Tonight. 7 p.m. Chief Ike’s in Adams Morgan. Butterstick Bash. We’re still waiting for responses to our little Butterstick quiz. If you answer the three questions and email them to butterstickcontest (at) gmail (dot) com, you’ll walk away with a panda prize-pack. Either way, stop on by tonight and see us. Butterstick would want it that way.

Back-Slapping by District Officials for July 4 Evacuation: Though last week’s rains proved that the District evacuation and security plans are still at the mercy of the weather, city officials are engaging in some mutual back-slapping for a successful evacuation of the Mall after the Juloy 4 fireworks, reports the Post. For the second year in a row, officials made changes to traffic lights and added police to key intersections to ease the flow of traffic out of the District. Thankfully, it wasn’t raining at all when the fireworks ended, since we’ve seen what that can do to traffic.

Cropp Uses Homeless on Campaign: Proving that she’s one with the people, WTOP is reporting that mayoral candidate Linda Cropp employed a team of homeless people to help her gather the necessary signatures to appear on the ballot for the September Democratic primary. Candidates for mayor are expected to gather 2,000 signatures on nominating petitions from registered voters; the deadline was yesterday. Of the 15,000 signatures Cropp turned in, an estimated 10 to 13 percent were collected by homeless people, each of whom were paid $1 for each signature collected. In related news, one Ward 6 candidate just plum forgot the filing deadline for the nominating petitions. D’oh!

Stadium Parking Situation Still a Mess: Color us shocked — the Post tells us today that D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams’ plan to build both underground and above-ground parking at the new stadium in Southeast could delay the stadium’s opening and force the city to throw more money into the project. District CFO is set to testify today about the mayor’s plan, and he is expected to say that the compromise parking plan would set back the April 2008 opening date, possibly provoking massive fines from MLB. Nats owner Ted Lerner has pushed for above-ground parking, but city zoning officials have rejected it as ugly.

Briefly Noted: Six firefighters face administrative charges in Rosenbaum case … Congressmen want arbitration over Comcast refusal to air Nats games … New gadget sniffed for explosives at fireworks … Repairs continue at Rock Creek.

This Day in DCist: On this day last year, we saw an Amazing Race casting call in Alexandria, visited the WWI Memorial, cooked up a Crab Cake Sandwich, and had Europe tell Congress that the District should have voting representation.

Picture snapped by Peter F. Martin