We got pretty excited about the potential cougar spotted on the University of Maryland campus in College Park last week, if only for the endless stream of terrible, double entendre-based jokes that it spawned. But it turns out the 'cougar' wasn't a cougar at all -- surveillance photos indicate the cat people saw was probably a Savannah cat. Savannah cats like the one pictured at left are hybrids of domestic short hairs and larger African......

Thanks to a reader for forwarding this email from the University of Maryland Department of Public Safety: CAMPUS ALERT July 31, 2008 There have been several reliable sightings of an animal fitting the description of a cougar on the campus. The description of the sighted cat is: light tan and tawny brown, about 4 feet long with a 4 foot tail, and weighing about 50 pounds. Several sightings have been reported from the area of......

Everyone knows that JFK once described the District as a city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency, but the same could be said about our winter weather contrasted with the complete incompetence of those who try to drive in its result or clear it from the roads. Beet juice or not, there's ice on the roads and sidewalks. Walk and drive with caution. Torture Doesn't Work: Guess what? Punishing Virginians with large fees – between......

If you’re a regular reader of Transit on Thursday, you’ll have noted week after week of Green line delays over the past few months caused by the testing of new rail cars. Good news – those delays could soon cease. Metro is getting ready to stop testing and starting using, reports WTOP. The new rail cars, featuring two different designs, will be brought into service by Christmas. The first design is carpetless, with lots of......

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of The Fake Accents is their ability to make their inherent contradictions seamlessly coexist. One might not expect that the same band who records and listens to their own practice sessions would also write a disclaimer on their first album that most of the songs that they'd written were actually just ripped off of other songs. Their songs are identifiable by both their catchy hooks and their noisy guitar riffs.......

George Mason capped a successful holiday week by beating South Carolina yesterday to take third-place in the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Fla. Will Thomas paced the Patriots with 22 points and 11 rebounds, solidifying his place on the All-Tournament team. George Mason kicked off their tournament with an 87-77 win over 18th-ranked Kansas State. John Vaughan's 21 points led the team, which put all five starters in double figures. Folarin Campbell's 25 points made......

As we are still recovering from the gluttony that was Thanksgiving, and since it was pretty slow news week in, well, everything, we are light on the transit news, too. But first, which D.C. Council Member likes to ignore laws? You get one guess and the answer is after the jump. Photo by AlbinoFlea......

The mid-November start to the NCAA basketball season tends to get lost in the universe of sports coverage. This is probably due to the staggered opening nights around the country, but can also be attributed to competition with other sports -- college football entering its stretch run, the NFL in midseason, even the NBA's opening weeks garner more attention than college hoops. We're not about to let this exciting time slip through the cracks. With......

Commenter Nate asked if we would look into what's been happening on the Red line lately, which he describes as having been suffering from "morning and/or afternoon delays every day for nearly two weeks now." Indeed, we've heard others grumbling about the Red line of late, which is usually one of Metro's speediest rush hour options. WMATA explains that the current Red line delays are due to ongoing work needed to replace pieces of......

The Mancuso-Suzda Project, an adventurous local avant-garde jazz duo, is currently serving as artist-in-residence at Strathmore. The program selects a different local performer each month and provides educational and performance opportunities in order to cultivate local talent in the fine arts. Previous artists-in-residence include Laura Burhenn of Georgie James, jazz harmonicist Frédéric Yonnet, jazz percussionist Kush Abadey, singer/songwriter LEA, and Celtic harp player Lily Neill. Like so many groups these days, the Mancuso-Suzda Project came......

Written by DCist Contributor Josh Kramer The Hatchet — George Washington University >>David Horowitz, organizer of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, spoke Thursday night at GWU. Horowitz criticized the university and for its reaction to the students who hung ironically critical posters on campus, but spent most of the talk explaining the history of the Ottoman empire and what he believes is the rise of "Islamo-fascism." Horowitz also tried to claim that he is not a racist.......

Written by DCist Contributor Sarah Stonesifer The Diamondback – University of Maryland: >> Hartwick Towers, an off-campus apartment building, was the scene of a fire on Friday, Oct. 12. The fire has come under scrutiny by both students and city officials, as the building is not equipped with sprinklers and fire alarms did not function during the fire. Students were left on their own to find alternative housing until they were let back into their......

Written by DCist contributor Brett Gellman The Maryland Terrapins (4-2, 1-1) take on the 19th ranked Virginia Cavaliers (6-1, 3-0) in a nationally televised homecoming contest tomorrow night at College Park in what is shaping up to be the best ACC matchup of the entire day, and yes, that includes Miami-FSU. The Terps, who are coming off a much-needed bye week, squeaked out a 28-26 victory against Georgia Tech two weeks ago after Travis Bell’s......

We'd like to waste about $800 sitting in traffic this year, please. That, at least, is the average annual cost for Marylanders who choose to drive during peak periods, (yet another) new Texas Transportation Institute tells us via Capitol News Service and WTOP. The total congestion cost, the study says, is $3.1 billion annually. We can think of some pretty good things to do with an extra $800. And they have nothing to do with......

You'd think that, once the Almighty found himself on the business end of God Is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens' latest broadside, there'd be hell to pay. Instead, Hitchens' book became an international bestseller, racking up laudatory reviews and garnering an even larger audience for his witty contrarianism. Which makes one suspect that perhaps The Hitch is on to something. As if it needed more attention, yesterday God Is Not Great was named one of five......

