DC Teacher Chic stresses about having to monitor at-risk students. A huge number of your colleagues just got canned. And you get to complain about your job on a blog. Maybe you should quit. Here's what they wrote:

"I have the fortunate task of progress monitoring at least three-quarters of the students in my classroom. To progress monitor a student in the intermediate elementary school grades, the assessment takes approximately thirty minutes to complete. And here's the cherry on this hot-mess sundae -- for students identified as high-risk, I have to perform the assessments every two weeks and for the students identified as some-risk, I have to perform them every three-weeks. YIKES!"

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Should Bloomingdale Become A Gated Community?" »

Last year, Central Union Mission attempted to bring its 128-bed homeless shelter to the 3500 block of Georgia Avenue, but was shot down by Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham and a group of residents in a rather shameless case of NIMBYism. "Good news!!! Central Union Mission is not moving to Georgia Avenue in Ward One," Graham wrote on his website after he fought off the shelter.

Now, as the Prince of Petworth has relayed in two recent blog posts, the local ANC 1A will be considering a new proposal on Wednesday night.  The Mission is trying a more moderate tack for the space, which it owns: retail combined with affordable housing.

Read More "Petworth Commenters Mobilize Against “Poor People”" »

There's been a change in the sports pecking order around here, for those who haven't noticed. "DC was a basketball town," says Vernon Davis "It's a football town now."

You gonna argue with him?

Davis, a 6'3", 253-pound former University of Maryland star and now tight end with the San Francisco 49ers, has done his share to speed the city's transition away from hoop-centricity and toward the gridiron.

He and his little brother Vontae, a University of Illinois defensive back and recent first round pick of the Miami Dolphins in the 2009 NFL draft, grew up on Emerson Street in Petworth, and can now make a claim on being the best sibling athletes ever to come out of DC. Vernon, 25, and Vontae, 21, are only the third pair of brothers, behind the Mannings and the McDougles, ever to be chosen in the first round in NFL.

Read More "Vernon and Vontae Davis, DC’s Best Brother Act, Come Home for Football Camp" »

Here's a few minutes of what freedom sounded like this year from a porch in Petworth.

Every Independence Day, the show on the streets gives me giggles and makes me fall in love with my neighborhood all over again.

Mike Ratel's got a trailer for "On Your Mark, Get Set, Mow!"

But without some more funds, the rest of his lawnmower racing movie will end up on the cutting room floor.

Ratel, who lives on Upshur Street NW in Petworth, alleges that a project that has roots in trying to let the world know about a subculture where frustrated Dale Jr.'s tweak their ride-ons until they can cut the grass at 50 MPH has grown into something deeper. He wants to tell the story of the Mikulas of Sparta, Mich., who, along with being the First Family of lawnmower racing in their region, are also big-time fundraisers for Huntington's Disease, a degenerative illness that has killed five members of the clan.

Read More "Petworth Documentarian Wants Cash to Complete Lawnmower Racing Doc" »

The Washington Post has a tiny brief on the back page of today's Metro section reporting that the Metropolitan Police Department has made an arrest in Monday night's fatal shooting on Quebec Place N.W. and another in Colombia Heights last month. 

Police charged Troy Renard Thomas, 18, of the 3000 block of Third Street N.W. , with first-degree premeditated murder while armed of Ryan Randy Trotman.

Arrested in the Columbia Heights case was Robert Larry Brock, 28, of Beltsville in the shooting of Marcus Robertson on May 15. Brock was also charged with first-degree premeditated murder while armed.

The story, reported by Theola Labbé-DeBose, makes no mention that the two homicides, while apparently unrelated, are both allegedly tied to gang beefs going on in different neighborhoods.

Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham told his constituents last month that Brock was targeted for the shooting in "gang beefs that have been ongoing since the murders in Dec/Jan.  Another young adult, Paul Jones, was shot and killed by LaFonte Carlton this past January on the 1300 block of Columbia.  Carlton is now facing two murder charges," Graham reported in a May 16 post to the MPD-3D Listserv.

Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser, meanwhile, has said police are investigating Trotman's killing and another gun-related incident later that night as gang-related.

Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch has identified Ryan Randy Trotman as one of the victims of Monday night’s shooting on Quebec Place N.W. 

Trotman, 28, of the 7400 block of 7th Street, N.W., later died of his injuries. The name of the other victim, a woman who was shot in the leg, is being withheld because she witnessed the crime.

But a quick call the police didn't net anything new about whether the shooting and another incident a few blocks away the same night were part of a beef between rival gangs in the Petworth-Park View area.

“There are no updates” Officer Quintin Peterson in the police department’s Office of Public Affairs said this afternoon.

Big day coming up in Petworth: The spray park at the Petworth Rec Center is about to open.

Howard Marshall, director of the facility, tells me that the fountains are being worked on and will be turned on for the season next Monday, June 15. And the spray park will be open Monday to Saturday through the rest of the summer.

Read More "Why Not Turn All D.C. Fountains Into Spray Parks?" »

In addition to the new Safeway coming to Georgetown, the go-to D.C. grocery chain is planning similar overhauls at the Southwest Waterfront and Petworth.

At the Waterfront, preliminary work is under way for the new store, which will go up behind the current building near the Metro. When completed in 2011, the old store will be demolished. And, much to the delight of the lunch-starved masses, it will have an enhanced deli with sandwiches made to order.

