With the Nationals firmly entrenched at the bottom of the Major Leagues and the Redskins getting ready to start the season with a new head coach, another new offensive system, and a smattering of injuries, it is tough to get excited about Washington area sports right now. Given that the Redskins are 70-79 since Dan Snyder purchased the team in 1999, and the Nationals are 150-204 since the Lerners took the helm, it is easy......

When news broke last week that the Lerner family was witholding rent payments on the new baseball stadium because they claimed it wasn't fully complete, many residents were predictably peeved. But today the Post is reporting that the D.C. Council may take a step that will similarly annoy everyone else who attends Nats games -- they might raise taxes on tickets and concessions to cover the rent shortfall. The legislation, introduced during one of the......

D.C. officials are apparently stunned to find that the money they've spent on the new Nationals stadium isn't translating into the sort of unconditional loyalty they might like. Turns out the team's 2008 Dream Foundation Dream Gala (it's dream-related, see) will be held at National Harbor in Prince George's County, Md., and the Examiner reports that Mayor Adrian Fenty, D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray and just about every other D.C. leader is throwing a temper......

Though the Washington Nationals are well into their third season in the District and moving into their second year under the ownership of Ted Lerner, fans have had plenty to complain about -- the team's record, concessions at RFK and the $611 million stadium debacle. With yesterday's announcement of a new ticket pricing scheme for the team's new stadium, set to open next April, add one more gripe to the list. Prices for the stadium's......

While D.C. was enjoying its glorious spring weather this weekend, the Nats were in Miami getting severely pounded by the Marlins. Many of the now-usual themes were present: big early deficits, too many walks, and baserunning blunders maligned the brief road trip. The biggest culprit, the Nats much-maligned pitching, has been adequately covered by others, including Chad Cordero's two blown saves and the disasterous outings by Matt Chico and Jerome Williams. Really, in a just......

Just when we'd started to forget the entire rigamarole about getting the new stadium for the Nationals, we get today's Post article on the lucrative sale of its naming rights. It's not so much that we should be surprised that the stadium may be named after a corporation — it's that the District won't see a penny of the money that the chosen corporation splashes all over the publicly financed $611 million project. Reads the......

Maryland Lt. Governor and candidate for the U.S. Senate Michael Steele must be red in the face these days -- after calling an association with the Republican Party and President George W. Bush "a scarlet letter" in an anonymous interview with the Post's Dana Milbank, Steele is now trying to limit the damage of his surprisingly honest comments. "I'm not trying to dis the president," he was quoted as saying by the Washington Times.......

On Friday, I attended the Nationals game against the visiting Cubs, where the transfer of ownership from MLB to Ted Lerner had prompted a "reopening" of the old park, complete with red carpets, giveaways, and marching bands. The celebration drew an announced crowd of about 35,000, slightly more than the amount by which the Census Bureau revised the District's population upward on Saturday, according to the Washington Post. That stadium-full (nearly—still 10k short of filling......

Tonight. 7 p.m. Chief Ike's in Adams Morgan. Butterstick Bash. We're still waiting for responses to our little Butterstick quiz. If you answer the three questions and email them to butterstickcontest (at) gmail (dot) com, you'll walk away with a panda prize-pack. Either way, stop on by tonight and see us. Butterstick would want it that way. Back-Slapping by District Officials for July 4 Evacuation: Though last week's rains proved that the District evacuation......

Yesterday D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams laid bare his opinion on what type of parking facility he'd like to see around the new stadium in Southeast: "I strongly believe that it’s in the best long-term interest of the District to put these parking spaces underground, not above-ground as is frequently done in the suburbs,” said Mayor Williams. “It will serve the ballpark as well as the surrounding community for us to place this parking garage below......

Forgetful drivers be warned -- this is not the week to not wear your seatbelt. The Metropolitan Police Department has announced that through June 4 they will be stepping up enforcement of the city's seatbelt laws, violations of which can result in a $50 fine and two points on your license. The District Department of Transportation has reported that seatbelt usage in the District stands at 89 percent -- leaving 11 percent of drivers......

May 4 may well be remembered as the happiest day in D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams' political career. It is today, at 10 a.m., that Williams and new Nationals owner Ted Lerner will come together to break ground on the new $611 million stadium in Southeast. The Nats may have come back to Washington in September 2004, but their longevity in the city was consistently tested by bruising battles over stadium financing and team ownership,......

WUSA 9's Sports Director Brett Haber can sleep a little bit better tonight. Last week Haber indicated that his inside sources had told him that MLB Commissioner Bud Selig had chosen Bethesda developer Ted Lerner to be the new owner of the Washington Nationals, and that a decision was to be expected as early as Friday, April 28. Haber may have been a few days off, but the story held -- Lerner's group has been......

Members of the D.C. Council aren't the types to stand up to double-parking churchgoers -- spare Jack Evans, whose ward includes Logan Circle and Shaw, a majority of the members of the council are backing D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams' plan to delay parking enforcement until August, reports the Washington Times. Members of the council exempted themselves from most of the city's parking regulations while on official business in July 2002. Mixed Results for Immigrant Boycott:......

Next Monday could be a tough day for the country -- immigrant advocates have been pushing a nationwide work boycott to convince Congress of the economic power of the country's million of illegal immigrants. Some local Hispanic leaders have expressed their opposition to the boycott, though, concerned that it may cause a backlash against immigrants and their cause. There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. MLB Denies That Team......

The team is here, the stadium is to be built and the team will finally have a new owner -- it's all falling into place for the Washington Nationals. WUSA-9 is reporting that a new owner for the orphaned Nats may be named as soon as Friday, and the team is likely to go to real estate mogul Ted Lerner. The news is based on two anonymous sources, though MLB Commissioner Bud Selig denies that......

More on the church parking issue, you say? Today we find the Washington Times reporting that some Logan Circle residents are fuming at what they see as a concession to the neighborhood's powerful churches, a day after D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams put off enforcement measures and instead appointed a taskforce to study the matter. After close to a year of complaints, city officials promised to start enforcing the city's double-parking laws on Sunday, going......

About as close as many of us will ever get to the inner-workings of the White House is the annual Easter Egg Roll, set to take place this coming Monday. The National Park Service has announced that they will start distributing tickets for the event on Friday night, with more tickets to be given out on Saturday and Monday mornings. From what we hear, they were planning on having a password-protected internet pre-sale, but......