We’re here for you if you want to talk, Chicagoist. We’re all too aware of what it’s like to have a disgraced local politician make national news. Heck, we’ve been dealing with Marion Barry’s infamous on-tape crack smoking for almost two decades now. The American people don’t soon forget, so be ready for years and years of snickering about former Governor Rod Blagojevich’s attempt to sell President Barack Obama’s Senate seat. If you want to save yourself some face, just make sure you don’t go an re-elect Rod for any other public office for a long, long time. If Barry’s repeated run-ins with Johnny Law serve as any example, it just never ends well.

Attack Victim Ignored: Ugh. It’s horrible when someone gets attacked, but it’s even worse when passer-bys ignore them as they’re lying on the floor in obvious pain. WJLA has video of a man getting attacked outside a Columbia Heights grocery store yesterday, only to be left on his lonesome for 24 minutes as business goes on like normal around him. He’s in the hospital in critical condition now and is not expected to survive.

Black History Museum Design Contest Winners Announced: The Post is reporting that six architecture teams have been chosen to compete for the final design of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which when completed will rise in the shadow of the Washington Monument. Included among the winning teams are design heavyweights I.M. Pei and Norman Foster. The museum is slated to cost $500 million, and construction will begin in 2012 and be completed in 2015.

Smoking Ban Moves Forward in Virginia: While the District banned smoking in bars and restaurants in 2007 and various counties in Maryland imposed similar prohibitions, the tobacco lobby has stubbornly refused to let the commonwealth go the same direction as its closest neighbors. Maybe not anymore. The AP reports that a Virginia Senate committee has endorsed a measure that would forbid smoking in restaurants and most public buildings. And just to be safe, the same committee has passed legislation allowing local municipalities to enact their own bans. Of course, this all has to go through the Virginia House, where past bans have gone to die.

D.C. Proposes Tax Credits to Fight Rats: Yes, I loved “Ratatouille” as much as the next guy, but rats are still gross. Thankfully, Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) has proposed legislation that would give tax credits to restaurants that use trash compactors, writes the D.C. Examiner. Trash compactors have been shown to be effective in cutting down in the number of rats near restaurants, according to Evans.

Briefly Noted: Volunteers count District’s homeless … Security holes around Obama and Biden shock high-rollers … Parents use online tools to do battle with school boards.

This Day in DCist: On this day in 2008, Post columnist Michael Wilbon had a minor heart attack and Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) announced his retirement. In 2007, George Washington was chosen as America’s most expensive university and we wrote about those much-hated traffic cameras.

Picture snapped by mindgutter