>> The Metro board voted 5-1 to approve officially the largest increase in fares in Metro history. [NBC4] >> Two D.C. developers, William C. Smith Cos. and the Jair Lynch Cos., have been chosen to lead the Sursum Corda redevelopment project. [WaPo] >> An MPD mountain bike officer was taken to the hospital Thursday after being struck by a stolen car in the 4200 block of Ord St. NE. [WJLA] >> Queen of Sheba......

>> There's a new webcam available showing the progress of Monument Realty's Half Street project, which includes the expansion of the Navy Yard Metro station. [Near Southeast DC Redevelopment] >> Georgetown student pleads not guilty in hate crime investigation. [WJLA/AP] >> Members of the Metro board representing D.C. are pushing for higher parking fees at suburban stations in order to avoid increasing bus fares. [Examiner] >> A bunch of streets will be closed this......

As of yesterday, Metro was placed among the many city agencies with pricey downtown digs currently being considered for more a affordable address. Mayor Fenty approached Metro yesterday with the idea of selling its eight-story headquarters at 600 5th St. in Northwest and relocating to a new, state-of-the-art facility at the Anacostia Metro station. Fenty and city officials say that such a move would provide an economic boon to both the downtown and Southeast areas,......

One of yesterday's major stories was the release of a new study indicating that about one-third of adults in Washington, D.C. are functionally illiterate. Wikipedia actually has a decent definition of functional illiteracy: "the inability of an individual to use reading, writing, and computational skills efficiently in everyday life situations." In other words, a person may be able to read somewhat, but nowhere near well enough to hold down a job. The reality of the......

So, it seems like George Mason may have used up much of the region's supply of NCAA tourney magic in last year's dramatic run. Of the seven regional teams in this year's tournament, only Georgetown survived the first weekend to make the Sweet 16 – stay tuned to DCist for more hoops coverage as the city unites behind the Hoyas. And before you ask: no, I'm not the least bit bitter about having a bracket......

It's a slow news day around the city, which might be the only reason the poor Old Naval Hospital on Pennsylvania Ave between 9th and 10th Streets SE is getting some notice. The building has been sitting vacant for close to a decade now, falling into disrepair, but not, it seems, out of memory just yet. Though plans for the building have been idly tossed around — a new mayor's mansion, a library — nothing......

Morning Washington. Animals everywhere are breathing sighs of relief this morning after one giant creature makes a recovery and five little creatures get some justice. Ambika, the Asian elephant at the National Zoo was found with a blood clot yesterday, worrying the vets with what could have been a life threatening condition for the 59-year-old female. Luckily, the clot isn't dangerous, and Ambika looks to live will beyond the typical 50-ish year elephant life expectancy......

Good morning to all of you Washingtonians who, despite being forced to come in today, are honoring Dr. King today through peaceful resistance to actual work. Rather than confronting authority violently, you can make your dissatisfaction known through idleness and websurfing. We'll be right here with you. Then, outside work, maybe do something a little more meaningful to celebrate MLK Day. Guilty of Wrongful Deeds: D.C. police may have ended a rash of brazen break-ins......

Good morning D.C. We hope you enjoy today's slightly more seasonal high of 46 before we return to 70 by the weekend. Channel 9 is also warning that a few (gasp) flurries may make an appearance this evening. Metro Safety Under Scrutiny: Investigators are looking into several aspects of Sunday's Metro train derailment near the Mount Vernon Square station. D.C. Fire officials say they didn't receive information about the accident fast enough, leading to a......

Red Sage Gets Along Little Doggies One of the restaurants who helped usher in the redevelopment of D.C.'s downtown, Red Sage, will close its doors next Thursday. Tom tells us that, despite serving 20,000 people a month (that's over 160 four tops a night), high rents in the area are driving the proprietor away. How bad is it when you're outgentrifying the gentrifiers? Though it's not the best restaurant in town, Red Sage has always......

>>A CNN/Gallup Poll released today reports that "100% of D.C.-Metro area residents" agree that they "like things that are great." Okay. There's no such poll. We're just giddy that after two-plus years of trying, we finally uncovered a local issue that we all agree on: following Vincent Orange into a redevelopment abyss over the Capital City Market is a bad idea. Further developments on the story shall be noted. >> Imminent show cancellation alert!......

>> Metro police have arrested a 17-year-old from PG County in connection with the now 8 sexual assault incidents that have been reported in the past two weeks in and around Shaw and Howard University. For those detectives and officers involved in the arrest, allow us to say Thank You! You all get a lot of grief in this city, so here's to a job well done. [WUSA] >> Dude, Pareene, next time you crash......

Even if today becomes the commuter apocalypse being predicted, at least the heavens won't open up and swallow you whole. After yesterday's violent storms, D.C. can expect a balmy 63 degrees and partly-cloudy skies to ease you into the weekend. So roll up your sleeves and get ready for some fun. Freaky (Freight) Friday: Are you one of the thousands of people are stranded this morning due to the Thursday night derailment of a freight......

American business titan John D. Rockefeller once quipped, "A friendship founded on business is a good deal better than a business founded on friendship." Following the Post's in-depth look at the negotiations between the District and the Lerner Group over the direction of the new stadium's construction and development in surrounding Anacostia, it seems D.C. might have put too much faith in the Lerners' friendship. When the city inked the sale of the Nationals to......

The last time we discussed a citizen-led campaign to convince a certain specialty grocer to open in D.C., we discovered our readers have a lot of opinions about their grocery store options. Well recently DCist met with Lydia Charles, the organizer of another similar effort to convince her favorite grocery store to open a store in the U Street NW neighborhood. Charles has just launched WeWantTraderJoes.com, the online arm of the petition she began circulating......

