D.C. Wire is reporting that MPD Chief Cathy Lanier's controversial "Neighborhood Safety Zone" checkpoint tactic has passed its first test in federal court. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon today denied a request for a preliminary injunction against the checkpoints filed by a group of District residents. In the ruling, Leon found that the checkpoints are not unconstitutional and are a reasonable crime prevention tactic to use against a specific kind of vehicle-related violent crime. This......

One item we missed this morning: The Examiner reported that Chief Cathy Lanier has replaced the commander of the Metropolitan Police Department's 2nd District, Mark Carter, with Inspector Matthew Klein, a former head of internal affairs. Carter had only been on the job since April, when he was promoted out of the police training academy to replace Cmdr. Andy Solberg. The 2nd District includes Georgetown and Woodley Park. The Examiner reported over the summer that......

Can you say Police State? The Examiner has the scoop on a controversial new program announced today that would create so-called "Neighborhood Safety Zones" which would serve to partially seal off certain parts of the city. D.C. Police would set-up checkpoints in targeted areas, demand to see ID and refuse admittance to people who don't live there, work there or have a “legitimate reason” to be there. Wow. Just, wow. Some of the words used......

It seems that we read a lot of stories like Jonathan Lieber's. Long story short: Mr. Lieber, who was being accosted at gunpoint, attempted to flee through the intersection at 13th and Euclid NW, collided with a car, and — after receiving his stitches — was presented with a $50 ticket for causing the accident. Additionally, the police report erroneously placed fault for his split lip on Lieber himself. But with some new technology, these......

The Modesto Bee, the hometown newspaper of Chandra Levy, has reported that criminal justice students at Bauder College in Atlanta will be opening their own investigation into the 2001 murder of Levy, which remains unsolved. Bauder offers students credit within its Cold Case Investigative Research Institute for combing through unsolved cases. Students at the school will also investigate the disappearance three years ago of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba. Previous students researched the 1996......

Good morning, Washington. Are ya ready for some embezzlement scandal news? Of course you are! This morning's update comes not from the embattled Office of Tax and Revenue, but rather from the D.C. Public Schools front office, as the Examiner reports that Eugene Smith, the former director of internal audits for DCPS, entered a guilty plea yesterday to charges of stealing nearly $50,000 from a charter school account. Smith was fired by the school system......

The Supreme Court has announced that it will take on Heller v. District of Columbia, the D.C. handgun case, and decide whether our city's ban on handguns violates the Constitution. The Court will likely hear the case sometime in March, with a decision to come later in the session. The case will mark the first time the Court has taken up the meaning of the Second Amendment in almost 70 years, and the decision could......

...ummm, nothing yet. According to the Associated Press, the Supreme Court failed to reach a decision on whether or not to hear a case related to the District's gun laws. Though a verdict from last week's conference discussion was possible today, it seems that the nine justices haven't yet decided if they want to take the case, which stems from a March decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District Circuit that ruled......

Good morning, Washington. It's Friday, and the city is still reacting to yesterday afternoon's announcement about how our new taxi meters are going to work. We already told you about the $4 flag drop, which many people are already saying is too high, and the fact that taxi roof lights will go on and off automatically to indicate whether a cab has a passenger, which everyone seems to agree is long overdue. One more thing......

>> Candey Hardware on 18th and Connecticut is closing its doors for good tonight. [Free Ride] >> Police Chief Cathy Lanier has scheduled another "All Hands on Deck" weekend after four murders took place in D.C.'s Fifth District over the past week. [WJLA] >> Surprise, surprise, the O Street Market development plans are being delayed. [ANC2C02 Forum via 14th & You] >> Va. Sen. John Warner is back in the hospital for a third......

You'd think potentially violent criminals would know by now: if you injure someone anywhere near your favorite hang out spot in Ward 1, Council member Jim Graham is going to swoop in and ruin the fun for everyone else. If the possibility of being locked up in the terrifying confines of the D.C. Jail isn't enough of a deterrent, having all your friends be totally pissed at you for getting the place where they like......

Even if the Employment Non-Discrimination Act will move forward without the transgender segment of the LGBT community, the District's transgender residents did score a victory yesterday. D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier issued a department general order on how transgender citizens should be treated by MPD officers when placed under arrest. In June, the DC Trans Coalition organized a forum to discuss changes needed from D.C.'s police, fire and emergency medical services with regards to the......

Good morning, Washington. Remember that recent weird burglary at Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry's house -- the one that Barry seemingly didn't want investigated in favor of telling the police they had more important things to do? Well, Harry Jaffe got hold of the police report, and it turns out Barry may have had good reason not to want it looked at it too closely. Apparently the former mayor had a large collection of......

Last week we pointed out a Hollywood Reporter story that says there's a FOX television show in development inspired by the life of D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier. Lanier's life is certainly the stuff of a good drama -- being a 39-year-old single mother who dropped out of high school after getting pregnant at 14, only to work her way to the top to become D.C.'s first female police chief, can't have been easy. Yesterday......

>> Runners at the Army Ten-miler are saying there wasn't enough water on the race course. [WTOP] >> Former Mayor Anthony Williams hearts Jenna Bush's new book. [Capital Comment] >> D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier speaks out to defend the records and reputations of the two officers involved in the killing of DeOnte Rawlings, while his father calls for their arrest. [WaPo and WJLA] >> Columbia Heights day was a bit of a bust.......

