UPDATE: Local new outlets have the story that Poke was captured just before 4 p.m. in Prince George's County and is in police custody, while CNN.com says he was shot dead during a shoot-out with police. UPDATE: Indeed, everyone is now reporting that Poke was shot by police during his capture and pronounced dead at the hospital. *** Police across the D.C. and Baltimore region are searching for Kelvin Poke, pictured right, a 45-year-old......

Early yesterday morning, the tragic news was announced. On Myspace, a bulletin appeared that read: Ian Mackaye, lead singer of influential hardcore band Minor Threat as well as Fugazi passed away today in a Baltimore hospital room. Outside a Fugazi show in New Jersey last night, the singer was struck by a car passing by the front of the Ventura Theatre. Brunswick police say that the driver allegedly stopped, but then fled the scene. There......

A long-time complaint of commuters looking for more and better options to get between Washington and Baltimore could be remedied as soon as next year. The Baltimore Sun reports that the Maryland Transit Administration plans to expand MARC commuter train service to include weekends and additional weekday trains in 2008. The ambitious plan, which will still require approvals from relevant rail agencies, includes tripling MARC's capacity by 2035. The change would allow those looking for......

Just one night after the Season Opening Night Gala hosted by Washington National Opera, another set of patrons (and the critics of the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post) came together to fill the Kennedy Center Concert Hall to open the National Symphony Orchestra's season on Sunday night. In terms of funds raised, it was the most successful opening ball in the NSO's history, according to Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Blackstone......

In times when security fears, whether justified or not, begin to creep over our lives, it's important to remember that the tiny chipping away of legitimate rights can be a slippery slope to unwarranted governmental authority over our lives. We wrote in June about photographer Chip Py's experience in downtown Silver Spring, as well as Kate Mereand's similar confrontations all over D.C., and their subsequent formation of DC Photo Rights, a Flickr group dedicated to......

>> Could an Evangelical group be forcing your kids to swap spit in school? We were just as shocked as some parents to learn that the answer may be "yes." Apparently, just such a program, aimed at teaching kids about STDs and peer pressure, has been in place at many Montgomery County schools for nine years. In the lesson one student is given a piece of gum to chew and then other kids are asked......

Here's bettin' that most of us will be hopping on a plane in the coming weeks to go visit friends and family over the holiday season. With increasing security lines, liquid fiascoes and general holiday logjams, the trip probably isn't one that anybody is looking forward to. But which airport will get us to our destination fastest? There can only be one... and it turns out the best and fastest place to begin your travels......

Written by DCist contributor Alex Hogan and Martin Austermuhle D.C. Mayor, City Council: Ok, so the September Democratic primary kinda took the air out of the District's official mayoral election, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go vote. Look for a crushing Democratic sweep, but give a little time and check out what the Statehood Green and Republican candidates, Chris Otten and David Kranich, respectively, have to offer. We'd like to think that someday their......

We're at the midway point of the Fringe Festival, and we have all of one show opening today. That show is Erica McLaughlin's Love And Wood, from the Unmentionable Theatre Company. The play's heroine, Morgan, finds herself in a lover's triangle between two affectionate men, and struggles to reconcile the intellectual fullfillment she receives from one with the erotic fulfillment of the other. Pretty heady stuff, and if the play's anywhere near as compelling as......

It seems that the governor of our oft-neglected neighbor to the north -- the first Republican governor Maryland has had in 36 years -- is having little luck in shaping state politics these days. Recent legislative moves in the state's Democratic-controlled General Assembly have pushed progressive causes that favor labor over industry and may force Gov. Robert Ehrlich into the uncomfortable position of using his veto power -- and possibly having it overriden. The Baltimore......