And we thought it was interesting that the auctions for our newspaper chain and Mother Harriette's house in the Virgin Islands were announced the same week. Now it turns out the Watergate is on the block. Another coinkidink: The famous hotel is $40 million in the hole, which is roughly the same as Creative Loafing's debt after it bought the City Paper and the Chicago Reader. So Weird!

And speaking of City Paper, it's fresh in the box today, with another kickass cover starring Marion Barry. Unfortunately it does not star the phrase "You put me out in Denver 'cause I wouldn't suck your dick," but that would be overkill, doncha think? Read Mike DeBonis' ongoing scoop, complete with reax from the bossman himself.

Also new in the dead-tree: Tim Carman tells you were to get good bar food and valet parking, Dave McKenna's wondering whither the Nats? in the new D.C. sports talk, Amanda Hess details why Eckington hates battered women and their children, Aaron Leitko uncharacteristically writes the phrase "a burst of happiness," plus Fringe Fest, movies, and more!

Elsewhere in the D.C. Blogoworld:

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Auctions a Go-Go" »

Wake up, Metro. It's morning time! Also: Two of your employees are telling WJLA-TV that they not only knew about the circuit problem that likely caused the June 22 crash five days before it happened, but that they reported the problem to their supervisors. This seemingly contradicts GM John Catoe's statement yesterday, in which he assured the public the circuit's intermittent inability to detect trains on tracks was "not an issue that would have been easily detectable to controllers in our operations control center." Metro had no comment on the unnamed technicians' allegations, citing the ongoing investigation.

In case you missed it: City Desk reported last night that one of the crash victims' families lawyered up with local institution the Cochran Firm, which won the business over another firm based, partially, on its willingness to file suit before the investigation's over. Attorney David Haynes called today to correct my mistake. The family of Veronica DuBose actually has two law firms lined up, one from Florida already familiar to the family, as well as the Cochran Firm, which was brought in as lead counsel by the Florida lawyers. Haynes also notes that his firm is representing five people injured in the crash.

City Paper's fresh online and in the stands. Of note: Carman on Breadline's closing and reopening, Graham on The Year of Magical Thinking, Olszewski on the new Transformers, Leitko on Meow vs. Meow, and West on the theory of everything.

Elsewhere in D.C. Blogolands:

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Did Metro Know It Had a Circuit Problem Before the Crash? Edition" »

An American Idol upset last night. Don't care. Don't watch it. But today the Washington Blade is saying it was "smear the queer" time in America. Just like when Brokeback lost! Scandal! Sniff!

My idol? Michael Volpe, the 25-year-old guy standing in front of Metro stations with a bright orange sign advertising himself as an entry level jobseeker. I have a soft spot for SUNY Geneseo grads after spending several weekends there as an undergrad way back in the early '90s. But even if you don't, you gotta read Petula Dvorak's sweet little story about this guy. And she took the photo. Is the Post turning into the Current?

Also local in our paper of record: Tai Shan really is leaving this time. Know the real reason why? He gained weight and ceased to be cute. My mom told me the same thing way back in the early '90s.

Moving on to other people who write blogposts:

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Who’s Kris Allen, Again? Edition" »

In what the Post this morning says "will likely go down as one of the best playoff games in Capitals franchise history," D.C.'s scrappy hockey team went up 2 games to none in their playoff series against Pittsburgh. That means they've won their last five playoff games, their longest post-season streak to date. It took the Verizon Center staff three minutes to clear the ice of another sort of caps---the hats kept coming after Alex Ovechkin's third goal of the night, his first hat trick in in the playoffs. The Pens' Crosby got one of those, too (and a lone hat thrown onto the ice), but in this chapter of the "showdown for the ages," Sidney went home a loser. Final score: 4-3. Money quote from Ovechkin: "If I was a Capitals fan, I'd be really happy right now."

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Caps on a Hot Streak Edition" »

Is the panic subisiding? Not a chance, but two of the six potential H1N1 infectees in Maryland are schoolchildren (one at Folger-McKenzie Elementary in Ann Arundel County and a teenager at Milfred Mill Academy in Baltimore County) and schools are open today. A lot of parents, of course, watch the TV, where things have been getting frothier on the flu-coverage front. So attendance is expected to be low.

