Should Maryland drivers be forbidden from smoking in their car if they have a young passenger aboard? Legislators in Annapolis are trying to make it so again this year. more ›

First, it was the disposable bag tax. Now, the potential expansion of laws prohibiting smoking in common areas of buildings, a similar version of which the District made law last year. Which D.C. code will you be copying next next, MoCo? more ›

Remember back in the winter of 2009, when the proposed (and eventually approved) Virginia ban on smoking in restaurants was hogging the headlines? We've now come full circle: after "repeated complaints," police in Falls Church arrested 13 people last weekend -- nine for illegally smoking and four for allowing smoking in their establishments -- in what is believed to be the first charges levied under the ban that was passed last February. The Post reports that police made the arrests over the weekend in the 6700 block of Wilson Boulevard in Seven Corners at Eden Center, which houses a bloc of popular Vietnamese restaurants. Each of those arrested were fined $25. I'm not surprised that it took nearly 16 months for the first smoking ban charges to hit the record: rounding up a bunch of smokers to collect a fine that is less than it costs to take a date to the movies probably isn't the highest priority of law enforcement officers in Northern Virginia. more ›

Michael Neibauer reports in the Washington Business Journal this afternoon that business owners and property managers in the District of Columbia will be free to post "no smoking" signs withing 25 feet of their property's outer walls, starting tomorrow. The real question is, of course: how many businesses will actually do so? more ›

Are you f**king crazy or something? When I pulled in to gas up last night, I thought you were participating in some type of hidden camera stunt for a new reality show. Smoking while filling up your SUV? Really? And not just one cigarette, but a second one, too? I don't much care that you're poisoning yourself. I'll even say that I'll support your right to smoke outside of your office building, even though the D.C. Council wants to make it illegal. But smoking while surrounded by thousands of gallons of a highly flammable liquid isn't a matter of personal liberty, unless you think that the Constitution allows you the right to level a full city block in a residential neighborhood. I don't think it does. I'd bet that even libertarians don't think so. And telling me that you've been pumping gas longer than I've been alive doesn't so much remedy the fact that you could have BLOWN US ALL UP. All you proved is that you're old and crazy. Sure, I would have loved to have a first-person narrative for DCist on what an exploding gas station looks like. Had I survived. But I wouldn't have. So that's that. For the sake of those of us who want to avoid being a casualty of someone looking to win the annual Darwin Award, please don't smoke while gassing up. Thanks. Sincerely, Martin. more ›

The second Transformers movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, is apparently filming in Washington right now, because people keep sending us celebrity gossip reports that actor Shia LaBeouf allegedly set off a smoke alarm inside a bathroom at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum over the weekend when he tried to sneak a cigarette inside the building. The story seems to have come entirely from the National Enquirer, however, so we should probably take it with a grain of salt for now. The actor was recently fined $500 for smoking illegally on a Burbank sidewalk (you can't even smoke outside in many California cities now). Why is Shia LaBeouf famous again? more ›

Cigarette taxes are popular with voters, so it's no surprise, as we've mentioned earlier, that the D.C. Council voted Tuesday to include an additional $1 per-pack cigarette tax in the 2009 budget as a means of making up a predicted shortfall. more ›

Good morning, Washington. Are ya ready for some embezzlement scandal news? Of course you are! This morning's update comes not from the embattled Office of Tax and Revenue, but rather from the D.C. Public Schools front office, as the Examiner reports that Eugene Smith, the former director of internal audits for DCPS, entered a guilty plea yesterday to charges of stealing nearly $50,000 from a charter school account. Smith was fired by the school system... more ›

Han Sung Oak in Falls Church has a familial feeling, from the large parties that occupy the main dining room and the private rooms in the back, to the service staff, willing to help you as you navigate the intricacies of their native cuisine. I was surprised to be asked "smoking or non-smoking" when I entered the restaurant, but all I smelled was grilled meat, so I don't think the seating area would have mattered.... more ›

How about that first snow storm of the season, Washington? CapitalWeather.com says that "yesterday's clipper system actually significantly 'over-performed,'" which is why we ended up with 2-4" of snow for the region instead of the 1" we were originally expecting. The Examiner was concerned about your commute this morning thanks to overnight lows that were forecast to drop into the low 20s, allowing for ice to refreeze on the roads in time for this... more ›

We here at the DCist constantly extol the virtues of living in a city with abundant resources of all kind. Do you need to see an awesome show at a small venue? Check. Do you need to look at physical copies of the country's most important documents? Check. Do you have a need to see Matthew Lesko now and again? Got it. Other than that whole "vote in Congress" thing, D.C. probably has what you... more ›

Editors Note: We enjoyed the tour diaries J. Tom Hnatow wrote for us as part of These United States' last tour, so we asked him if he wouldn't mind doing it again as the band embark on their first ever intercontinental tour of the UK and Europe. He graciously agreed. This is the fourth and final installment of this series. The Paris entry: Thursday October 25th After our marathon, 14-hour, pre-dawn-to-post-dusk trek from Bath to... more ›

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THE FOLLOWING LINK IS INCREDIBLY NSFW. Please do not follow it if you are squeamish, are in a public place, or have any other reservations about seeing graphic photos of public sex and drug use. D.C. resident Kevin Keith Eby, of the blog Knee Deep in Mud, recently came home to a rather rude surprise in the alley that faces his kitchen window: two individuals engaging in sex acts and... more ›

