Check out these photos taken at 5:30 p.m. at the East Falls Church Metro station, where downed power lines have shut down Orange line travel in both directions. Metro has finally issued a full press release on what's happening down there. Based on these images, if you're heading out on the Orange line, our best advice would be to stay in the city tonight until much, much later, if not crash on a friend's couch.......

Deluge '08? Orange line trains are terminating at East Falls Church after power lines fell on both tracks between the East Falls Church and West Falls Church stations at about 3:30 p.m., WTOP is reporting. Metro will provide a free shuttle bus in both directions. Power is also out at the Georgia Ave./Petworth Metro station, though Green and Yellow line trains continue to run and the station is still open. There's no indication yet......

Haven't had enough of the severe weather we've been experiencing over the last several days? The National Weather Service says more of it is already upon us. A severe thunderstorm warning and a tornado watch have both been issued until 8 p.m. A line of storms are now approaching western Frederick, Loudoun and Fauquier counties, and will move through the metro area over the next few hours. From the Capital Weather Gang: The Storm Prediction......

Our Pilgrim cousins to the north have been having all the wintry fun of late. While we sit here in the mid-Atlantic frantically wondering if we'll get snow instead of an annoying, ice-cold spritz, Boston gets about eight inches of commute-snarling precip. Why do they get all the snow AND all the good sports teams? This weekend is our next chance at a winter coating, but again, we sit on the line of pure snow......

This is a great time of the year for beer lovers. Winter, more than any other season, is when craft brewers get a chance to flex their creativity and brew some unusual beers that satisfy the palate and warm the heart. Although many have traditionally been called Christmas beers, most brewers these days are going with some variation on the "winter" theme, in a large part because of the stigma of seeing a "Christmas" beer......

>> The hippest bill tonight is new Saddle Creek Records artists Tokyo Police Club, a pop-rocking group of Canadians who will bring their catchy tunes to the Rock and Roll Hotel tonight to play with Ra Ra Riot, and D.C.'s Jukebox the Ghost. 9 p.m., $12. >> Band of Horses take the 9:30 Club stage tonight, and tickets are still available. Check out our review of their show at the Black Cat last year.......

With Congress in recess, it's officially the August doldrums here at Reader, Meet Author. If you have any tips, feel free to drop us a line. Otherwise, read some good books and stay cool. MONDAY: Pushcart Prize-winning author Katherine Taylor will be at Olsson's Books & Records in Dupont Circle to talk about her debut novel Rules for Saying Goodbye, a coming-of-age tale that straddles the line between fiction and non-fiction. 7 p.m. TUESDAY: Man......

>> Fort Reno has The Caribbean, Len Bias and The Ardennes. But the National Weather Service has a Severe Thunder Storm Watch from 2 to 9 p.m., so you might want to hedge your bets and make a back-up plan. >> Ohio's alt-country rawkers Two Cow Garage stop by the Red and the Black tonight, with Minneapolis' Birthday Suits and Richmond's Clint Maul for what should be a loud, fun show all around. $8,......

FRIDAY: >> Let it be known - any country with a holiday that translates as "party of music" (or "music party") is OK in our book. In celebration of the French holiday Fete de la Musique, as well as the summer solstice, French and American musicians will be performing at La Maison Francaise tonight. Local guitar and cello duo Janel and Anthony*** will play from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on the auditorium stage, but......

Good morning, Washington. We hope you had a safe weekend and were able to enjoy the cooler weather on Sunday thanks to the rain brought in by remnants of Tropical Storm Barry. The respite from the heat, which looks like it may last through Wednesday, is one of the few things we can find to be upbeat about as we go over today's headlines. As you've already heard, Tonya Bell, a 30-year-old woman from Oxon......

OK OK, so maybe it's not technically "morning" anymore. DCist is on vacation for the day, and we slept in before we started browsing today's headlines. We hope you're enjoying the holiday with good food and good friends, and we'd like to dedicate this roundup to all of our readers who serve in the armed forces. The photo at right by Flickr user Karon is of yesterday's Rolling Thunder motorcycle parade, which celebrated its 20th......

It's a good year to be a last-minute tax filer in Washington. (As if there's ever a good time to send your hard-earned dollars to the government.) First there was Emancipation Day, now the District Office of Tax and Revenue is granting an automatic two-day extension for filling your D.C. income taxes. This short reprieve is in response to yesterday's wind and rain, which knocked out power around the area. Local tax forms are now......

>> Welcome to March and another First Friday in Dupont Circle from 6 to 8 p.m. Find the gallery locations here. >> We've all got our old movie favorites. If you pop in Gone with the Wind everytime you're home sick, or channel surf for old episodes of I Dream of Jeanie on a Sunday afternoon, you're just the person Mark Bennett is drawing for. His India ink draftings of the fictional homes used in......

Perhaps you’ve been to one of those shows where the crowd – for whatever reason – keeps a ten foot distance between themselves and the stage. We’ve seen it before (last summer’s Clientele show at Iota comes to mind), but it baffles us every time. Seems to be that those expecting a night of folk-pop or softer stuff don’t want to get too close to the stage, lest they embarrass the performer or something. Luckily,......

Good morning, Washington. And what a good morning it is. It's the first day of meteorological autumn, the brutal D.C. summer finally behind us. And is it just us, or was it cool enough last night to very nearly feel "chilly"? So breathe deep the cool, non-swampy air, and maybe skip out of work a little early on this long Labor Day weekend to enjoy the...um...torrential rains. CapitalWeather reports that Tropical Storm Ernesto, which made......

