1600 Block Pennsylvania Ave, NW.  Jan. 10th.  © 2012 Matt Dunn

Armed And Dangerous: The national news media got very excited Friday night, as word broke that there had been some gunshots a few blocks from the White House. Early reports made it sound like the weapon might have been aimed at the executive mansion. But quickly, it became clear that it was just a coincidence; the people allegedly shooting at each other didn't have anything to do with the president. Which meant it was just another shooting in D.C., and therefore, not a big deal to the rest of the country. Police are searching for Oscar Ramiro Ortega in connection with the incident. -2

Get Used To Traffic: Hoping Metro will eventually make the gridlock and traffic jams of the present a distant memory? Don't hold your breath. Virginia officials say the current transportation system will pretty much be what we're stuck with for the future, thanks to budget constraints, other than expansions that are already in the works, like the Silver Line. In other words, time to buy a bike. -2

Today In Taxation Without Representation: Good news and bad news out of Congress today with regard to the District's longstanding gripe about not being able to spend local dollars without federal approval. The good news: Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., he of the Sulaimon Brown investigation, may introduce a bill to give D.C. more budget autonomy. The bad news: The bill would ban the District from spending any local money on abortion. It's autonomy with built-in interference! If only Congress could be this creative in thinking about other problems, the budget deficit would be solved already. -2

Sexy Wreck-sy: Now the world knows again what we first learned earlier this year: Rex "Sexy Rexy" Grossman is not a good quarterback. Of course, neither is John Beck, the guy Redskins coach Mike Shanahan benched Grossman for, then benched for Grossman this past weekend. The Redskins went to Miami and lost 20-9 to the Dolphins, extending their current losing streak to five games, the longest of Shanahan's coaching career. Unfortunately, having already won three games, there's little chance the Redskins will manage to finish with the league's worst record so they can draft Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck. -2

Friday's Needle rating: 38 Today's score: -8 Today's Needle rating: 30

What Will Keep United In D.C.?: Baltimore wasn't playing when it decided to make a bid for D.C. United, which isn't happy, or profitable, playing at RFK. (Fans, meanwhile, aren't happy with the team's inability to make the playoffs.) Major League Soccer has been surveying fans up I-95 about how they'd feel about a soccer team moving to the city, apparently to see whether a relocation would be viable. In response, United supporters here are circulating a petition to District officials and investors, saying the team should be able to build a stadium at Buzzard Point, near the Nationals ballpark in Southwest. The cynical prediction: No stadium for United, which is the only major D.C. team to win a championship in its league in the last decade, but the city does wind up dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into a Redskins practice complex. -1

Key Bridge, Don't Fall Down Now: The bridges in the D.C. area haven't gotten great reviews lately, but sometimes a politician needs a convenient prop. And so it was that President Barack Obama brought his campaign to invest in infrastructure to the Key Bridge, speaking with Rosslyn behind him about the manifold joys of public works projects. The recent Wilson Bridge reconstruction, the White House says, has cut bottlenecks dramatically. As for the Key Bridge, it's not in such great shape—Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood exhorted Congress to spend some money fixing it up soon, lest Obama give his next Georgetown speech in front of a pile of floating rubble. +1

You Don't Have To Go Home, But You Can't Stay Here: The last time bad weather settled in during a wintertime rush hour, the city hit levels of gridlock not seen again until the August earthquake. Theoretically, that'll change this winter. Instead of letting everyone go whenever they feel like leaving, the federal government will tell workers when to leave or tell them to stay until roads are clear. We still recommend tele-commuting the next time it snows, though. +2

Boots Off: Budget cuts have left city and state governments around the country trying to do—as the irritatingly chipper phrase has it—more with less, and D.C. is no exception. The latest round of cuts, though, may be good news to anyone who has a habit of parking illegally: The District Department of Public Works has laid off 30 people, cutting in half the number of parking enforcement officers devoted to booting cars. -1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 37 Today's score: +1 Today's Needle rating: 38

Located in Washington, DC, City Market at “O” Street is a mixed-use property consisting of 400 market-rate residential units, 16,000 square feet of retail space and a 57,000 square foot supermarket with financing under the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Section 220 insured mortgage program.  In conjunction with this project and others, FHA has embarked on an effort to streamline the approval process for loans, including review of related federal permits and is working with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to expedite the National Historic Trust approval, subject to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

The only other Housing and Urban Development project getting star treatment is a housing project in Colorado. Mostly, the Obama administration is fast-tracking transportation and agriculture developments.

