Photo by caroline.angelo. • The Washington Post is reporting that Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley will likely face a challenge in his 2010 bid for re-election from George W. Owings III, a former legislator from Southern Maryland. Owings has scheduled a press conference for January 6. • The New York Times Magazine profiled the late Ben Ali of Ben’s Chili Bowl last week. • Two pedestrians were seriously injured this morning when they were hit…

Unsurprisingly, Metro will be ringing into 2010 with lots of track work. Usually things just get slowed down on weekends, but in January you can expect weeknight delays as well. Via a release, they announced that most nights in January, they will be replacing fasteners and making repairs at the Rosslyn station, so Orange and Blue lines will be slowed down Sunday through Thursday nights all month between 8 and 9:30 p.m. to midnight. Check…

The man who fired a flare gun at a PG County emergency room last night has been arrested, the Post’s Crime Scene blog reports. The man, who went to the hospital just after 7 p.m. last night, was arrested Monday morning at a local gas station, police said. He engaged staff members in an argument and proceeded to shoot a flare gun up in the air. No one was hurt in the incident and police…

Steven Goff, the Post’s Soccer Insider, reports that D.C. United named Curt Onalfo as the team’s new head coach this morning. Onalfo is a former U.S. national team assistant and former coach for the Kansas City Wizards. Goff writes that Onalfo “became the front-runner two weeks ago when Caleb Porter declined United’s overtures and decided to stay at the University of Akron.” Onalfo will be formally introduced at a press conference next week….

Photo by payal.jhaveri.Visiting art museums, once a mostly passive and individual experience, has become much more interactive lately, thanks to the advent of social media. At places like the Phillips Collection and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Twitter, Facebook, iTunes and YouTube are making it possible for museum-goers to engage in conversation with one another and learn more about artists and their work. Check below for the more interesting feeds to follow and informative…

Photo courtesy of matthewbradley FILM: Solas Nua’s Irish film series continues with tonight’s screening of The Wind That Shakes the Barley, about two Irish brothers fighting the British in the 1920s. The film screens at 7 p.m. at Flashpoint, 916 G St., NW. Free. MUSIC: The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage features organist Weston Jennings in a free concert at 6 p.m. LIGHT SHOW: Time is running out to catch ZooLights at the National Zoo….

The latest installment in the National Portrait Gallery’s Portraiture Now series, which showcases work by 21st century portrait artists, gets to the heart of what it means to belong to a community. Portraiture Now: Communities features work by three painters whose portraits indicate there’s more to relationships than virtually asking someone to be your friend and tagging them in photos. There are the communities we’re born into and the communities we choose to be…

The Associated Press has an update on the story out of Frederick, Maryland, in which a homeless man stole a single-engine plane but crashed it on a municipal airport runway before taking off. The man, 51-year-old Calvin Cox, will be facing a bond hearing today on charges of felony theft, burglary and trespassing. Lt. Clark Pennington said a Frederick County Sheriff’s Office canine team discovered Cox in the woods near the airport after an airport…

Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton. The President may now be relaxing on vacation in Hawaii, but the days leading up to Christmas were a flurry of activity around the White House. From the Second Lady dressing up as the Grinch to a gingerbread and white chocolate White House made by White House pastry chefs, everyone got into the holiday spirit. We like this snapshot of the First Puppy, Bo, who sat quietly…

You survived Christmas with your extended family with a minimum of fights, but all hell broke loose when it came time to head back to D.C. — odds are you were greeted with long lines and new security checks which promised to make air-travel even worse than it usually is. Thanks to the incident on a Northwest Airlines flight Christmas Day, getting through security now includes pat downs and bag searches. Then of course, there…