Happy Christmas Eve, Washington. With the frenzy of last-minute shopping and travel out of the city largely complete, folks staying here for the holiday are being treated to a quieter, gentler D.C. than normal, and it turns out in more ways than one. Over the weekend the Post took a look at a recent decline in the murder rate, reporting that only nine homicides have been logged in the District in the 37 days since......

Good morning, Washington. It turns out that House Pages don't need lecherous congressmen's help to make scandalous headlines: two have just gotten busted for inappropriate behavior in a House elevator. They've been dismissed, bringing the year's total fired pages to five — two others were caught shoplifting, and one was booted for fighting. Needless to say, it looks like the program — the oversight of which has been in turmoil — will be getting......

>> A non-rolling tennis ball catches a lot of parking tickets on Cliffbourne Place. [Marc Fisher] >> D.C. police are trying to identify a body found in the Tidal Basin. [NBC4] >> "A DC Team is in the Super Bowl again. The Beacon House Falcons are in Pop Warner Football’s Pee Wee Division Super Bowl on Saturday, December 8th at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex." [Notions Capital] >> The District government expects to......

>> Bostonist is on top of the hostage situation at the Hillary Clinton headquarters in Rochester, NH. [Bostonist] >> "The historic Hotel Washington will close at the end of the year to undergo extensive renovations and will reopen in 2009 as a sleek W Hotel." [AP via WTOP] >> "Montgomery County Del. Kumar Barve was arrested last night in Gaithersburg for allegedly driving while impaired by alcohol." [WaPo] >> "In this day and age,......

Good morning, Washington. Yesterday afternoon Roll Call had the story of a potential suspect finally being identified in all those strange Senate bathroom fires from the last few months. Capitol Police Officer Karen Emory recently has been suspended in connection with the fires, although it still hasn't been confirmed whether she is definitely a suspect in the case. No charges have been filed, but color us a little disappointed if it turns out a......

The overwhelming consensus so far at today's D.C. Council hearing on the recent theft of what looks to be $30 million-plus from the District's tax coffers? The scandal has damaged the reputation of the city government, and the council members are pissed. While most statements have clung to the nasty tidbits of information we already know (the enormity of the crime, that an auditor's warnings may have been ignored) and palliative cliches, council members provided......

>> Open City, the coffeehouse, diner and bar in Woodley Park, is celebrating its 2nd birthday tonight by offering diners their choice of a free cup of Tryst blend coffee, a glass of champagne, or a piece of chocolate birthday cake. >> Homegrown online fashion purveyors Unsung Designers are heading to New York, but tonight they'll be hosting a final D.C. trunk sale from 6 to 9 p.m. at 2412 18th Street NW in......

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......

Last week Mayor Fenty ordered more beat cops out of their cars and on to the streets in the wake of a series of eleven shootings over the course of one weekend. Today, the MPD is launching something they're calling "Operation Full Stride." The name is easily mocked, but are its intentions? Two hundred officers will go door-to-door today in neighborhoods like Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan, the Georgia Ave. corridor, and North Capitol Street, handing......

>> The Blow, Saturday Looks Good to Me and Karl Blau are all at the Black Cat. 8 p.m., $12. >> The songs of Neil Young will be honored by the collective of local musicians known as Ragged Glory at the Velvet Lounge. Check out our full preview here. >> The aforementioned DieYuppieKickball.com is hosting its first initiation meeting tonight at Cosmos, the upstairs of Chief Ike's, at 7 p.m. Reads the email: "What?!......

Eye Captain's iconic shot of the giant swing ride at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair reminds us it's high time to check out some pig races and grab ourselves a deep-fried Oreo and some funnel cake. Who's with us? EXIF.......

Interesting story in today's Examiner, which tells the story of Logan Circle resident and dog owner Daniel Greenberg. Greenberg likes to let his dog off its leash inside Logan Circle, even though the practice is against city code. He was caught with his dog off-leash by an MPD officer back in May, and was actually arrested on criminal charges -- even though the D.C. Council has passed legislation that makes having a dog off its......

Written by DCist contributor Claire Compton Like the classic summer fling, Restaurant Week has officially left us, leaving us with a bittersweet mix of emotions. The lucky ones are gushing about that new restaurant they discovered and how they were wooed with an impossibly fantastic meal that didn't drain their wallet. Others weren't so lucky. They began the week with a wide-eyed idealism, believing this meal was going to be the one, only to be......

UPDATE #2 WMATA reports that all three stations have re-opened, though some delays may linger in order to get everything back on schedule. Enjoy your evening, Washington. According to an alert from Metro, the Dupont Circle, Woodley Park, and Cleveland Park stations have been closed due to a suspicious package aboard a train. Metro will be running shuttle buses between Van Ness and Farragut North to connect to the stations. We hope the package turns......

Anyone who has tried to use one of the many crosswalks at the intersection of 16th and U Streets NW during rush hour knows that it can be a pretty dicey proposition. With New Hampshire Ave. running through it in opposite, one-way directions, and a number of confusing turns available to drivers, you really have to look four different ways at least twice before you can step out in to the road on the......