Photo by dbking via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 License

• Blue to raise awareness of sex trafficking
• Teal for ovarian cancer
• Purple for Alzheimer's awareness
• Yellow for the troops
• Gray for Zombie Awareness Month

Or perhaps the White House should skip the symbolism, and leave the colored lights to the Empire State Building.

Photo by the White House

The big story for political operatives and reporters yesterday was the back-and-forth between the White House and Republicans in Congress over when, exactly, President Barack Obama would head up to the Capitol to make a speech about getting the economy back on track that the Republicans in Congress would then ignore.

Obama had proposed delivering the speech next Wednesday night; the GOP objected, because their own would-be presidents will be debating that night in California, under the auspices of Politico and NBC News. A terrible conflict! (At least for the reporters and editors who don't have any choice but to pay attention to both events; since the speech is unlikely to do much to actually get more people employed, it's hard to get that worked up about when it happens or what else is going on at the same moment.) Fortunately for the future of the republic—as you already know if you didn't have the sense to ignore this preposterous story—the White House decided, once again, to do what House Speaker John Boehner wants, and the Obama speech will now be next Thursday night instead.

But the showdown did make us wonder about what other events here in D.C. might cause such consternation if they were scheduled at the same time. Below, as a public service, Washington City Paper presents a list of the top five scheduling conflicts to avoid. We must all do everything in our power to make sure none of these actually happen! The fate of the world is depending on it.

• Conflict: Washington Adult Kickball Association championship game scheduled for same time as D.C. Bocce league opening week.
• What Would Go Wrong: Supply of plastic cups runs dangerously short; lines to get into bars with rec-league-sponsored drink specials run dangerously long.

• Conflict: National Cupcake Day scheduled for same time as D.C. Tweed Ride.
• What Would Go Wrong: Alarming confluence of precious foods and/or outfits could disrupt the time/space continuum.

• Conflict: Metro escalator outage at same time as overactive Department of Public Works parking enforcement.
• What Would Go Wrong: Neighborhood email lists swamped with passive-aggressive posts about how inconvenienced members feel could potentially be the thing that finally brings down the Internet.

• Conflict: D.C. Triathlon scheduled for same time as Morning Joe taping.
• What Would Go Wrong: Former Mayor Adrian Fenty is fast, but not fast enough to swim, bike, run, and praise Wisconsin's union-busting Republican Gov. Scott Walker all at once.

• Conflict: Hurricane scheduled for same week as earthquake—again.
• What Would Go Wrong: Alas, Pat Collins might not make it through a second time.

Screengrab from YouTube

Wonderland Bandits: Five years ago, a gang of men rushed into Wonderland Ballroom, in Columbia Heights, wearing masks and carrying guns, and robbed patrons and employees alike. Apparently that sort of thing still works; three armed robbers held the bar up again last night, around 1:45 a.m. Police apprehended one of the suspects shortly afterwards, but two others remain at large. Perhaps the bar should implement a no masks allowed policy? -3

Fugazi Clan Ain't Nothin' To Fuck With: When it first appeared last month, the Fugazi/Wu-Tang Clan mashup "Sleep Rules Everything Around Me," by Wugazi, seemed like it had to be a one-off project. Sure, mixing the Staten Island rap collective and the Dischord Records stalwarts sounded amazing, but how many times could you do it? A few more songs trickled out of Tumblr, though, and today, a whole album, 13 Chambers, arrived. Maybe this means the long-hoped-for Fugazi reunion can also feature a Wu-Tang show! +2

Youth On Fire: Two summers ago, an alarming spate of robberies occurred, all with similar details—kids wearing blue Summer Youth Employment Program t-shirts would be mugged on payday, by people who knew they were in the District government-sponsored jobs corps and had debit cards loaded with cash. Now the city's trying to prevent a repeat: Firefighters will deploy on Wednesday paydays to help keep kids out of trouble. No word on what will happen if the firefighters are also mugged, or if they have to leave to put out a fire. -1

