DCist is proud to be the official media sponsor of Cultural Tourism DC's free event this Saturday, Sept. 29: WalkingTown DC offers a wealth of free walking tours all day long to get Washingtonians out and discovering new things about their city and neighborhoods. The Temperance Tour, hosted by volunteer Garrett Peck, author of The Prohibition Hangover, begins at the Cogswell Temperance Fountain at 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW at 1 p.m. and wraps......

In the wake of the tragedy at Virginia Tech earlier this year, it's been reported all over the world today that two 17-year-old students were shot in an incident at Delaware State University last night. Both students, a male and a female whose names have not been released, were originally from the Washington, D.C. area. The male student is in stable condition, but the female’s injuries are listed as serious. The campus remained locked-down today......

>> Following on the heels of MC Hammer and salsa legend Willie Colon, rock 'n' roll pioneer and TV commercial pitchman Little Richard brings his falsetto scream to a free outdoor concert, with openers D.C. female soul vets, the Jewels. 7 to 9 p.m. at at Woodrow Wilson Plaza, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. >> Emmanuel Jal, a "lost boy of Sudan" who is the subject of his own upcoming documentary, War Child, will perform his......

FRIDAY: >> The city's free concert series follows MC Hammer with a rare appearance by salsa legend Willie Colon, 7-9 p.m. at Woodrow Wilson Center. >> President Nixon’s White House counsel John Dean will be at Politics and Prose to discuss his book, Broken Government, which examines "the institutional damage he believes the Republican Party has inflicted on the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government during the Bush administration." 7 p.m. He'll also be......

Who can resist the Hammer? We're glad some of you took our advice yesterday and went to see him live for free at the Woodrow Wilson Plaza ... so the rest of us could stay home and just enjoy the great photos. This close-up by Captain Easychord almost nailed it for Photo of the Day, but we couldn't resist this black and white version (that's Hammer in the center with the sunglasses) after photographer......

Today’s kids probably think rappers have always been purveyors of commercial goods. 50 Cent has Vitamin Water. Diddy and Burger King are partners. Common probably even folds every shirt at The Gap. However, there was a time when rappers weren’t viable salespeople because their music wasn’t reaching a broad segment of the population. In 1990, a Bay Area entertainer who went by the moniker MC Hammer helped set rap on track to be a cultural......

>> "Florida's top police agency said Wednesday its investigation into former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley's lurid Internet communications with teenage boys has been hindered because neither Foley nor the House will let investigators examine his congressional computers." [AP via TPM] >> "A New Carrollton mother accused of leaving her five young children in filth pleaded guilty in the case on Thursday." [NBC4] >> "A D.C. Superior Court judge today sentenced a former D.C. police......

Washington resident Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Middle East Program, has been released from prison, the Associated Press and the Washington Post are both reporting. Even after family members turned over 3 billion rials (nearly $325,000) in bail money, it remains unclear if the espionage charge still stand or if Esfandiari, 67, is allowed to leave Iran. Since May 8, Esfandiari has been held at Evin prison north of Tehran, a......

>> "Michael Vick agreed Monday to plead guilty to federal dogfighting conspiracy charges, a deal that leaves the Atlanta Falcons quarterback facing up to 18 months in prison and puts his NFL career in jeopardy." [AP via WTOP] >> Rep. Robert Filner (D-Calif.) was charged with assault and battery following an incident at Dulles International Airport Sunday night. [WJLA] >> Taxi GPS doesn't eliminate fare zone confusion. [Free Ride] >> "Four years after a......

FRIDAY: >> We told you all about the Buzzlife White Party at Five yesterday, so follow the link for more details. >> ArtOutlet presents its first ever Flash animation film festival, called Flick, at Warehouse. Tim Bracken opens the event with an alt-country set at 7 p.m., with screenings from selected artists beginning at 8. $5 suggested donation, also Saturday. SATURDAY: >> Like we mentioned in this week's music agenda, the artwork of Mingering Mike,......

>> D.C. looks to be trapped in the middle of a presidential endorsement face-off, with Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine already firmly in the Sen. Barack Obama camp (the first governor to endorse the candidate), and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley declaring his support for Sen. Hillary Clinton. Will D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty step into the fray with an endorsement of his own? >> Police have arrested a 12-year-old boy in connection to the "pins in the......

Just when you thought the District's public schools were facing enough hurdles these days. The Examiner reports that most of the Ward 3 public schools were without telephone service yesterday, in what appears to have been an error on the part of DCPS. The outages ocurred after DCPS gave the District’s Office of Finance a list of phone numbers they supposedly weren't using anymore. The disconnects began March 8 under the city’s Zero Usage Project,......

MONDAY At Chapters, they’re mad for mystery writers on Mondays in March, and for alliteration at all other times. Today, they have a fine guest: Laura Lippman, who’ll be reading from her latest, What the Dead Know. 445 11th Street, NW, 1 p.m. TUESDAY Tom Bissell and his father, an ex-Marine who served in the Vietnam War, travel back to Vietnam on a journey that retraces both national and personal history. He’ll be in town......

Happy Friday, Washington, and welcome to the newly redesigned DCist.com. Yes, our benevolent overlords in New York have been rolling out their new design city-by-city, and today it's our turn. We're still getting used to it ourselves, and of course we already know you'll give us your full and honest opinions in the comments. So go crazy — we're all halfway there already, and so is the weather forecast today. You might actually need that......

Via D.C. Education Blog, a story by NBC4 we missed last week concerning the allegations of grade fraud made by AP U.S. History teacher Erich Martel, who contends that perhaps as many as 1/3 of this year's graduation class at Woodrow Wilson High School may not have earned the grades they needed to get their diplomas. Erich Martel has been teaching at Wilson since 1987. He said that since that time he's become increasingly concerned......

