You may know, and as DCist has reported, that those Hollywood types are just crawling around the District, making movies and reminding us just how cool a backdrop this city can make. Kiefer Sutherland was in Lafayette Park yesterday, stalked and captured at right by Dupont Knitter. DCist learned on double super secret background that the man himself will be shooting in Georgetown today, Thomas Jefferson Street to be exact. Seeing that the dog days of August are upon us, we need as many shots of Kiefer and his famous cohorts as we can get — it makes for good content.

Kennedy Center Plaza Postponed: A lack of federal funds has forced the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to postpone construction plans for two new buildings and a new plaza, reports the Post. The $650 million project was to include buildings to house educational programs, exhibitions, and rehearsal space alongside a new plaza extending over the Potomac and E Street Expressways and featuring pedestrian and bicycle paths to the National Mall. The $400 million in federal funds was recently removed from a transportation bill working its way through Congress.

Baby Panda Grunts, and Grunts, and Grunts: In a story that proves that the area’s media is unhealthily obsessed with the status of the District’s baby panda, WTOP reports that the panda, now almost a month old, grunted a record 278 times in a three-hour period yesterday. DCist can only help but wonder: Who on the National Zoo’s staff actually had to do the counting?

Traffic Deaths Drop in District: According to a study released by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the District enjoyed the country’s highest decrease in traffic-related deaths from 2003-2004 — 35.8 percent — notes WJLA. The good news follows a national trend of decreasing traffic deaths, especially those related to alcohol.

Briefly Noted: District schools hunt down students for immunizations … Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) heads to Cuba to investigate conditions at Guantanamo Bay prison … More than 1,000 area gang members arrested so far this year … Double shooting in PG County still a mystery.