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,” 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 news that D.C. tops the nation in cocaine use, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is hard to process. It's like finding out that Los Angelenos read the most books or that Tampa has the fewest back tattoos.

We're Top 5 for marijuana and binge-drinking, which should surprise no one who's bought a jumbo slice on a weekend night, but check out these numbers: Read More "D.C. No. 1 in Cocaine Use" »

As Loose Lips roamed the stone platform that is Freedom Plaza, he spied various D.C. politics stars of yesteryear. There was Kevin Chavous, the dashing former Ward 7 councilmember. And over there was Sandy Allen, the folksy former rep from Ward 8. And unmistakable in his Nats cap and bow tie was Anthony A. Williams. It was all enough to make this columnist expect a showing by John Walker Lindh and a debate on the use of force in Iraq---all so 2002!

Read More "Loose Lips Update: Anthony Williams Speaks!" »

Good news for area men: Though The Onion is bagging its print operations in San Francisco and Los Angeles, it's motoring right along here in D.C. and will keep on printing. It has a 50,000 circulation in town, according to its media kit---a level that's 20,000 short of its volume in New York and Chicago.

From an Onion memo:

We love our print publications. They are the foundation of the Onion and, in the majority of our markets, they make us money. We have no plans at this time to cease publication in any of our other markets.

We have a report of a D.C. office worker with a case of swine flu. The flu victim is a World Bank employee who traveled to Mexico from April 14 to 18. The employee has fully recovered from the flu. The World Bank asked employees who worked with the staffer to work from home pending consultations with health authorities, according to Bloomberg. Though the individual works in D.C., the case is officially classified as a Maryland case, on account of the person's residency.

Note: This post was amended and corrected at 3:34 pm to reflect the fact that this case is not officially classified as a D.C. case.

The Washington Business Journal is reporting that the ubiquitous coffee chain is shuttering more of its local coffee outlets. Starbucks is pulling out of Northwest! OK, parts of northwest--Cleveland Park and Georgetown are losing an outlet each:

"In D.C., Starbucks will close the 3301 M St. NW location, which has been boarded up for months. Also being closed is the Cleveland Park store at 3420 Connecticut Ave. NW.

Starbucks said 6,000 of the job cuts announced in January would come from the store closures. The company also announced plans to cut an additional 700 non-store jobs, including about 350 at its Seattle headquarters."

But why stop there? Why not kill off at least one in Dupont Circle?

(Via DCist)

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More on the beer garden proposed near National's Stadium in D.C.

Andrew J. Kline, representing Robert "Bo" Blair, said at a March 25 meeting of the Alcohol Beverage Control Board that his client wants to create a "festival site with amenities" near National's Stadium, but that "beer garden is not our term, I don't know where that came from."

Read More "“Beer Garden is Not Our Term.”" »

The D.C. Council voted today to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. The Post writes:

"The initial vote was 12-0. The unanimous vote sets the stage for future debate on legalizing same-sex marriage in the District and a clash with Congress, which approves the city's laws under Home Rule. The council is expected to take a final vote on the legislation next month.

Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who is gay, called the amendment a matter of 'basic fairness.'

The city's laws on same-sex unions have been murky, he explained. Couples ask, he said, 'Is my marriage valid in D.C.? For years now, it has not been clear.'"

WTOP files its own story on the vote:

"Just minutes after the Vermont State Legislature voted to overturn a veto by the state's governor to allow same-sex marriages, the D.C. Council gave preliminary approval to recognize gay marriages performed in other states.

Lawmakers say Tuesday's 12-0 vote moves the city a step closer to eventually allowing same-sex marriages to be performed in the District.

'This is a right that should be enjoyed by all of our citizens,' Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) says. 'Today is another major step toward the ultimate goal of all of us living in a city and a country where everyone is treated equally.'

As LL recently reported, more same-sex legislation is in the works. In a similar vote today, the Washington City Paper staff informally decided that same-sex marriages should be legal in D.C. One staffer went so far as to say that only same-sex marriages should be legal here.

The District of Columbia sure cannot make a very convincing case for statehood in terms of size: It's 61.4 square miles.

It has trouble, too, with population--a mere 585,000 people live here.

And who wants a guy like Paul Strauss to move from Shadow Senator to Senator-In-The-Full-Light-Of-Day?

But there's a group of D.C.ers---very good high-school football players--who are making the case for the District to become the 51st. According to Sports Illustrated, the District produced 27 recruits for Bowl Championship Series college football programs between 2004 and 2008.

Although that number would appear to pale when placed alongside a monster football mill like Florida--with 981 recruits--it's a remarkable number when you look at per-capita production of football stars. By that measure, the District is close to Florida: It produced one fabulous BCS recruit for every 21,919 residents, and Florida's per-capita rate was one phenom for every 18,683 residents. On the per-capita front, D.C. blows out states like Texas (24,976), California (44,499), Ohio (31,729) and so on.

And even in absolute terms--not adjusted by population, that is--the District's great football recruits run up the score on several states with Senators and Representatives, including Nevada, West Virginia, Idaho, and others.