The D.C. Council earlier today passed an amended version of the noise bill first introduced by Tommy Wells and Mary Cheh that was born out of Ward 6 resident David Klavitter's crusade to put an end to amplified street preachers keeping him awake at his home near H Street NE. But Wells and Cheh actually voted against this bill, after it was basically gutted by an amendment introduced by Ward 5 Council member Harry Thomas......

We're all for finding novel ways to motivate D.C. public school students to get good grades and go to college, but something about this story in the Examiner strikes us as odd. A group of students are lobbying the D.C. Council to revive legislation that would establish a system of cash rewards for student achievement. The bill, which as it's currently written would provide valedictorians $3,000 apiece and students who have improved the most $1,000......

Last fall the D.C. Council approved spending $79 million to assist in the sale of the beleaguered Greater Southeast Community Hospital to Specialty Hospitals of America, and today, Specialty announced that they will give the hospital a new name and logo in an effort to break with the medical facility's checkered past. The hospital's staff are currently being asked to vote on a choice of three new names: Capitol Medical Center, Capitol Regional Medical Center......

As if yesterday's news from California wasn't enough to get gays everywhere excited, same-sex couples here in D.C. recently got a little something extra to celebrate. Early last week the D.C. Council expanded its domestic partners law, granting registered couples rights previously only granted through marriage. The Council passed the measure, titled the Omnibus Domestic Partnership Equality Amendment Act of 2008, unanimously on May 6. Councilmember Phil Mendelson wrote the legislation and was its lead......

Cigarette taxes are popular with voters, so it's no surprise, as we've mentioned earlier, that the D.C. Council voted Tuesday to include an additional $1 per-pack cigarette tax in the 2009 budget as a means of making up a predicted shortfall. In a statement released today, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is calling the move, which brings the total tax on a pack of cigarettes in the District of Columbia to $2, a "win-win-win solution......

Earlier this year it looked like a measure pushed by some Ward 6 residents to impose volume limits on protests in residential neighborhoods was destined for failure. As we briefly mentioned yesterday, though, the D.C. Council endorsed an amended version of the legislation. According to the City Paper's Mike DeBonis, who closely followed the debate, yesterday saw some back and forth on the legislation, which was originally sponsored and pushed by Council member Tommy Wells......

As we reported last week, Georgetown residents should have been ready for some rude awakenings over the weekend -- and rude awakenings they received. The Post reported on the gathering of activists who took to the streets of Georgetown on Saturday and Sunday morning to make a point -- loudly -- about the D.C. Council's recent inaction on a bill that would place limitations on the use of amplification during demonstrations in residential neighborhoods. Led......

In the department of hey, that's a really friggin' good idea, Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham put up an announcement late yesterday that the D.C. Council unanimously passed an emergency bill Tuesday to create a pilot taxi zone in Adams Morgan.The pilot taxi zone will require taxis to report to a central location to pick up riders rather than drive through the streets to find their fares. Hack inspectors will be involved in enforcing......

If you live on any of Georgetown's quiet tree-lined streets, this weekend might be a good time to take an impromptu out-of-town vacation. In response to the D.C. Council's tabling of a bill that would place limitations on the use of amplification for demonstrations in residential neighborhoods, activists are planning to take to the streets of Georgetown this weekend to make a point -- and make it loudly. According to an email we received, the......

We mentioned it earlier today, but it's worth discussing further -- the District's crime cameras. According to the Post, a study by D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier released to the D.C. Council argues that the city's 73 crime cameras have helped lower violent crime in the areas where they have been installed: The report, prepared for the D.C. Council by the office of Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier, says violent crime increased about 1 percent......

When we told you about David Klavitter's struggles against a noisy group of demonstrators on H Street NE a few weeks back, most everyone seemed to agree that while free speech is an important principle, it's not one that everyone has to exercise using a loud amplifier. But today the D.C. Council seemed to disagree. Today the Council voted 7-5 to table legislation that would have placed limits on how loud protests could get. The......

David Klavitter doesn't blog about presidential politics, sports or trashy entertainment gossip. No, he just wants some peace and quiet, dammit. Since February 2005, Klavitter's blog, Quest for Quiet, has detailed his fight against loud demonstrators near his H Street NE home. The demonstrators, part of a group known as the Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledgde, more commonly known as part of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, had taken to a corner every Saturday......

As you may recall, the luxury suite at the Verizon Center that owner Abe Pollin gave to the city as a thank-you gift for that $50 million check to upgrade the facility has caused some bad feelings between Mayor Adrian Fenty's staff and the D.C. Council. Each office thought they ought to have total access to the box, and the mayor's office even tried to block the Council from getting their hands on Wizards tickets.......

Good morning, Washington. Supporters of Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sen. Barack Obama are riding high off their caucus victories in Iowa last night, but locally, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty continues to suffer some bumps in the road after one year in office. Just weeks after the resignation of Attorney General Linda Singer, Fenty's former deputy chief of staff, Neil Richardson, has also resigned. Richardson, who was a key Fenty aide during his mayoral campaign, had......

Everyone knows by now that talking on a cell phone without a hands-free device while driving in the District is illegal -- even if it is a poorly enforced and largely ignored law. But given the increasing popularity of SMS (and really, who actually talks on the phone anymore? I recently found myself incredibly frustrated that a close friend left me a voicemail. Who leaves garbled voicemail when you can shoot a quick, clear text?......

