The United States Park Police, DDOT and MPD have released the following road closure advisories for Saturday's Veterans Day Parade. All closures should be re-opened by 5 p.m. Saturday. Roads closed at 6 a.m.: * Jefferson Drive from 14th Street to 4th Street, SW * Madison Drive from 4th Street to 15th Street, NW * Seventh Street from Independence Avenue to Constitution Avenue, NW Roads closed at 10:30 a.m.: * Lincoln Memorial Circle to Henry......

>> Still unable to identify the oily substance that was found on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial earlier this month, the U.S. Park Police today said that it was in fact vandalism that put it there. Clean-up is expected to be slow in an effort to avoid permanent damage to the memorial. [WaPo] >> Senate Minority Leader McConnell: "My opposition to this bill rests instead on a single all-important fact: it is clearly and unambiguously......

>> Little children don't like President Bush. [YouTube, embedding sadly turned off] >> Director Ridley Scott set off a bomb at Eastern Market yesterday, but Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio were not there, so stop asking us about it. [Reliable Source] >> A U.S. Park Police officer reportedly shot and wounded a driver on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway near Riverdale this afternoon. [WaPo] >> The FBI has launched a new Web site, BankBandits.com, in an......

In the case of Marion Barry vs. "The Enemies of the People," Barry, it seems, always comes out on top. The "Mayor for Life" has been cleared of the last of his traffic charges after the D.C. attorney general's office filed court papers electing not to go forward. The Ward 8 Council member was pulled over by U.S. Park Police for driving too slowly on Dec. 16. In June, Barry was acquitted of driving under......

>> Larry Flynt has 30 solid leads on potential congressional sex scandals, and was especially shocked to learn something juicy about a yet unnamed senator. [CNN] >> Via Matt Yglesias, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports the latest hilarity in the Duke Cunningham saga: First, he's snitching to the FBI, so look out, Brent Wilkes. Second, he apparently was miffed that Wilkes got the “younger and cuter” of the prostitutes Wilkes hired for them on......

Via the DCist Tipline, we get this photo and story from a reader who spotted D.C. Council chairman Vincent Gray running over to speak to a U.S. Park Police officer in the hopes of talking him out of towing his car Wednesday evening. While playing softball down by the FDR memorial this evening, my team was a little shocked when we saw a park policeman not only issue a ticket to an illegally parked......

Former mayor and D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) was back in court yesterday on charges stemming from two traffic stops last year, one of which resulted from what Secret Service officers say was erratic driving under the influence of alcohol. The full list of charges against Barry, 71, include driving while under the influence, operating a vehicle while impaired, operating an unregistered vehicle and misuse of temporary tags. The trial is scheduled to......

A few weeks ago DCist dug into status of dogs in the district. Needless to say, pet owners and non-owners alike had a few things to say about the availability of dog parks and picking up poochs' poop. Now we hear about the case of Deputy White House Spokesman Dana Perino's husband, who spent a day in jail for his failure to keep his canine companion on a leash. Back in November, Perino's husband, British......

This chilly April weather appears to have frozen more than just flowers overnight here in Washington -- local news coverage has turned cold and stopped moving as well. It's a bit of a slow news Friday so far, so we'll take this as an opportunity to give a shoutout to the hard working copy editors on the WaPo's Metro desk. We couldn't easily skim through all of the days' stories if you didn't write such......

A Tenleytown hardware store was robbed by two armed, masked men this morning, prompting a mile-long police chase through the neighborhood, complete with accompanying U.S. Park Police helicopter. If your commute through this area was hell on Earth today, feel free to send these lovely robbers a thank-you note. The Post says that an employee of the Ace Hardware store in the 4500 block of Wisconsin Avenue NW was ambushed by the robbers while taking......

Well, it's officially one week until the big day, but it seems that law-enforcement's biggest fan isn't feeling the holiday spirit. The continuing toasty weather may also make it hard to believe you've only got five more days to purchase all the tacky reindeer sweaters you can find. Call us crazy, we're still crossing our fingers for the tiniest amount of snow by next Monday. Councilman, Sue Thy Self: Earlier this year, we made the......

We're all breathing a huge sigh of relief this morning to find that the two white-tailed deer that were rescued from the Tidal Basin yesterday are doing just fine after having been tranquilized, lassoed, and pulled along the side of a boat to safety. And of course we assume that it wasn't actually the name of U.S. Park Police spokesman Scott Fear that scared the two into jumping into the water. More likely it......

Written by DCist contributor Lindsay Gibson. Just as we learn that tourists spent record dollars in the District last year, the Smithsonian Institution is lamenting a drop in attendance to their museums during the same time period. Apparently visitors willing to shell out cash are balking at the Capital's fine free attractions. Some buildings were closed during Deluge '06, but museum officials are primarily placing the blame on the series of crimes against tourists this......