If you don't want to pay a toll, just don't leave the city. Information is sketchy at best, but the federal government may soon propose a toll on cars entering the city via the 14th Street bridge, reports The Examiner. According to the story, the proposal seems to be nothing more than another one of those fabulous pipe dreams feds float from time to time for improving our city. Like Sen. Sam Brownback's "flat tax"......

>> The District has agreed to put a cap on the number of inmates at the D.C. Jail at 2,164. [WaPo] >> "Chapter Three: The Reason I Want to Get into the Right Lane is That It's Dangerous Over Here On the Left (And Not That I Have Failed to Sufficiently Appreciate the Grandeur of Your Magnificent Internal Combustion Vehicle)." [Megan McArdle] >> The Attorney for De'Onte Rawlings' family says he is going to......

According to D.C. officials, about 700 pedestrians a year are hit by cars in the District, which factors out to about two a day. Wikipedia says there are currently about 580,000 of us living here, so that means the next time you step outside your door you have about a 1 in 83,000 chance of getting hit by that idiot who always runs the red light down the block. Given those rather grim odds,......

Compiled by DCist Contributors Josh Kramer and Sarah Stonesifer The Eagle - American: >> AU is fine-tuning their free HIV testing program to accommodate students' schedules. They've also switched from an anonymous testing program to a confidential one. The changes aim to bring the school in line with the District government's HIV testing initiative. >> The American University bus drivers were approved by the Undergraduate Senate to have their own union, a debate that had......

>> So, yeah, still no word on exactly how much that fare hike is gonna be. [WaPo] >> An Islamic activist appointed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to the Virginia Immigration Commission was forced to resign Thursday after videos surfaced of him making controversial statements about Israel. [WaPo] >> The end of WaWa in College Park: "Kids from South Jersey and Philly will be forever sealed off from their favorite place to get a......

While we sit here tap-tapping our fingers, eagerly awaiting the Metro Board’s next move on our collective fare fate, we will distract ourselves with other traffic and metro related tidbits: metro savings, the ICC goes on and weekend delays. Photo by philliefan_99......

>> Via Mid-Atlantic Art News, nearly every one on the Washington Post arts staff has been slammed over last Thursday's article on art in the White House Green Room. The Seattle Post-Intellgencer blog calls Post writer Jacqueline Trescott's race labeling of Jacob Lawrence as "the greatest African-American artist of the 20th century" a "disgrace," the staff photographer inept, and most hilariously, Blake Gopnik, who gets skewered though he wasn't even involved with the article,......

By DCist Contributor Sarah Stonesifer The Eagle - American: >> At American University, officials decided that an official record will be kept along with possible judicial action after students receive their "second medical transport due to alcohol consumption." So remember kids, the first case of alcohol poisoning is free. >> There was an attempted robbery in an American University dorm last Saturday, but the suspect was quickly apprehended and identified. The Hoya - Georgetown: >>......

This week on Transit on Thursday, good news from DDOT for people who don't like getting hit by cars, and Metro plans on fixin' some things that really need fixin'. Score One For Pedestrians: We will soon get to say farewell to annoying sidewalk closures caused by those greedy development projects. No more braving the fury of cars as we find a way around. And no more crossing to the other side. Builders will......

Attention, women of College Park! Please be aware that there is a creepy ass dude breaking into homes, crawling into bed with women while they sleep and trying to molest them. The Post reports that a series of straight-up skeezy events perpetrated by the same man occurred in the neighborhood around the University of Maryland early Thursday morning, including two home invasions that resulted in the sexual assault of at least four women in their......

By special contributor Brett Gellman of The Upstate Life This Thursday's nationally televised contest, in which the West Virginia Mountaineers will visit the Maryland Terrapins in College Park, will be the last time these border state rivals meet until 2010. Not only are bragging rights on the line, but the Mountaineers' national title hopes are also at stake. Both schools will be playing their hardest opponent thus far and both stand undefeated at 2-0. Both......

>> President Bush is set to announce plans to reduce the American troop presence in Iraq by around 30,000 by next summer -- which is the same, pre-surge level it was about nine months ago. [AP via WTOP] >> D.C. firefighters put out a fire in the parking garage at Union Station this morning. [AP via WTOP] >> The 2007 American League of Lobbyists Hoops for Hope Charity Game is tonight at GW's Smith Center,......

>> The Classical Music Agenda will return this Sunday, after hibernating all summer, but there are already a few developments to note this week in local classical news. Robert Shafer is a legend in the local choral music scene, as the long-standing director of the Oratorio Society of Washington, known in recent years as the Washington Chorus. Shafer's particular gift is to inspire a huge group — some 200 singers, none (or few) of them......

This week in Transit on Thursday, we pose a stunningly dramatic series of questions... Could Metro be Smartening up? Will you get hit by Virginia's new transportation fees and taxes? Is a road better than a rail? Will your Metro trip be delayed this weekend? Find out after the jump! Photo by Terecico......

Anyone who's lived in D.C. for more than a minute or two knows that appearances are important in this town, but is it reasonable to suggest that the changing face of Metro will have an impact on ridership? Also this week, a fare hike fight gradually takes shape, and another area bridge is going out of commission. If you were one of the 500,000 or so passengers who took Metro to the Mall on......