Now is the time of year when we all get to start complaining about how stupid standard time is and how walking out of our offices last night into pitch black darkness was weird and uncomfortable and made us confused about what time happy hour was supposed to start. That is all. 'Fat Gap' Between Whites and Blacks in D.C. High: We've certainly talked about the income gap between whites and blacks in our city......

Good morning, Washington. Does your commute include the Wilson Bridge? If so, enjoy this morning's trip — it's the last speedy one you're likely to have this week. As Fox 5 details, some of the traffic around the bridge will be redirected beginning at 10 a.m. this morning. But the worst will be saved for overnight on Friday, when traffic will be reduced to a single lane. Hateful Vandalism Galore: What the hell is going......

Candidates in next Tuesday's special election to fill two open D.C. Council seats have collectively raised over $1 million in the course of the campaign. Voters will chose council members for Wards 4 and 7, after those positions were left empty by Mayor Adrian Fenty and at-large Council Chairman Vincent Gray. Voters in D.C. Public Schools' Second District will also elect a school board representative. In Ward 4, ANC Commissioner Muriel Bowser leads the pack......

Deep in the incestuous (professionally speaking) world of indie rock, there is Rilo Kiley. Based out of Los Angeles, it isn’t that much of a surprise that the band was founded by two former child stars, Jenny Lewis of Troop Beverly Hills fame, and Blake Sennett, aka Salute Your Shorts’ Ronnie Pinksy, aka Joseph 'Joey the Rat' Epstein from Boy Meets World. More interesting is the number of popular side projects on which these......

MONDAY Prolific. Canadian. Rhymes with “cat would.” There’s only one author in the world those three adjectives can be applied to. Margaret Atwood reads from her new short story collection, Moral Disorder: and Other Stories at Borders Books & Music, 1801 K St. NW., at 7 p.m. TUESDAY Hmmm. It’s election day and John Nichols is in town, discussing and signing his book, The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism. What are you......

Monday >> The hordes will flock to DAR Constitution Hall this Monday night to mark the return of Death Cab to D.C. with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. They recently added a second, Tuesday night show, but feel free to take your pick, as tickets are still available for both days. $34, 8 p.m. >> It’s black Monday in the district, as the nominal antithesis of the White Stripes, The Black Keys, complete another 2-day......

It's a drizzly Thursday morning out there, D.C., and it seems like every ... single ... local news headline ... we've run across has to do with this Tuesday's election. Rest assured, we'll have DCist's own election guide for you later this afternoon, but we'll also have plenty of our regular music, food and other odd goodies. Because lord knows we could all stand a break from the Midterm Midtacular (hat tip to The Daily......

Right around now, most District households should have their handy 2006 Voters Guide, the booklet running through the details of the upcoming September 12 primary and featuring short vignettes on all the candidates on the ballot. More importantly, though, the booklets each have a specific notation listing a precinct number that track to the polling place each registered voter is to visit to cast their ballot. Well, kind of. It seems that the company contracted......

It's just over a month until the September 12 primary, and the endorsements are starting to roll in. Non-governmental organizations, newspapers, and big-name individuals are throwing their weight behind specific candidates, hoping to given them the final boost they need before election day. In the first big mayoral endorsement of the campaign season, the Current newspaper group -- which publishes the Georgetown Current, the Dupont Current, the Foggy Bottom Current, and the Northwest Current --......

Over the past few months, DCist has been following the legislative gridlock over Virginia transportation funding fairly closely. We've also been pretty clear about our position on the issue, and we hope (but don't necessarily expect) those blocking the budget to resolve their problems before the dispute leads to a government shutdown in July. On Monday, the Post took a look at growing worries among Virginia House Republicans that voters might express frustration with the......

The big day finally arrives, in more ways then one. It's Election Day and the Santos and Vinick campaigns are tense, tense, tense. The show opens with some pre-credit flirting between Josh and Donna. After the credits, we're treated to a shot of Josh and Donna in bed, together, presumably post-coital. I'm a long time Josh/Donna shipper but the scene was more than I wanted to see. There's some mild awkwardness between the two, but......

Good morning, Washington. This shot of the Key Bridge was taken by Flickr user easement, who also posted some neat infrared shots of the area in his photostream. If you live in Virginia and several towns in Maryland, today is election day! To find out your polling place check out the website of the Virginia Board of Elections or contact your local government. Virginia Governors' Race Neck and Neck: The gubernatorial race between Democrat Tim......

