Washington Teacher's Union Rally Outside Washington Post HQ, 15th St NW. ©2011 Michael W. Hicks

This whale carcass washed up in Delaware in March.

Morning, all. It's the end of a short week, but I still feel drained. Here's to a rejuvenating weekend.

So, LeBron's going to Miami. Along with Chris Bosh. And the newly re-signed Dwayne Wade. Move over, Los Angeles, there's a new dynasty in town.

Sad news from the National Zoo: The red panda born three weeks ago–the zoo's first in 15 years–has died. Red panda cubs have a 50 percent mortality rate in captivity. Ninety-three Facebook users "liked" WaPo's story about the cub's death–what kind of sick SOBs are those people?News from Ocean City (or, Ocean Shitty as my colleague Nikki Caporale fondly refers to it): That foul odor you're smelling is whale carcass. The 25-foot-long carcass washed ashore last evening, and the beach patrol have tied a lasso to its tail and will try to drag it out to sea.

Maybe that fare hike is actually being used for something. Metro is reinstating 12 of the 100 Metro rail cars pulled from service last week. The initial move was prompted by concern that the cars' doors might open while a train is in motion.

And in case you missed it, Capital Fringe opened last night. It's two and a half weeks of heaven for all you theater geeks out there, and there's probably some fun to be had for you less theatrical folk, too.

Photo: WTOP

Along with barbeques, displays of patriotism, and droves of tourists descending upon D.C., Fourth of July means fireworks galore. WaPo explores local pyros. Apparently more people are injured each year in bike, motorcycle, and car accidents than in fireworks-related incidents. Put that one in the Duh Column.

Will the soon-to-be-open CVS cause light pollution in Park View/Petworth? As a resident of the neighborhood–and one that could easily be affected by the light, too–I don't care, I just want a drug store already.

Chinatown Coffee Company will be adding beer, wine, and absinthe to their menu. Hmm, bet they had an easier time getting their liquor license than some other coffee shops around town.

Oh, Robert Byrd, why'd you have to go and die right around Independence Day? The flag at the Capitol has been flying half-staff since his death, and is supposed to stay there until his funeral next week. But Federal code dictates the flag fly at full staff July 4.

Katie Smith scored 9 points in the final seconds of the game to help the Mystics beat the Phoenix Mercury 107-104 last night. I've seen that woman up close, and she has got some impressive guns–metaphorically speaking, of course; it's not like she's the female Gilbert Arenas.

Photo: onetravel.com

"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!"

Greater Greater Washington goes deep into the archives for a history lesson on Carroll Row.

And Now, Anacostia notes that the Salvation Army building has finally opened.

In Bloom sorta responds to a listserv post asking for Bloomingdale to become a gated community. Someone is fed up with crime! The blogger writes:

"Frankly, if neighboring LeDroit Park couldn't do it from the start, it's a fair bet to say that it's not going to happen here and now. With several major thoroughfares running through the area (First Street, North Capitol Street, and Rhode Island Avenue, just to name a few), it would wreak havoc on traffic as well."

The Georgetown Metropolitan calls off Ginkgogate 2009:

"While the wretched threat of their putrid load still hangs menacingly over our heads or lies under our feet, GM is now confident that a full-blown Ginkgogate 2009 has been avoided.

This time last year we we’re under a deluge of foul smelling berries. The city had switched to a new concoction to stem the growth of the ginkgo berries. It was a total disaster. We had berries straight through the spring."

Frozen Tropics factchecks a WaPo piece on H Street.

Prince of Petworth notes that there will be a community meeting this Wednesday to discuss the recent spike in violent crime in the neighborhood.

The fallout that ensued was tremendous. A few web-only writers went after Gawker, but even more argued that at least Gawker gave credit, whereas newspapers, television stations, and other old media frequently don't when they re-report a story.

Well, CNN recently did to criminal justice reporter Radley Balko, who lives in Northern Virginia, what Gawker supposedly did to Shapira, except it failed to give any credit where much credit was due.

As Techdirt wrote early this morning, Balko (who I worked with at Reason) has spent several years reporting on Steven Hayne, the Mississippi medical examiner whose shoddy work has led to the incarceration of several known innocents. Over the last three years, Balko has cultivated sources, reads hundreds–if not thousands–of pages of documentation incriminating Hayne, and, as a result, has broken every single piece of major news about the medical examiner.

But you wouldn't know any of that if all you had for reference was the AC360 special about Hayne, which piggy-backs almost exclusively on Balko's reporting without every hat-tipping or acknowledging his work. (Techdirt reported that "sources quoted by CNN told Balko that CNN claims it found them via his articles.")

