A little more than a week ago, news broke that at least three percent of District residents have AIDS or HIV. This provoked Shannon L. Hader, director of the city's HIV/AIDS Administration to now-famously compare D.C. to West Africa. When pressed by Loose Lips at a press conference, Hader stated that our rates of infection were twice as high as New York City and five times that of Detroit.

As LL pointed out, the bigwigs at the press conference---Mayor Adrian Fenty, Councilmember David Catania, et al.---defensively argued that the part of the reason for the high infection rates is that the city is just testing more people. Case in point: testing is now routine at the D.C. Jail.

But this epidemic is not a new epidemic. In fact, it's been called an epidemic too many times to count. Perhaps the reason this story didn't provoke serious outrage and more press conferences and men in white coats discussing infection trend patterns is that this is an old story.

"This is the number one [public health] priority of this government," Fenty told the Washington Post. That quote was from an April 5, 2007, story headlined: "Fenty Renews Fight Against HIV-AIDS; Mayor Promises Strong Effort, Plans To Pick New Agency Chief." In the story's first graph, the mayor "pledged" to "put an end to this crisis."

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Thanks to the Washington Post's preview yesterday of the city's latest HIV/AIDS numbers, we know know that, with 3 percent of the population diagnosed, D.C.'s rates are "higher than West Africa" and "on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya."

Those comparisons came from Dr. Shannon Hader, head of the city's HIV/AIDS Administration and a former public health officer who did extensive work in Africa. But LL and LL's boss had the thought: Is this just another example of the District suffering in an apples-to-oranges comparison---you know, where the District is compared to a state or country encompassing both urban, rural, and suburban areas rather than to its peer cities?

So after today's press conference on the numbers, LL asked Hader to put the numbers in context of American cities: "Our rates are twice as high as New York City and five times as high as Detroit," she said, adding she wasn't aware of a city with a higher infection rate.

Read More "How Does D.C.’s HIV Rate Compare to Other Cities?" »

Last Friday night, after another day of bad news for the market, 580 undeterred revelers traveled to McLean, Va., to attend the $2,500 a seat YouthAIDS Gala at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The party is one of Washington's most celebrity-obsessed events, with recent attendees like Bono, Desmond Tutu and Dave Mathews. This year's theme, "The Power of Music,"  paid tribute to three celebrities who opened the way for other service-minded celebrities: MTV CEO Judy McGrath, Annie Lennox (who couldn't attend because of a back injury) and Bob Geldof, the British Musician who raised tens of millions of dollars for AIDS, and resuscitated his foundering rock career, with Live Aid in 1985.

"The Celebrity Solution," as the New York Times recently called it, has become an industry in itself in the decades since Geldof first lambasted television viewers to "just give us the fucking money." There are more than twice as many charities today, all competing for shrinking pots of money, and desperate for ways to put their cause ahead of the rest. There are online databases of celebrities and the charities they represent, and at least one nonprofit dedicated to helping celebrities hook up with the right charity. Some groups, including YouthAIDS, have had to turn away stars calling to offer their services.

YouthAIDS's founder Kate Roberts, a British-born marketer who got her start selling cigarettes in Eastern Europe in the 1990s, has fully realized the potential of using other peoples' fame to promote a good cause. Her organization, which serves as the promotional arm of the charity Population Services International, has raised millions of dollars, generated billions of media impressions (they counted) and made Roberts into something of a celebrity herself. But her biggest accomplishment is her relationship with Ashley Judd, YouthAIDS's Global Ambassador and all around oddball.

Judd's has a reputation for her vocabulary--she reportedly learns a  new word a day--and space-cadet tangents. Her keynote address at Friday's gala did not disappoint. Judd explained how traveling with YouthAIDS changed her life (and rocked her soul). She'd made a "sacred commitment" to "speak truth to power...It is my pact with the god of my understanding." Sweet and self-deprecating, the star admitted she had worked late into the night  trying to compose her speech. Sitting in her farmhouse, "with the first autumnal fire crackling," she agonized over how to talk about her most recent travels as YouthAIDS global ambassador. Then inspiration hit. "I couldn't tell you about Rwanda or the DRC," she said. The experience was too awful. She realized she had to begin at the end, with "The Calamity of Coming Home," as she titled the entry in her diary.

It all began at JFK airport, where an attendant took issue with the way Judd handed over her baggage slip, or some such piece of paper. "Are you the Ashley Judd?" the woman sneered. Judd says she was only able to contain her fury by looking for somewhere to go lay her head and sob. The suffering in Africa was still to fresh for her to care about a rude American. Later, walking along the path to her home, Judd says the dogs greeted her one by one  because, "They knew my tender heart couldn't stand to see them all at once."

Read More "YouthAIDS Gala: the Weird World of Ashley Judd" »