Lots of Washington is under construction, and in just in time for the influx of tourists. more ›

Amine El Khalifi, who was arrested last week on charges he was plotting to carry out a suicide bombing of the Capitol, used to be a fixture of the District's party scene, Glittarazzi reports. 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 ›

Occupy Congress has brought a few hundred members of the income-inequality movement to the West Front of the U.S. Capitol today, and there are nearly as many messages as there are protesters. more ›

Achieving statehood would obviously take a while, but how long should it take D.C. to get a single statue in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol? Just as long, as it seems. more ›

When the ground started shaking on August 23, many people in and around the District assumed that their biggest fears had been realized -- a terrorist had struck again. Beyond surprising many, the 5.9 magnitude earthquake also exposed the longstanding post-9/11 nervousness that comes with living in one of the places that the terrorist struck on that day. Call it the 9/11 psyche -- it's not if we're going to be attacked again, but rather when. more ›

As promised, a whole bunch of people gathered near the U.S. Capitol yesterday morning to milk a cow. more ›

As usual, the U.S. Capitol Police will close most of the streets near the Capitol this evening for the State of the Union address. Unless you're an "authorized pedestrian," you won't be able to access Capitol Square starting at 6 p.m., while the following roads will be closed between 7:00 p.m. and the conclusion of the speech. more ›

Happy inauguration day, Washington. Today, Vince Gray officially becomes our mayor. During all-inclusive prayer services this morning, Gray again touched on his one city theme, saying "every leader will feel included in the moving forward of our city." more ›

Reports began flying in to DCist this morning that offices inside the U.S. Capitol were placed under lockdown and workers were instructed to secure all doors around 11:30 this morning. At this time, the situation has apparently been cleared and that warning lifted. Sources tell DCist that there was some sort of arrest being conducted outside of the building which led to the lockdown alert. Todd Zwillich, a Washington correspondent for Public Radio International, reports via Twitter that a Capitol Police officer told him that they "have a suspect in custody" who "was picked up outside Hart [Office Building], in an apparent suicide-by-cop attempt." Obviously, more on this incident as details come to light. more ›

If you ever took a field trip to Washington as a kid and paid a visit to the U.S. Capitol, you were sure to walk through Statuary Hall, where all 50 states get to place statues of their most prominent residents. Except the District, of course, which got none at all. more ›

You'd think after a year of White House gatecrashers and Pentagon shooters, congressional staffers would have a healthy amount of respect for the security process at the U.S. Capitol. But you'd of course be wrong. Jordy Yager over at The Hill newspaper reports that Capitol Police officers are sick and tired of being bullied by entitled staffers who insist the rules don't apply to them.

Several officers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Hill that without a written directive of the policy, they’re left to face bullying staffers and intimidating lawmakers who have been known to file complaints against the officers. The staffers have accused them of discourteous treatment after being stopped and directed to the magnetometers. more ›

View Road Closures for State of the Union in a larger map more ›

The Senate side plaza of the U.S. Capitol is currently closed while U.S. Capitol Police investigate a suspicious vehicle in the area. Constitution Avenue between First Street NW and First Street NE is also closed. There were some early, unconfirmed reports that police may have found a dead body inside a vehicle, but we've since learned that the Capitol Police took the time to make an announcement over the press gallery loudspeakers that there has in fact not been a body a found. Police are still on the scene investigating, however.
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 ›

Via the Hill's Briefing Room blog, it looks like the Architect of the Capitol is at last set to begin renovations on the infamous tunnel that runs between the U.S. Capitol complex and the Capitol Power Plant. The work, which involves digging a big pit to access the tunnel about a block away from the Capitol South Metro station, will cause traffic around the intersection of North Carolina Avenue and First Street SE will be detoured. You may recall that the tunnel, long in a state of crumbling disrepair, has been the subject of controversy for several years, after it was revealed in 2006 that a 10-man crew working inside it had been exposed to extremely high levels of asbestos. more ›

We're getting some early reports of a shooting near New Jersey Ave. and C Street NESE, right near the U.S. Capitol. Police have locked down the Senate-side entrances to the Capitol, and emergency vehicles are blocking nearby streets. More soon. 6:01 p.m.: It appears as though this was a police-involved shooting, with the victim having been the subject of a police pursuit. Up to ten shots may have been fired, though we've alternately heard from a witness who counted five shots. The shooting victim was taken to a hospital in an ambulance. 6:08 p.m. WJLA has more details now: "Witnesses say a white Mercedes was traveling at a high rate of speed away from Union Station toward a Capitol parking area, where the vehicle crashed into a barricade. That's when gunfire erupted ... the wounded person was a 35-year-old civilian, who was shot by a U.S. law enforcement agency. Sources say it was U.S. Capitol Police." 6:32 p.m. The suspect/shooting victim, still unidentified, is reported to have died. more ›

Roll Call's Emily Yehle reports that some drunk guy managed to wander in and out and back in to the Hart Senate Office Building through a parking garage on Monday before finally being stopped by Capitol Police. The incident "appears to be a function of somebody not doing their job." You think? The man, described as having "no malicious intent," was eventually arrested for unlawful entry. Lots of hemming and hawing about human error from officials, and frankly we're surprised this sort of thing doesn't happen more often. One interesting tidbit about the effect of the new Capitol Visitor Center, which was built with the intention of streamlining security procedures: Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer says the new CVC has resulted in "more open doors" and a need for more officers. Earlier today, Terrie S. Rouse, CEO for Visitor Services at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, announced that the center has received one million visitors since it opened in December. more ›

Animal rights group PETA has submitted an application to Capitol Police to set up an actual pig pen on the steps of the Capitol, complete with fans to blow the odor of urine and manure toward lawmakers, The Hill is reporting. PETA, long known for its aggressive tactics to promote vegetarianism and protect animal rights, hopes the display will drive home the point that the recent worldwide swine flu outbreak is linked with hog farms. more ›

Some reports coming in that the Capitol was briefly evacuated after an airspace violation. An airplane apparently strayed into restricted air space over the District and had to be diverted. The White House was reportedly also evacuated, but MSNBC has since reported that Capitol Police have given the all-clear. We've heard that a helicopter can still be seen circling around Dupont Circle. Anybody see anything else? We'll update when we hear more. more ›

The Hill has the story of an arrest by U.S. Capitol police this afternoon of a man who police say had several weapons in his car. The suspect's car was searched after he stopped to ask an officer for directions, and the officer noticed something suspicious about the man's vehicle. But get this: he was arrested at 3rd street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW for allegedly possessing two long guns, three handguns, and a sword in his vehicle. Regular readers will recall that this is the second arrest of an armed man with a sword near the Capitol in just over a year. Is Congress under clandestine attack by Samurai? DCist will be sure to report on any and every sword-related arrest from here on out. more ›

The Associated Press (via WTOP) is reporting that the incident that closed down the area around the Library of Congress earlier today was that U.S. Capitol Police detained a man who had a rifle and an improvised explosive device in his vehicle. Sounds like we might have another Michael Gorbey on our hands, except, of course, minus one samurai sword. more ›