In mounting a mayoral campaign, District hopefuls have to know what issues will rally the masses. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to run an expensive campaign on an issue no one knows much about, much less cares enough about to swing their vote one way or the other. Hence the pre-election polling -- exploratory committees hire pollsters to find out what issues residents are most worried about, what they think of a......

DCist considers ourselves fortunate enough to have been part of the 1,200 invite-only crowd at the Lincoln Theatre on U Street NW last night, where D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams delivered his the annual State of the District address. Part policy proposals and part campaign stump speech, the address clearly identified a city on the up-and-up but with still much to do. Williams listed problems and solutions, yet the genius was more in the underlying message......

Red Liners, you've been through a lot the past year. But there's a light at the end of the tunnel ... assuming you look past the post-Election Day crash at the Woodley Park station. This weekend was the final weekend for NewYoFla-related track work on the Red Line. In preparation for the opening of the New York Avenue-Florida Avenue-Gallaudet University metrorail station, the Red Line had been closed or single tracked through the area......

Work to transform Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House is wrapping up, with the Jersey barriers and oversized awkward planters being replaced with gray-green fluted bollards and attractive street pavers. For most of the past year, pedestrian access to the 1600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue has been extremely limited. When DCist took this photo on Election Day morning, the street was blocked off, but this morning, the first lady will officially reopen......

As we've mentioned, lines to vote today have been forcasted to be long, and indeed they are. This photo here is of the voting site at the 2nd District Police headquarters on Idaho Avenue. Over at the International Union of Operating Engineers hall in Glover Park, the line to vote stretched down Calvert Street nearly to the western gate to the vice president's house at the Naval Observatory. (Here's the Post's morning update on......

With the biggest sports story of the week already written, returning to another Sunday of the NFL regular season may seem a little anti-climactic. Perhaps more so when you consider the Redskins upcoming home game against the Green Bay Packers—both teams started out with big wins, fell into long losing streaks, got mired in the basement of their respective divisions, and only now are showing some signs of life. Both teams are enduring some......

DCSOB points out a poll showing Ralph Nader only five points behind President Bush in the District of Columbia. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is way ahead. DCist would like to point out that although Kerry is way ahead, Chef Geoff Tracy, husband of NBC's Norah O'Donnell, is gaining on President Bush. When we checked on Monday, the Georgetown graduate was only down by 10-15 votes at the 13th Street Chef Geoff's. We don't know if......

- With the Election Day a week away and fears of voting machines failing, channel your “Pre-Election Anxiety Disorder” by visiting some election-inspired exhibits at the National Museum of American History. "Vote! The Machinery of Democracy" examines the evolution of voting techniques and includes the ill-fated butterfly ballot from the 2000 Florida presidential election. Stop by their permanent exhibit "The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden" to pay homage to our fearless leaders of the executive......

And the winners have been revealed on washingtonpost.com's Best Blog contest for political and election blogs. The contest, which took nominations starting a couple of months ago, had readers decide which blogs were the cream of the crop in topics such as "Most Likely to Last Beyond Election Day," "Best Rant" and "Best Inside the Beltway." National Review's The Corner blog won in several categories; in fact, conservative blogs by and large dominated the entire......

"You're missing the biggest story of the day," a vigilant reader writes us. "I just waited half an hour to early vote at the DC Board of Elections. I also voted electronically-smooth, easy and idiot proof." In D.C., voters may cast an absentee ballot in person up to 14 days before the election: You may cast an absentee ballot, in person, in our office (441 4th St., NW #250) beginning 14 days before the election.......

A New Threat to Capitol Hill?: Sen. Mark Dayton, a Minnesota Democrat, has closed his Capitol Hill offices sending some of his staff home to Minnesota, others to an undisclosed location in Washington through Election Day. According to numerous news outlets, Dayton is citing a threat from classified information given to the Senate from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican. But nobody is disclosing what the threat is or what alarming information is.......

Good morning, Washington. -- Over the weekend, car owners in Anacostia got free anti-theft devices for their vehicles from the Metropolitan Police, the AP, via WTOP reports. In the District, one-in-three cars stolen are from east of the Anacostia River. Police are training church members to patrol streets to prevent cars being stolen during Sunday services. -- Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat who represents a good chunk of Montgomery County in Congress, was taken......