Someone over at LivingSocial's Social Studies blog got jury duty—which naturally means they had to write a cheeky guide to making it through the process.
Do you get to watch TV?
No.
Why not?
Because, as a court clerk explains, last year someone complained about the PG-13 nature of what was being shown on the TVs. Since then, the [...]
The big story for political operatives and reporters yesterday was the back-and-forth between the White House and Republicans in Congress over when, exactly, President Barack Obama would head up to the Capitol to make a speech about getting the economy back on track that the Republicans in Congress would then ignore.
Obama had proposed delivering the [...]
Doin' It In The Park: Rock Creek Parkway runs, as its name implies, through Rock Creek Park, which is, of course, a national park. So it might be reasonable to expect that the National Park Service, which manages it, would follow environmental regulations when performing work on the parkway. Reasonable, that is, but apparently not [...]
Remember when a certain reformist-minded city administration went around closing stuff?
A group of fired daycare workers and their union—the American Federation of Government Employees—certainly do. On Tuesday, they filed a $10 million lawsuit against the D.C. government, alleging city officials sabotaged the Department of Parks and Recreation child-care programs they worked for and illegally privatized [...]
On June 26, 2009, hundreds of people waited in line to get their first look at the new and improved Eastern Market on Capitol Hill. More than two years earlier, a three-alarm fire blazed through the beloved Adolf Cluss-designed building, destroying much of the interior and its original vendor stalls, leaving behind a charred [...]
On June 22, 2009, the deadliest crash in Metrorail's history occurred when two Red Line trains collided near the Fort Totten station, killing nine people and injuring dozens more.
The accident, and a subsequent National Transportation Safety Board investigation, offered a harsh assessment of Metro’s lax safety maintenance. That Monday just before 5 p.m., at the [...]
On June 21, 2006, Anthony Williams took his final cannonball plunge into a D.C. swimming pool as mayor, his traditional way to open the city’s pools for the summer. Williams' two terms as the District's fourth Home Rule-era mayor began with a splash in 1999, when he made his inaugural dive. In 2006, Williams, who [...]
Myopia Spreads: Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy apparently couldn't beat Twitter; he's decided to join it, instead. The Post has Milloy and other writers taking social media training classes, and the man who coined the phrase "myopic little twits" will become one, himself, next month. Milloy says he may use the handle @gigabyteme, but alas, [...]
The Funniest Fenty You'll Ever See: From the Huffington Post comes an exhaustingly detailed compilation of some of the best politics-related fake Twitter accounts. Most of the 19 nominees are big political players or national in scope, but a few specific to local D.C.—as in, not Congress—made the list. @WorkOutWemple, a parody of incoming Washington Post [...]
With sizzling sun on tap for Memorial Day, D.C.’s political media is turning its thoughts poolside.
And no, that’s not because Thursday’s massive recall on pool drains—issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission—threatened to chase swimmers away from pools faster than a wayward Baby Ruth bar. Thankfully, local watering holes are safe.
“So far, we're not affected [...]
Crime happens everywhere. But it’s safe to say that crimes against journalists who think about public policy issues happen a lot more frequently in Washington than anywhere else. And when they do, it’s a good bet the incident will make it into the media before long—usually wrapped up in a politically-tinged argument. Some media figures [...]
On May 16, 2008, D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles personally delivered controversial baseball tickets to then-D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, ending one of the more mind-boggling standoffs between councilmembers and the administration of then-Mayor Adrian Fenty. At least for that year.
At the center of the dispute were 19 tickets in Suite 61 at the taxpayer-funded [...]
Talkin' About Money: After weeks of signaling no tax increases would be forthcoming, Mayor Vince Gray unveiled his 2012 budget with... a brand-new 8.9 percent tax bracket on people making more than $200,000. The budget also includes major cuts to social services, new fees on DMV requests, new parking fees, and a doubling of the [...]
Yesterday's Census report detailing the past decade's demographic changes gets major play across the city's media today. The Washington Post disptatches reporters to three District neighborhoods in search of anecdotes to confirm what the new data tells us: The city's white population has grown by a third, while its African American population has plummeted.
With fresh [...]
Video Killed the Radio Star: The bad news continues for National Public Radio, as another hidden-camera tape by right-wing provocateur James O'Keefe shows executives were aware of the phony gift O'Keefe's stunt was pretending to pass along to the network. With the federal budget what it is (which is to say, bad, if not quite [...]
