If the District's taxicabs are to be all the same color, what color should they be? Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) wants to hear from you. more ›

If you missed it yesterday, we opened up voting in a little contest to help design a DCist t-shirt and choose a charity that will benefit from the sales. more ›

DCist t-shirts at last, with profits going to charity! The logo appears on the front, with optional slogan or graphic on the back. Vote for your favorite slogans and charity now. more ›

I can count on one hand how many times I've driven in and around D.C. The life of a perpetual passenger is prejudiced, so I can offer few objective thoughts on WTOP's new poll on the best and worst drivers in the Washington region. I'll leave that to you. more ›

* And of course, by a "large majority of people," I mean "a large majority of Washington Times readers -- a sizable number of which are people who were encouraged to stuff the ballot by people who don't live in the District of Columbia, but really like playing online poker -- approve of legalizing online poker." more ›

At this point, we've mostly moved on to hurricane chatter, but at 1:07 a.m. last night, a 4.5 magnitude aftershock hit the D.C. area. more ›

According to numbers tabulated by Trojan (yes, the condom people), residents of the District of Columbia is the most sexually active place in the United States, with a whopping 75 percent of residents saying that they were gettin' it regular. more ›

As the Post's Tim Craig reported this morning, it's looking like the majority of the D.C. Council is lining up against a proposal by Mayor Vince Gray to raise taxes on residents making more than $200,000 a year. More importantly, as the Examiner's Freeman Klopott wrote over the weekend, D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown has already made clear that Gray's tax hike won't make it past him. The District's residents, though, seem to be going in a different direction. more ›

The recent scandals in City Hall have battered both Mayor Vince Gray and D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown, leaving them with high disapproval ratings but a few months into their first year in office. According to a citywide poll conducted by the Clarus Research Group, Gray's approval rating stands at 31 percent, while his 41 percent disapprove of his performance. Brown is marginally more unpopular, with 27 percent of respondents approving of the job he's done so far and 43 percent disapproving. more ›

In a way, you could say that yesterday's whirlwind of legislative activity inside the Council chamber at the Wilson Building was indicative of 2010 on the whole -- the Council had an incredibly busy year, in which they passed several landmark laws and held several debates which shaped the way we live in the District. With legislative business now closed for the year, let's take a look back at what the Council got done, shall we? more ›

Vincent Gray has opened a commanding lead over incumbent Adrian Fenty in the race for mayor, according to a Washington Post poll released this morning. The Post's poll shows Gray with a 17-point advantage among likely voters. Among all Democrats, Gray leads 49-36, a 13-point advantage. Voters are supporting Gray, though at the same time they indicate they generally approve of the job Fenty has done, and feel the city is on the right track. more ›

My eyebrows were raised this morning while reading this story in the Examiner, in which Councilmembers Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5) and Kwame Brown (D-At-Large) provided their thoughts on whether Michelle Rhee, regardless of the result of the primary, would actually stay in the District after her wedding. more ›

The talk of the town this morning is the new Clarus poll, released this morning, which shows Vince Gray with a slight lead over Mayor Adrian Fenty as we head toward the stretch run. But in terms of the mayoral race, there's little to glean other than what we already knew: the race is really, really close, and will likely turn on Primary Day turnout and, unfortunately, racial divides. more ›

Restaurant Wars has a tradition of taking out top contenders for minor things or twists of fate. It was no different this week when one of our poll favorites, Kenny, was eliminated. But the tide had already begun to turn against Kenny -- Tiffany once again came out on top last week with 32 percent of the vote compared to his 21 percent. Angelo rounded out the top three with 19 percent of the vote. more ›

Now that we're halfway through this season of Top Chef, it's time to look back at our past polls to see how the cheftestants have fared. more ›

Following this week's theme of crazy things caught on video, this video of a drunken Stephen telling a dirty joke about a penguin is definitely good for a laugh. But this past week, Stephen did manage to accumulate a few votes in our poll. He's already moving on up; I'd probably give him a vote based on this video alone. more ›

Would anyone really have an issue with this fall's mayoral primary being decided by a huge dance-off? I mean, at the very least, we should get a sense of what kind of funky moves the candidates can offer, right? more ›

