If constantly counting superdelegates has started to wear thin, public voting for the RAMMYs may provide a much needed respite from politics for the gourmands in us. Until this Friday, May 30, area diners can voice their opinions and mark their ballots in four categories of this year's Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington RAMMY Awards. Aside from the marquee awards for Chef of the Year and New Restaurant of the Year, among others, the public can......

The city opened up online voting for residents to choose their preferred design for the official District of Columbia quarter at the end of last week. You can vote for your preference between the three proposed designs, which depict Frederick Douglass, Duke Ellington and Benjamin Banneker, at this web site, with voting open between now and June 18. The U.S. Mint's Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee recommended earlier this month to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that......

Now that the 2008 presidential primary season has officially begun, it's time to make sure you're registered to vote. The District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia will all hold their presidential primaries on Feb. 12, which means voter registration deadlines are looming. In D.C., you must register to vote 30 days before election day, so your registration form will need to be postmarked by Jan. 13 (which is a Sunday, so make that Jan. 12......

Over at Huffington Post, Andrea Batista Schlesinger of the Drum Major Institute has a nice roundup of what she thinks are the best public policy initiatives of 2007. Number six on her list is the D.C. Voting Rights Act, and she has a solid grasp on why congressional representation for the District is so important:Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C's indomitable delegate, can debate with the best of them, but without the D.C. Voting Rights Act, neither......

When in the closing days of 2006 we looked back on the year in D.C. voting rights, we optimistically hoped that 2007 would finally be the year that saw some movement on enfranchising the District's residents. Movement, yes; resolution, not so much. So as we wind down 2007, we're again left hoping that maybe the coming year will be the one. The primary mover in the D.C. voting rights movement in 2007 was legislation......

Earlier this month the Post revealed that the majority of mail sent from the District is bastardized with a postmark reading "SOUTHERN MD." or "SUBURBAN MD.," a practice imposed soon after a 2001 anthrax attack in a D.C. postal facility. District officials and voting rights activists were none-too-pleased -- after all, if they take our postmark, what's next? Our women and children? Today, the Post Office relented. Under pressure from D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton......

Hilda Mason, 91, who served more than 20 years on the D.C. Council, died yesterday at Washington Hospital Center. The Post has an obituary up (which perhaps unsurprisingly but a little creepily appears to have been largely written some time ago, as it notes at the bottom that one of its authors passed away in 2006), which details Mason's status as the grand dame of local D.C. politics, having served on the Board of Education,......

It was 234 years ago Sunday that American colonists dumped tea into Boston Harbor as part of a symbolic protest against being taxed by the British while not having a representative in the Westminster Parliament. Yesterday District voting rights activists remembered the event by holding their own tea party, this one to protest the union's last standing example of taxation without representation. Though the wind whipped across the Potomac River, about 80 activists and......

Remember those billboards that popped up in the 1980s that counted up the national debt, dollar by dollar? Pretty scary, huh? Well, District voting rights activists want something similar for their cause. Today the D.C. Council held a hearing on legislation that would allow the city to place two large LED billboards -- one outside the John A. Wilson Building and the other outside the new Washington Nationals stadium -- that would display the amount......

If the powers that be think we're going to go easily or quietly, they're wrong. The Post today exposed a devious little plan to chip away at the District's identity, starting with phasing out the city's postmark and replacing it instead with one bearing the name of our northern neighbor, Maryland. According to a Post study, of 235 letters mailed from every quadrant and zip code within city limits, only 24 -- 10 percent --......

Sure, it's December and we're all preoccupied with holiday cheer and making plans for that one New Year's party that will finally be worth the all the hype. But even though they've suffered some setbacks this year, D.C. voting rights activists are pushing the cause through the holiday season. On Thursday, December 6, the D.C. Council will hold a hearing to consider legislation that would place large electronic billboards outside the John A. Wilson Building......

One of these guys might be the next president, so it's good to try and parse where they stand on District voting rights. At least that was the thinking over at D.C. Vote, who recently recorded and sent in a number of videos of District residents asking the presidential candidates from the Republican Party where they stood on D.C. voting rights. The videos, eleven in all, were submitted to CNN for the upcoming CNN/YouTube......

>> The Senate might have to work all weekend, in advance of a possible vote on Sunday on whether to take up a $50 billion war funding bill that calls for a troop withdrawal from Iraq in 12 months, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) warned. Be prepared to hear all your Senate staffer friends complain about this at happy hour tonight. [The Hill] >> Foxhall Road will be closed to traffic between MacArthur Boulevard......

Good morning, Washington. Make it to the polls yesterday? If so, we hope you did so before the sun went down — it got cold in a hurry last night, as the area rapidly moved from warmer-than-usual temps to colder-than-usual ones. CapitalWeather is saying that the weekend should be warmer, at least. Election 2007: The results are in, and it looks like it was a good night for Virginia's Democrats. The Dems picked up......

When the City Museum closed its door in late 2004 after a mere 18 months in existence, the one place to go for a comprehensive history of Washington, D.C. disappeared. But for those of you interested in the city's history, the next few days should be quite satisfying -- it's time for the annual Washington Studies Conference. The conference, now in its 34th year, kicks off tomorrow at The Carnegie Library building (801 K Street,......

Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) has decided not to seek the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) next year. The Post is reporting that Davis will announce formally on Thursday what his plans are, but sources have indicated that he won't look to take on a number of potential Republican contenders or former Governor Mark Warner for the seat. Davis reportedly doesn't want his run to overshadow a tough re-election contest faced by......

It's not often that two hippos chase down a presidential candidate. But today two did and survived to tell the story. Voting rights activists protested outside the Washington Hilton this morning, hoping to catch a glimpse of John McCain and express their displeasure at his recent vote against cloture on voting rights legislation that would have moved legislation forward to grant the District a voting seat in the House. Among the activists were two......

As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts -- okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles -- now that's a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude's landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice......

If there are two things most people know about WTOP Political Analyst Mark Plotkin, it's that one, he's not very tech-savvy, and two, he's passionate aboout District voting rights. So passionate, it seems, that he even got himself kicked out of the White House yesterday. According to fellow WTOP reporter Mark Segraves' account of the incident, Plotkin, along with the rest of the D.C. press corps and various local elected officials, attended an event at......

The last time the Dalai Lama was in Washington, not even spiritual enlightenment could help him figure out why District residents still lacked voting rights. And now that he's coming back, maybe he'll have a little word with President Bush and Congressional Republicans about it. Tibet's exiled spiritual leader will be in town next week to accept a Congressional Gold Medal. The medal, which accompanies a resolution passed last year that recognizes him as "a......

Today the Post's Mary Beth Sheridan writes that the effort to grant District residents even a modicum of voting representation isn't waiting for better talking points -- it's waiting for better politicians. According to the article, the fight for District voting rights may get its biggest boost in 2009 if a Democrat is elected president and if the Democratic Party can increase its numbers in the U.S. Senate.Despite the Senate setback, the latest effort is......

When it comes to who the D.C. Republican Party should side with in the 2008 presidential contest, the choice is obvious -- Mike Huckabee. Sure, the former governor of Arkansas doesn't have much of a chance of winning, but he's been consistent in his support of D.C. voting rights. In yesterday's All-American Presidential Forum on PBS, hosted by Tavis Smiley, it was Huckabee who backed voting rights for the District's 600,000 residents. In response to......

New Hampshire Looks to Smack Down Senators: After the U.S. Senate failed to overcome a filibuster on legislation that would grant the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives, voting rights activists swore they would have their revenge. On the top of their list are Republican senators John McCain (Ariz.), Gordon Smith (Ore.), and Thad Cochran (Miss.), not to mention the lone Democrat to vote against the bill, Max Baucus (Mont.). But one......

Seattlest watches as a S.L.U.T. is born and Seattle Flickr users go nuts over a local art installation. A restaurant critic demands a Diner's Bill of Rights over a gnat next to her drink, and, in lieu of a Portlandist, Seattlest debates with itself over the identity of the Northwest's crown jewel. Seattlest also joins the guys from Fantagraphics for an ill-fated gun party in the woods. LAist saw national headlines soar this week with......

Here's one more United States senator to add to your list of annoying congresscritters sticking their nose in the District's business. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has created an income test for participation in D.C.'s Tuition Assistance Grant Program, which provides financial aid for residents at all public and some private universities around the country. The program is designed to ensure that D.C. residents have the same opportunities as all other Americans to attend a university......

>> Hundreds of protesters met on the National Mall this morning in support of the Jena 6. [AP / WJLA] >> Voting rights advocates plan to target specific Senators who might be swayed to change their votes. [Free Ride] >> Parking space jockeys: more entrepreneurial than lawn jockeys. [Penn Quarter Living] >> "Now this is some cold-ass eviction." [DC Metblogs] >> Eighty-five hybrid taxicabs to storm Arlington in a fit of environmentally-conscious rage. [WaPo]......

Just like with the late-night votes in the D.C. Council on whether or not to finance the construction of a new stadium a few years back, we all hoped to wake up this morning and find out that the Senate had voted again and decided that voting rights for the District was a go. No such luck. We did, however, pick up a new champion for the cause. Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) was the only......

Good morning, D.C., and welcome to another day without congressional representation — it seems we'll have plenty more of them thanks to yesterday's legislative disappointment. You can find the Post's post-mortem here. There's not too much new information in it, but there are words of consolation from Senate minority leader/arch-villain Mitch McConnell: "If the residents of the District are to get a member for themselves, they have a remedy: amend the Constitution." Thanks for......

And so it was -- the U.S. Senate voted today 57-42 in favor of closing debate on legislation that would grant the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives, three short of what was needed to prevent a Republican-led filibuster. The measure, which passed the House in April, is now likely dead, and another attempt to correct a 200-year injustice has been thwarted. Of course, the legislation could be re-introduced, but it won't......

2:11 p.m. OK, we should be about ready to get going here. We've been told there will only be about 15 minutes of debate on this before a vote takes place to prevent a filibuster -- as you all know by now, we need 60 for the bill to move forward. I'll be posting updates as things get going, and Martin may pop in with his two cents if he can, so stay with us......