang statues from Jeju Island."

Theater J’s Ari Roth Writes a Play…About Me: "Me" being Arts Desk Editor Jonathan L. Fischer. The play is about as good as you would expect.

COOL PHONE BRO PHOTO OF THE DAY: Girl With A Green Phone by Matt Dunn

LINKDUMP AFTER THE JUMP!

Read more District Line Daily: D.C. Not The Issue In D.C. Abortion Ban Bill

700 Block 7th Street, NW.  May 19th.  © 2012 Matt Dunn

Alabama Prison For HTJ: Looks like Harry Thomas Jr. got his wish: He's going to the fanciest federal prison in the system on June 20. The camp in Montgomery, Ala. has nightly movies, pool tables, and arts and crafts. The move is unusual since it's 693 miles away from D.C.—well outside the 500-mile radius most convicts get. Not that the 38 months he'll be spending there will be fun, exactly. It's still prison. +2

Read more The Needle: Bipartisan Go-Go Appreciation Edition

We caught Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) after his subcommittee’s hearing yesterday on a bill he sponsored that would ban abortion in D.C. after 20 weeks.

“District of Columbia is not the issue here,” he told us, stepping into an elevator. “It’s the pain of the child, and when people make the District of Columbia the issue they’re missing the point.”

The doors closed before he could elaborate on why the "pain of the child" matters more in D.C. than it does in states with voting representation in Congress. But Franks had managed, in the course of a couple of hours, to combine two political hot buttons in one hearing: Abortion rights and D.C.'s treatment by the federal government.

Doing that was made easier for Franks, though, by the fact that he didn't allow Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's non-voting Democrat, to speak at the hearing. He invited her to sit on the dais silently; she declined. The one witness Democrats on the panel invited, D.C. resident Christy Zink, mostly spoke about the medically necessary abortion she'd had 21 weeks into a pregnancy. Read more Trent Franks on Abortion Bill: “D.C. Is Not the Issue”

The system hit a pretty cool milestone yesterday, just ahead of Bike To Work Day:

It's official, we have crossed the 2 millon ride mark and there's no going back. Congrats to all of U for all your pedaling!

—Capital Bikeshare (@bikeshare) May 17, 2012

Meanwhile, organizers of today's event say 12,700 riders in the D.C. metro area rode their velocipedes to work—2,000 more than last year.

Bikeshare saw one million rides in September of last year, a year after it launched, and the speed at which additional bikes and docks have been rolled out has likely contributed to a million more rides in just eight months.

Photo by Flickr user James D. Schwartz, attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0)

The Social Security Administration's latest list of most popular baby names by state is out this morning.

According to the list—which reflects Social Security card applications from the previous year—D.C.'s top five names for boys in 2011 were  William, Alexander, Daniel, James, and Christopher.

For girls, the top names were Sophia, Ava, Elizabeth, Olivia, and Sofia. Drill a little deeper into the numbers and you'll find that Sophia/Sofia really runs away with the crown: With 50 Sophias and 34 Sofias, they account for more than twice the 41 Avas who entered the District's population last year.

Congratulations, or something parents of Sophia/Sofias: You're either perfectly tuned into the culture or a hideous example of herd-following. Either way, remember to add a last name when writing your daughter's name on her lunchbox in a few years.

The boys names, incidentally, showed little change from 2010, when William and Alexander also led the list, and Christopher was still at number five. Henry and John finished third and fourth.

For girls, though, last year's top finisher was Madison, while Charlotte and Ashley also made the list. Those names  dropped to 7, 11, and 24, respectively.

A glance further back in time reveals bigger changes: In 1980, Michael led the boys names; last year, it was number 13. Jennifer, the favorite D.C. girls name of 1980, didn't even make 2011's top 100.

More dramatically, the sheer numbers among the leading baby names have also tumbled–a reflection of the declining population of children in Washington, as well as a growing tendency to give kids unique names, leading to a less bunching at the top of the most common name list. The top boy name of 1980 was given to 366 newborns; by last year, the winner finished first with just 71.

Photo of Baby Names via Shutterstock