From left to right, Shadow Sen. Michael Brown, Dan Rather, Shadow Sen. Paul Strauss, Hayden Panettiere, Shadow Rep. Mike Panetta, and Melissa Fitzgerald. As promised, Dan Rather stopped by today's voting rights luncheon hosted by D.C.'s shadow delegation in downtown Denver. The veteran journalist shook hands and posed for pictures, and though he didn't make a speech to the crowd, he did answer a reporter's question about D.C. voting rights by explaining that he......

I'm waiting for the luncheon to begin, and while I have yet to spot the actors scheduled to be here, Shadow Sen. Michael Brown says former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather might be on his way here as well. Rather and Brown know each other through a mutual friend, and the veteran newsman is a proponent of D.C. voting rights, according to Brown. The shadow senator said he couldn't be sure Rather would make......

We're heading over to a quickly thrown together luncheon hosted by the District's shadow delegation (Shadow Sen. Michael Brown said it was coordinated over the course of four hours) that will apparently feature Hayden Panettiere of Heroes, some other yet unnamed actor who has appeared on The West Wing, and minor character actor David Keith, whose most recent major role was over 25 years ago, in An Officer and a Gentleman. Regularly readers will......

From left to right, William Washington, Lisa Femia, Vaniah Temple and Lamonte Pryor, winners of a voting rights youth essay contest who traveled to Denver to attend the DNC with the D.C. delegation. The youngest members of the District of Columbia's contingent at the Democratic National Convention had to do more than be loyal Democratic Party stalwarts to gain access to the Pepsi Center — they had to put pen to paper to convince......

D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton read the District of Columbia's nominating votes into the record in Mayor Adrian Fenty's absence. Drama during the roll call! As head of the D.C. delegation, Mayor Adrian Fenty was supposed to be the one to read the District's vote into the record at the Democratic National Convention -- but Fenty didn't turn up until at least 10 minutes after D.C. was called upon to cast its votes. D.C.......

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. "I will always be grateful to everyone from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the territories, who joined our campaign on behalf of all those people left out and left behind by the Bush Administration," Clinton said during her nationally televised address.......

Voting rights activists and members of the D.C. delegation to the Democratic National Convention held a small rally in front of the U.S. Mint in Denver this morning, but the Mint's location on the edge of downtown made for a not particularly visible event among the throng of other convention-related activities going on here. Rather few pedestrians passed by to receive the wooden nickels that voting rights advocacy group DC Vote had planned to give......

DC Vote just sent around an email to all their supporters to remind them of their planned event outside the U.S. Mint in downtown Denver. The rally (protest? gathering?) is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. From the announcement:We will host a peaceful rally outside the Denver Mint and pass out wooden coins to the public because the mint rejected the DC government's request to imprint the words "taxation without representation" on DC's quarters and......

Here's the music video that played right before Eleanor Holmes Norton was introduced at the DNC. The go-go style song, "Demand the Vote", was commissioned by DC Vote and written by D.C. musician Joe L. Da Vessel and the band Melodic. The video was directed by Warren Wesley at G-light Films.......

D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton delivered a speech calling for passage of the D.C. Voting Rights Act, which would grant full voting rights for the District's elected representative in the U.S. House. With delegations from most other states yet to take their seats in the Pepsi Center, the District of Columbia's delegation did their best to make up for the relatively empty house during D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton's speech by cheering loudly and......

D.C. Council chair Vincent Gray, left, and Ward 5 Council member Harry Thomas Jr., waiting for the opening of the second day of activity at the Democratic National Convention. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is set to open the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Unlike Monday, the D.C. delegation has shown up bright and early to watch Norton speak. Most of D.C.'s section of the Pepsi Center is full at......

Abraham Lincoln took a stroll along downtown Denver's 16th Street Mall today, encouraging passersby to sign a petition to support congressional representation for the District of Columbia. 'Honest Abe' was really Eli Zigas, program associate for voting rights group DC Vote. Flanked by seven or eight volunteers for the non-profit who made the trek to Denver to help canvass the city during the Democratic National Convention, Zigas got a lot of attention due to his......

One day down and three more to go here in Denver at the Democratic National Convention. Below are some of the top moments of Day 1 for DCist (and a couple lowlights for good measure).......

The District of Columbia's delegates to the Democratic National Convention gathered early this morning at the Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Denver for a collegial breakfast before heading out to lobby other delegations to support voting rights for D.C. Though they were far from home, some of the recent drama surrounding the D.C. Democratic Party did make an appearance. D.C. Wire has published rumors of a "feud" between D.C. Democratic Party Chair Anita Bonds and......

Last night a handful of D.C. Democratic delegates came together with organizers and volunteers from DC Vote for a pre-Democratic National Convention party at the Bohemian Caverns Mahogany Room. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton rallied the troops with a few remarks, urging delegates and voting rights volunteers not to forget that the District's delegation is "very different from other delegations." District residents can't attend the DNC for fun and games, she said, because they need to......

What with our marches and tea parties, we think the D.C. voting rights movement is plenty hip. But the folks at DC Vote are constantly looking to be just a little more risqué, and they're looking for help to do so. Want to be a fly girl (or boy) for voting rights?DC Vote has teamed up with local group, D.A.A.S. Wuz Up Entertainment, to produce a music video that sheds some light on DC's denial......

