Mayor Vince Gray played the sunny optimist last night in delivering his second State of the District address. In a 54-minute speech before a packed house at Sixth and I Historic Synagogue, the mayor portrayed the District as an island of economic stability and growth. more ›

Mayor Vince Gray will deliver his second -- and hopefully, way shorter -- State of the District speech on February 7, 2012. more ›

Tonight President Barack Obama will deliver his third State of the Union address, and as usual plenty of roads around the U.S. Capitol will be closed off to traffic as of 7 p.m. and remain blocked until after Obama finishes his 9 p.m. address. more ›

Some unknown bandits apparently took a joyride in a truck containing $200,000 worth of President Barack Obama's speech gear -- including audio equipment, TelePrompters and "several lecterns with the presidential seal" -- yesterday. more ›

He might not be throwing out the first pitch at tomorrow's Nationals home opener, but President Barack Obama will be traveling through town this morning en route to a speech at Georgetown University this morning. The speech will begin at 11:15 a.m. -- traffic restrictions have been in place around the Georgetown campus since 6 a.m. this morning. more ›

The D.C. area's most vocal gay marriage opponent, Maryland's Bishop Harry Jackson, spoke to a crowd of social conservatives over the weekend at the annual Values Voter Summit, a convention that serves as a 'merger of mainstream Republican Party rhetoric and the priorities of "Christian right" activists.' Video of Jackson's speech is posted above, courtesy YouTube. more ›

Normally we wouldn't care about something like this much, but this is the District's representative in Congress we're talking about here. Nope, not D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, but Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-D.C.Texas). During President Obama's Wednesday night speech on health care, Gohmert managed not to violate age-old rules of congressional decorum, though he did spend the better part of the speech waving a sign that said "What Bill" on one side and "What Plan" on the other. more ›

President Barack Obama will be addressing a joint session of Congress tonight to make his big health care speech, so the usual security perimeter around the U.S. Capitol for such events will be in effect. The president's speech is set to begin at 8 p.m., but the Capitol Square will be restricted beginning at 6 p.m. The United States Capitol Police are also advising that the following streets will be closed beginning at 6:30 p.m. until the end of the speech. more ›

I remember being shocked to see Sen. Ted Kennedy come out on stage and deliver this speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last year. He had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor that spring, and had only undergone surgery a couple of months before. This speech, and the accompanying introduction and tribute video, occurred exactly one year ago to the day of Kennedy's death. more ›

Welcome back to the Commencement Speaker Scouting Report! Last time, we brought you news of Gwen Ifill, Vernon Jordan and New York City police commissioner Raymond W. Kelly all heading to District universities to dispense platitudes and receive honorary degrees. Now it's on to the rest of D.C.'s illustrious institutes of higher learning. Ready, set, graduate! more ›

We already told you that Project Runway's Tim Gunn would be delivering the commencement address at the Corcoran College of Art + Design, but what about all the other traditional colleges and universities within the District? It's time once again for our annual Commencement Speaker Scouting Reports, now with 80 percent more post-college recession-related job market panic than last year! more ›

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty delivered his annual State of the District speech today at the Hattie Holmes Senior Wellness Center in Ward 4, the section of D.C. he used to represent on the D.C. Council. To call Fenty's remarks today a "speech" is actually a bit a of a stretch; the mayor referred to the prepared text distributed to the media beforehand only loosely, instead relying on it as more of an outline to dole out a list of facts and figures on what his administration has accomplished over the last year. more ›

Here's a list of the D.C. residents who will be sitting with First Lady Michelle Obama tonight during President Barack Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress, according to information provided by the White House. more ›

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Take a look at the three photos below. The first is an image from John McCain's acceptance speech in Minnesota last night. The second is a photo of the building that was hugely projected behind him, which turns out to be Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, CA. Why would McCain have that photo behind him last night? Talking Points Memo smartly speculates that the GOP must have intended to have a photo of D.C.'s own Walter Reed Army Medical Center behind McCain, but came up with the wrong image when they nabbed one off the internet.
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In case you missed Friday's special episode of The Daily Show, check out the video excerpt above to catch D.C. Council member Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) being interviewed by John Oliver on the floor of Invesco Field on Thursday night. Bowser's short appearance begins around the 46 second mark. Oliver and his crew taped the segment shortly before Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech in Denver, and it appeared as though Bowser and several other members of the D.C. delegation had no idea who Oliver was when he approached her.
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The experience of attending Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's acceptance speech at Invesco Field in Denver on Thursday night was, simply put, staggering. From the very long lines to board a shuttle bus, to the exponentially longer security lines to get inside the stadium, just the process of getting to your seat took about two hours. Once inside however, the effect of such an imposing, enormous arena having been turned into a political spectacle was undeniably impressive. The sheer scale of the thing was difficult to take in. Veteran journalists who have covered a dozen conventions could be overheard on the stadium floor saying things like, "I've never seen anything like this." It was easy to believe them. more ›

Some D.C. politicians say they're miffed by what they perceive as a snub against the District of Columbia by Sen. Hillary Clinton during her marquee speech at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night. more ›

Poor Virginia First Lady Anne Holton, wife of Gov. Tim Kaine. She was given the opportunity to introduce presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama at a town hall-style meeting in Fairfax, Va. yesterday, and all she got was this lousy perspective from AP photographer Jae C. Hong. Sure, Hong was just trying to make an event that's visually boring look a little more interesting, and highlight the message on the podium, but first ladies never want to appear headless. more ›

So you didn't make your way to Nissan Pavilion yesterday evening to hear Sen. Barack Obama launch his national campaign as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president (and give VP nominee watchers a lot to chew on by gushing all over Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, as captured in the YouTube video above). And you didn't get invited to Sen. Dianne Feinstein's house to eavesdrop on Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton's secret meeting last night. But you've got one last chance to witness the bitter end of the Democratic primary season in person: on Saturday at noon, Clinton is hosting a big event for her supporters at the National Building Museum, where she'll officially express her support for Obama. more ›