No We Can't: The White House did nothing about the fact that the District government would have closed along with the federal government back in April (the last time our national leaders teetered on the edge of a calamity). And when it came time to negotiate a deal to keep things operating, President Barack Obama bowed to GOP demands to ban local spending on abortions. They're at it again; the White House says House Republicans' plans to keep the abortion ban in next year's budget undermines Home Rule, but won't threaten to veto the D.C. spending bill over it. Keep it up, Mr. President, and Mark Plotkin will really be upset about the fact you won't put "Taxation Without Representation" license plates on your limo. -3

Yesterday's Needle rating: 48 Today's score: -5 Today's Needle rating: 43

1600 Block of Pennsylvania Ave. NW, May 2

Continue to Be Afraid Until Further Notice: By now, Osama bin Laden's body lies somewhere near the bottom of the Arabian Sea, having been deposited there off the U.S.S. Carl Vinson after he was killed by Navy SEALs yesterday. But anyone who thought that would mean the elaborate, and expensive, security apparatus set up around D.C. and the nation since Sept. 11, 2001, hasn't been paying enough attention. District officials went out of their way to warn of heightened danger from attacks even now that the al-Qaida boss is dead. On Metro, which seems only to have been the target of a would-be terrorist the FBI recruited for a fictional plot, police patrols and other security measures were increased. Years from now, will anyone even remember that bin Laden was the original reason for all this stuff? -3

Bin LadenShare: There's an answer to one question about the cheering hordes that materialized outside the White House last night—how did they get there? By Capital Bikeshare. The service reported a big spike between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. last night, with 558 rentals—far more than you'd expect for the middle of a Sunday night. That leaves the answers to other questions—questions like, where did they get all the flags and beer?—still unknown. +2

Water Back to Normal: Switching on the faucet should no longer evoke strong memories of childhood swim meets; D.C. Water has stopped using chlorine as a disinfectant and gone back to the odorless chloramine the agency uses for all but a few weeks each year. (Feel free to make your own jokes about lead here.) +2

Maps R Us: Been dreaming about a map of the building shapes in the District? How about land height in the city? Or commercial vs. residential zoning? All of these can now be yours, thanks to the geographic information system data D.C. officials make available. The real magic, of course, would be to combine some obscure piece of city data with a text-based map of D.C. +1

Friday's Needle rating: 63 Today's score: +2 Today's Needle rating: 65

1600 Block of Pennsylvania Ave. NW, May 2

Some of our favorite tweets about the crowd:

To see D.C. people celebrating in trees and sports bras, check out our photo gallery.

That's because the Examiner has now assigned two Maryland and Montgomery County reporters, Hayley Peterson and Brian Hughes, to alternate their coverage of the suburbs and Annapolis with coverage of the White House. When the paper's former White House reporter, Julie Mason, left to go to Politico, editors decided Barack Obama may as well be Ike Leggett.

"We decided that Hayley and Brian had been doing such a terrific job that they were ready to take on something bigger," says editor Stephen G. Smith. "We couldn't afford to take them both out of Maryland, and we need that local coverage... We just think it's really important to show that if people do well here, we don't have to go outside the paper to bring in people who succeed in important beats."

So one week, Peterson covers 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and Hughes covers Maryland. The next week, they swap.

"This is not a temporary thing—this is the way we're filling the White House [beat]," Smith says. "We're not looking for a White House correspondent or anything like that."

Taking on a demanding beat with lots of breaking news and the need to build sources—like either Maryland or the White House—and juggling it with a completely different job that has no overlap sounds like a recipe for overstretched reporters. Having once covered suburbs (albeit in Philadelphia), and then later covered the White House, I told Smith it seemed like a tough assignment to do both at the same time. But Smith isn't worried: "We all figure that just reorienting to Maryland, you can't help but lose the thread a little bit. We understand that."

That's because, at the Examiner, they're dealing with a whole different caliber of reporter, Smith says. "Young reporters today are so far ahead of where I was when I came out of school, because they've done all these internships and worked for extremely good college papers," he tells me. In fact, once the school year ends, the Examiner will have another new reporter starting on the local staff, in part to help offset the time Peterson and Hughes are spending at the White House.

Some Examiner staffers, none of whom wanted to be quoted complaining about the paper, have been grumbling privately about the arrangement—which, despite Smith's explanation, seems like it has more to do with budgets than college internships. After all, why spend the money to hire—and pay—a new White House reporter when you can just throw someone else into the job part time? But it could wind up looking prescient, if Martin O'Malley runs for president one day.