Travel Might Suck Today: A word to the wise -- Amtrak and Greyhound might seem like mighty good options in the coming days. As you've no doubt heard, British officials report that they have broken up a plot to blow up airplanes flying from London to the U.S., sending both countries into a security frenzy, writes NBC 4. Things are so bad that passengers are now forbidden from carrying any liquids or gels onto......

This past weekend, Beltway traffic began moving entirely on the gleaming new span of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, the completed first half of a project to replace the old river-crossing with 12 shimmering lanes, arcing from Virginia, through a sliver of District, into Maryland. Almost immediately, reports NBC 4, demolition began on the old Wilson bridge. That old bridge was a pain. It was cramped and usually jammed. Planners hadn't anticipated the crush of traffic......

Good morning, Washington. So... did you participate in Bike to Work Day? And wasn't it surprisingly pleasant? We hope the answer to both questions is yes. Here's one more reason to pick up the habit: yesterday WTOP reported that Metro will be replacing its old bike racks with ones that are more spacious and secure. Wilson Bridge Dedicated: The Post paints the scene at yesterday's Wilson Bridge Dedication ceremony. Governors! Giant flags! Woodrow Wilson's Rolls......

Thanks to our friends over at FreeRide, we've learned that Sue Palka, Fox 5's weathercaster, has some fans. More than just fans, though, she has a fansite. Why? According to the site, "She's smart, she's sassy, and (we bet) she can drink you under the table. Does she get the weather right? Who cares? It's always sunny when Sue's around!" Maybe. But we've always been big fans of Michael Gargiulo and Shawn Yancy. Williams Demands......

Residents of the District and their elected leaders have long agonized over the state of D.C. schools, a third rail in Washington city government off of which reform attempts gleefully bounce and into which depressing sums of money disappear. Frustration over the city's subpar performance in public education becomes more difficult to bear, however, when the success of school districts in the city's suburbs are brought to light. This week, the Post's Jay Mathews harnesses......

DCist is excited to welcome back our founding editor, Michael Grass, who comes to us this Sunday with a special Opinionist. One of the most frustrating things about living in Washington, D.C., for me is walking along Eye Street up and around the corner from the International Monetary Fund. Between 20th and 21st streets NW sits Kinkead’s, one of the city’s long-standing respected restaurants. Kinkead’s sits in the house where my late grandfather and my......

Synesthesia was a pretty big topic with arts bloggers a few months ago. For the record, it's a clinical condition that involves the confusion of stimuli between different senses. Most importantly for our post today, some composers—Messiaen and Scriabin, to name two—have had this condition and perceived colors visually along with sounds that they heard (and, we presume, vice versa). This was the theme of a free concert that we suggested earlier this week in......

One of our favorite scenes in the movie "Barcelona" is toward the beginning when Ted Boynton takes his Navy officer cousin Fred on a night-time driving tour of Barcelona and says the city's Avenida Diagonal is like Chicago's Michigan Avenue. Then when approaching Las Ramblas (at left), changes his mind, saying that it is more like Chicago's celebrated retail corridor. Fred nods off and then gets riled up over anti-NATO sentiment in Spain. We think......

In a city chock full of "newsmaking" events, there are a few we think worth pointing out. As you may have heard all of the members of the 9/11 Commission has decided to continue their work as a nonprofit organization even though they've issued their report. Calling themselves the "9/11 Public Discourse Project" they have scheduled a series of talks on various issues in D.C. this summer at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.......

FRIDAY: >> Capital Jazz Fest 2005 goes throughout the weekend at Merriweather Post Pavilion. The line up includes George Benson, Joe Sample, Chaka Khan (at right) Lalah Hathaway and more. Ticket information can be found here. >> The Capital Pride Festival, which runs through June 12, focuses on the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities in D.C. The festival includes panels, film screenings, and a street parade. >> Washington Improv Theater presents its Neutrino Video......

Good morning, Washington. This photo is from KimTheWolf who posted the shot of a bed of yellow daffodils near the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 25th Street NW in DCist Photos. Although temperatures will be pleasant approaching 70 degrees, Capital Weather says that for Sunday, temperatures will be "downright chilly" in the low 50s. Kansas Senator Warns D.C. to Watch Its Step: Sen. Sam Brownback, the Kansas Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on......

Whether you agree with highway expansion or not, the new Springfield Mixing Bowl interchange (where a worker was killed this weekend) and the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge under construction are impressive pieces of infrastructure considering the amount of concrete and engineering ingenuity that have gone into the projects. The Capital Beltway connecting the two chokepoints is slated for some major improvements as well, and one of the most controversial is how Virginia is planning......

In case you haven't left the office yet and your commute involves going any where near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, be aware that the Beltway's inner loop in Maryland going toward the bridge is shut near Indian Head Highway and Interstate 295. The cause: a massive truck accident that involves at least five cars, leaking gas and miles of backups, according to the Post. While the outer loop toward Andrews Air Force Base and College......

Need some wheels? The District Department of Public Works has resumed the auctioning of cars after such municipal auctions were put on hold since last year. From dc.gov: The city has made one change to its auction parameters. Only vehicles 10 years and under will be auctioned. Those over 10 years old will be sold as scrap. In the past, cars as old as 15 and 20 years were routinely offered for auction, earning only......

Tomas Masaryk, or a statue of him at any rate, towers over the foot of Embassy Row at Mass. Ave. and 22nd. Often called "President-Liberator," Masaryk was the George Washington of Czechoslovakia. The memorial is one of a several in D.C. honoring foreign dignitaries -- think Simon Bolivar, Queen Isabela, Benito Juarez. At least Masaryk lived in D.C. for awhile, at the former Powhatan Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue and 18th Street. Before he eventually left......