Happy Day-After-Thanksgiving, D.C. Normally we like to get you your headlines in the a.m., so we hope you'll forgive us for rounding up the news later in the day today -- we needed to spend the morning rolling our much fatter selves out of bed and calling our doctors for a new Lipitor prescription. What do you mean, it isn't necessarily a good idea to put gravy on pumpkin pie? Breaking News: People are Shopping!:......

Today tens of thousands of District children return to school, leaving behind the late-morning starts, extended curfews and breaks at the public swimming pool that summer afforded them. And though the year will proceed as it usually does, they will be part of a school system that has seen drastic changes over the last few months. Now under mayoral control and led by new chancellor Michelle Rhee, the District's public schools have entered a new......

It's not exactly breaking news, but the City Paper's cover story this week is about the George Washington University and its high tuition, tops in the nation. The somewhat basic article (at least to a GW grad and basketball blogger) talks to a few University officials and a couple of students, but seems a little thin. The article does make a good point (and one that we made months ago) — is it worth it?......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

If you ask around, you’ll find a fair share of people who offer Fullerton, California’s Cold War Kids much affection. If your thing is fluid melodies, for instance, or taut pop hooks, you won’t find them in their repertoire. Their music could fairly be called repetitive. If you dressed sexy enough, I certainly wouldn’t kick you out of bed for calling them derivative. Some think their decision to release a full-length record distilled from previously......

Happy Mardi Gras, Washington. Great news for all those planning to expose themselves to garner beads! (We're unsure if any local bars enforce such strict bead acquisition standards, but you can let us know in comments.) It's already above freezing and temps are heading up to 50 today. That's right, the big five-oh. We predict the risk of falling on your ass will be reduced by 76% by the evening commute. Of course, now we've......

>> Breaking News: Former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams has taken a new job at Friedman Billings Ramsey, an investment banking company involved in real estate investment trusts. A formal announcement is expected shortly. [NBC4] >> It's SotU time! Wonkette has details on where to go and exactly how much of which substances you'll need for a proper drinking game. Who will the president kiss while walking down the aisle this year, and how jealous will......

>> Normally, Adrian Fenty hearts the press, and the feeling goes both ways. So why did he assiduously try to keep the media out of his official swearing-in Tuesday? The City Paper has the skinny on the secrecy surrounding the event, including secret entrances for councilmembers, who were told to "arrive alone." [Loose Lips] >> Just in case there weren't enough stereotypes of women in power, new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hosted a tea party......

>> Is that a branch of Rock Creek or is Q St. just happy to see us? It's wet out there and many D.C. streets and sidewalks are swelling over. Parts of our area are still under siege from a storm front that turned deadly in N.C . A flash flood and tornado watch for D.C. should expire at 6 p.m., but don't expect to find completely dry conditions on the commute home. Elsewhere, Stafford,......

We're all breathing a huge sigh of relief this morning to find that the two white-tailed deer that were rescued from the Tidal Basin yesterday are doing just fine after having been tranquilized, lassoed, and pulled along the side of a boat to safety. And of course we assume that it wasn't actually the name of U.S. Park Police spokesman Scott Fear that scared the two into jumping into the water. More likely it......

Dear readers: Just like Mike, Rob, and Ryan before me, today I'm stepping down as DCist's Editor-in-Chief. Sommer is going to continue to shepard the site for the months to come, and given the work she's done so far, I know she'll do an excellent job. I'm not going away altogether, though -- I'm hoping to start writing longer pieces on issues that escape from the immediacy of day-to-day news blogging. Writing and editing for......

Many thanks to alert reader Ki, who sent us this link after reading our post about Verizon's sneaky attempt to turn the repeal of an old tax into a new source of profit. Verizon wasn't the only ISP to try to take advantage of the end of the Universal Service Fund fee for DSL customers — BellSouth did the same, but dropped the charges when the FCC began nosing around. However, Verizon looked like it......

Given that this may well be the storm Al Gore has been warning us about, DCist is going to follow the lead of its mainstream media competitors and assign the staff to cover Deluge '06 from every possible angle. Ryan will stay inside directing the news team, while I hunt down the mayoral candidates to see what they're planning on doing about this rain. Sommer will be out to see if that whole story about......

