A regular summary of irregular news and notes from neighborhood blogs and email lists around the District.
More Like Bladensburg Parkway: Frozen Tropics reports that Denny's will open its second D.C. location at 17th Street NE and Bladensburg Road (its first is on Benning Road in Deanwood). Commenters aren't completely convinced that the chain should be [...]

Hard-Earned Wisdom: Yesterday afternoon, Washington Post sports columnist Mike Wise appeared to have a huge scoop on Twitter—Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger would be suspended for five games for an alleged assault. Before you could say "April Fool's in August," the Internet was abuzz with the news. Which was precisely Wise's point; the whole thing was [...]

The District neighborhood of Trinidad had so many murders in 2008 that D.C. police decided to set up checkpoints along its perimeter–roadblocks the U.S. Court of Appeals later deemed unconstitutional.
Yet, as Johnny Barnes of the American Civil Liberties Union points out, "the only homicide in Trinidad last year was at the hands of the police."
It's a year and one day [...]

Bladensburg Road NE, February 23

P.S. Montessori attends a DCPS workshop and reports back:
"Before the Thanksgiving Break, I attended a DCPS workshop on Phonemic Awareness. It was actually a pretty good workshop that I found useful and wanted to share....This workshop was really interesting, because a lot of the teachers that were attending taught higher level elementary, middle or high [...]

Harry Potter and the Urban School Nightmare wonders if their insurance covers insanity. This is awesome:
Yesterday we had our monthly staff meeting after school. Interestingly enough, the first thirty minutes of this mandatory whole-school meeting were dedicated not to raising test scores, preparing for IMPACT observations, or discussing important events coming up at our school. [...]

Harry Potter and the Urban School Nightmare expresses early burnout with blogging and possibly teaching! They write:
"Don't know if it's because of Impact (don't think so) or the forever stalled contract negotiations (maybe) or my administration (YES!!!), but I just feel really de-motivated. One thing I can say is that it's definitely not the kids. [...]

The Issue: Some residents aren’t charmed by the odor of female ginkgo trees in Trinidad—and have already had some removed by the city. But according to D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT) policy, after a tree is cut down, someone must call again for another one to be replanted  the city will plant another in its [...]

Today, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia refused to hear the District's appeal on the legality of  D.C. police checkpoints. On July 10, a unanimous three-judge panel of that court ruled that the police checkpoints—which started in Trinidad—were unconstitutional.
The District's only recourse at this point is to take its case [...]

Prince of Petworth posts on the effort/petition to save the Black Rooster. One reader's response:  "i LOVE the black rooster. if the peace corps really closes it down…i just…i might just not go to happy hour anymore, ever, anywhere. and that would make me terribly sad. save the rooster!"
Penn Quarter Living debuts a new column [...]

The Issue: One of the Trinidad Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANC) wants to curb alcohol-related problems by having liquor licenses banned at establishments along Bladensburg Road in NE, with one exception. An ANC proposal says that all establishments in the area will be denied licenses to sell alcohol for five years unless they are “part [...]

As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. And get LL Daily sent straight to your inbox every morning.
Morning all. Late last night, we published a piece on the latest mystery woman in Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry's life: Sharon Bowen. Bowen, who resides in Ohio, received [...]

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) has asked the U.S. Justice Department for clarification on the investigation into the fatal shooting by U.S. Park Police of Trey Joyner in D.C.'s Trinidad neighborhood on June 8.
Norton, after talking with Park Police Chief Salvatore Lauro, had been under the impression that the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division would [...]

Yesterday, U.S. Park Police–as part of a task force–found themselves in the middle of a very strange fatal shooting. Within 24 hours, police and news accounts have begun to differ on how U.S. Park Police officers ended up firing on Trey Joyner. And now the Partnership for Civil Justice has filed a FOIA seeking answers.
The [...]