Roll Call had a subscriber-only story up yesterday about today's kick-off of an effort on the part of non-profit Trust for the National Mall to raise $350 million to revitalize Washington's top tourist destination. Students from Ann Beers Elementary School in Southeast are getting things going today by planting 3,000 daffodil bulbs in Constitution Gardens. Citing maintenance needs due to heavy use like cracked walkways and patchy grass, the Trust will be working alongside the......

>> The National Park Service said that most of the unidentified oily substance found on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in September has been removed. [AP/WJLA] >> The Laura Sessions Stepp Emergency Broadcast System has been activated. This is not a test. [why.i.hate.dc] >> A 25-year-old Bethesda woman died in a house fire early this morning. [WaPo] >> WaPo Editors: hy-per-link. Look it up. [Notions Capital] Photo by FrogMiller......

We were alerted yesterday via the Art Law Blog that the U.S. Department of the Interior is gearing up to change motion and still photography rules on federally run lands. In an amendment to current regulations, three DOI agencies, the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Services, and the National Park Service, will be authorized to charge standardized fees to and require a permit from commercial photographers who want to shoot in an area......

Written by DCist contributor Benjamin Schuman-Stoler Last week in our “revisiting sites we’ve walked by a hundred times" series we presented the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This week, we’ll look at that huge phallus in the exact center of the original D.C. map -- the Washington Monument. Screaming nothing but glory and testament, it is the classic D.C. monument. But we know its background isn’t as simple as its geometric profile. The National Park Service commissioned......

Written by DCist Contributor Ben Schuman-Stoler We all know about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, but probably mostly as a stop on the round-the-Mall tour we give visiting family and friends. If they ask, we tell them that a young woman won a competition in the '80s. They say, “Wow, that’s interesting. What a great memorial.” But it remains an emotional site, its message solemn and powerful, which we were reminded of when two acts of......

Written by DCist contributor Jesse Kaye T-21 days. The countdown is on for what may determine the fate of a large part of Southeast D.C. October 19 is the date set by the Deputy Mayor for Planning & Economic Development when all RFEI's, or requests for expressions of interest, are due -- and the date by which we ought to finally have an idea of what will happen to Poplar Point. A year ago, the......

Written by DCist contributor Ben Schuman-Stoler. You have probably walked by the modest Old Stone House on M Street countless times while in Georgetown, perhaps wondering when it's going to be converted for the next Starbucks. The House, actually run by the National Park Service, has seen nearly two and a half centuries on what used to be known as Bridge Street during colonial years. The plot was purchased for one pound and ten shillings......

While every animal, no matter how ugly or useless, has its defenders, no one seems to like Canada Geese. And better yet, everyone seems to want them dead. The Post is reporting today that some 600 Canada Geese that have long called Anacostia Park their home may soon be killed, due to their tendency to eat vital marsh grasses and then defecate in the already-polluted river. In a hearing last week held by the National......

Yesterday the National Park Service quietly announced that Ford's Theatre, the site of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination and one of D.C.'s most popular tourist destinations, will close today for 18 months as it undergoes a massive renovation. The planned $8.5 million upgrade will include improvements to the heating, air conditioning, lighting and sound systems, the addition of an elevator and new restrooms, the Park Service said. As the WaPo points out, in addition to being......

Here's the view today of the front of 1536, 1534 and 1532 9th St. NW, three of the four condemned rowhouse properties owned by Shiloh Baptist Church. Yesterday I posted a rear view of some properties that are also seriously dilapidated but that had some visible yard work recently completed, and one commenter pointed out that those are not the same buildings. This is absolutely correct: those properties, located next door, are part of......

Welcome back to work, Washington. It's the Monday after a jam-packed weekend of fun for many of us, and we understand as well as you do that there's nothing so disheartening as reporting to your desk knowing that good times won't be in sight again for another five full days. It is therefore in the spirit of distraction that we present to you the weekend's funniest, and yet saddest headline for you to mull over......

This afternoon, while wondering city streets looking for a Scarlet Oak to hug in honor of Arbor Day, we snapped this shot of no less than three National Park Service vehicles driven onto the grass of the park on 22nd and P Streets. Aside from the towering statue of Ukrainian poet, painter, political philosopher and all around bad-ass Taras Shevchenko, there is a scruffy bit of grass in the square. Now we know one......

Our friends over at OffSeventh are, if you pardon the expression, losing their shit over some pet owners' inability to pick up after their pooches. They're up in arms over a monumental amount of dog waste occupying a strip of sidewalk on 9th Street. The city is littered with signs warning people to curb their dogs, or face a weighty ticket. Yet it's clear that a few dog walkers still aren't scooping the poop.......

The National Mall is, as we're sure the Park Service will tell you, a national treasure, a constantly evolving piece of L'Enfant's vision of Washington. (It is not, however, a place for careful editing, unless "relfecting" is a colonial word meaning "to walk about in knee-high tube socks and bermuda shorts upon gravel pathways".) The key word, though, is evolving. The moment ground is broken on one monument, the lobbying begins for the next one.......

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......

Good Morning, Washington. It looks like we survived the full moon, a night of Georgetown-less championship basketball and visit by Yoko Ono. It was worth it to enjoy another day of idyllic weather before it all goes to hell. By Friday the region will be back in the 40's with cloudy skies. As the National Park Service pleads with visitors not to touch, climb or even taunt the Cherry Blossoms, let's hope the expensive......

