Congress has probed the Interior Department and come out with hard allegations that members of the department have gotten drunk, used drugs and had sex with officials for the oil companies they allegedly regulate. The reports charge that those responsible for dictating where the oil companies can drill have let the drillers take them to parties at hotels and received their illicit gifts. The government receives and resells a percentage of all oil drilled by......

The AP reported that D.C. police are investigating a suspicious substance found near Gallaudet University, and that the Ballard North Hall dorm on campus has been evacuated as a result. The Post's Paul Duggan says both Ballard North and Ballard West have been evacuated, and the substance in question, six boxes of plant fertilizer and pesticide, plus a light bulb, was discovered in the duct work above an unoccupied room in the Ballard North building.......

It's marijuana Thursday! The AP via WaPo reports that a 19-year-old Chevy Chase man has been arrested for growing approximately 10 marijuana plants in Rock Creek Park. Isiah Johnson was caught tending the plants after the National Park Service discovered them in what's being described as a "remote" part of the park, and set up surveillance. Not remote enough, apparently.......

The home of Berwyn Heights, Md. Mayor Cheye Calvo was raided on Tuesday, reports the Post, and police recovered 32 pounds of marijuana inside. A SWAT team also shot and killed Calvo's two dogs when they entered the home. Now, considering we're the home former Mayor Marion "Bitch Set Me Up" Barry, it's hard for the District to laugh too hard at this nearby small town. Then again, 32 pounds is a lot of marijuana.......

Rodell Alton Colton couldn't have imagined his birthday would end up like this. According to a WTOP report, Colton, who just turned 72, had a minor fender-bender in a convenience store parking lot in New Carrolton, Md. on his birthday. As if that wasn't a big enough bummer, when police responded they discovered he was driving on a suspended license, and a subsequent search of his car turned up quite the payload: Police ordered him......

"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......

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......

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......

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a......

>> If you go to tonight's fundraiser to lend your support the Chung family, the owners of Custom Cleaners who were sued by Roy Pearson for $54 million over a missing pair of pants, are you also supporting the mission of the party's host, the American Tort Reform Society? >> An electronic gauge that contains small amounts of two radioactive elements was reported stolen yesterday from a construction site in Waldorf. The radioactive materials......

>> D.C. is the fifth most overpriced real estate market in the country. [Examiner] >> Four teenage girls were arrested today after Frederick police said they found 33 pounds of marijuana in their car. [NBC4] >> A police chase led a fleeing driver in a white Cadillac to drive on the wrong side of I-295. [WTOP] >> The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the union representing 10,000 Amtrak workers, has reached a tentative agreement on......

"Reefer gets you raped. And you won’t care!" Such is one of the hilariously overwrought statements blasted across the screen, 30s public service announcement-style, during Studio Theatre's hysterical production of Reefer Madness: The Musical. Based loosely upon the 1938 anti-marijuana propaganda film of the same name, the show’s setup involves a high school theater troupe dramatizing the devastating effects of reefer, using the tale of one high school sweetheart couple’s demise as its center.......

Thank god for the Capital Fringe Festival. The event, now in its second year, makes sure that our July isn’t totally barren when it comes to edgy, exciting theater. We’ll be giving you a more detailed report on what the Fringe has to offer this year (hint: Avenue Q and Harry Potter parodies, Chocolate Jesuses and an operatic Lysistrata are among the choices), but here’s what the less fringified theaters around here will be up......

Happy Father's Day! For those of you who have dads, are dads, or know dads, this one's for you, from all of us at the Gothamist network. It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by......

>> The young women killed in last night's Beltway accident have been identified, and two of them graduated from high school only hours before. [AP and WTOP] >> A Judge ruled that rapper 50 Cent cannot be compelled to testify in the civil case against NBA star Allen Iverson stemming from a 2005 scuffle at Eyebar. [WaPo] >> A woman was humiliated by a TSA employee for trying to take her son's tap water-filled......

It's often easy to huff and puff about the city's lack of voting rights, budget autonomy and the kingly powers used by members of Congress to derail local initiatives or force the city into doing things that its voters never envisioned. But rarely does an example come along that brings the District's second-class status into such sharp relief as did a story published today in the New York Times. The story chronicles the tireless work......

Just when our depression about the non-story debacle of the highly disappointing D.C. Madam saga was reaching its peak, along comes 55-year-old Patricia Helen Meehan of Stafford, Va. to save us from our misery. NBC4 says that Meehan, who claims to be a dominatrix, was recently arrested in Maryland and returned to Stafford County to face a list of charges so fantastic we can hardly contain ourselves. Authorities said she was indicted in September 2001......

