MONDAY: Cullen Murphy, the Atlantic’s managing editor, will be at Politics and Prose to talk about his new book Are We Rome? Murphy is of course referring to spreading corruption in Washington, our imperialist tendencies and the outsourcing of government work to private contractors. Personally, we’d rather read a book comparing our government with a different empire, but we won’t hold our breath on that one. 7 p.m. TUESDAY: Dancer and award-winning actress Victoria Rowell…

In a media-heavy city like Washington, one might pay heed to the Chicago Tribune’s story from yesterday afternoon announcing that a senior law enforcement official told ABC News, “It’s time for you to get some new cell phones, quick,” in reference to the government’s tracking of calls with whistleblowers and other confidential sources. Makes you wish that Qwest expanded their service to the news media, if not the entire country, right? Williams Endorses Cropp:…

If you’re a fan of sushi, it may come as a bit of a surprise to know that your eating habits may directly be propping up the Washington Times and the rest of Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s quirky religious empire. A reader recently tipped us off to an article in the Chicago Tribune outlining how Moon — a self-proclaimed messiah and leader of the Unification Church — has all but cornered the sushi market, using…

The longest month in the brief history of the Washington Nationals came to a merciful end with a 4-2 victory over the Marlins yesterday afternoon. Livan Hernandez earned his 13th win and ended the Nationals skid with an eight inning, two run effort, and Chad Cordero pitched a perfect 9th for his 35th save. But what a difference a month makes: The Nats entered the month of July with a 47-31 record and proceeded to…

Even as the lazy dog days of August approach us in D.C., there’s an awful lot going on in this city — the Plame investigation, an announcement about a Supreme Court Justice nominee this evening, even the aftermath of Borf. And yet one issue seems to remain more divisive and turbulent than all the rest: the seemingly small matter of what one wears on one’s feet in certain situations. Yup, we’re talking about the flip-flop….

DCist’s Monuments series continues our recent swing through Judiciary Square today with the Joseph James Darling Fountain, one of the most hidden-in-plain-sight monuments around town. For some time, the fountain has rated little more than a sentence or two every few years in the local press. Major newspapers from across the country get around to doing a piece on the District’s statues once or twice a decade — add another sentence. It doesn’t add up…

With the rainy, cloudy weather — all dominated by the intense news coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II — it hasn’t been the most uplifting past couple of days. Since we can’t add much more to what’s been said or written about the late pope, we’ll do a survey of obituaries and headlines on the jump. But first, here’s what you may have missed on DCist. — If you’re late for…

Since others might do a better job explaining the style and substance of President Bush’s State of the Union address, we thought we’d do a sampling of newspaper and news agency ledes from around the nation and world (and we’ll add more through the morning as they become available): (Photo of the State of the Union Address from the White House)…