This year's haul of blue crabs from the Chesapeake Bay is set to be the best in two decades, according to a joint press release from Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. more ›

Good morning, Washington. Grab the galoshes. The D.C. region, which has been suffering from moderate drought, is locked in for more rain today. Heavy downpours are expected, and the National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Watch for most of the metro region. Maryland's tax-free week starts today, so if you don't find the rain too dissuasive be careful on the roads. more ›

The Chesapeake has seen better, much better, days, but lately both man and mother nature has given ol' Chessie quite the beating. According to Virginia state officials, the Chesapeake waterways have been beset by "ghost pots," the abandoned and errant wire crab traps long lost from their crabbers. Officials announced Friday that more than 10,000 ghost pots had been collected during a winter-long program to clean up the bay this year. 28,000 pots have been removed from the bay since the program's inception three years ago. more ›

Although the scope of the recent major discovery of illegal fishing nets in the Chesapeake Bay continues to widen, Maryland Department of Natural Resources officials gave local commercial fishermen a respite by reopening fishing season for two days, Friday and Monday. DNR police found another illegal 400-yard-long anchor net Wednesday morning with up to several hundred pounds of caught rockfish, adding to the 10 tons of confiscated fish found earlier this month. The Maryland DNR closed fishing season on Feb. 4 in response to what many consider the latest major scandal to hit the area. more ›

Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police officers are looking for rockfish poachers who snagged over 20,000 pounds of rockfish this week. Maryland officers discovered a 900-yard gill net with 6,000 pounds of fish near Bloody Point Lighthouse Tuesday, leading to the further uncovering of more sunken nets, bringing the total to over 10 tons. The legal limit for fishers is 300 pounds per day, making this the largest catch uncovered by a lone patrol in at least 25 years. Rockfish, also known as the striped bass and declared the Maryland state fish, and other seafood have made a recent resurgence due to re-population and sustainability efforts. "The people of Maryland have invested far too much time, effort and money into restoring striped bass, our state fish," said Secretary of Natural Resources John R. Griffin to the Washington Post. In light of the discovery, officials are tightening the quota system and methods for catching fish for the season. They are also offering $7,000 for information leading to an arrest of the poachers. more ›

What, you thought that the mysterious death of multitudes of animals was limited to Louisiana and Sweden? Think again! Millions of fish have turned up dead along the shores and in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay recently. What could possibly cause such mass destruction? Pollution? Man's destruction of the fish's natural habitat? Some kind of precursor to the inevitable 2012 end times? Nope -- it's just cold water. more ›

Rise and shine, Washington! It's been nearly five years since I've done a Morning Roundup, the anchor DCist news post I first crafted back in October 2004 as a way to get through a lot of news in a hurry so I could get to work on time. My name is Michael Grass and I co-founded this blog with Rob Goodspeed, where we built the core team that developed the DCist community of contributors and readers. Now I'm back today and tomorrow to guest edit in Sommer's absence. I've been also been subbing as Loose Lips Daily in recent days for the City Paper. I've been everywhere lately! more ›

The quotes in this morning's Post are straight out of a schlocky horror movie: "You prevent the spread for as long as you can, and then you just suck it up." Zombies? Aliens? C.H.U.D.s? Oh, no, it's zebra mussels, pesky little creatures that invade freshwater bodies and generally cause chaos. The mussels -- considered the roaches of the sea, as they feed on detritus -- vex everything that uses the water: their sharp shells cut swimmers' feet and damage boats, while power plants and water treatment plants usually need to spend a whole bunch of money to clear them from pipes. Having toted over here on Eastern European ships in the 1980s like a modern-day version of rats, the mussels have most recently caused a ruckus in the Great Lakes, costing millions of dollars in damage -- and now, they are working their way down the Susquehanna River to the Chesapeake Bay. They breed rapidly, can slip through dams, and there's not much that can really be done to stop them. As a associate director at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources notes: "I'm knocking on wood that we don't have a zillion of them by fall." I'd tell you to aim for the head, but they don't have one. more ›

We can’t trip over a Facebook status message without being reminded that today is Earth Day. Local food blogs The Arugula Files and FoodieTots are using the occasion to promote Blog for the Bay day, an effort to get local bloggers to link to a Chesapeake Bay Foundation petition urging the EPA to take action to meet a goal of cleaning up the bay by 2010. They also suggest posting a favorite story, memory, or crab recipe related to the Chesapeake Bay while you're at it, so we'll take the initiative to endorse one of our favorite local summertime activities: a trip to the Maine Avenue Fish Wharf, followed by a picnic in East Potomac Park. Ask the right vendor for a dozen mediums and, 20 minutes and less than $20 later, you’ll have a bag full of 20 steamy, spicy little guys. It's all more than enough to make us want to do our part to save the Bay and save the crabs. Then eat ‘em. more ›

The Post reports on Virginia's move to ban the sale of dishwasher detergents that contain phosphates. Phosphorus has been found to be a major source of pollution in the struggling Chesapeake Bay. more ›

Flying food? Perhaps you've noticed the odd little vehicle with wings near 8th and H, NW selling empanadas and other Mexican fare. It's On the Fly, a new food business started by one of the founders of Zip Car, Gabe Klein, L'Enfant cafe owner Christopher Lynch, and architectural designer Michel Heitstuman. The car is one of the first in a planned series of food carts and small stands that will swarm the city. This... more ›

