At a hearing today, Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) alternated between criticizing the media and Asian American advocates who expressed their disappointment with his recent comments on Asian business owners and Filipino nurses. more ›

Marion Barry's recent comments on Filipino nurses in D.C. hospitals have provoked a strong rebuke from the Filipino ambassador to the U.S. more ›

After last week's controversial comments about Asian business owners in his ward, Marion Barry found himself a "good Asian" and claimed that he was simply doing "God's work." more ›

Marion Barry made news this week by claiming that Asian-American business owners had no place in Ward 8. Though Barry was forced to apologize, it certainly wasn't the first time he had said something that had insulted a particular group. more ›

A comment period on new rules for the District's food trucks closes this week, moving the city closer to a resolution on an issue that has raised the ire of both food truck supporters and brick-and-mortar restaurants. more ›

To our wonderful and wacky commentariat: we're sorry. more ›

UPDATE: Looks like we might have helped to blow the service's cover -- we tried calling the service again later this morning and were greeted by a message stating that Verizon would no longer be maintaining the service. Those of you who still use the service will have to keep your fingers crossed that another organization picks up the contract to keep the hotline alive. more ›

This morning, we told you about a researcher at the National Zoo who stands accused of poisoning feral cats near Meridian Hill Park. The commentariat proceeded to explode. And people are noticing! more ›

I took a little bit of flak from a certain segment of the commentariat last week for sipping some haterade before commenting Michelle Obama's dance moves. And you know what? I was wrong: the First Lady is a far better dancer than Kwame Brown or Vincent Orange -- especially when she does that move which involves marching in place. more ›

D.C. Councilmember Michael A. Brown (Ind.-At-Large), who chaired on the Council's Special Committee on Statehood and Self-Determination before the body killed it last summer, has been busy on the statehood front: he recently met with new D.C. budget overlord Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) and introduced the "District of Columbia as the 51st State of the Union Resolution of 2011". The real ace up Brown's sleeve is a push to slap a statehood slogan on a street somewhere the District. But he needs your help, Washington! more ›

This is a post from Gothamist LLC's friendly tech team. Hello! You may have noticed that we've changed the way comments work on DCist. About a month ago, we transitioned to Disqus, a third-party comment provider. They offer a much better commenting experience than we had before -- faster, more stable and secure. Disqus offers three ways of logging in: with a Disqus account (which works at a lot of different websites), or via Facebook or Twitter. For the last month, we continued to allow logins with the old Gothamist site commenter logins. This past weekend, we discontinued that feature. more ›

At DCist headquarters, we've been working hard to figure out a way to make commenting on the site easier, faster and more fun -- and I think we've done that. I'm pleased to announce that this weekend, DCist commenting will be migrated over to Disqus, a dynamic commenting system which, among other features, will allow our readers to log in to comment through Twitter and Facebook, customize the way they view comments, and include multimedia in their posts. (Of course, the usual way you comment today will still work, so don't freak out or anything.) Around 8 p.m. on Saturday night, we'll be migrating existing comments over to the new system, so you may experience some comment downtime that evening and into Sunday. Some comments left on posts in the past might also temporarily disappear -- but we promise, it'll be worth the wait. more ›

We can't blame Courtland Milloy, really. His last column got so much attention (guilty as charged!) that he'd be foolish not to keep it up, right? (He sure is hauling in the pageviews.) It's said that there's no such thing as bad publicity, and, to be honest, this is probably the most that people have read Milloy in a long time. more ›

Selling deodorant has to be a tough job. No matter how you frame it, you basically have to convince people that they either a) smell terrible, or b) could smell better than they currently do. When it comes to ranking the most glamorous accounts at any given large advertising agency, I'm pretty sure that antiperspirant isn't anywhere near the top. more ›

It's not like we're approaching Methuselahan standards around here, but it is DCist's sixth birthday today. On September 7, 2004, founding editors Rob Goodspeed and Mike Grass made things official and went live with the fifth city site in the Gothamist network -- and what begun as a humble operation with five bloggers has blossomed into a full-time operation which features the work of nearly 40 contributors and photographers. more ›