In more schoolchildren news: Two of them in Montgomery County planned to kill their prinicipal with a nail bomb and set off another "incendiary device" in the auditorium---after puncturing a gas pipe, something they'd already tried to do in the boys' bathroom, according to cops who arrested and charged them.

You think getting your dog to the vet is a problem? Try convincing a 5,500-pound hippo to get into her crate. A continuation of Happy stories over at the Post.

D.C. blogolinks after the jump.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Maryland’s Flinty When It Comes to Swine Flu Edition" »

*The Post leads with a piece on how the Bush administration had already prepped their ghastly, torture-like tactics "long before they were granted legal approval to use such methods," ignoring the advice of an Army lieutenant colonel who pointed out that a strong-arm approach "usually decreases the reliability of the information because the person will say whatever he believes will stop the pain."  The New York Times takes a different angle: why didn't administration officials do their homework on the origins of those techniques?

*Maureen Dowd visits Twitter HQ to find out "if the inventors of Twitter were as annoying as their invention. (They’re not. They’re charming.)" (The real question: Is Maureen Dowd as annoying as this column?)  In her umpteenth use of the screenplay gimmick (at least she wrote it herself this time!), Dowd confesses her own Twitterific ambition: "When newsprint blows away, I want a second career as a Twitter ghostwriter."  Someone sign this woman up!

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Torture, Guns, and Susan Boyle" »

Who needs a reality show when actual news is good enough? Applications to the U.S. Naval Academy are up 50 percent. The academy credits its two-year outreach campaign to minorities and the Post considers if it might be the lure of a free education in lean times. But we're going to jump to conclusions. It's pirate-fighting. Who doesn't want scurvy on the high seas?

New in City Paper: Every one of our hits and misses for Filmfest DC. Now in its 23rd go-round, the fest is growing up and drinking better cocktails. Plus: It's April. What else are you going to do?

Last night was Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Semifinals and let's just say Bruce Boudreau is wearing his cranky face today. Caps lost 4-3 to the Rangers, making a couple things clear: It's going to be a tough series, their goalie is better than ours, and Ovie better ice up after all those hits 'cause they're coming after him on Saturday. Game 2's at the Verizon Center again. Got tickets? No one likes a showoff.

Elsewhere in the D.C. Blogoworld:

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Join the Navy Edition" »

* Morning, all. You've heard by now the sad fact: Natasha Richardson, versatile actress, mother of two boys, wife and daughter of famous people, died at 45 in a rather freakish accident on a bunny slope. Several of us in the office have bonded over loving Love Actually, in which Liam Neeson plays an alarmingly charming man who's lost a wife he clearly adores. Richardson's mother, Vanessa Redgrave, just finished the stage version of Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking in which the main character grieves the loss of her daughter. In life, however, they'll have to deal with the paps and E!. Sending good thoughts.

* Today's B1 News: Fairfax officials saw the light (or perhaps the taillights) and reversed the boneheaded move to put off, yet again, the widening of I-66 inside the Beltway. Marc Fisher's logic sort of prevails. Of course, another required traffic study could take 10 years. Fairfax County supervisor Catherine M. Hudgins, among two who flipped her vote, reports: "This just brings us back to where we were in 2007." Having traveled that highway to hell every day for two years, I find it sad to understand that another 10-year study counts as progress.

* B3 News: You know when a Brookings man says, "I looked at these numbers and said, 'Wow!,'" it's big.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Life Imitating Art Edition" »

The B1 news this a.m.: Permanent state of stalling. The D.C. vote bill is on indefinite hold. Blame Maryland's own House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. He blames the NRA for its gun riders---or did he secretly want to annex the District? Lobby efforts from Fenty, et al, will probably go nowhere and not very fast, so it looks like EHN went shopping, got the dress, got the shoes, but is still not going to be invited to the dance. What else is new?

In other less glass-half-empty news around the D.C. blogoworld:

* ComicsDC reveals/aggregates that deep inside a "large envirornment firm" in D.C. lurks an ad director who's really the guy behind the design for Batcave Companion.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Allowing “More Time for Discussion on Outstanding Matters” Edition" »