It looks like Virginia's gunnin' for a fight -- pun intended. According to WTOP, Virginia has filed a brief in the Supreme Court challenging the District's gun ban, joining a number of states that are picking sides in what may be a historic decision on the reach of the Second Amendment. The case, which will be heard in March, could have a wide-reaching effect on gun laws and regulations nationwide. According to Virginia Attorney......

Though it is District law that cars must stop for pedestrians in every crosswalk, let's be honest -- very few actually do so. When I choose to walk to work, I'm often left to navigate the harrowing crosswalk at Connecticut Avenue and Wyoming Avenue NW, where even a sign reminding drivers of their responsibility to stop is regularly (and at high-speed) ignored. Council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) is hoping to change that. Cheh's office......

Libertarian-leaning Republican presidential candidate and hero of the Internets Ron Paul has gotten himself a blimp, and it's headed this way. According to a just-released flight plan, the blimp, which will read "Who is Ron Paul? Google Ron Paul" on one side and "Ron Paul Revolution" on the other, will launch from Elizabeth City, N.C., Monday and flyover Washington circa 3 p.m. the same day, with a rally planned for 4 p.m. and another re-launch......

DC for Marriage, an eight-month-old group advocating same-sex marriage rights in the District, will hold a "Marriage Equality Community Forum" tomorrow night at 7 p.m. in room 412 of the Wilson Building. This is the group's first public event, which is co-sponsored by several local LGBT organizations including the DC Center, DC Black Pride, AQUA DC, and the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, among others. Yesterday, DC for Marriage announced Sabrina Sojourner, the first open......

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is hereby proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by conventions of three-fourths of the several States: "Article – Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the......

You all said almost too much good stuff this past week. Here's a wrapup of some of the best comments, as well as the semi-prized best avatar and commenter name awards. Comment of the Week goes to frequent commenter Monkeyrotica, who doesn't like Council members complaining about closing schools: Maybe if parents weren't fleeing their poorly-run wards, they wouldn't be shutting their precious schools down. The Council has had DECADES and BILLIONS to fix the......

Via City Desk, the Dupont Current (not available online) has a short piece about how the Logan Circle advisory neighborhood commission has given the go-ahead for the P Street Whole Foods to continue selling single-sale beers in the grocery store. The decision reportedly comes after eight months of such sales at the Whole Foods “without major conflict,” but the Current notes that just around the corner on 14th Street, the reputable Barrel House Liquors is......

As we are still recovering from the gluttony that was Thanksgiving, and since it was pretty slow news week in, well, everything, we are light on the transit news, too. But first, which D.C. Council Member likes to ignore laws? You get one guess and the answer is after the jump. Photo by AlbinoFlea......

The Supreme Court has announced that it will take on Heller v. District of Columbia, the D.C. handgun case, and decide whether our city's ban on handguns violates the Constitution. The Court will likely hear the case sometime in March, with a decision to come later in the session. The case will mark the first time the Court has taken up the meaning of the Second Amendment in almost 70 years, and the decision could......

...ummm, nothing yet. According to the Associated Press, the Supreme Court failed to reach a decision on whether or not to hear a case related to the District's gun laws. Though a verdict from last week's conference discussion was possible today, it seems that the nine justices haven't yet decided if they want to take the case, which stems from a March decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District Circuit that ruled......

In the coming weeks District officials will find out whether a Court of Appeals decision that found the city's gun laws unconstitutional will stand or whether the U.S. Supreme Court will take up Mayor Adrian Fenty's appeal. According to SCOTUSBlog, the justices of the Supreme Court will debate whether or not to take the case on November 9. Should they choose to, the two sides would argue before the court in February or March; otherwise,......

We're certainly woe to make the poor soul who was evicted from the tony condo building The Flats at Dupont Circle, at 20th and N Streets NW, this morning feel any worse. But after being tipped off by a resident of the building to the eviction and subsequent dumping of all of this woman's worldly belongings on the street corner, we couldn't help but feel it makes a rather striking image when you consider......

Many things seem more important in D.C. than they would be anywhere else. It's pretty difficult to impress somebody in most places by telling them you met the Undersecretary of such and such. Appearing on C-SPAN is more likely to be subject to quizzical looks rather than admiration in other towns. Most folks elsewhere wouldn't know they just saw George Will honking at pedestrians. And obviously, people talk about bills and laws and politics more......

It's hard out there for a frat guy. That, at least, is what pro-Greek commenters over at George Mason University's Broadside newspaper would have you believe. The student publication has a story up about a law suit filed by the school's banned chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, which is suing GMU for violating their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Sigma Chi was kicked off the campus after being found guilty of a series of......

Nowadays, it seems like every place under the sun is producing wine. Indeed, it's probably because they are. Whenever someone says that they have a bottle from North Carolina or Mexico or China, there is no second guessing them anymore. Whether or not these odd regional wines are actually drinkable is another story. We've made it our mission to always give a bottle try- no matter where's it from- because you never know when or......