Good morning, Washington. With a new year less than 24 hours away and an improbable playoff berth for the Redskins suddenly a reality, we frankly expect you to have been skipping in to your offices today, in a total and joyous rapture. Even if you've had to work straight through the holidays this year, we will tolerate no whining on this, or really any other matter, on this particular New Year's Eve. There will be......

Over at Huffington Post, Andrea Batista Schlesinger of the Drum Major Institute has a nice roundup of what she thinks are the best public policy initiatives of 2007. Number six on her list is the D.C. Voting Rights Act, and she has a solid grasp on why congressional representation for the District is so important:Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C's indomitable delegate, can debate with the best of them, but without the D.C. Voting Rights Act, neither......

Click To Play The 911 phone call placed by At-large Council member David Catania last week -- the one during which he claims he received "badgering treatment," but the 911 office said he was frantic and unintelligible -- has been released by WTOP. Take a listen to the audio. The recording is slightly warbled and Catania was clearly upset, but we can't help but side slightly more with the operator on this one. Responding to......

Good holiday news for District oenophiles: via the Examiner, the D.C. Council is considering legislation that would boost the amount of wine you can could have shipped to you from outside the city to two cases per month, per home or business. Currently an individual is limited to only one quart of wine per month if you don't have a manufacturer's, wholesaler's or retailer's license. Of course, retailers and wholesalers are expected to oppose the......

The Examiner ran a story on Monday about Bloomingdale's recent round of talks with the city regarding opening a new store in downtown D.C. Along with the recently approved development at the Old Convention Center site, sources in the Fenty administration told Michael Neibauer that the talks have included the controversial Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library at 9th and G Streets NW as a "possible option" for the store. The library, as you'll recall,......

The D.C. Council voted 10 to 3 today to give Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee the power to fire nonunion central office employees. Council members Marion Barry, Phil Mendelson and Harry Thomas Jr. were the only votes against giving Rhee the power to fire. Thomas tried to get the council to approve an alternative bill that would have affected fewer workers, but the Council voted that alternative down 10-3 as well. The Washington Post story......

WTOP's Mark Segraves got a hold of a partial list of the folks who've been receiving tickets to use the city's free luxury box in the Verizon Center -- the one that the D.C. Council is so miffed they're being boxed out of -- and there's some fun tidbits he discovered.Most of those invited to D.C.'s Luxury Suite at the Verizon Center by Fenty either contributed the maximum $2,000 to Fenty's campaign or worked on......

Good morning, Washington. We hope not too many of you were making your way into the city from Montgomery County this morning, as two separate water main breaks forced road closures in Takoma Park and kids to get the day off from school in Germantown. We'll admit it -- we're pretty envious of the students at Fox Chapel Elementary School, who get to spend the day doing whatever they please while we had to show......

Hilda Mason, 91, who served more than 20 years on the D.C. Council, died yesterday at Washington Hospital Center. The Post has an obituary up (which perhaps unsurprisingly but a little creepily appears to have been largely written some time ago, as it notes at the bottom that one of its authors passed away in 2006), which details Mason's status as the grand dame of local D.C. politics, having served on the Board of Education,......

Big news from the Washington Post: D.C. Attorney General Linda Singer has resigned after less than a year on the job. Singer tendered her resignation this morning, having reportedly been frustrated for months with her role in the Fenty administration. Fenty has been relying more heavily on General Counsel Peter Nickles, whom the mayor has apparently now named as the interim attorney general. The timing of Singer's departure, just months before Supreme Court arguments are......

If you think the Montgomery County 911 system has problems, D.C.'s 911 office isn't likely going to be having an easy time of it this week either. On Saturday the Examiner ran a small story about how D.C. Council member David Catania (I-At large) had to make a 911 call early Friday morning and says he received "textbook badgering treatment" from the operator. Catania placed the 911 call after being awakened by the sounds of......

It's Friday, Washington, and reactions are still rolling in to Metro's approval of its largest fare hikes ever. We all knew this was coming, but we're curious to hear if any of our readers actually plan to make changes to their commuting habits come January 6, when the increases will go into effect. Do you think you'll ride Metro any less, or finally make the leap to using SmarTrip? Let us know in the comments.......

We've reached another Friday, D.C., but if those light flurries that accompanied you on your way into work this morning gave you visions of a leisurely Saturday snowball fight, you'll likely end up disappointed. Very little accumulation is expected from these flakes, and the weekend will see temperatures back in the upper 40s, with a possibility of some light rain on Saturday morning, according to CapitalWeather.com. If this update doesn't satisfy your weather nerd urges,......

Remember those billboards that popped up in the 1980s that counted up the national debt, dollar by dollar? Pretty scary, huh? Well, District voting rights activists want something similar for their cause. Today the D.C. Council held a hearing on legislation that would allow the city to place two large LED billboards -- one outside the John A. Wilson Building and the other outside the new Washington Nationals stadium -- that would display the amount......

Now that the gloves have come off in the relationship between the D.C. Council and Mayor Adrian Fenty, it's apparently time for more of their amusingly petty disagreements to become public. The Post has a hilarious story in today's District Extra about a brewing battle over exactly how the city's allotment of free Wizards tickets will be distributed. Turns out last week the mayor's office slyly attempted to pick up all 24 tickets for the......