Surprising GOP presidential frontrunner Herman Cain was in town over the weekend, doing a photo shoot with GQ. The Eastern Market Metro Community Association blog reports that the businessman—who's been the subject of many jokes because he once ran Godfather's Pizza—had words with a passerby who apparently said, "The next time you give me a speech on [...]

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 [...]

A regular summary of irregular news and notes from neighborhood blogs and email lists around the District.
Hine Times: The Eastern Market Metro Community Association has deigned several elements critical to the redevelopment of Hine Elementary School, as Stanton-EastBanc seeks the approval of the Historic Preservation Review Board. The five priorities of the neighborhood are: "1) [...]

Twins, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE. © 2010 Matt Dunn

If you happened to watch the Georgetown Public Library go up in smoke back on April 30, 2007, you had to assume that the building and its contents were largely lost to the conflagration. There were fears that the library's historic Peabody Collection—essentially, Georgetown's civic archives—were a complete loss. (Earlier that day, Eastern Market was [...]

Where a bench once stood in Turtle Park
Mary Wright, an ANC commissioner in 6B, has been trying to solve a crime. For some time now, she's been attempting to find out who stole benches from a tiny triangular patch of green located across the street from Eastern Market. "To my recollection, there [...]

Yesterday, Mayor Adrian Fenty fired DYRS' interim-director and replaced him with AG Peter Nickles' "top aide" Robert Hildum. In today's WaPo story, the controversial attorney general had high praise for his side kick:
"Nickles said that Hildum's experience as a prosecutor is an asset at a time when some critics have said that the agency's [...]

First the Pershing Park case. The Office of the Attorney General may have had serious trouble with another high profile lawsuit—the Georgetown Library fire case. In April 2007, a three-alarm fire gutted Georgetown's public library. Two hundred firefighters along with roughly two dozen trucks battled the blaze. That huge effort may not have translated into [...]

Trash fires are again becoming a trend in Capitol Hill. WJLA has a small story on the trend and notes that investigators are looking into it. Of course, the last time trash-can fires had worried Capitol Hill residents occurred around the time of the Eastern Market fire. The D.C. Fire Department quietly dispatched a team [...]

In case you missed it: here's all you need to know about yesterday morning's federal court hearing on CFSA: In CFSA Case, Nickles Plays Defense; Judge Hogan Critical Of CFSA Director Selection Process.
Dee Does the District decides to not open up about getting terminated by DCPS. But this doesn't stop her from opening up about [...]

Two years after the fact, Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells has gone on the record suspecting that the Eastern Market fire was arson. Wells tells the Voice of the Hill:
"'I have a tremendous amount of suspicion that it was arson,' Wells told the Voice immediately after the market reopened Friday."
Eastern Market re-opened today with the [...]

The D.C. Fire Department has lost one of its weapons in its fight against two whistleblowers.  Fire investigator Gerald Pennington was set to face a trial board hearing today on charges that he allegedly claimed credentials he did not have. He was facing termination. Office of the Attorney General prosecutors–which would have handled the case–reviewed [...]

This week I chronicled D.C. Fire Department arson investigator Greg Bowyer. Bowyer, along with his partner Gerald Pennington, went from working arson cases to checking fire hydrants. They allege their demotion wasn't for any performance reason. No. They got transferred because of their whistleblowing activities.
For more than two years, Bowyer and Pennington have waged a [...]

Last night, WJLA reported that a pair of D.C. Firefighters are readying a civil lawsuit aimed squarely at D.C. Fire Department Chief Dennis L. Rubin. This fight has been brewing for years. The firefighters are claiming that their own department has botched numerous fire investigations and that the upper brass retaliated against them when they [...]