Preston landed on the South Lawn, but soon thereafter took off again, angling the helicopter on a return route to Fort Meade. Two Maryland Police Helicopters began following him, but Preston took his helicopter on a series of “erratic maneuvers,” making it hard for the Maryland Police to force him to land. Preston instead decided to return to the White House.

This time, the Secret Service was ready. They began shooting at the helicopter, with both submachine guns and shotguns. The helicopter was forced to the ground and “after a short foot chase” Preston was arrested.

President Richard Nixon wasn’t in the White House to witness the event, as he was traveling in Florida at the time. However, the event is believed to have inspired failed presidential assassin Samuel Byck, who tried to kill Nixon a week later by hijacking an airliner and crashing it into the White House.

The public had to wait until the next president, Calvin Coolidge, to see the White House use the technology as a communications tool. President Coolidge, who used radio extensively throughout his campaign for the 1924 election, delivered the first presidential address via radio on Feb. 22 of that year. (Harding, however, was the first president heard on the radio, when a Baltimore radio station, WEAR, broadcast his remarks at the dedication of a Francis Scott Key memorial at Fort McHenry in 1922.)

But radio was not new in the nation’s capital.

In 1912, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Navigation began regulating radio. Government stations, such as the Navy’s NAA in Arlington and NSF-NOF in Anacostia, were among the first to explore the broadcast medium, according to this history of early radio, which goes on to say:

The first broadcast station authorized in the Washington area was WJH, the White & Boyer Company [downtown on 13th Street NW], on December 8, 1921. WJH tied with four other stations as the nation's 11th to receive a broadcast licence. Both WDM, the Church of the Covenant [at 18th and N streets NW], and WDW, the Radio Construction and Electric Company [at 542 Irving St. NW], received licences on December 22, 1921, tying for 25th place nationwide.

Over time as the technology evolved, the frequency licensing system was amended to create the system still in place today. (Neither of those early stations still broadcast now.)

For the complete Today in D.C. History series, click here.

No Taxation Without Taxation Without Representation: Tired of watching the District get shoved around by the feds? Just this once, savor the usual order of things being reversed. The IRS announced today that federal income taxes will be due on Monday, April 18, instead of Friday, April 15, because April 15 is Emancipation Day, a D.C. holiday. Power to the people! (On April 18, of course, the District's 600,000 residents will still all have to pay taxes to fund a federal government in which we have no voice in Congress.) +2

Flip That White House: Lest any Tea Party types get any ideas about cutting the federal budget deficit, a home equity loan against 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW isn't likely to yield as much cash as it would have before the economy collapsed. A new estimate says the White House would fetch about $253.1 million if it were sold, down 23.5 percent from $331.5 million at the height of the housing boom. And to think people say D.C. home prices have held their value! -1

Flip That Mayor: The District's 10 percent unemployment rate was a frequent topic during the run-up to the September primary between Then Mayor Adrian Fenty and Now Mayor Vince Gray. For statistical reasons, if nothing else, Gray may be pleased to learn today that Fenty won't be adding to the ranks of unemployed Washingtonians. The one-time wünderkind of city politics has signed up with the Greater Talent Network as a "national leader in the area of urban education reform" who will give speeches on the topic of "Changing Tomorrow, Today." With catchy slogans like that, it's hard to believe he lost! +2

Millions and Millions: The recent decision by the D.C. Lottery to join Mega Millions as well as Powerball could pay off tonight for some lucky Washingtonian, as the jackpot in the Mega Millions drawing has hit $330 million. Yes, we know, playing the lottery is not a particularly wise use of one's hard-earned money. But the way prices are going, can you even buy a dream for $1 anywhere else anymore? +1 UPDATE: The D.C. Lottery now says the jackpot is $355 million, up from $330 million. Players win! Winners play!

Let the Eagle Soar (No More): The bald eagle is the symbol of America. But we'll leave it up to semioticians (or, as Dan Brown would call them, "symbologists") to decode the layers upon layers of meaning in the news that the National Zoo had to euthanize Sam, one of only two bald eagles in the park, on Dec. 31. Sam lived a hard life; she came to D.C. a refugee, after being found in Alaska with a gunshot wound in 1986. More bad news, symbolism-wise: The zoo's other eagle isn't even on display, moved to an undisclosed location because of construction on the seal and sea lion exhibit. -4

Yesterday's Needle rating: 65 Today's score: 0 Today's Needle rating: 65