Photo by cstein A little over three years ago, when the fine folks at Gothamist were first considering shifting DCist away from its old committee-run volunteer model to employing a full-time editor, I sat down with some of the blog’s old-timers over beers to talk it over. It was going to be a big change for the site, which back then was averaging maybe 300,000 pageviews a month and publishing, if we were lucky,…

Considering how many local blogs obsessively cover the District Department of Transportation, it only makes sense that the city’s transpo officials get into the game themselves. In social media, as it is on The Wire, it’s play or get played. Thus comes the launch of d.ish, certainly the cutest government blog name we’ve ever seen. DDOT director Gabe Klein got the ball rolling today with two posts, a general welcome, and then a more…

It’s starting to feel like the whole country is going nuts for Stephen “The Savior” Strasburg. The Nationals rookie pitcher is set to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman tonight, where he’ll have the honor of reading the night’s “Top Ten” list. Now, if only the “Top Ten” list bit was still funny. In other Strasburgian news, the Baseball Hall of Fame has requested an artifact from the Nationals to commemorate the kid’s…

Photo by slack13 The Examiner’s Kyjta Weir shares a new report that sheds light on a problem with which most Metrobus riders are already familiar: Bus fareboxes are often broken, and it’s costing the cash-strapped transit authority money.Metro logged 924 work orders to fix or maintain fareboxes in the month of May, out of 1,479 buses, the report said. That would mean 62 percent of fareboxes needed repairs, unless some broke down more than…

Reader Ryan Samuel K. sends in this image of a taxi that hopped the sidewalk by the CVS on Dupont Circle this morning and smashed into the facade of the building. Ryan says he happened by the scene at about 8:25 a.m. No reports of any injuries, and DCist’s Aaron Morrissey reports that a tow truck has since arrived to haul away the wreck. The damage appears to be fairly minimal, though a “no parking”…

Photo by furcafe Good morning, Washington. Well, this is it. My last Morning Roundup. I should probably have some profound or contemplative opening remarks to share here, but certain members of the DCist staff forced me to drink alcohol last night, so I’m writing this curled up in the fetal position, nursing a headache like you wouldn’t believe. It’s just as it should be, really. How could I not give our beloved commenters one…

There is no shortage of Stephen Strasburg-themed menu items at D.C. area restaurants today. The most ridiculous is the “Strasburger” currently on offer from BGR The Burger Joint. It’s a burger served with “Syracuse Orange” Vermont cheddar cheese, topped with a sliced hot dog (to symbolize Strassy’s professional debut with the Phoenix Desert Dogs), plus 14 (yes, 14!) pickles on top of that, in honor of last night’s 14 K’s. If the world can be…

Photo by katmere Huge local business news from the Washington Post’s Michael Rosenwald. Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade, owners of the storied independent bookstore Politics & Prose, have decided to put the shop up for sale. Employees and longtime customers have been expecting this day with great trepidation for some time now. Both Cohen and Meade are now well into their 70s, and Cohen has been ill.”It’s time for us to stop and let…

Photo by Kevin H. The Los Angeles Times reported this morning that the Walt Disney Co. plans to shutter most of its ESPN Zone stores, and the Wall Street Journal has since confirmed that among those to close will be the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore locations. The D.C. ESPN Zone has been operating out of a prime piece of real estate at 11th and E streets NW since 2000. We’ve got calls into spokespeople…

Those of you who were heading into work before 8 a.m. on the Orange or Blue lines may have run into a spot of trouble at McPherson Square this morning. The station was closed between 7:19 a.m. and 7:51 a.m., according to Metro, due to smoke in the station. Much like the Federal Center SW incident on Tuesday, the smoke appears to have been related to a lighting fixture, though this time it was a…