No matter how much you love that new Gmail interface or the gas station-bought disposable cell phone, they have no place in Mayor Vince Gray's administration. Or so he claims. more ›

Poor AlertDC. Even when it's actually providing District residents with somewhat valuable information potentially affecting more than six people, it has to use the subject which probably made a whole bunch of recipients chuckle and say "that's what she said." more ›

So says the Beeb, which notes that Washingtonians should now have "fully restored" service on however many devices they haven't been able to obsessively tap on of late. more ›

"Sacrificing civil liberties OK to fight terrorism say some Americans," reads the headline of this Associated Press report on a recent poll conducted nationwide by the news organization and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Some -- but not most. more ›

Have you used the Washington Post's website to look for a job in the District? If so, don't be shocked if you get some extra spam over the next few weeks. more ›

Now, we've given the city's AlertDC system some grief in the past. But today's latest transgression -- emailing everyone subscribed to the service shortly after 4 p.m. to let them know that the District is under a tornado watch until 3 p.m. -- just simply can not go without shaming. more ›

Auto theft isn't funny -- after all, thousands of vehicles are stolen in the District every year. But this reminder, sent by Metropolitan Police Department Commander Kimberly Chisley-Missouri to the department's Fourth District listserv led us to chuckle a little bit. more ›

We've received a couple of tips about a notice that is apparently making its way around office inboxes in town -- a memo from WMATA to "stop and identify" two suspicious individuals. But WUSA9 reports that the message was meant for WMATA employees only -- and while Metro Transit Police are looking to question the people mentioned, riders should not take action without contacting the authorities. more ›

The public uproar over the shooting of a dog at the Adams Morgan Day festival last weekend doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon. more ›

Come next Tuesday, Michael D. Brown may well unseat incumbent Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) because many voters think he's actually Council member Michael A. Brown (I-At-Large). But to fight the impression that he's simply riding the confusion over a name to office, Brown has put up some campaign signs around town and raised over $23,000 in campaign funds. Well, $15,000 of that was a personal loan from himself to the campaign, but hey, at least he's going through the motions. more ›

Last week, we told you that Ted Leonsis had established a new email address which he planned to use as a way of connecting on a one-to-one level with Wizards fans while his ownership of the team got off the ground. And boy, are people ever emailing. Leonsis confessed that he had received "more than 2000 emails" at the new address, even being so kind as to make a list of the most commonly requested improvements. Most of them are obvious: "Don’t trade your first round picks," "Change colors for team uniforms," "Continue Pollin legacy for charitable efforts," and so on. All fine ideas. But if there was any doubt that Leonsis needs to seriously improve the product on the court, it has to be clear now: yours truly counted 47 suggestions ("Paint the stairs"?) that would probably be far less noticeable to fans if the Wiz were actually playing decent ball, night in and night out. more ›

Talk about screw-ups. About 200 students who had applied for early decision admission to George Washington University received an email last week that welcomed them to the Class of 2014 -- except they had all actually been rejected from the school. The story was first reported by the GW Hatchet. more ›

Meet Walter Carl Abbott, Jr. He's the kind of Lou Dobbs-loving, manly-man Maryland construction worker who blames everything that's wrong in this country on illegal immigrants. In fact, he feels so strongly about illegal immigration that last year, he decided to send an email to Gov. Martin O'Malley about it. Unfortunately for Abbott, the email included this phrase: "If I ever get close enough to you I will [w]rap my hands around your throat and strangle the life from you." Whoops! more ›

Many D.C. commuters subscribe to METRO eAlerts, emailed notifications of Metrorail disruptions that can help steer Metro riders around trouble areas. Over the last 16 hours, the eAlerts system has sent out numerous updates about the deadly crash at Fort Totten, but the automatically generated language used by the system has proved to be grossly inadequate in describing the situation. More than one update also indicated the incident had been "cleared," even though the Red Line is still shut down around the crash site. Here are the crash-related METRO eAlerts updates we've received since Tuesday evening, emphasis ours. more ›