Good morning, Washington. Just one day after officials did their best to reassure metro area drivers that our bridges are safe to travel on, the Washington Post has pored over U.S. Department of Transportation statistics that show that a dozen bridges in the District, hundreds more in Maryland, and nearly 1,200 in Virginia are listed as "structurally deficient," -- the same rating as the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis Wednesday. Still, DDOT says that......

>> The ceremonial flame for the Special Olympics will pass through town tomorrow afternoon, starting at the White House at 12:15 p.m. and making stops on the National Mall before heading uptown to the Chinese Embassy. Expect minor traffic delays along the route. [WJLA] >> Is a Rita's Water Ice coming to the Washington Convention Center area? [Bloomingdale (for now)] >> Bob Mould is set to release his first ever live DVD, Circle Of......

Good morning, Washington. Last night's Unbuckled concert at DC9 was a huge success, having sold-out in under an hour and providing a rocking good time for all those who made it inside -- thanks to all of you who came out! We couldn't be happier, and we'll have some photos and other details to share later on, to be sure. In the meantime, the Washington Post has some video of yesterday's topping off ceremony in......

Yesterday's legislative action in the D.C. Council, typical of end-of-session days, was jam-packed with votes. Here's a few more you may have missed: >> The Council moved ahead on a bill that restricts interest rates levied by the so-called payday loan industry, an issue we've looked at before. The bill passed on an initial reading, and if implemented would place a 24 percent annual percentage rate cap on interest charged by lenders. The Examiner notes......

Good morning, D.C. After Tuesday's false Friday, it feels pretty damn good finally to be heading into a real weekend. It's going to be hot, sunny and dry on Saturday and Sunday, so get out there and enjoy it. Police Shot Man Who Died: Two D.C. police officers shot a 23-year-old man near the intersection of 17th Street and Bladensburg Road NE this morning who may have been involved in a gun battle with another......

In times when security fears, whether justified or not, begin to creep over our lives, it's important to remember that the tiny chipping away of legitimate rights can be a slippery slope to unwarranted governmental authority over our lives. We wrote in June about photographer Chip Py's experience in downtown Silver Spring, as well as Kate Mereand's similar confrontations all over D.C., and their subsequent formation of DC Photo Rights, a Flickr group dedicated to......

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. Summer in Washington means the return of many familiar sights, some welcomed, others not as much. It means baseball, but also sticky heat and humidity. It means evenings at barbecues and bars with outdoor seating, but also children roaming the streets with backpacks full of cherry bombs and bottle rockets. It means, for many of us, time off. For others it means......

>> OK, Joyce Carol Oates really IS going to be at Politics and Prose tonight, where she'll read from and sign copies of her latest novel, The Gravedigger's Daughter. Get there well before the 7 p.m. start time to stake out a seat. >> The Smithsonian Latino center presents From Mambo to Hip Hop: A Bronx Tale, a 55 minute documentary about how the South Bronx' Boricua community makes its own brand of music......

As you'll recall from last summer's round of Crime Emergency-associated legislation, teens in the District were forced to obey a curfew of 10 p.m. throughout the summer months in an effort to stem the tide of law breaking that was often blamed on youths being out on the streets, up to no good. Did it help? Not particularly as far we could ever tell, though it did allow police to release figures about how many......

It's summer and our beloved Arts Editor is away this week, so the agenda is a little on the short side. Here are a few things to see. >> We have written before about the Washington Project for the Arts\Corcoran's Experimental Media project. Starting this week, WPA\C is hosting a new show called SiteProjects DC. Curator Welmoed Laanstra has asked 15 local artists to create site-specific outdoor artwork, both installations and performances, through July 28,......

Good morning, Washington. You know, it didn't seem like that much of a storm. But apparently last night's brief thunder and lightning wrought more than their fair share of havoc: lightning struck a shopping center in Maryland, badly damaging it. In fact, WJLA had footage of the shopping center's laundromat last night — it had been completely obliterated. We had no idea! Still, it at least appears that the power system wasn't too badly affected:......

The days when one could slyly slip down to a basement, enjoy a beer, put a couple hundred bucks down, and gather around a ring to watch two dogs maul each other to death may soon become an activity worth more than a slap on the wrist. The Washington Times reports that a bill going before the D.C. City Council today proposes to increase penalties for attending a dog fight from a misdemeanor to a......

The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics changed its tune yesterday and reversed an earlier decision by stating that Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's school takeover plan cannot be the subject of a referendum. Once again, it comes down to the Home Rule Charter: attorneys for the election board said in papers filed yesterday that because Congress and President Bush have approved an amendment to the city's Home Rule Charter that gives the mayor direct control......

Yesterday we told you about the referendum petition approved by the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics regarding Mayor Adrian Fenty's school takeover legislation, which recently passed the U.S. Senate. The petition was filed by D.C. resident Mary Spencer, who is seeking to put Fenty's school plan on a special election ballot so that D.C. residents could vote on the issue directly. Today, the WaPo's David Nakamura clarifies an issue that was speculated about......

>> More than 302 vehicles, most of them with Maryland or Virginia registration, currently have 26 or more outstanding parking tickets in the District that add up to more than $1.1 million in fines. A testament to the inefficiency of the city's ability to collect, or the aggressive nature of our parking laws? [WashTimes] >> A judge dismissed a lawsuit by Robert Steinbuch (he of Jessica Cutler/Washingtonienne fame) against former Wonkette editor and current......