Last month saw the first ever official Armored Combat League battle in the D.C. region.

Happy first weekend of September – and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let’s take a look at what’s been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston’s firefighters bent over backwards all week long – first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else – like Tom…

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can’t afford to go out there. And there’s no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist’s faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,…

(DCist would like to welcome our new college basketball correspondent Hayden Alfano) Maryland’s men’s basketball team used a full-court press defense to force 22 Minnesota turnovers, pulling away in the second half for an 83-66 victory over the Golden Gophers last night as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Travis Garrison paced the Terrapins with 18 points, becoming the fourth player to lead the team in scoring in the first six games. Regardless of the…