In a post at his site The Agitator, Balko writes

I guess the important thing here is that CNN is giving the Steven Hayne story national attention.

That’s great.

And I guess I shouldn’t dwell too much on the fact that CNN piggybacked on my three years of reporting without giving me even the slightest acknowledgment. Journalists who have been in the game far longer than I tell me this kind of thing happens all the time. Bigger outlets don’t really feel obligated to credit smaller ones for breaking stories.

Most bloggers and reporters, old media and new, have made the same point: Piggy-backing happens a lot, it's how news dissemination works, and it shouldn't be looked down on if it's done right. But few people, especially in old media, are willing to concede that when a story moves upward, from web to print, or from small outlet to national outlet, the big dogs don't feel the need to reciprocate credit.

This is especially egregious when a story blows up in the hands of a larger outlet, because there's an opportunity to easily boost a smaller paper's profile with a hat-tip. The Wall Street Journal could (and should) have done this in August of last year, when it piggybacked on months of reporting by the Brownsville Herald on a story about Mexican-Americans being denied citizenship because they were delivered by midwives instead of in obstetric wards.

In an email, Balko elaborated on CNN's failure to credit his reporting:

"With my story, it wasn't just CNN. The Gannet-owned Jackson Clarion-Ledger has run with two of my big scoops about Dr. Hayne in just the last six months. Neither acknowleded I broke the original story. Here you have a paper with a fairly large staff and budget continually getting scooped on a story that's beeing going on in its own backyard for 20 years by a journalist with a small magazine who lives 600 miles away. Seems to me that's a good indication that the traditional media's problems go well beyond having their content excerpted by blogs and websites."

UPDATE: A savvy reader points out that CNN closed the comments on the ANC360 Hayne article immediately after this post pinged back in the comments section:

Lots of news about shoes, after the jump!

• This picture from Madame Tussauds North Korea is getting a lot of attention today. Turns out Kim Jong-Il, famed Manolo collector and N. Korean dictator is not dead/still has it! WaPo reports that the Dear Leader's meeting with President Bill Clinton is "the first time in years that the ailing North Korean head of state has been visited by a Western leader." He's just been lonely!

• Also in WaPo: Things that make Libby at BYT want to throw up! Apparently, Postie Monica Hesse is not only a skilled reporter but a hipster taxonomist: "For the hipsters, post-hipsters or quasi-hipsters who moved into Columbia Heights several years ago for the grit and the cheap rent and the proximity to the Wonderland Ballroom (the hipster, post-hipster or quasi-hipster bar that sponsors local music and nights like “Sundress Fest”), life can be divided into two discrete phases: Before Target. After Target." The rest of the article is about how Target has turned these independent souls into corporate soles! Read the original here. Read BYT's frothy takedown here. And per my promise of shoe news: Target sells them!
• We also have fresh content on our other blogs: Thom Yorke's lazy eye gets a little lazier on Leak Proof. Mastodon is hitting up the D.C. area again, this time with a cartoon band. Yalie Pizza!.

Happy Tuesday, y'all!

The American Enterprise Institute's financial woes, Campus Progress' smear campaign, and creationists at the Smithsonian below the jump.

• The Washington Indepenent's Dave Weigel has a bang-up story out today about the belt-tightening at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). The think tank most famous for providing George W. Bush with intellectual justification in the lead-up to the Iraq War has lost funding from General Motors and the Carnegie Foundation, let go of several scholars, and killed the print version of its political magazine, The American.
• Ross Douthat of The Atlantic will be taking Bill Kristol's spot at the New York Times. As one twitterer said, it's hard to find someone in the political sphere who doesn't think this is a good idea. Douthat bleeds red wine and wafers, sure, but he's brilliant, curious, and upstanding. Which is more than anyone could say for his predecessor or the trouble-makers at Campus Progress, who have dug up Douthat's college journalism clips and excerpted the most offensive bits in hopes of...Well, I haven't figured out what they hope to achieve besides showing Douthat's stellar journalistic development over the last eight years.
• If this lede doesn't prime you for a laugh, I don't know what will: "Every winter, David DeWitt takes his biology class to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, but for a purpose far different from that of other professors. DeWitt brings his Advanced Creation Studies class (CRST 390, Origins) up from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., hoping to strengthen his students' belief in a biblical view of natural history, even in the lion's den of evolution. Whole thing here, courtesy of WaPo's Steve Hendrix.
• Also, Wayne Garcia of Tampa's Creative Loafing has a great update from yesterday's CL bankruptcy case, in which someone–can't say who–tells a fib or two about the state of company morale.

Alright, folks. I'll catch you later.