Are you ready, D.C.?! That's right: it's the first snowfall of the season. We talked about it yesterday, and the outlook remains pretty much the same. Both Capital Weather and our local TV weatherpeople agree that we'll get about an inch of unusually fluffy snow, with most of it falling by early afternoon. City Starts Looking For More Theft: Watch out, D.C. government ne'er-do-wells: Dan Tangherlini is on your trail. NBC4 reports that the... more ›

A happy Friday to you, Washington. Hopefully you all made it in to work on time despite Metro having reduced the speed of their rail cars in several areas this morning. Speed restrictions were in place until 8:10 a.m. along portions of the Orange line in Maryland and Virginia, the Red line from Union Station to Silver Spring and from Shady Grove to Grosvenor, and the Green line from Branch Avenue to Congress Heights... more ›

Many of you have already visited the "Solar Village" since it opened its gates last Friday on the National Mall. Last weekend the long lines literally wrapped around each house entered into the 2007 Solar Decathlon, with people eager to get a tour from the students, alumni and faculty from each university competitor. The ten competitions have been judged all week, from Architecture last week to Engineering today, with individual winners announced for each leg... more ›

>> Despite well-publicized problems at D.C. Schools, reading and math scores at 8th and 4th grade levels are both up in the District. [WaPo] >> Tonight is the second public meeting for the Fourteenth Street Transportation and Streetscape. 7-9 p.m. at the National City Christian Church at 5 Thomas Circle NW. [Logan Circle News] >> Westbound traffic on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is closed while an ambulance takes an injured worker to the hospital. [AP... more ›

>> "Florida's top police agency said Wednesday its investigation into former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley's lurid Internet communications with teenage boys has been hindered because neither Foley nor the House will let investigators examine his congressional computers." [AP via TPM] >> "A New Carrollton mother accused of leaving her five young children in filth pleaded guilty in the case on Thursday." [NBC4] >> "A D.C. Superior Court judge today sentenced a former D.C. police... more ›

>> The commission charged with deciding whether to fire Administrative Law Judge Roy Pearson has voted to formally notify Pearson that he may not be reappointed to the bench. Can't they just notify him he's actually fired already? [WaPo] >> Metro trains carried more passengers in July than in any other month in the transit agency’s 31-year history. [Examiner] >> Aaaaand a coalition of the shrill against a hypothetical D.C. congestion tax is born.... more ›

>> CNN White House Correspondent Ed Henry spotted Dave Chappelle hanging out outside the White House this morning. He's reportedly feeling good despite his recent hospital visit, and joked about going after Tony Snow's job. [CNN Political Ticker] >> The former mayor of the town of Dumfries, VA has been charged with running a brothel out of a sports therapy clinic he owns in a Prince William County strip mall. Melvin Bray lost his... more ›

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... more ›

By DCist Contributor Matt Pelkey On the Fourth of July you light fireworks, on Memorial Day you grill hunks of meat, and on Labor Day you grill more hunks of meat. But how should you celebrate Emancipation Day this Monday? The voting rights march leaves little excuse for perverting another holiday into reason for a meaningless leisure activity. But if for some reason you can't be at the march, make up for it by heading... more ›

Okay Washington, so the news from this weekend isn't so cheerful. Maybe it was the thousands of war protestors on the Mall, or the hundreds of disgruntled Sufjan fans denied tickets at the Kennedy Center Saturday morning. Or maybe it was that crazy wind last night. In any case, we're really reaching for the good news this morning. Cause Sugar's Not Enough: In another entry to the "Why Most of the World Thinks We're... more ›

Good morning to you, D.C. It may be raining, but temperatures will hover somewhere between the upper 50s and the lower 60s today, if you can believe that, so no need for a heavy coat. The rain will be gone by tomorrow, in plenty of time for all of us to safely head over to Mayor Adrian Fenty's Inaugural Ball. DCist will be there, and not just for a chance to snap some hilarious photos... more ›

Well, D.C. How's your Emergency Tuesday shaping up so far? It looks like there's some more exciting Emergency Legislation on the table for the D.C. City Council this morning. Apart from the pay raises we mentioned yesterday, the council's agenda for the day includes a total of, yes really, 40 emergency bills, including another that would provide for exemptions to the liquor license law that currently prohibits anyone from selling liquor within 400 feet of... more ›

By DCist contributor Spencer Ackerman It's pretty appropriate for a cooking expo so near the Chesapeake Bay that the first olfactory experience greeting a visitor to the Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show is a powerful blast of salty, baking fish. No one is going to mistake D.C.'s answer to the New York Fancy Food Expo -- a 100-stall extravaganza of middlebrow-to-high-end cooking, oenophilia, celebrity chefs and cheap wares -- for the food-porn original. But with... more ›

Storms in the city may be annoying, but outside of the cramped streets with some room to stretch out over the skyline, they can be quite beautiful. Flickr user LaTur caught these ominous clouds over the still, waiting water at Chesapeake Bay this weekend. Find the EXIF data here.... more ›

And a happy Friday morning to you, Washington. Heads up: Metro's Yellow Line from King Street to Mt. Vernon Square will not be running this weekend due to track maintenance starting tonight at 10 p.m. Folks will be forced off at King Street, and those going between Mt. Vernon Square and L'Enfant Plaza will be forced to ride the Green Line. Things are expected to be running back on schedule by Monday morning. Large Part... more ›

Good morning, Washington. WaPo relays that the debate over D.C.'s cab fares is getting feisty, while WJLA tells us that the film industry is bringing some bucks to Virginia. On that note, for all of you documentary film buffs out there, today is the start of the fourth-annual SilverDocs film festival over in Silver Spring. From today until June 18, you can revel in the glory of the documentary. From one that follows the inspiring... more ›