Petworth's store on Georgia Avenue NW will follow a model similar to what's going on in Georgetown---a new, expanded store will go up where the existing store stands. That means the old store will close at some point. Also, parking will be moved below ground. The space occupied by the current parking lot will be added to the footprint of the new store, taking it from about 20,000 square feet to about 55,000 square feet. Safeway spokesman Craig Muckle says Petworth's plans are not as far along as the Waterfront's and hesitated to give a projected completion date. "I don't have a good sense right now, but I'd say ballpark will be sometime in 2011. It won't be next year, I can tell you that," he says.

Read More "Safeway Update: New Stores Coming to Southwest Waterfront, Petworth in 2011" »

I was just driving down Georgia Avenue in Petworth and saw a young male walking toward a corner store wearing a bandana over his face. I hadn't seen this get-up on the streets of DC since the Mount Pleasant riots.

It's a jarring look, no doubt, and likely to catch on.

I couldn't tell if his garb was intended to cover up his identity for what he was about to do, or cover up his mouth so he doesn't get the swine flu.

But I was glad I'm not a clerk in that store.

Hell hath no fury like a robin whose eggs have been tampered with.

I learned that early this morning. Exiting my Petworth abode, I spotted a squirrel scampering pell-mell down a tree across the street. Was he fleeing a jealous mate? Had my roommate's snakes gotten loose?

Neither, it turned out. The squirrel had merely trespassed on a robin's nest, and the robin was not amused. It pursued the frantic rodent down the tree, up the street, through gutters, under cars, and finally onto my lawn, before the squirrel sought asylum within the wooden latticework of my porch.

Home free? Not a whit. Sounds of scuffling indicated that the robin, unflappable, had broken through and was now tormenting a beast three times its size. By the time the ragged combatants emerged, the robin had clamped his beak to the squirrel's tail. A great general flailing ensued; then, mutual retreat. Peace, or something like it, had been restored.

Are the robins particularly mean this year? Do they have ancestral beef with the squirrels? Has anyone seen anything like this before?

Photograph above by photoholic1

Evelyn Y. Davis wants to go to Petworth, she just doesn't want to go now.

Just across the street from the U.S. Soldiers' and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery sits Rock Creek Cemetery, an equally beautiful resting place for civilians. It's on the grounds of the oldest church in DC, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, and bodies have been buried here since 1719.

Teddy Roosevelt's daughter, Alice Longworth, Constitution signer Abraham Baldwin and "Meet the Press" icon Tim Russert are among the assembled dead.

And, again, it's a beautiful place to visit.

Seeing the burial plot for Davis is alone worth the trip.

She’s a DC resident who has gained international fame after decades of playing the gadfly role at stockholders meetings.

One more thing about Davis: She's very much alive.

Read More "…But I Wouldn’t Want to Live There" »

BREAKING: Police are blanketing Petworth after an armed carjacking in the 300 block of Taylor St. NW. The perpetrator, a 5'8" black male dressed in running gear and a ski mask, commandeered the car at approximately 7:50 p.m. and fired on three cops at 7:55, hitting no one. A low-flying helicopter equipped with a searchlight is keeping a tight perimeter around the neighborhood. Residents are being asked to remain in their houses and to report any suspicious behavior to the police.

Further bulletins forthcoming.

UPDATE ~10:50 p.m.: Officer Peterson at the D.C. Police Public Information Office reports that the suspect's still at large. "He's still out there," Peterson said. "He got away."

More details on the shooting: After jacking the car—a Ford Escape—the perpetrator drove north before encountering three officers at 3rd and Upshur Streets NW. "He took a couple potshots at them," Peterson said. No one was injured. Police have recovered the car, which the culprit ditched to proceed on foot.

UPDATE ~12:01 p.m. 2/13/09: Officer Kenny Bryson at the D.C. PIO confirms that the shooting happened at 3rd and Taylor NW, not NE. This morning's Washington Post mistakenly identifies the 300 block of Taylor St. NE as the site of the carjacking.

More as it comes.

Yesterday, colleague and all around finger-on-the-pulse guy Andrew Beaujon talked to some people at a mall, not the Mall, and realized that nobody from Virginia was going to actually attend Barack Obama's inauguration.

I believe he's right.

And with even less reporting, and though lacking Andrew's finger-on-the-pulse gifts, I'm ready to make a companion declaration: Nobody from Petworth is going to actually attend Barack Obama's inauguration, either.

Petworth is a neighborhood that loves its public displays.

But everybody I've talked to around here lately, neighbors and fellow breakfasters at the fabulous Tony's Place, tells the same tale of wanting to attend the ceremony but losing interest because of all the reported hassles.

"I'm just going to watch it on TV at my church," said the lady sitting on the stool next to me at Tony's.

I've gone to a lot of these things. Since Carter's, I've only missed the second term swearing-ins for Bush II and Reagan's in 1985. And I only missed Reagan's 1985 ceremony because there wasn't one.

But, like ALL OF PETWORTH, I've lost the will to show up at Obama's.

Again, given the hassles, most of which are clearly designed not for safety but just to keep the hoi polloi away, why doesn't the government just do the honest thing and cease with these faux open ceremonies?