August will soon be upon us, Congress is about to duck out of town and the only thing most people can talk about is presidential politics. But that's not stopping the District voting rights movement, which continues to push forward in its fight for full voting representation in Congress. On Tuesday the D.C. Council voted on legislation calling for electronic signs to be placed outside the Wilson Building and Nationals Park that will tally the......

Hooray? The Post is reporting that the D.C. Council endorsed legislation yesterday that would place electronic signs at the new baseball stadium displaying the amount of federal taxes paid by District residents while not having any voting rights. In theory, the signs would make the point to baseball fans that Distrist residents are not only not formally represented in Congress, they are also taxed to boot. While we've long pushed for the council to take......

OK, so the District of Columbia doesn't actually have a real Olympic team that's officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee. That isn't stopping D.C.'s U.S. "Shadow" Representative, Mike Panetta, from convening a practice session tonight that amounts to a protest against D.C.'s second class status. We'll let him explain:Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, while part of the United States, each only have one, non-voting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives......

Sure, the D.C. voting rights movement has seen its fair share of defeats, but no one has thrown in the towel yet. And by the looks of it, no one will. According to The Hill, the movement for District voting rights is slowly but surely picking up weighty supporters, ranging from powerful labor unions to prominent lobbying firms. Combined with an election year that is expected to see further gains for Democrats in Congress and......

When we reported two days ago that an advisory committee to the U.S. Mint had recommended that Benjamin Banneker grace the District commemorative quarter, there was a predicted and understandable groan from many residents. But for D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the decision isn't final until District residents say it is. In a release posted on her website yesterday, Norton explained that the committee's proposal to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was just that -- a......

Still wondering what's up with the D.C. quarter that's supposed to hit the streets in 2009? Wonder no more -- we may have a winner. Today the U.S. Mint's Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee met to review three proposed designs for the D.C. quarter -- Duke Ellington, Benjamin Banneker, and Frederick Douglass -- and propose their choice to the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson. And who did they choose? Benjamin Banneker. Short of Paulson overruling......

Call them merely symbolic acts, but the D.C. Council and Mayor Adrian Fenty have made a number of gestures this year to express their collective anger at the continued disenfranchisement of District residents. Today there's one more. Via D.C. Wire, the Council is planning on removing a prohibition on spending federal funds on lobbying activities related to District voting rights from the city's fiscal 2009 budget. The prohibition has long been imposed by Congress (the......

OK, so her rendition of the national anthem last July may not have been great, but Heroes star Hayden Panettiere has a special place in our collective heart -- turns out she's a supporter of D.C. voting rights. Courtesy of Shadow Representative Mike Panetta and Shadow Senator Paul Strauss, we're happy to see Hayden doing her part for our cause. The PSA above also serves as a welcome reminder to donate to the Statehood......

We know. After the D.C. quarter debacle, we're getting the message -- voting rights is just too controversial an issue for the American public. According to the Post, the owners of the Washington Nationals feel that an electronic billboard listing the amount of federal taxes paid by District residents that the D.C. Council wants to place in the new ballpark is too "political" and "controversial" for baseball fans. As you may recall, late last year......

Talk about speed. It was Monday that the District proposed three designs for their personalized quarter, all bearing the slogan "Taxation Without Representation"; Wednesday that the U.S. Mint curtly rejected the designs; and late yesterday that city officials submitted three new design proposals sans the offending voting rights slogan. (Oddly, they remained quiet about the new proposals until late this afternoon, when the announcement was buried in a monthly newsletter sent out by the mayor's......

Reacting just as quickly as the U.S. Mint did in shooting down the District's proposed designs for its own commemorative quarter, city officials are already floating new ideas for what will eventually grace the coin when it is minted in 2009. According to an article in the Post today, city officials will likely keep two of the proposed designs -- abolitionist Benjamin Banneker and jazz legend Duke Ellington -- while retiring the proposal for the......

Update III: Mayor Adrian Fenty has released a statement responding to the U.S. Mint: “We were asked to submit ideas that were ‘emblematic of the District of Columbia.’ I can think of nothing more unique and characteristic than our status as the only American citizens without full voting rights in Congress. Even after we are successful in changing that status, it will still be an important part of our history. We respectfully disagree with the......

Proposing that the words "Taxation Without Representation" appear on a D.C. quarter slated to appear in 2009 was either a strong-willed statement of defiance or a worthless waste of an opportunity. It just depends who you ask. Since Mayor Adrian Fenty announced three proposed designs for the D.C. quarter on Monday -- one would feature the stars and bars of the city flag, another Benjamin Banneker, a third Duke Ellington; all would include the District's......

Barring any unwelcome intrusions, sometime in 2009 the U.S. Mint could roll out an official D.C. quarter bearing the city's slogan, "Taxation Without Representation," to great fanfare. But considering that unwelcome intrusions are part and parcel of living in the District, we're not yet holding our breath. Yesterday Mayor Adrian Fenty formally submitted the District's three proposals for its own quarter to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, arguing in a memo that the voting......