Comments time! Thanks for the good ones, and keep them coming. While you're at it, are you sick of your cute panda avatar? Why not change it? Last week's comment of the week is IHateParis on getting a refund for long Metro delays: I complained to Metro once when my train was offloaded at Arlington Cemetery (back a few months ago when there were all those rail fires) and we were all left to......

Via WMATA:The Pentagon Metrorail station was closed at 2:42 p.m. this afternoon to allow officials to investigate a report of a suspicious package at the station. Trains are not passing through the station. Instead, Blue and Yellow Line stations are turning back at the stations on each side of the Pentagon Metrorail station--at Pentagon City Metrorail station and Arlington Cemetery Metrorail station. Officials have requested shuttle buses at those stations to move customers around the......

It looks like DCJeff has been a-wanderin', shooting the streets of D.C. and leaving us with a bounty of gorgeous images in DCist's Flickr pool. This sepia-toned image of a dilapidated building, located near a cemetery downtown, reveals subtle textures in the bricks and windows that we find mesmerizing. EXIF.......

Good morning, Washington. For the first time in almost 30 years, the Senate will take up a measure considering D.C. voting rights this afternoon, though as we explained yesterday, today's action is really just a vote to consider giving us the vote in the House, not the actual vote to give us the vote. Mayor Adrian Fenty, who will take public transportation all day today in honor of Car Free D.C. Day, announced he will......

Via PreservationNation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has started a campaign to save the original Tomb of the Unknowns, or Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as it's commonly called, at Arlington National Cemetery. Who would want to mess with the tomb? According to the National Trust, it's the folks who run Arlington National Cemetery themselves, as well as Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) -- perhaps one of the senate's most famous military veterans and fathers......

Looks like lots of folks stuck around for the Memorial Day events in D.C. this weekend. There are some fantastic shots of Rolling Thunder celebrating their 20th anniversary, poingant images of families visiting their loved ones at Arlington Cemetery, and some more lighthearted shots like this one, of a sweet Model A Ford brought out by the Marines. Flickr user {ryan} describes them by how hard they were to shoot, the "chrome and paint......

Many residents in eastern Capitol Hill have been kept awake the last couple nights. A pulsating collision noise, followed by a loud metallic echo, has been ringing throughout the neighborhood at all hours of the day and night. We heard the sound going strong on Saturday night; others reported it stopped in the wee hours of the morning, only to start again at around 4:30 a.m., continuing more or less uninterrupted until 11 p.m. Bright......

So, who took place in yesterday's National Night Out? I have to admit that a combination of the heat and roundup duties kept me from joining my neighbors and local police officers in the barbeque and walk of the area that took place last night. But surely some of you participated in your own neighborhoods' Night Out events. How was it? Area Survives Heat, For Now: Today's Post covers the heatwave in the Metro section's......

The D.C. Jail -- officially known as the Central Detention Facility -- stands sandwiched into a corner on the easternmost edge of Capitol Hill. Located on Reservation 13 alongside the old D.C. General Hospital, it is bordered on one side by the Anacostia River waterfront, on another side by the historic Congressional Cemetery, on a third side by 19th Street, standing directly across from a quiet and picturesque residential neighborhood. Neighborhood residents -- this DCist......

It's time yet again for our weekly installment of Overheard in D.C. We've been at this for three months now, and we are grateful for all of the submissions and the positive feedback we've received on this feature. But at the risk of being repetitive, all of the kudos should go to the contributors who are our ears on the street. If it weren't for all your e-mails, we couldn't do this feature. Because, frankly,......

Good morning, D.C.! It's Friday and the weather is beautiful. Shouldn't you be playing outside? Yeah, us too. Well, if you can't sneak away from your computer for some physical activity, you can at least sneakily watch others get theirs: WTOP is reporting that George Mason's afternoon practice is going to be webcast live, beginning at noon. You can tune in courtesy of NCAASports.com and Indianapolis' WISH-TV. Immigration Protest Draws Students To Ballston: The Post......

Good morning, Washington. If you are lucky enough to work for the government or elsewhere that follows the federal work calendar, many of you have today off in observance of Veterans Day. At Arlington Cemetery a free public wreath-laying ceremony and ceremony at the Memorial Amphitheater are planned for 11:00 a.m. If you are chained behind a desk we plan to provide the usual distractions. For more information about what's operating on a normal schedule......

FRIDAY: >> The Avalon Theatre is hosting Prism 2005: The New Cinema of Serbia and Montenegro through Sunday, and tonight at 7 p.m. is popular Serbian actor-director-producer Ljubisa Samardzic's Skyhook. The film (pictured), a surprisingly life-affirming basketball flick set in the midst of NATO bombings in 1999, earned positive buzz at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. >> We don't know about you, but we've been kinda addicted to Peter Jackson's Production Diary, the LOTR director's......

Good morning, Washington. Today will be another beautiful day - mostly sunny, with highs in the lower 80s. Believe it or not, today is our first birthday. Yes, it was one year ago today when DCist officially launched. To celebrate, we've planned a little birthday party next week. Before then, however, is a Katrina Benefit Concert we're sponsoring at American University this Friday featuring local acts Gist, Cartel, Paul Michel, RPM, Laura Burhenn and Army......

Good morning, D.C. This picture, posted to DCist photos by m:j:b, is a couple of months old. However, its subject is relevant to today's news, as some people in our region are drawing criticism for how they express their support for the military. Susan Brewer, founder of a charity called America's Heroes of Freedom, has been barred from Walter Reed after complaints that a trip for vets to see the Orioles centered more on......