Aww, look, guys, the Washington Post's ombudsman acknowledges that Post's online comment sections are mostly "cesspools of venom and twaddle"! (Hey, admitting you have a problem is always the first step to recovery.) Ombud Andrew Alexander uses his Easter Sunday inches to wax about the cost of handing incredibly opinionated and usually misinformed individuals an anonymous megaphone with no consequences: Alexander admits that "[a]bout 300 comments are deleted each day" from the Post's website -- which, amazingly, is lower than I imagined -- and that staff reporters are dealing with regret from story subjects who then have to digest the drivel launched at them from the peanut gallery. Alexander's solution? An in-the-works tiered commenting system in which trusted commenters garner votes, and all first-time comments are screened by humans. Two thoughts: one, may the patience of Job be with the person who has to manually parse those first-time diatribes. Secondly, while the Post's commenting section is pretty bad, at least it's not the worst in the area -- here's looking at you, WTOP! -- and it's a good thing that the folks over at WaPo realize that their reporters probably have better things to do than spend their weekends cleaning up troll bait. All the more reason to be incredibly thankful for our wonderful commentariat, who have learned to self-police with parody and Simpsons references, just like a good commentariat should. more ›

We just wanted to say thanks to all of our readers for their patience with our commenting system over the last day or two. The frequent inability to log in to comment on DCist is a problem that's currently affecting all of -Ist sites. Rest assured that our technical gurus in New York are working on a solution, and we'll be sure to let you know when things are back to normal. In the meantime, keep trying, as some readers have been able to comment today. more ›

We'd be remiss if we didn't mention this before Artomatic closes: our arts and managing editor Heather Goss took a quick photo of the above wall by Sarah Bever, which prominently features a few select members of the DCist commentariat. more ›

Afternoon, ladels and jellyspoons! It's once again time for your weekly roundup of all things comment: What's That You Say? more ›

What's up, people? It's time, once again, to venture down comment lane and check out the best and brightest from our post-jump adventures from this past week. more ›

Hmm, it seems like the right time to lug the trusty ol' machine which spits out the week's best comments out of storage, and give her a whirl -- and What's That You Say? has got the keys to start the engine. Vroom vroom. more ›

It's a lovely weekend out there. What better way to enjoy it than by taking a look back at our favorite conversations which occurred within the black space of the sunless internet in What's That You Say? So kick back, put some aloe on that sunburn you cultivated yesterday, and bask in the cool commentalicious goodness ahead. more ›

Howdy out there -- it's yet again time to review the best of your contributions to our little corner of the internet. As usual, your reactions didn't disappoint; so grab a cold beverage and prepare yourself for the commentey goodness ahead of you. more ›

Fred Phelps and his cadre of fanatics were in town earlier this week, protesting local high schools in an attempt to yell at teenagers about how gay people and the military-industrial complex were killing God in America. Or something. In any case, most of our commenters were able to burn through Phelps' followers' wacko-spouting with little delay, but it was demonfafa who really nailed it, earning our Comment of the Week: more ›

Afternoon, fellow commentarians. There was a virtual explosion of comments this week which deserved special recognition, but, we can only include so many of them -- read on, if you will. more ›

A happy Saturday afternoon to you, highly regarded DCist commentariat. It's time once again to highlight the crème de la crème of your contributions from yet another lively week of posting. In what way could you better round out a day full of running and protesting? more ›

A big hearty hello out there to all of you in comment-land. Another week of hard-hitting DCist action is in the book, and you certainly weren't shy about sharing your opinions on everything from crispy duck to how Maryland's going to fund a new soccer stadium. more ›

That's right folks, we're back and here to stay, with our new slot on Saturday. It's been quite some time since we last talked, but hey, what's a few months between friends? (Hey, you clamor, we listen.) With that out of the way, sit back, grab your second (or, if you're like us, third) cup of joe and enjoy the best of the week that was amongst the DCist commentariat. more ›