Armageddon is once again upon us. America is on-edge, what with the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina this week, and it seems we can't wait for the next tragedy. Well, if you don't get an actual one, you might as well make one up. If you watch cable news, you'd think that Tropical Storm Ernesto was threatening the East Cost like a modern-day Krushchev. Here in the real world, Ernesto strolled through Florida, barely managing......

And what's going on this Thursday morning, Washington? Three Prince George's County strip clubs are suing to block new rules that are supposed to go into effect today. WJLA reports that they are seeking 'unspecified damages and recovery of legal fees' in an effort to avoid new regulations such as performances needing to take place at least six feet away from customers. Ah, just another day in the life of the PG strip club......

FRIDAY: If loving Busta Rhymes' new album, The Big Bang, is wrong — well we sure as hell don't want to be right. Yes, Busta has always been one of those charismatic rap superstars without much substance to back him up, and yes, there was a time when his shortcomings had become awfully grating. But now that he's hooked up with Dr. Dre's Aftermath label, that time appears to have ended. This is what summertime......

Good Morning, Washington. Looks like it's going to be a beautiful, if a tad hot, day. Highs should be up around 90, with the humidity and rain we've all been hearing about holding off at least until tomorrow. Initiative for Slots Off Ballot: For those of you who have been waiting for electronic slots to hit D.C., looks like you'll be waiting a bit longer. WTOP tells us that the PAC that has been working......

Washington chefs fell to 1-2 in Iron Chef America competitions, as Bobby Flay defeated the uni-monikered Morou in Battle Frozen Peas last night on the Food Network show -- two months after Galileo's Roberto Donna avenged his own loss to Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto. Morou -- the former Signatures chef who had earned the right to take on an Iron Chef when he topped former 1789 chef Ris Lacoste and Tosca's Cesare Lanfranconi in the......

FRIDAY: For many of us, going to see Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” recorded live was one of the few times in our early teens when both we and our parents could agree on attending the same event without rancor. But Keillor's getting up there, and it seems more likely we'll be sharing "This American Life" or even some yet-to-be produced program with our own kids. For now, thank goodness, Keillor and company are......

If businesses seem a little slower than usual today, there's a good explanation -- today is the day that millions of immigrants across the United States will boycott work, part of a protest the demonstrate their economic weight and push for sensible immigration reform. The boycott has sparked divisions within the immigrant rights movement, though, with some groups and advocates in the area arguing that the action could turn public opinion against them. Locally,......

To our readers, we love you guys. Happy Valentine's Day from DCist! If the shopping scene last night at Tyson’s Corner Center Hallmark, Kay Jewelers and CVS was any indication, some folks were a little tardy on picking up the heart-shaped pendants and Whitman’s Samplers. Were you one of the tardy rushing for anything and everything heart-shaped and colored red? Or are you instead going to play the "But honey, it's a Hallmark holiday" card?......

There will be a mid-run reception this Thursday, Feb. 2 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Nevin Kelley Gallery for Recent Works from Poland, a collection of new work by Stasys Eidrigevicius, Krzysztof Kokoryn, Mikolaj Kasprzyk, Michal Zaborowski and others. Eidrigevicius' Window is pictured at right. The show continues through Feb. 26. Adjectives are Awesome: I received an exceptionally enthusiastic press release (and that's saying a lot) for Whippersnappers, a new show of up-and-comers......

Good morning, Washington. It's time for us to let you in on a secret: some of us start work on these roundups the night before they go online. In fact, as we write this we're watching FOX5's 10PM storm coverage — and we're afraid that, at the moment, the weather prognosis does not look good. Judging solely by WTTG's graphics packages and the number of personnel on their Snow Patrol, we're facing a bona fide......

Longtime DCist readers know we love a good documentary. We're particularly interested in a triple header WETA has lined up for tomorrow examining Hurricane Katrina and what lessons it left behind. The evening starts at 8 p.m. with the premiere of a NOVA on Hurricane Katrina titled "The Storm that Drowned a City", examining the science behind the hurricane and how it caused so much destruction in New Orleans. Then at 9 p.m. is the......

Literary heavyweights and an anniversary celebration for one of Washington's most respected institutions are the highlights this week in your area bookstores. TUESDAY >>Rick Moody, author of The Ice Storm, has recently published his first proper novel in eight years. It's called The Diviners, a expansive character study set against the backdrop of the end of the Clinton era that’s being described as his most ambitious work. Moody drops by Politics and Prose for a......

This one of those pictures that just makes you stop, makes you wonder, makes you want to ask, "Is that for real?" While we are not discounting the possibility that Council-member Adrian Fenty (D-Ward 4) may be the favored candidate in the much sought after 8-15 age-group, we are guessing that someone's parents are taking next year's mayoral race just a step too far. Hopefully she didn't run into the hyper-active nine-year-old with the......

Good morning Washington, WAMU reports that the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments has declared it a Code Orange air alert day, but we can't seem to find any information on MWCOG's website about the air alert besides some general information. It's going to be hot again with highs around 90. Storm Report: We hope you survived the storm yesterday. (As for us, we got soaked trying to seek cover in a metrorail station, and......

Today will be mostly cloudy with highs around 40 and a chance of snow showers. The photo is by John W. via Flickr. Snow Storm Falls Short Predictions: The area papers noted yesterday's storm fell short predictions, but closed schools in the area, to the frustration of parents. WTOP notes the snowfall set a record at Dulles Airport. Indian Lobbying Up: The Examiner reports that lobbying expenditures by Native American tribes is up recently. They......