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When I received an email from John McCain last night asking me to "Make History Tomorrow" by voting for him, I was somewhat perplexed. After all, I've never knowingly given my email to anyone who might use it for a conservative cause. Moreover, I wasn't born in the U.S. and am not (yet) eligible to vote, so does this mean that John McCain wants me to commit voter fraud for him? more ›

It's a Capitol catastrophe, folks. The Hill is reporting that the entire U.S. House, both members and staffers, don't have access to their email right now. Apparently a circuit breaker overloaded a House data center Thursday afternoon, making the whole system go kablooey. Engineers are working to resolve the problem, and they hope to have the House back up and emailing away at some point today. Guess it's a good thing this happened while Congress wasn't here. more ›

Howard Kurtz's WaPo column today concerns the kerfuffle over Tim Page's angry email to Ward 8 Council Member Marion Barry's office that we told you about yesterday. As you'll recall, Page, who writes about classical music for the Post, received an unsolicited press release from Barry's office about the city's deal with Specialty Hospitals of America to purchase the Greater Southeast Community Hospital. Page then fired off an angry email in which he called the... more ›

The Hill is reporting that the Senate Hart and Dirksen Office Buildings were evacuated due to a fire just after 1 p.m. more ›

As part of our continuing efforts to make the Gothamist network a friendly and reasonably polite place, we've now, as of this morning, eliminated "guest" comments on our posts. This means that to comment on DCist and any other -ist site, all users will need to complete a short registration process. more ›

Having failed to make their intended satire clear to the George Washington University campus, seven students felt the need to come forward late last night to take responsibility for those "anti-Muslim" posters we told you about yesterday. The Hatchet published parts of the letter after receiving it last night. Among the seven students who admitted their involvement was ubiquitous IVAW poster boy and current GWU graduate student Adam Kokesh. "It is to our great dismay... more ›

Okay, so we've already given Brooklyn's Clap Your Hands Say Yeah a less than stellar live review and sufficiently curbed our enthusiasm when they announced two November dates at the Rock and Roll Hotel. Fortunately for the band, our lukewarm opinions hardly affected their ticket sales, as both dates have been sold out for weeks. more ›

>> Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry feels "disrespected and misled" by Mayor Adrian Fenty regarding the changes the administration made to the development of Poplar Point, where plans for a new stadium for D.C. United have now been abandoned. [WTOP] >> The accused "D.C. Madam," Deborah Jeane Palfrey, is alleging that national security concerns related to the fact that Muslim men used her escort service before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks might... more ›

Photo and review by DCist contributor Valerie Paschall more ›

Via the Examiner, we learn that a new ranking put out by Dulles-based AOL places Washington, D.C. as the "most email addicted" city in the country, beating out the likes of Atlanta, New York, San Francisco and Houston, which all placed in the top five. The prevalence of mobile email devices such as Blackberries and Sidekicks in the city was attributed to the result, as well as the large number of government employees, most of... more ›

Regular readers probably noticed that we've made a few small changes to our commenting and feedback systems today. Here's the low down: 1. Every commenter can now have a profile page that includes a small bit of information about them, links to their recent comments, and comments other people have left in response. If the commenter is also a DCist author, the page will include a list of their recent posts. Here's mine. You can... more ›

Even before our scatterbrained, ADHD world began over-prescribing Ritalin, we giggled at Steven Wright's one-liners on SNL during the ‘80s. If you're like us, maybe you even stayed up late into the night listening to albums like I Have a Pony. His brand of comedy, as something of an intellectual punster, appealed to us as kids just as much as it does today. Jokes like, "I was walking in the woods all by myself. A... more ›

Washington woke up this morning to the sad news that Mstislav Rostropovich died in Moscow today, after undergoing treatment for cancer since February. The world has lost a giant of music, an enthusiastic, larger than life figure for many of his 80 years among us. Many Washingtonians felt the loss more keenly because of the Russian cellist and conductor's long relationship with the city, as Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra from 1977 to... more ›

There's good news for residents of Georgetown. District police says the two men wanted in connection with three robberies are now in a Maryland jail on unrelated charges. The armed robberies took place between April 11, 12 and 17 in the area between 27th and 31st, and N and Q Streets in Northwest. In two cases the assailants had a gun. Second District police sent an e-mail yesterday warning women not to walk alone in... more ›