We're receiving word that shots have been fired inside the Rayburn House Office Building. The whole U.S. Capitol complex is shut down, according to reports on CNN. We'll have more as it breaks. Update: So it seems to be the sound of shots that have been reported, and in the Rayburn Building's garage. Staff are ordered to shelter in place. Update II: So it seems that one staff person heard what they thought were gunshots.......

From time to time, we have a little miscommunication here at the site, and the morning roundup doesn't get up as it normally does. Then we play a little game called live-blogging. First Stop: I'm sure it comes as a shock that we tend to hit the Washington Post first thing in the morning. Being a demographics geek, my eyes are immediately drawn to a story revealing that Virginia's Caroline and King George Counties, at......

All is not well at WJLA/NewsChannel 8. In an ad placed today in the Express, NABET-CWA Local 31 announced the start of a boycott of local ABC affiliates WJLA and NewsChannel 8, which they accuse of stripping away worker rights. The ad reads: Imagine a show where company bosses refuse to grant workers equal pay for equal work. Or the company disrespects family values and cancels vacation time which was requested a year in advance.......

Who thought we'd have back to back posts on beauty pageants? Not us, that's for sure. But after yesterday's not-so-breaking news that Shannon Schambeau, the District's contribution to the Miss America Pageant, wasn't so much a local as a she was a Floridian looking for a state whose beauty crown she could claim, we received word that the organizers of the city's premier pageant are again on the prowl for contestants. The best part of......

...is exactly what we hope to hear sometime down the line. No, seriously. The folks behind the Pulitzer Prize -- journalism's most prestigious award -- are adding "Online Journalism" to their 14 existing categories for the prize. It seems that they have become aware of this thing called the internets, and are beginning to recognize that many of the country's most prominent newspapers have expanded their coverage and features online (yes, Posties, we mean you)......

In breaking news, American University's Board of Trustees has issued a statement concerning the recent controversy over ousted president Benjamin Ladner's $3.7 million severance package. Facing internal revolt from students, faculty and deans, acting chair Thomas Gottschalk and chair-elect Gary Abramson issued an apology to the campus, writing: First, we want to be clear. We are chagrined that the board’s own processes over the years did not allow us to have a clear understanding of......

The new stadium for the Washington Nationals often provokes heated debate -- Who will pay for it? What will it look like? Which way will it face? How many women's restrooms will it have? Yes, this last question has been asked. The Washington Times is reporting that John Banzhaf, a public interest law professor at George Washington University famous for suing fast food restaurants and tobacco companies, has written a letter to the City Council......

Today, washingtonpost.com unveiled the latest in its ever-growing line of blogs, Focus on Fairfax. Spearheaded by Steve Fehr, editor of the Fairfax Extra section of the printed Post, the blog is described as a type of "community bulletin board." Some blogs are online diaries or journals that contain the musings of the author on any number of topics. Ours will be more like a community bulletin board that tells you what is going on in......

Editor's Note: With the breaking news out of Chile that a retired army chief suspected of human rights violations under dictator Augusto Pinochet has flung himself from a 18th floor balcony at a Santiago apartment tower to his death (say that in one breath?), we thought it was odd timing that we were working on a profile of a monument remembering another violent passage from the Pinochet era right here in D.C.: The Embassy Row......

Tuesday's elections are fast approaching. President Bush and Sen. Kerry are flying around the country to solidify their respective bases, Congressional candidates are going into the home stretches of their campaigns, and here in the nation's capital, with many politicos away hob-nobbing with constituents, we're trying to plan our Election Night outings around town. As we've said before, DCist will be bringing you full election coverage, so stay tuned here for all the latest, especially......

We know that everyone is probably getting tired of all the Krispy Kreme grand opening hoopla, but there is some breaking news about the presidential race coming from Dupont Circle. President Bush is losing the D.C. doughnut vote. A press release from Krispy Kreme said that 82 percent who participated in the Bush-Kerry red-sprinkle, blue-sprinkle presidential doughnut poll chose Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. While it is unclear whether professional pollers will take the poll seriously......