Good morning, Washington. We hope not too many of you were making your way into the city from Montgomery County this morning, as two separate water main breaks forced road closures in Takoma Park and kids to get the day off from school in Germantown. We'll admit it -- we're pretty envious of the students at Fox Chapel Elementary School, who get to spend the day doing whatever they please while we had to show......

Last night, Northeast D.C. saw a robbery, a high-speed chase, gun shots directed at police, an injured cyclist, and a barricade situation, all rolled into one. Police cars, flashing lights and emergency vehicles woke up many residents late last night around a normally quiet stretch of Capitol Hill. NBC 4 notes that investigators have said the incident "started around 9:30 p.m. after three suspects robbed a man at gunpoint at 41st and Benning Road Northeast......

Busy city streets like Columbia Road, Florida Avenue, or Benning Road can sometimes feel like a real-life game of Frogger. With pedestrians crossing at all angles, cyclists zooming past, and drivers dodging delivery trucks, it is a wonder more accidents don't occur among all the chaos. Perhaps city-dwellers have learned to adapt, staying alert and expecting the unexpected. Maybe they are just lucky. However, as urbanization reaches farther out into the metro area, pedestrian collisions......

If you follow the comments on this site at all, you've probably noticed that one of the topics that stirs up much digital debate is Metro. Be they lovers or haters, DCist readers love to complain about it, compare it to systems in other cities (especially New York), suggest ways to improve it, etc., etc. Well, here's your chance to take your comments offline and address them to someone who can actually do something about......

Happy Monday, Washington. Looks like we might start the week with a little rain, no doubt the salty tears of a thousand schoolchildren as they tuck away the summer toys and fill their backpacks with clean notebooks and sharpened pencils. School is back in session this morning for the D.C. Public Schools, and just as kids everywhere feel unprepared in the face of a new year, the schools themselves may be just as unprepared for......

Good morning, Washington. In case last week's single-tracking of the Blue Line wasn't enough, it looks like there will be more Metrorail delays this weekend. WMATA's website tells us that Red, Blue and Green Line riders should expect delays starting Friday night and going through Sunday at midnight. Though it's a pain for those of us still in town, better they do this when most folks are out of the District as opposed to, say,......

With the terrific news that five suspects had been arrested over the weekend on charges of being behind a string of robberies and violent assaults on the National Mall this summer, Saturday should have been a banner day for the Metropolitan Police Department's PR staff. But the U.S. Park Police, which took the lead on the multi-agency investigation, has ended up getting the lion's share of the credit. Police said they are a group of......

Travel Might Suck Today: A word to the wise -- Amtrak and Greyhound might seem like mighty good options in the coming days. As you've no doubt heard, British officials report that they have broken up a plot to blow up airplanes flying from London to the U.S., sending both countries into a security frenzy, writes NBC 4. Things are so bad that passengers are now forbidden from carrying any liquids or gels onto......

So it's hot out, if you haven't noticed. And somehow, when it is hot out, life's little inconveniences are that much worse. Like getting off the Metro, turning the corner out of the faregate, and finding an escalator that is not moving. And that is exactly what will happen today at several area Metro stations, undergoing scheduled escalator renovations. Though Metro might not be able to get the escalators up and running today, they are......

March for Life Takes to National Mall: The National Mall will be a few hundred thousand people more crowded this morning, as pro-life activists participate in the annual March for Life, reports WTOP. Large sections of the Mall will be closed to traffic, including the area between Pennsylvania Avenue and Independence Avenue from Third Street to Fifteenth Street. District officials have announced that starting at 7 a.m. they will turn on their 19-camera CCTV......

Today will be positively depressing - cloudy with patchy drizzle with highs in the low 60s. What do you have planned for the weekend? Dropping by the New Pornographers (or the Foo Fighters)? Stopping by the D.C. Flickr group's Georgetown show? We'll have our full picks later today. Preparations for 'Millions More': Area officials are preparing for crowds for this weekend's Millions More Movement, an anniversary commemoration of the Million Man March. A number of......

In 2002, this DCist moved to the far eastern reaches of Capitol Hill. At the time, 8th Street SE, which passes nearby the popular Eastern Market and in front of the Marine Barracks, was a worn down stretch of road, hardly a place you'd want to be caught at night. Three years and $8.5 million later, the roadway, at right, now known as the Barracks Row Main Street, boasts brick sidewalks, improved lighting, increased parking,......

Coming on the heels of a weekend in which a well-known volunteer traffic officer was critically injured after being hit at the intersection of M Street and Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown, the District Department of Transportation has released a draft report detailing the city's most dangerous intersections. Topping the list with 13 crashes between 1998 and 2002 is the intersection at Benning Road and Minnesota Avenue in Northeast, pictured at left, followed closely by Seventh......

Dupont Escalators to Close on Sunday. Because of escalator canopy construction at Dupont Circle, the 19th Street metrorail portal at the south end of the circle will be shut for most of Sunday. Weekend commuters should use the Q Street escalators, pictured in this photo posted by FurCafe in DCist Photos, instead. In 2005, escalators at the following stations will get escalator canopies: White Flint, Stadium Armory, Capitol Heights, Benning Road, Dupont Circle South, Woodley......

Lots of automated traffic enforcement news! The Post is reporting that Virginia's experiment with red light cameras has come to an end after a state House committee killed Senate measures that would have done away with the experimenting period's expiration date. Do we hear cheering coming from across the Potomac? And commuters who use MacArthur Boulevard, 16th Street NW, Michigan Avenue or Benning Road: Beware. The District's new permanent speed camera enforcement zones are now......

In his budget delivered to Congress, President Bush has given an important endorsement of WMATA's plan to build an extention through Tyson's Corner. The agency that oversees such matters has given the rail line from the West Falls Church station to Wiehle Avenue in Fairfax County a "recommended" rating. Considering ridership projections and cost-effectiveness, as the Post reports, the rating makes the project "eligible for 50 percent federal funding." But drivers of the Dulles Toll......

Well, D.C. It seems that we're almost through Inaugural Week. Though thousands of out-of-towners, constituents and other party-goers will be still around today and into the weekend, the city should be getting slowly back to normal. A quick question to those out there who are experienced travelers ... Considering the gargantuan number of fur coats brought in for Inauguration festivities, how do you pack a fur coat into one's luggage? It seems that if fur......

Watch out D.C. drivers, the District is deploying four new photo radar cameras for "final testing." That means that while the cameras will flash and take your photo if you are speeding, you will not be issued a ticket. Here are the locations, according to the Metropolitan Police Department: -- 5400 block of 16th Street NW -- 100 block of Michigan Avenue NE -- 2800 block of Benning Road NE -- And up in the......

Admit it: You've always wanted to have a police scanner. And since D.C. is reportedly the sixth-most dangerous city in the country (despite our dropping homicide rate), a scanner can be the source of endless entertainment. Unfortunately, scanners can be a bit expensive. Enter the D.C. Fraternal Order of Police online police scanner. With Winamp and a sound card, you can listen to the District police go about their work all day. The scanner, though......