>> Is the Rock and Roll Hotel haunted? While John Edward (not Edwards) or a similarly qualified expert has yet to confirm it, the staff says they've seen and heard a few eerie things. The owner explains that the club stands on the site of an old funeral home. Maybe they couldn't get prime Indian burial ground real estate. [via Wonkette] >> The D.C. Sports & Entertainment Commission hosts a community meeting tonight to discuss......

The Washington Post reports today that Congress is set to vote on a landmark resolution to allow the likes of Snoop, Green Day, Kylie Minogue, and scores of other popular musicians to perform on the Capitol grounds for Live Earth, Al Gore's series of global-warming awareness concerts. Concurrent Resolution 17 was introduced in the Senate yesterday by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine). Live Earth, which is scheduled for July 7th,......

Good morning, Washington. Now that you've settled into your desk and are sipping warm coffee in a sad little attempt to reverse the effects of that final, extra drink you shouldn't have had at happy hour last night, allow us to make a suggestion. Close your eyes, and think back. Waaaaaay back, to December of aught-six. As you'll recall, it was a simpler, balmier time back then. Children naively longed for winter's cruel embrace in......

Yesterday was Budget Day, which is one of those big deal days for official Washington that no one else notices. It's the day when the President formally submits his budget for the next fiscal year to Congress. Sexy, right? If you happen to work for an appropriator or one of the budget watchdog groups, it is. Each Department holds its own budget roll-out event complete with powerpoint, Secretarial speechifying, and usually some sort of bunting;......

It's no secret — the National Mall, for all its historical significance, isn't exactly the prettiest place in the world. Broken water fountains, patchy grass, ugly security fences and totally nasty restrooms are amongst some of the many problems with what should really be a gorgeous space. The National Park Service is here to change that, and they're going all Web 2.0 on our asses through an online campaign asking the public their opinions on......

Sigh. The most wonderful time of the year, Halloween, is over. How's your candy haul, D.C.? It's going to be another warm day, with highs reaching the low 70s. So that makes us feel a little better. What else makes us feel good, you ask? This story, from our sister site Seattlest. BWI Improvements Finally Done: About five years, $1.4 billion dollars, and countless moments of inconvenience with roped-off corridors and orange cones later, BWI......

So, apparently it rained last night...A tornado touched down in Severna Park, Maryland. The Post says that according to area utility companies, 30,000 customers across Maryland, Virginia and the District lost power last night. I know my Internet is out; can I blame the storm? In other news, today is the 116th birthday of Rock Creek Park: check out the National Park Service's list of activities celebrating the District's very own nature-y goodness. District Teen......

It's getting down to the wire. The city's Democratic primary will occur next Tuesday, at which point the identity of the city's next mayor will almost certainly be decided (there's always time for post-primary scandal, we suppose — or maybe just hope). Today's Post tackles the race with an all-out blitz. If you've somehow missed out on the flyers, handshakes and speeches that have blanketed the city these past few months, you may want to......

FRIDAY: >> We don't usually hype big studio movies in the Picks, but when faced with a certain kind of reptile on a specific form of transportation — there's not much you can do but cross your fingers it doesn't turn out to suck and jump on the hype train (err, plane). More specifically, literally dozens of local D-list Internet celebrities will be attending the 10:10 p.m. screening of Snakes on a Plane at the......

Agraria Changes Once Again It seems like Agraria hasn't yet settled into a good routine. The new hotness on the Georgetown waterfront has weathered the tumult of its head chef leaving just days after opening, as well as a crappy article in the New York Times; now it faces the prospect of searching for a new sommelier and restaurant manager just as its new chef picks up the cleaver. Derek Brown, formerly of Firefly, has......

Today at the Fringe, ethnicity is explored through dance, a pair of cabaret acts make their debut, and some drenched French whores finally get their star-crossed production off the ground. But first, it looks like we spoke too soon about ticket availability for the One-Man Star Wars Trilogy--an alert DCist tipster dispensed the bad news last night--sold out straight up and down. A pity, because Charles Ross is headed to Edinburgh after the Capital Fringe......

Of all the non-traditional spaces hosting performances hosting Fringe Festival performances, none was more...uhm, Fringey, than the one obtained by Solas Nua, a young arts organization devoted to modern Irish culture and DC's go to source for all the latest in Enda Walsh plays. For their Fringe presentation, La Corbiere-Anne La Marquand Hartigan's poetic drama about a boatload of French whores whose travel plans go awry (as they so often do), Solas Nua sought to......

Part of DCist's very nearly award-winning Deluge '06 coverage If you get on Rock Creek Parkway at Calvert and Connecticut in Northwest to drive through gorgeous Rock Creek Park on your daily commute, then you, too, have been experiencing a series of headaches and u-turns the past few days. Though local radio has been reporting that parts of the RCP have been reopened, a significant portion of it is still closed. We found a press......

Summer is here and with it comes wholesome outdoor entertainment for the whole family. The spotlit evening baseball games, campground marshmallow roasting, and of course, the subversive DC rock concert series that is Fort Reno. Boasting no alcoholic beverages but a lot of teens and a few strollers, the free concert rocks atop the highest point in DC every Monday and Thursday from 7:30-9:30 throughout the summer. During the civil war, the Parrot heavy rifles......