For those out there who hate Thievery Corporation and Ted Leo but love freedom, the Pentagon is offering an alternative to Operation Ceasefire. None other than country music legend Clint Black will headline a concert in support of the military and Sept. 11 victims on the four-year anniversary of the attacks. The concert, named "America Supports You," will follow up the Department of Defense’s two-mile Freedom Walk from the Pentagon to Arlington National Cemetery to......

We hope you had a nice weekend. This photo, posted by the Post's Keith Jenkins in DCist Photos, shows motorcyclists with a dog in the sidecar and U.S. and Marine Corps flags. Many of the memorials and monuments on both sides of the Potomac were packed with people honoring those who have fallen in current and past wars. For a transcript of President Bush's Memorial Day address at Arlington National Cemetery, click here. Now on......

District residents, political leaders, and police gathered tonight in Montrose Park in Georgetown, not far from where Joseph Pozell, who managed nearby Oak Hill Cemetery by day and worked as a volunteer traffic police officer by night, lived with his family. Pozell, who is 58, was critically injured on Saturday, when a SUV making a left turn from Wisconsin Avenue onto M Street hit him. D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, police Chief Charles Ramsey, Council-member......

FRIDAY: >> All weekend long we've got Filmfest DC! Check out the schedule here, and if you haven't picked up a copy of this week's City Paper, you really should, because they've got some good Filmfest coverage. >> If you're feeling crafty, you won't want to miss the Smithsonian Craft Show this weekend: there are 120 booths exhibiting and selling some of the nation's finest arts and crafts. Just check out, for example, some of......

FRIDAY: >> The circus has come to town! Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will be having an evening show tonight, 7:30 p.m. at the MCI Center. If you get there 90 minutes early, you can enjoy free entertainment, and during the pre-show Three Ring Adventure, kids can meet performers and pose for photos with the crazy clowns. Tickets can be purchased here. SATURDAY: >> If you're feeling energetic come Saturday AM, why not......

Through Petworth News, we learn that the essayist, playwright and thinker Gore Vidal will be laid to rest at Rock Creek Cemetery in Northwest Washington. While this isn't necessarily anything newsworthy, it's an interesting item for future chroniclers of the city's various monuments to note. According to Petworth News (where we snagged this photo), Vidal buried his longtime partner, Harold Auster, at the cemetery last month. The Vidal plot is located near a monument to......

Oscars, Oscars, Oscars! That's the main event going on this weekend (care to leave your picks in the comments?) but there's tons of other fun things out there. Check out this week's Arts Agenda and Music Agenda for some suggestions, like the opening of the Modigliani exhibit at the Phillips Collection on Saturday (a portrait of his is at right), or the continuation of the Teenbeat reunion tonight (check out shesbitter.com for some pictures of......

Animal Care, Management at Zoo Improves, Says Report: Despite some highly publicized reports of animal deaths and mismanagement at the National Zoo, a report prepared by a committee of the National Academy of Sciences says that all in all, the Zoo takes good care of its animals and manages its facilities well. While there are still improvements to be made, as the Post reports, "important strides" have been already made. The Zoo responds to the......

The Pentagon metrorail station has been temporarily closed to investigate what WMATA has termed a "potential hazmat situation." The closing was announced over the DC Text Alert system, and WMATA has posted this announcement on their website: The Pentagon station is closed to investigate a potential hazmat situation. Hazmat experts are responding to the scene. No trains are permitted to go through the station. Trains are turning back at Arlington Cemetery and Pentagon City. The......

Paris Hilton, who was in Washington before Thanksgiving, brought her "film crew and entourage" to SomaFit on Wisconsin Avenue and "commandeered" the "posh" gym, according to MSNBC’s Jeannette Walls. It was apparently for a reality television show, Paris had a pedicure and Walls' source says that the hotel heiress has big feet. Since Ms. Hilton was filmed sans "Simple Life" co-star Nicole Richie, perhaps Paris has a new reality show in the works. DCist speculates that......

Just a few days left before the hard-to-read national elections, the weather had its way setting an eerie, spooky tone for the Halloween weekend. Even Osama bin Laden made an unexpected appearance as the fog rolled in and became entrenched Friday night. But then if things couldn't get more peculiar, they did. Around 3:45 a.m., DCist was at Cafe Romeo's, a late-night pizza and sandwich place, located next to Holy Rood Cemetery on Wisconsin......

Two weekends back, DCist took a trip to the Old Post Office Pavilion. We weren't there to mingle with tourists in the food court, we went for the view. With the Washington Monument closed for security upgrades, the tower of the Old Post Office is the next best thing. Its free access and normally low traffic is one of the best relatively low-key tourist sites in the city. (Please note that the National Park Service's......

One of the most powerful demonstrations from the protests in New York City during the 2004 Republican National Convention is coming to Washington D.C. this Saturday. A group calling themselves One Thousand Coffins plans on displaying 1,104 coffins at the Ellipse - 100 draped in U.S. flags, the rest draped in black in order to "to represent and honor each of our fallen soldiers and marines, and make a bold statement that the truth of......

(By DCist contributor Kanishka Gangopadhyay) Planning is underway for the first of nine memorial tree groves to be planted around the city in commemoration of the victims of 9/11. The memorial groves project is D.C.'s participation in the U.S. Forest Service’s Living Memorials Project. D.C. officials are planning to plant commemorative trees in each of the city's wards, with a central site on Kingman Island in the Anacostia River. The first grove will be at......

Two noteworthy specials will air on WETA PBS-23 tonight related to the 9/11 attack on New York City. First will be what DCist has heard is a very good NOVA documentary about the World Trade Center attack titled "Why the Towers Fell" at 8 p.m. Second, at 9 p.m., is the premier of a new Frontline documentary titled "Sacred Ground" about the planning surrounding the site's reconstruction. Featured in the Frontline documentary is wrangling surrounding......