The Southwest Waterfront exemplifies one of the District's most obvious failings -- the city's inability to exploit property along the shores of the Anacostia and Potomac rivers. Much like the dismal, though improving Georgetown waterfront, the Southwest Waterfront is a soul-starved stretch of concrete and uninspired architecture. Shut off from the rest of the city by federal lands and a highway, the area has never much taken on a life of its own. That's......

Hey there, Washington. How was your weekend? Ours was OK. Yeah, just OK. Oh sure, we're fine. We guess we're just a little troubled by some of today's headlines. As if the looming Heat Emergency, which has given us a Code Orange Air Quality day today and will place the heat index close to 110 through much of the week, wasn't disturbing enough, we alse read in the Examiner that the growth of online news......

As housing markets have exploded over the last several years, the pricey luxury condos springing up in many neighborhoods are seen as a sure sign that the city is on its way to a fully revitalized future. However, great as ultra-modern condos may be for developers and landlords, they don't exactly fit the requirements of aspiring young artists, chefs, actors, and entrepreneurs (much less students, teachers, and cops) who can bring a great deal of......

A recent issue of apartment industry publication Multi-Housing News discusses a development about to take shape in the Adams Morgan area. The imposing, nearly century-old, neoclassical First Church of Christ, Scientist building at the corner of Euclid and Columbia streets will be reborn as a mixed-use condominium building. The newly monikered Unity Square Condominiums is a $27.5 million redevelopment, headed by the church, in partnership with Chevy Chase-based First Management Group. The church will......

Former DCist editor Rob Goodspeed is pondering why it will take so long (2008?) to break ground at the old convention center site downtown, as well as what, exactly, the city will really end up doing with the area. His take is that an effort by the city to plan every inch of redevelopment themselves, such as the city's current plan for a $1 billion new main public library and entertainment complex with mixed-use......

Windfall City? Last week, we discussed a report from an Arlington County task force recommending that Crystal City undertake some significant improvements after the Defense Department moves thousands of its office workers out of the complex. Officials advocated a shift toward residential development and the destruction and replacement of some of the office buildings. Now it appears that such a strategy could yield a windfall for Arlington County. According to Economics Research Associates, which......

It’s spring, the season for all those bare tree branches to sprout gorgeous green leaves, for daffodils to pop up along Dupont Circle, for those of us with a green thumb to try and flex it in any way we can. For the past few years, Joe Carmack's Garden District store on 14th Street has been one of those places ready to help city gardeners get primed with perfect plants for the season. The store's......

The District is often compared to our behemoth neighbor of a city to the north, New York. And as much as we hate the comparison -- and the resulting argument -- we may be moving in New York's direction, figuratively speaking. As it turns out, certain folks see a bit of Manhattan moving down south, resulting in a so-called "Manhattanization" of the District. Bloomberg yesterday expounded on this issue in an article titled, "D.C., Once......

Things are looking up for the new stadium. This week the D.C. Council approved the stadium lease, and today we find that the D.C. Court of Appeals has ruled that the city can move forward and take the lands necessary to build the stadium. According to WTOP, the court ruled that it was in no place to question the city's use of its eminent domain powers to take the land and that the city's estimates......

The Year of the Dog kicked off with a bang yesterday, as revelers celebrated the traditional Chinese New Year's festivities by eating, eating, and eating some more, writes the Examiner. Residents and visitors alike packed Chinatown's many eateries for chicken, dumplings, and mandarin oranges as a parade proceeded down H Street. Chinatown is home to a number of traditional Chinese restaurants, including China Doll, Chinatown Garden, Tai Shan, Li Ho, Chipotle, Hooters, Potbelly, and......

March for Life Takes to National Mall: The National Mall will be a few hundred thousand people more crowded this morning, as pro-life activists participate in the annual March for Life, reports WTOP. Large sections of the Mall will be closed to traffic, including the area between Pennsylvania Avenue and Independence Avenue from Third Street to Fifteenth Street. District officials have announced that starting at 7 a.m. they will turn on their 19-camera CCTV......

If you've passed near Chinatown recently you've probably seen the huge vacant lot where the old Washington Convention Center once stood. While we don't have an update for what will go on the site (a public forum on redevelopment plans was recently held at the MLK Branch of the D.C. Public Library and in May the Post noted that plans were a year behind schedule), we are happy to report someone will be putting that......

It's not saying much when the part of the city named after the very person who designed the city just plain sucks. DCist has yet to find anyone who has any love for L'Enfant Plaza, that wasteland of urban design in Southwest where bad architecture and concrete have historically gone to die. But now the city may want to spruce the place up a little, make it a little less, well, crappy. According to an......

You have to give it to the Washington Times -- at least their headlines are amusing. The much-loved newspaper today reports on six Montgomery County residents who were detained for transporting illegal immigrants into the area for work as prostitutes, titling the story, "Four in family among six held in alien sex ring." Alien sex ring? Well, yes, "alien" is the technical term for a non-American, but wouldn't "immigrant" have sufficed? Cropp Proposes New Funding......

In an interesting article highlighting the power of blogs and internet forums in promoting democratic discourse, the Examiner today reports on a heated debate that has developed on D.C. Watch's bi-weekly online newsletter concerning a new $400 million, 250-bed hospital being planned for Southeast. Gary Imhoff, longtime city activist and the newsletter's publisher, recognized the importance of new forums in allowing residents access to large audiences, stating, "There are few places where someone who......