The Red Sox has permeated nearly every facet of Bostonist's lives. When they're not live-blogging the games, waxing poetic about the games, thanking Curt Schilling for his splendid work, or telling Dane Cook to watch his hair, they're watching certain presidential candidates hop on the Red Sox bandwagon (sorry, Gothamist). The Sox are so branded on the local brain that people are using the Series to spice up their sex lives. Speaking of spice, Bostonist... more ›

Happy Tuesday, Washington. The news broke early this morning that Judge Roy Pearson will reportedly lose his job, according to sources cited by the Post. Pearson, who infamously sued the owners of Custom Cleaners first for $65 million and then later for $54 million for misplacing a pair of his pants, is a District administrative law judge who has continued to draw a paycheck despite being taken off of his case work since the... more ›

If you're a smoker still smarting over the ban on lighting up in District bars, fear not -- a Cleveland Park watering hole is now your refuge. According to the AP via WJLA, the District has granted its first exemption to the 10-month-old smoking ban, with the prize going to Aroma in Cleveland Park. The bar, which sells cigars and claimed a loss of 20 percent in the six months after the ban was imposed,... more ›

Editors Note: We enjoyed the tour diaries J. Tom Hnatow wrote for us as part of These United States' last tour, so we asked him if he wouldn't mind doing it again as the band embark on their first ever intercontinental tour of the UK and Europe. He graciously agreed. Look for his dispatches from the road abroad over the next few weeks. Checking my pockets every ten seconds for passport, work permit, wallet, boarding... more ›

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... more ›

Download the original attachment Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration... more ›

Hey Washington -- ever feel like you just don't have enough to worry about when it comes to walking down the street in your own neighborhood? Sure, there's the muggings and other crime, the street harassment, the killer Metrobuses, the screwed up pedestrian signals, the bicyclists vs. the drivers, and the occasional jaywalking sting, but really, who couldn't use one more thing to add to the list of stuff that makes you never want to... more ›

Have you heard the new Metro announcements yet? Maybe you were too busy rerouting yourself around the Yellow line over the weekend to notice, but Metro has added a couple new messages to its usual repertoire of station announcements, and at least one of them should have DCist commenters cheering: "Hi. Welcome to Metro. We have a lot of escalators in our system. You'll notice that most people stand on the right side. And while... more ›

Via The Examiner, it looks like it's finally been long enough that we can start to measure the financial impact of the District's smoking ban, thanks to reported tax revenues on both alcohol and cigarettes for the fiscal year now being available. Overall, the news is good: alcoholic beverage tax revenues are up 1.6 percent for fiscal 2007, while cigarette tax dollars are down a whopping 7.5 percent for the year. Taken at face value,... more ›

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... more ›

>> Experts warn of lightning-strike injuries with iPods [AP via CNN.com] >> "The District has awarded a contract for managing its troubled Medicaid transportation program to a St. Louis-area company that the Missouri governor's office called 'scurrilous' after the company paid millions of dollars to resolve a fraud investigation." [WashTimes] >> "In the lingo of anti-smoking zealots, smoke flow from dwelling to dwelling is called “seepage” and for now, it seems, there’s nothing a renter... more ›

LAist was comped front row seats by the Dodgers due to Malingering being struck by a foul ball last week, and she came back with some great photos, and earlier made fun of 4th of July on Venice Beach. But the biggest stories of the week was that the Mayor's Hot Tamale was revealed, and that a Kwik-E-Mart was erected in Burbank. Phillyist was busy doing the Fourth of July up right, exercising their... more ›

UPDATE: Thanks to Kiki Schneider for the new photo of the fire in action! Andrew Wiseman is the author of this post An orange Old Town Trolley bus burst into flames today just before 6 p.m. on Rhode Island Avenue, NW between 11th and 12th Streets. Before arriving on the scene, this DCist saw and smelled black smoke from outside the Mt. Vernon Square Metro at about 5:50 p.m. and 9th Street was hazy... more ›

>> "Thought you were cute and wanted to talk to you, but didn't think it was appropriate in Council chambers..." [craigslist] >> "You – giant-headed former President riding coyly down Independence this morning in a silver Solara convertible. Me – almost crashing into a taxi while trying to take your picture." [Pygmalion in a Blanket] >> "If dad goes for a walk with his daughter and holds her hand, apparently Virginia Department of Health officials... more ›

The Alexandria City Council passed a bill on Saturday that would effectively ban smoking in restaurants in the city. The council has to vote again on the measure, which makes changes to use permit regulations that would require restaurants to go smoke free, before it would go into effect, and that vote isn't planned until after the next Virginia General Assembly session ends. Alexandria officials are hoping the General Assembly will pass its own state-wide... more ›

It's been top national news all day, but we're still in shock over the tragedy that occurred last night at Unifest, the Union Temple Baptist Church's large soul-food festival along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE. A woman drove her car through the crowded festival and struck at least 40 people. Thirty five people were taken to hospitals, seven with severe injuries. Two of the injured were children younger than 3. The mayhem happened at... more ›

German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans is internationally recognized as one of the most significant contemporary artists to emerge during the 1990s. The photographs on the Hirshhorn’s second level epitomize Tillmans’ revolutionary style, which is now celebrated for his ability to capture seemingly casual moments with a synergistic eye. But his work is anything but haphazard. His probative, nimble-minded perspective, which has defined Tillmans’ photography since he breached the contemporary art scene, treats every subject with the... more ›