Photo by Biketripper

It certainly wasn’t a slow news week, with Congress digging into Occupy D.C., taxicabs getting failing marks from plenty of D.C. residents and a locally made gin and whiskey just months away.

• Some of the big news of the week: we interviewed the two guys behind a new D.C. distillery, D.C. officials traveled to the Granite State to push the cause of statehood, a congressional committee debated the definition of camping during a hearing on Occupy D.C. (and gave protesters a deadline to cut it out), the Capital City Diner announced it was closing, Mark Plotkin was fired from WTOP, Newt Gingrich said he was pro-statehood (for the moon), most residents rated D.C. cabs poorly, Ben Stiller announced that he’d be directing and starring in a new comedy based on the life of a Jewish family in D.C.
• D.C. and Virginia officials talked rats, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and Mayor Vince Gray demanded that Congress keep its hands off of the D.C. World War I Memorial, Gray planned a citywide summit for February 11, the U.S. Supreme Court used a D.C. case to rule that warrants were needed for GPS tracking of suspects, anti-abortion activists descended upon D.C., D.C. United started prepping for its 2012 season, an organization accused D.C. of hyping the costs of dealing with Occupy D.C. and Internet gambling continued its long and strange trip in D.C.
• We talked to Susie Essman of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame, Emily Miller got her hearing, we said goodbye to the Solar Decathlon, Virginia again chose rollercoasters over reading, famed sandwich shop Fast Gourmet announced a new venture and Metro moved forward on fare hikes (after another monumentally bad January 26).
• And we announced the winners of our 2012 DCist Exposed photography show and contest!