Written by DCist Contributor Sarah Stonesifer The Diamondback – University of Maryland: >> Hartwick Towers, an off-campus apartment building, was the scene of a fire on Friday, Oct. 12. The fire has come under scrutiny by both students and city officials, as the building is not equipped with sprinklers and fire alarms did not function during the fire. Students were left on their own to find alternative housing until they were let back into their......

Good morning, Washington. Flickr user zenfrisbee went down to the West Lawn yesterday to catch the festivities surrounding the Dalai Lama's visit and acceptance of a Congressional Gold Medal. China, naturally, had "solemnly demanded" the cancellation of the event, which saw President Bush appear with the Dalai Lama in public -- something no sitting U.S. president has done before. Bush dismissed China's concerns over the event, saying he didn't think it would severely damage relations......

Written by DCist Contributor Fredo Alvarez In a 60-39 cloture vote, the U.S. Senate barely passed the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 (S 1105) today as an amendment to the FY 2008 Defense Authorization Bill (HR 1585). The measure would expand protection against hate crimes to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, and would enable the Federal government to provide assistance in the investigation or prosecution of......

Written by DCist Contributor Stephanie Taylor Douglas Powell, a food scientist at Kansas State University, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that consumers who seek raw milk are just part of a trend embraced by an affluent, food-obsessed culture. Whether you think affluence is part of the question or not, there are a growing number of Washingtonians who are doing just that, and they have organized themselves to bring un-pasteurized milk to the District, despite having......

Sen. McConnell, On Tuesday the Senate is set to take up legislation that would grant the District a voting seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. And though the measure passed the House and enjoys wide support in the Senate and among the American people, you've threatened to use procedural road-blocks to prevent it from coming to a vote. Please don't. Sen. McConnell, in opposing a measure that would grant the District's 600,000 residents a......

After letting us all enjoy a good summer break, next week the U.S. Senate will start debating legislation that would grant the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives. And in preparing for what is sure to be a spirited battle, big-name voting rights activists have recently stepped up the pressure with two back-to-back op-eds in Washington papers. Yesterday Maryland's former Lt. Gov. Michael Steele and former Oklahoma Republican Rep. J.C. Watts penned......

The Post shares some newly released data from the Census Department. Apparently Washington area residents retire later than all other Americans -- even after controlling for members of the U.S. Senate. The article lays out two separate likely causes why our older workers continue to work, one far less the sunny than the other. The area's high number of white-collar jobs accounts for at least part of its residents slower transition to bird-watching and writing......

Mayor Adrian Fenty has announced the city has formally filed an appeal to the Supreme Court in the hopes that it will overturn a March decision in which a lower court found that the District's ban on handguns was unconstitutional. Though the appeal has been a month in the making, Fenty and D.C. Attorney General Linda Singer today explained their reasoning in an op-ed published in the Post. In it, they reject the individual right......

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom......

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee plans to ask the D.C. Council to suspend personnel laws to give her the authority to terminate several hundred DCPS employees she plans to fire without having to reassign them to other jobs. A story on the front page of today's Washington Post indicates at least some Council members may be skeptical of Rhee's plan, which reportedly includes adding new upper-level managers while at the same time downsizing the central......

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-a-verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

Good morning, Washington. Just one more day! By tomorrow we'll be free of this dreary, occasionally drizzly mess — or so CapitalWeather assures us. Here's hoping they're right. Although the cooler temperatures have been pleasant, we've had enough of this gray mid-winter preview. MPD Officers' Trial Begins: The Post reports on the start of Milagros Morales' and Erick Brown's trial. The two police detectives are accused of manipulating witnesses into implicating Jerome Jones in the......

When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg sent undercover agents into Virginia gun shops to sniff out illegal sales earlier this year, he had one point to make -- Virginia's guns are ending up plenty of other places, where they have contributed to a number of killings. Predictably, Virginia officials were incensed at Bloomberg's interstate investigation, issuing the equivalent of a cease-and-desist letter and pushing a local gun rights group to organize a "Bloomberg Gun......

The antiwar group ANSWER Coalition made good on its promise to fight an order from the city to remove its posters from electrical boxes all over D.C. by filing court papers yesterday challenging local laws that regulate the posting of signs in public places. As you'll recall, ANSWER, a group that stages regular anti-war protests in Washington, received 65 citations on Aug. 13 for gluing signs onto utility boxes around the city, each with a......

As we mentioned briefly yesterday, the second fire in two years at Capitol Lounge has been found to have resulted from the same reason as the first: a cigarette, which was left burning in a trash can behind the building. Last week's fire caused about $100,000 of damage to the Lounge as well as the Trover Gift Shop next door. Now The Examiner reports that D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin is calling for a new......