Bank Busted: Feeding families who can't afford to keep enough food on their own tables was a difficult job before the economy collapsed. But these days—with more and more people in the region needing to turn to food banks—it's gotten even harder. The Capital Area Food Bank says it'll have to start charging member agencies a fee of 10 cents a pound for fresh vegetables, in order to offset higher fuel and food costs. Fortunately, Congress is ready to step in and make things better... er, wait, no, Congress is actually considering cutting $800 million from federal food assistance programs. Never mind. -3

Plug In: Electric vehicles are supposed to be the wave of the future, but for now, few people drive them—and few people know where to charge them. Add one charging spot to the list, though: Union Station opened a power outlet for the no-emission cars today. Drive into the station's garage, pay the regular parking fee, and you can charge your electric car all you want. Too bad the movie theater in the food court closed, or you'd have somewhere to go while you waited. +1

Play to Win: The D.C. Lottery wants to make sure people know how to play its new online gambling—er, sorry, gaming—site when it goes live later this year. So they're going to let you practice. Two new wager-free games will debut on the lottery's website, iGaming, late next month. No word on when Apple's Steve Jobs will buy the name, forcing the lottery to start over with its branding. +1

Oh, Canada: The dominion to our north is best known as a hockey powerhouse, not a soccer stronghold. But don't tell D.C. United, which now has two Canadian national team stalwarts on its roster: United traded for five-time Major League Soccer all-star midfielder Dwayne DeRosario late yesterday, doubling its Canadian quotient (injured defender Dejan Jacovic is the other). Brandon McDonald, a defender, also came to RFK via trade yesterday. Might this year be the first since 2007 for United to make the playoffs? +2

Yesterday's Needle rating: 46 Today's score: +1 Today's Needle rating: 47

Attention local urban sophisticates! You will not be able to visit an Apple Store in the District of Columbia anytime soon!

That scoop comes courtesy of the underappreciated, under-Webbed Current newspapers, which explained in last week's editions [PDF, see pp. 1 and 19] that plans for the District's first Apple Store are held up in a thicket of regulatory approvals, from the Georgetown advisory neighborhood commission and the Old Georgetown Board.

Earlier this month, both bodies rejected Apple's design—the third the company had submitted for the property at 1229 Wisconsin Ave. NW, a Georgetown storefront the company has owned for more than a year—because, as the Current's Carol Buckley puts it, it "would not fit into Georgetown."

Nay, not even this testimonial, delivered by an Apple project manager, can cut through the red tape: "Steve saw this design and really loves it."

That's Steve Jobs, people. Steve Jobs!

When will you hoity-toity bureaucrats wake up and realize that when Steve Jobs loves something, that means you must love it, too?

The Current describes said design as such: "a glass first story with a solid stone upper facade punctuated by a large window shaped like Apple's logo." The Old Georgetown Board, charged with preserving historic preservation standards, "felt that the design turned the building into a billboard," according to a spokesperson. The ANC, charged with being parochial nitwits, raised concerns that the latest design was "too modern."

What are you missing out on, obstructionist Georgetowners? Well, as the Washington Business Journal put it in 2007, you're missing the "one retail store that any town, and any developer, covets above all others. A store with such cachet that any retail center blessed enough to land one becomes instantly certified as a platinum-level shopping mecca, with clientele who are urbane, savvy and have loads of disposable income."

Georgetown, though, does not covet thy neighbor's urbane, savvy, income-disposing customers—got plenty of those already.

So suck it, Jobs! Shoulda gone to Chinatown!

Flickr photo by ping ping