>> Right there is the Laura Sessions Stepp Credo: Laura doesn't "get it" so the "social culture" is broken. [DCeiver] >> Don't miss the ABC News coverage of the 5-year anniversary of the D.C.-area sniper shooting spree. What do you think of Lee Boyd Malvo's apology? [ABC News] >> Oh c'mon, don't you get it? Kids can say they're going to "The Library" and not be lying! It's totally hilarious. [Free Ride] >> Regarding......

On Monday morning at a little after 11 a.m., we noticed a pair of beat cops walking along U Street NW near 12th Street. In many other cities, this would certainly be nothing to take note of, but in D.C., the cries from neighborhood associations and individual residents for more officers to patrol on foot have been heard for years. Police Chief Cathy Lanier thus rightly made a big deal out of increasing the number......

Good morning, Washington. Have you recovered from yesterday's local sports emotional rollercoaster yet? The Nationals bid farewell to RFK, and managed to close out their time there with a 5-3 victory over the Phillies. The Redskins, on the other hand, well ... we might still not be ready to talk about that last drive. Yet despite the despondent football fans across the region this morning, we get the sense that no one is sadder than......

Good morning, Washington, and welcome to September. After what was quite possibly the most beautiful weekend in the history of late summer weather in this city, we've finally arrived at the date many of us still associate with "back-to-school" -- the Tuesday after Labor Day. So sharpen your pencils, polish your lunchbox and make sure you have the right Trapper Keeper as we check out today's headlines. At Least Four Weekend Killings: The Examiner......

While he worked the crowd last Saturday at Eastern Market's re-opening, Mayor Adrian Fenty again made it clear that he likes to keep connected to city affairs at all times. Hanging from his belt were his famous three Blackberries -- one for mayoral duties, one for personal responsibilities and one for immediate contact with Police Chief Cathy Lanier. Rumors have circulated that he may be in the market for a fourth. Photo by Martin......

It's not exactly a banner day for D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier. The Examiner takes the chief to task a bit this morning for her latest "All Hands on Deck" initiative: four people were shot in the course of an hour during the second night of the effort, which also coincided with National Night Out events, and the force is seriously short handed today as well as Wednesday and Friday to avoid spending millions on......

>> Mayor Adrian Fenty has chosen Clark Ray to serve as the city’s director of the Department of Parks and Recreation. Ray was previously the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Relations and Services. >> D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier has called for her third summertime "All Hands on Deck" initiative for Monday and Tuesday, to coincide with Tuesday's National Night Out. The last "All Hands on Deck," when Lanier requires all MPD......

In case you missed this great Post article from Clarence Williams and Elissa Silverman this morning, be sure and read the whole thing. It's the story of Simon Mahteme, owner of LeDroit Park Market, the center of a neighborhood struggling to improve itself in the face of continuing crime and violence. Mahteme's store has been broken into ten times since October, and after this last incident, he had a customer help him place the......

Exciting news this fine morning for the many Washingtonians who draw their paychecks from the USDA — you may still be paid after you die. The Post reports that the The U.S. Department of Agriculture distributed $1.1 billion over seven years to the estates or companies of dead people, though granted, they were actually all farmers instead of government employees. Now we just have to figure out the best way to pretend to be a......

Good morning, D.C. There's no denying it's hot enough to cause real discomfort, but is it too hot to reasonably believe that two young girls willingly got inside the closed trunk of their father's car to play? That is one of the questions before a Massachusetts judge in the case of a D.C. man who pleaded not guilty yesterday to reckless endangerment and assault charges after police responded to a neighbor who spotted the two......

Good morning, Washington. It's hot again out there today, with highs expected in the upper 90s, and folks in the city are understandably getting a little hot under the collar. Take Duane Stillions, who ABC7 reports was attacked by a pit bull on July 4 while walking his two small dogs. One of his dogs, Molly, a ten-pound Bichon Frise, is hospitalized in intensive care at a cost of $1,000 a day, and Stillions is......

It looks like Police Chief Cathy Lanier might have to go back to the drawing board. After her new summer crime initiative enjoyed a successful rollout with a full-scale police deployment and a record number of weekend arrests two weeks back, this last weekend wasn't nearly as peaceful. According to WJLA, four seperate shootings over a two-hour period on Saturday night and Sunday morning (two dead, two injured) forced Lanier to call a meeting today......

Happy Friday morning, D.C. If you're like us, today is payday, and maybe you're feeling pretty good about the number of digits in your bank account. Perhaps you even plan to go out and make a major purchase this weekend, like say, finally upgrading that crappy stereo system you bought from K-mart before you started college. Maybe you're even smiling at your desk right this second, thinking of how proud you are to have saved......

When Mayor Adrian Fenty and Police Chief Cathy Lanier introduced their new strategy for tackling the District's stubborn crime problem late last week, we expressed some skepticism. After all, "new" strategies come along about as often as school superintendents, neither of which have proven to be particularly good at fixing what they have to fix. But we might have reasons to be hopeful. Beyond today's news that the weekend's all-out deployment netted nearly 500 arrests,......

Good morning, Washington. Sure, there's some news to discuss, as usual. There's even a local weather update. But we're not going to sit here and pretend like you don't all want to talk about the numb emptiness inside you that resulted from the series finale of The Sopranos. My take? If they could give out penalties to TV show runners who can't decide how to end their series, David Chase deserves at least two separate......