D.C. culture may have its faults, but laziness certainly isn’t one of them. We work hard here (and, according to a recent Men’s Health poll, we play hard, too). We work so hard that many organizations and companies, particularly those in D.C., try to recruit new employees by promising a “work-life balance” -- something that used to be called simply “time off” or “after 5 p.m.” only a few short years ago. In a culture... more ›

The Associated Press is reporting that former Va. Gov. Jim Gilmore has officially announced he is a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. John Warner. Gilmore announced his candidacy by posting a video to YouTube. The formal announcement sets up Gilmore as the presumed Republican nominee for the seat, as the other leading candidate, Rep. Tom Davis (Va.-R), announced last month that he would not seek the seat. Gilmore will... more ›

The Examiner reports on a new DMV program that would install SmarTrip chips into every new D.C. driver's license and identification card beginning in October, 2008. The program is a combined effort by the agency and WMATA, the latter of which has made no secret of its intention to make universal conversion to SmarTrip a priority. Recently Metro General Manager John Catoe made SmarTrip cards available for sale at more Giant Food stores and announced... more ›

WTOP's Adam Tuss asks an important question: When the new Nationals stadium opens in the spring, fans will head to the Navy Yard stop on the Green line -- even though the Stadium-Armory station on the Orange and Blue lines will be the only stop with the word "stadium" in it. Couldn't there be a lot of confusion on game days? Apparently, WMATA hadn't thought of this until Tuss asked them about it. It does... more ›

Just in case you were still tap, tap, tapping your fingers in anticipation of what Sen. Larry Craig would decide to do about his scandal-ridden Senate career, the wait is over: Craig has changed his mind about resigning and will remain in the Senate through next year. He made his decision this afternoon, shortly after a Minnesota judge ruled Craig could not withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct in a men's restroom at a... more ›

Popular former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner formally announced today that he is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. John Warner. The announcement immediately give the Democrats a strong frontrunner in a race that would help solidify a Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, and makes the possibility of two Democrats representing the Commonwealth of Virginia for the first time since 1970 highly likely. No other serious Democrat is likely to... more ›

Via PreservationNation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has started a campaign to save the original Tomb of the Unknowns, or Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as it's commonly called, at Arlington National Cemetery. Who would want to mess with the tomb? According to the National Trust, it's the folks who run Arlington National Cemetery themselves, as well as Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) -- perhaps one of the senate's most famous military veterans and fathers... more ›

Mayor Fenty has until October 31 to issue an executive order about whether the city will make a switch away from the much-maligned yet beloved-by-many zone system in our taxis, but tomorrow, the D.C. Taxicab Commission will meet to vote on their recommendation to the Mayor. Everyone knows that the zone system is unpopular, especially with visitors to the city who often end up angry and confused about how much they should be charged for... more ›

WTOP says that Metro General Manager John Catoe will announce the details of his plan for a proposed fare hike at a meeting next week. We've been expecting this announcement for some time now, though specific details of the increase, which is expected to be put into effect in January 2008, possibly tied to inflation or the consumer price index and increased accordingly every January thereafter, have been scant. How much will the first hike... more ›

After being removed from committee postings by his Republican colleagues in the Senate and being called upon to resign by the likes of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), embattled Sen. Larry Craig went "on vacation" with his wife Wednesday, according to the Washington Post. The fallout surrounding his guilty plea to lewd conduct in a men's bathroom in the Minneapolis airport has only intensified since Roll Call first broke the... more ›

Today tens of thousands of District children return to school, leaving behind the late-morning starts, extended curfews and breaks at the public swimming pool that summer afforded them. And though the year will proceed as it usually does, they will be part of a school system that has seen drastic changes over the last few months. Now under mayoral control and led by new chancellor Michelle Rhee, the District's public schools have entered a new... more ›

The Examiner reports on a $36,000 bill received by the organizers of the 2007 Capital Pride Festival from the D.C. police and the Emergency Management Agency, who say they need the money to pay for overtime and other costs for security incurred during the June festival. But the festival's organizers and some members of the D.C. Council are questioning the charges, since the agencies waived these same fees last year and other annual parades, like... more ›