When you think of your high school's librarian, many things may come to mind: stern shushings, cardigans and a disdain for all children, in my case. It turns out that at least one area librarian knows how to have a good time. George Frederick Miller, who works at Westlake High School, was arrested yesterday in La Plata, Md. for growing his own marijuana at home. His 19-year-old daughter was also charged with possession with intent......

Well, not really. But the former Republican congressman from Georgia has joined the Marijuana Policy Project as a lobbyist, reversing a long career as an anti-drug warrior, according to an article published today in The Politico. Among his top priorities? To lobby for the right of states to set their own policies regarding medical marijuana. This is significant because it was Barr himself who in 1998 pushed through an amendment that forbade the District from......

Fox's Wisdom Martin reports that Maryland State Senator Anthony Muse calls the sale of bongs in gas stations a slap in the face in the war on drugs. Muse says drugs cause murders and incarcerations, and therefore he [along with Senator Miller, of course] has proposed emergency legislation banning bong sales – or at least significantly raising taxes on bong sales – in order to advance his political career and get some face time on......

Given the District's status as something of a federal colony, members of Congress often find themselves expressing opinions about local matters or, worse yet, micro-managing the city. They hate our gun laws, propose using the District as a laboratory for a flat tax, threaten us over gay marriage and won't let us have medical marijuana. And now one is speaking out about the city's smoking ban. The Hill reports today that Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Col.),......

It is the winter, and D.C. is a condo town. We don't have a plot of land, and space in the local community garden is impossible to come by. Even if we did have a patch of our own, it's so frigid outside that even Joel Salatin couldn't farm grass on it. So, how to indulge our green thumb indoors? Enter the AeroGarden. The AeroGarden, which costs about $150, is an aeroponic garden that relies......

After years of jamming together in the East Village jazz club Nublu, the Brazilian Girls released their eponymous debut to critical acclaim in 2005. On that album and this year’s follow-up, Talk to La Bomb, BG are New Yorkers through and through: ultra-sophisticated, inventive, and à la mode. None of the members of BG are Brazilian, and only lead singer Sabina Sciubba is a girl, but we suspect they chose their name because, like supermodel......

>> District darling Marion Barry has entered a plea of not guilty on charges surrounding his September traffic stop. Police allege the Ward 8 Councilman was intoxicated and driving an unregistered vehicle when they pulled him over near the White House. Barry says federal authorities are trying to " http://wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=974583">embarrass and discredit" him. Sounds like tough work for the Feds. In the past year alone Barry plead guilty to federal tax evasion and tested positive......

The many neighborhood listservs in the District provide an additional way for members of the community to communicate, share problems, offer advice, and otherwise detail the daily ups and downs of their street, their local park, or their neighbors. The sheer amount of exchanges offer a treasure trove of material, so much so that the City Paper's blog, City Desk, dedicates a bi-weekly feature to it. This gem came across my local listserv today, which......

The City Paper's City Desk blog noted yesterday that a Wednesday Superior Court hearing revealed that Christopher Barry, son of Marion, had tested positive for traces of marijuana. Barry was in court for an April arrest after driving his father's car without a valid license. The positive drug test also violates a pre-sentencing agreement from a 2005 arrest for assaulting a police officer. City Desk spoke to A. Scott Bolden, who is representing the younger......

Good morning, Washington. To those of you who celebrate the holiday, we hope you're having a pleasant Passover, and that last night's second Seder was, uh, salubrious. Okay, we'll stop now. Students Vote For Laxer Pot Penalties: The Post reports on yesterday's U-Md. student election results, which included a large victory for a resolution in favor of making penalties for alcohol and marijuana violations equivalent. The ballot measure was intended to send a message to......

Last week we reported that D.C. Appleseed's newest online initiative to encourage residents to identify pressing problems in the District and propose solutions had kicked off with a bang, eliciting submissions on everything from car-free roads to legalized marijuana to how to best fix the city's schools. As of today, there are 105 submissions. After the jump we feature some of the highlights, from the serious to the not-so-serious, from the way to fight......

Welcome to the second day of spring, Washington — and, if forecasters are right, to what might be the last snowy day of the season. That's right: parts of the region are expected to get as much as three inches of snowfall beginning this morning and ending around midnight. It just a week ago that we were cheerfully reflecting on the pleasant weather and how it would probably never be cold again, ever. We were......

Marion Barry has gotten into trouble time after time. This time, the former mayor-for-life is being tried for not paying his taxes for six years, and, by extension, violating the terms of his plea agreement by testing positive for cocaine and marijuana use. Though he served six months in jail for cocaine possession in the early 1990s (and, somehow, was elected as mayor for a fourth term thereafter), it seems that he has yet to......