With the terrific news that five suspects had been arrested over the weekend on charges of being behind a string of robberies and violent assaults on the National Mall this summer, Saturday should have been a banner day for the Metropolitan Police Department's PR staff. But the U.S. Park Police, which took the lead on the multi-agency investigation, has ended up getting the lion's share of the credit. Police said they are a group of......

Good morning, Washington. We know that the news hasn't been particularly uplifting since the crime emergency began. And, to be honest, today's stories don't really represent a change from that precedent. But we have good news! That's right: Geraldo is coming to town to save us all. Now admittedly, this DCist's Powerbook wasn't able to coax any sound out of Fox 5's new, impossibly Flash-heavy website, so it's difficult to know the exact planks of......

Good morning Washington, and welcome to the second full day of this summer's Crime Emergency. Feel safer yet? No? Well, give it a few weeks. It'll still be a little while before the city collectively re-loses interest in its crime problem. But for now, there's some excellent coverage in the area media — and perhaps unsurprisingly, the Post is leading the way. July's Murders Examined: Although the deaths of Alan Senitt and Chris Crowder have......

City Paper Editor Jumps Ship: This won't do anything for the District's morale. Gawker and WJLA are reporting the Erik Wemple, the City Paper's Editor in Chief, has been hired away by New York's Village Voice. Wemple has manned the helm of the City Paper since January 2002, and has long been known in D.C. for his biting cutdowns of the Post. We'll miss Wemple, but we're sure it'll only be a few months......

We can see the flyers now, posted to telephone poles and taped to the walls of local business: Missing Dog: Loving German Shepard that answers to the name "Ranger" last seen near Forrest Heights, Md. Black and brown, around 85 pounds, with collar. Loves donuts. Friendly, but has the tendency to viciously maul criminals, drug dealers, and terrorists.No, the flyer isn't real, but the lost dog is. It seems that U.S. Park Police lost Ranger......

Feeling a little squeezed in on Metro these days? It's not just your imagination -- there really are more people riding the rails these days, according to the Examiner. High gas prices have pushed more and more people onto Metro, further crowding a transit agency already experiencing record high ridership. While eight-car trains have been tested on various lines in recent weeks and used during busy weekends, the crowd-thinning longer trains won't be in full......

FRIDAY: >> Kaiser Chiefs, a Leeds, England five-piece, hits the stage at the 9:30 Club tonight. Their music is infectious (you know, in a good way), confident, and sure to get you dancing. And they're cute, in a quintessentially British sort of way. $15. Doors open at 9, openers The Cribs go on at 10:15, and the Kaiser Chiefs will be on stage at 11:30. At which point we'll be asleep. Because we are old.......

Today D.C. socialite bloggers awake facing less competition, the city has its first official mayoral candidacy announcement, and a friend of DCist speaks about his experiences as a journalist in Iraq. Plus it's looking to be beautiful outside. At left is the New River Gorge Bridge, the world's second-longest and country's second highest single-arch bridge, one of the highlights of this DCist's recent visit to West Virginia. Northern Virginia Group Bidding for Nats: The Post......

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... a student pilot and instructor from Pennsylvania who scared the hell out of the capital for a few minutes over the noon hour. To most everyone in Washington, it all unfolded in a matter of a few minutes with some lingering confusion as to what exactly happened. To others, seeing the planes and helicopters (the photo of a U.S. Park Police helicopter above is from Blue......

Be warned, Washington -- with the fair days of spring come the soakers and we know many of you are allergic to rain. Today is looking to be rainy with highs in the mid-40s. The rain is even scaring off commuters near the White House, as shown in this desolate DDOT traffic camera shot from 7:20 a.m. showing H Street NW at Lafayette Park. Just Say It's So, Tony!: According to friends of D.C. Mayor......

Coyotes, which have been spotted in the northern reaches of the District in Rock Creek Park near Oregon Avenue have migrated past Klingle Road, past the National Zoo, past Adams Morgan and now have been spotted near Massachusetts Avenue. This map from RestonPaths.com gives you a good sense as to the area where coyotes have been exploring. The Post's headline on the matter, "Coyote Sightings in Park Spread Toward Embassies," indicates that coyotes could threaten......

Happy Friday, everybody. The weather today will be more of what we've seen this week: partly cloudy, highs in the 40s. The photo above shows promotional materials for the Washington Nationals in a display case at Buffalo Billiards, where baseball supporters held a pep rally last week. We've posted a few photos from our happy hour last night. Yeah, More Baseball: The Post reports today that Baseball President Robert A. DuPuy has rejected a......

With the cover story of this week's City Paper examining fat D.C. Police, and crime in the news, you'd think the District's finest are under getting enough heat recently - but apparently someone felt the need to drag an officer with their car. After a ">bizzare dragging incident near Union Station, one Park Police officer is in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and a suspect held pending charges:WASHINGTON - One suspect is in custody......